Cathy and Sweaters
Christmas ugly sweaters. Classic wear for Christmas Eve. Now that her sister is also staying for the holidays. Catalina wanted to invite her siblings over, but she also didn’t because she didn’t know their reactions to Anne and her relationship. Anne invited George, but he wasn’t able to make it due to work. She didn’t want to invite Mary. Jane…we don’t talk about Thomas. She tried to invite her other siblings, but they all said no. Anna invited her older sister, Sibylle, and she’s coming in a couple of hours. Kat refused to invite her siblings and half-siblings.
“So when were you planning to tell me, Catti?” Annie slid across the couch and met Cathy’s body.
“When we were dating for two years…” Cathy answered as she flipped the pages to The Hungry Caterpillar.
“W-what? Why that long?” Annie asked. Cathy finished the book.
“Kat had a troubled past with people,” Cathy started, but she stopped herself.
“I think it’s better if you get the story from her,” Cathy stood up as she went to her room. In Cathy’s room, there lay Kat in Cathy’s only good sweater.
“Kitty, hand me back my sweater,” Cathy tried to wake up Kat to no avail as her breathing was kept even. “Kitty…”
“Hey Cathy! Heard you were in need of a sweater!” Jane came by holding a Christmas sweater. Cathy sighed as she took the sweater from Jane and wore it before reading what was on it. Jane really did a good job with ugly Christmas sweater. She and Catalina usually knitted these sweaters. As for who chose the designs? Anne and Anna. For Cathy…let just say she should’ve read it first.
“What are you—” Cathy looked down, it read ‘Let’s Parr-ty like it’s Christmas Eve!’. Completed with decorated festive colors plus blue. There were even Christmas lights on hers. Cathy tried to take it off.
“Nuh-uh, you know the rules, Cathy. Once on, you can’t take it off,” Cathy puffed as she went to see what were some of the other bad puns on the Christmas sweater. Anna was sitting with Annie. Her sweater? ‘I’m dreaming of a white Cleves-mas!’ An image of a pixelated version of Anna buried in snow. Cathy chuckled as she went over to see how Annie was bonding with Anna.
“You too?” Cathy nodded as Anna smirked at the pun.
“I think Anne was the one who came up with yours,” Annie laughed as she read the pun.
“How?” Anna asked. Usually it is a competition to get these sweaters on.
“Jane fooled me. I was going up to get a sweater from my room, but Kat was wearing it. Jane gave me the sweater, and I didn’t even know what I was getting myself into,” Annie laughed. Then, there was a knock at the door. Confusion arose as Sibylle wasn’t supposed to be coming for another two hours. Anne went over to open the door as Catalina followed close behind.
“Hi, how may I help-” Anne was taken aback as she stood there in silence. Jane, thinking that something was wrong, came over. However, she was equally as silent. You could hear a pin drop as the decibels were close to zero.
“H-Hey,” A male voice echoed as Cathy thought that the voice sounded familiar. Her heart was pounding as she continued to listen.
“May-” Jane cut him off.
“Fuck off, Thomas!” The room increased in tension as Jane went to slam the door in his face.
“I don’t want to see your face again, Thomas!” Anne was holding Jane back as she screamed profanities at the door. Catalina was trying to calm Jane down.
“I promise I changed, Janey!” Thomas shouted from the door.
“How c-could I trust you again? You fucking took advantage of me! Drug me!” That was not something everyone should hear. Cathy was getting flashbacks. Oh my god, whatever Thomas did to her, he also did to Jane. Were there photos she didn’t know about?
“Use me as your dirty little slut-” The amount of photos that Cathy saw of Jane asleep and used as nothing but a whore was getting to her.
“Then told me it was normal!” The amount of emotional trauma and the psychological damage that Thomas had caused both Jane and Cathy. Cathy could see red in Anna’s eyes.
“Anna, no!” No one stopped Anna. No one wanted to. She could’ve killed Thomas through the door, and no one would turn her in. Jane was crying. It was supposed to be a good day. The day before Christmas. Christmas Eve. Why did he have to show up? Then sirens could be heard.
“You have violated a restraining order, Mr. Seymour,” A cop’s voice could be heard from the other side. No one filed a restraining order, not to Cathy’s knowledge. They heard handcuffs behind the doors as police knocked on the queen’s doors. Anne opened up as she and everyone else went to make a statement.
“Quick question, officer, what restraining order?” Cathy asked a female officer who was taking a statement.
“Can’t tell you in full detail, but Mrs. Seymour seems to have it,” The officers soon left after getting everyone’s statements. Everyone was left a bit shaken; everyone except Kat, who just woke up.
“What’s going on?” Kat in her groggy voice asked as she came out of Cathy’s room.
“Nothing!” Anne quickly took Cathy’s sweater off of Kat and put her ugly Christmas sweater on. Kat was way too tired to comprehend anything that was going on until it was too late. Her sweater read ‘How-ard you holding up under this Christmas cheer?’ while having arrows pointing to her chest.
“You little-” Kat realized what she had gotten into. She started chasing Anne around the house as Catalina gave Kat, Anne’s ugly Christmas sweater. They were parkouring around the house.
“Wow, they are amazing,” Annie whispered to Jane who just shook her head.
“No, I just told them if they broke anything that they would be effectively grounded from seeing their girlfriend for a while,” Jane stated as Anne jumped over the couch as Kat followed.
“How often do they do this?” Annie asked, looking at the tables that should’ve been broken.
“A lot less than you think, actually, Anne and Kat will drag each other down. If one of them breaks something, the other one will go down. It has only happened once,” Jane stated as she recalled a moment during Anne and Catalina’s anniversary. Kat took something from Anne, and they were chasing each other. Then, Kat broke a photo frame on the wall. Kat proceeded to bring Anne down, leading Anne to bargain with Jane to deal with not seeing her girlfriend to start tomorrow. It was the one time that Jane actually gave in because she knew that Catalina was really happy when she mentioned what she and Anne were doing for their first anniversary.
