Learning to Cope

Ch2 Page 15

August:

We grabbed our bags and are heading downstairs. I'm too tired to really feel any of my emotions at the moment.

We reach the bottom of the steps, Steven is holding a small plastic stick over his head, there is a couple of leaves and fake red berries attached to it on a string. is that a cat toy or something? He's exaggerating puckering and Patricia giggles. She gives him a quick kiss and they both laugh. They're so happy.

"You ever kiss under a mistletoe?" Andrew elbows my arm with a smirk "Hey, you used up your personal question already." I elbow him in return. He laughs "Fine, I can ask again tomorrow." "what? are you gonna set a timer?" I chuckle. He pulls out his phone and sets an alarm. What a dork.

Shit. I forgot I broke my phone like a dumbass. "Wait, I need to grab the sim card from my phone, or else the phone company will be dicks." I quickly run up the stairs and into Andrews's room. I take the sim card and memory card and stuff them in my pocket.

When I get back downstairs, Andrew is talking to his parents by the door. "Hey, sorry about that." I jog up to them. "Here!" Patty hands me a small-ish box wrapped in red wrapping paper. "Open it." Steven smiles. I look at them with my brows pushed together. "O-okay" I slowly unwrap it.

It's a REALLY fancy phone. I'm basically a stranger and they bought me a really fancy watch and a phone, god knows what else is among those gifts. "I-I can't accept this, it's too much." I try to hand it back to them.

"Stop being so humble son, just take it. You need it right?" Steven chuckles. "you're a part of our family now." Patricia smiles and leans into steven. I'm not though, I've done nothing to deserve this. I- I haven't earned it. "I- Um- thank you... Oh!" I reach into my bag and pull out two small crudely wrapped gifts. It looks like a child wrapped them. ugh. I hand them each their respective gift and smile. "It's not much but I also didn't have much notice." I don't want to watch them open my sorry excuse for a gift though.

"I'm gonna take our bags to the car." I grab the bag from Andrews's hand head out the door to the car. The gifts I got for them are so cheap and ugly, why did I give them anything at all. is that weird?

I got them a cheap matching keychain and necklace set. I don't know them but it seemed generic enough. at least as far as 'gifts for your best friend's parents' goes.

It's cold outside, there is a light dusting of snow on the lawn but you can still see the grass. their house is almost surrounded by dense woods, it smells amazing out here as well. not like in the city where it smells like crap.

I step back into the house and Patricia is wearing the necklace I got her. I wish they waited till I left to open them, I feel stupid for being so embarrassed over it. "you ready to go?" I look at Andrew, please say yes, I love your parents but I don't want to be here anymore. "Yeah" He smiles. His teeth are a little crooked but it's really cute, his smile is perfect.

"Ope!" Steven shouts as he dangles the mistletoe over my head. I look up at it, what does that mean? Steven chuckles and pulls the stick back. I look and Andrews has an intense blush across his cheeks. "Okay, we're leaving now!" He announces and rushes past me to the car, I follow behind.

"We love you! Merry Christmas! Drive safe!... Oh! and come back soon!" Andrews's mom shouts from the doorway before shutting it.