Finally after what seemed forever, a record time of 22 minutes and 34 seconds, Kat got the sweater on Anne. It would usually take over 30 minutes to get the sweater on Anne. However, Kat got Anna and Annie to help her.
“You guys betrayed me?” Anne pretended to sound hurt as she looked at the sweater. “I thought we were friends…”
“We still are,” Anna retorted back as Annie started laughing at the sweater. It read ‘Santa said he’s Boleyn-ing up with joy for Christmas!”
“That’s really bad!” Annie stated as Anna turned to her and stated that Anne’s last name was really hard to come up with a pun.
“What’s Catherine and Jane’s puns?” Annie asked as she looked at Anne and Anna.
“You best believe we gave them the best one yet,” Anna stated as she and Anne had actually taken knitting class for this moment. Catalina and Jane were not aware. Anna and Anne had the sweaters ready. Anne declared that she would do it first. She walked over to Catalina who was in the kitchen with Jane. Anna decided that it would be best to do it together as she signaled Anne. Anne approved and with that; Annie and Kat were watching from afar while Cathy was shaking her head in the background.
“Mon cherie, could you close your eyes for me?” Anne asked Catalina who was hesitant at first but agreed.
“Mein Liebling, the same-” Jane immediately closed her eyes. Anne and Anna looked at each other and at the same time, placed the sweaters on their respective girlfriend.
“Open your eyes, Mon Amour/Meine Liebe!” Catalina and Jane looked at their respective partners then at each other; they burst out laughing at the puns.
“Jane! Turn around!” Catalina stated. In the front of Jane’s sweater was ‘You’ll Seymour presents under the tree this year!” On the back? There was a tree with a pixelated Jane underneath the tree.
“Yours isn’t any better!” Catalina looked at hers and her back. In the front, it read ‘Looks like we’re having Merry Arag-on-gle Bells this year!’ On the back, there were bells with her face on them.
“Joyeux Noël/Frohe Weihnachten!” Anne and Anna shouted as their voices drowned from afar with Cathy. There was a knock at the door. Cathy went to go open it up. There was a tall woman.
“Does Anne Von Kleves live here?” She asked. Anna was turning the corner as their eyes met.
“Sibylle!” Anna ran to give her a hug as Sibylle returned the hug. However, Annie looked hurt? When Sibylle and Annie made eye contact, both looked away. Strange, usually Annie was a very outgoing person.
“Hey Annie?” Kat found Annie in Cathy’s room as she wanted to ask about earlier. Annie hummed back as she looked on the ground. She had left abruptly after seeing Anna’s older sister.
“What’s wrong?” Kat came over and rubbed her shoulder. Annie didn’t speak. She didn’t want to speak.
“I know we have only met within 24 hours, but you can tell me anything,” Kat stated as Annie’s body slightly opened up.
“Can we both share something? I don’t care what, but I don’t want to be alone,” Kat agreed as Annie started.
“Sibylle and I were dating for a couple of months…” Annie’s voice already began to tremble.
“I- I broke it off,” She was already crying, “I thought she could do better than me. She deserves someone better!”
Annie was already starting to shout. Kat was trying to calm her down. Kat instructed her to take deep breaths in and out.
“She wanted me, but I didn’t even want myself. I haven’t seen her in years now. I thought our paths would never cross again, but here we are now,” Annie finished up as she looked at Kat, wanting her to finish up her end of the deal.
“I had an emotionally absent and physically abusive step grandmother. When I was 13, I had this music teacher, Henry Mannox,” Kat started. Annie listened with intent, “he was 23. He was a great teacher, but he used me. In our lessons, he would touch me and say that this was normal. Then, the thing I knew, I was naked with his thing inside me.”
Annie looked at Kat in horror as she let a tear out for sympathy.
“Then, I was 14, and I had a ‘relationship’ with the secretary of my household, Francis Dereham. He was in his early twenties. Like the naive little girl I was, I believe that he loved him. He – he ‘did’ by using me again. Next thing I knew I was in his bed as he released his load all over me,” Annie just ran to the nearest trash can in Cathy’s room. She started vomiting. No wonder why Kat had such trust issues.
“Did I say too much?” As much as Annie didn’t want to hear more, her curiosity got the better of her and for her to continue.
“Then once my step-grandmother found out about the relationship, she sent me to work under a famous rich guy. Henry VIII. He was basically a repeat of my other abusers. I was 16 when I married him. Like the other men, he used me for his own pleasure,”
“I thought this was the 21st century,” Annie thought.
“Yeah, while I thought so too,” Kat stated as Annie went to get a napkin for her.
“Then, there was this guy, Thomas Culpepper, who made me out to be a cheater,” Kat stopped to make sure Annie was okay.
“This time, he kissed me in front of him. Then, what followed was a messy divorce and court time,” Kat recalled as she looked at each abusers one by one as they got sentenced to jail time. It was her words against theirs plus some security footages.
“I-” Annie couldn’t comprehend that. Kat is only 22. They hugged it out as Kat and Annie comforted each other. Then, Cathy walked in.
“Um- am I interrupting something?” Kat shook her head as Annie stood up.
“If you dare break her heart, Catti, I’m going to come after you,” Annie threatened her older sister. It slightly scared Cathy as Kat giggled softly. Cathy got down on the floor with Kat.
“Come on, baby, there’s trivia night tonight,” Cathy picked Kat up as Annie went to the living room to see the teams being made. Of course, it was by couples…maybe – just maybe – she and Sibylle could make it work.
“Hey Sibylle,” Annie started as she took her seat next to her.
“Hey,”