Do You Realize? |l.s.|

XVI

My room is cold when I wake up, my feet uncovered from the several blankets I have piled on top of me. I groan, snuggling back under them and sighing contently at the warmth, before it hits me. It's Christmas morning. My eyes shoot open, a wide smile on my face as I throw the blankets off, the temperature no longer on my mind.

I run to the window to see nothing but glistening white snow coating and covering every surface in my view point. I squeal to myself before running to Zayn's room, slamming open the door and jumping onto his bed. I land on him, groaning at the same time as him from the impact, but I don't care. I crawl to where his head is and start shaking his shoulders violently.

"Zayn, wake up! It's Christmas! Hurry, it's time to open presents! Hurry Zee!" I yell.

"Calm down, Lou. I'm up," he groans, chuckling tiredly as he sits up, rubbing his eyes. I don't waste a second, grabbing his hand and dragging him downstairs, almost missing a step and tumbling down, but lucky for the both of us, that doesn't seem to happen. "You're such a child sometimes."

"Quit saying that to me and pick a present to open," I roll my eyes. "Do you think we could facetime mum and dad?"

"By the looks of the snow outside, no. Sorry, babes," he says sadly. I just nod, smiling sadly before looking at all the gifts and picking the first one out (mine) for Zayn to open. He opens it, smiling wide as he gushes over the painting by his favorite artist. "No way, you didn't! You're an absolute angel Louis, you know that? Aw, thank you, bro!"

"Anything for you, Zaynie," I smile, and he's smiling too much at the painting to even realize I called him that nickname, though his hatred for it runs deep. 

"Now your turn, even though this'll be hard to top," he says, pointing to the neatly wrapped one with hulk wearing a Santa hat on it. Of fucking course. I pull the paper off carelessly, discarding it to the side before my eyes widen.

"A new football? You little shit, how'd you know I wanted this one?" I yell in excitement, throwing it at him.

"You circled it on the store magazine, you oaf," he laughs, throwing it back at me. I get up, hugging him tight before we open the rest, waiting to open a few for when mum and dad are home. I miss them so much right now, but all I can do is be thankful that I'm even here. Shit, all this giving is turning me into such a sap.

The boys come over a few hours later, as do a few other guys who just hang out in the kitchen, which makes me wonder why they even came if they were gonna go off on their own, but oh well.

"What did you get, Lou?" Harry asks, turning his attention to me.

"Clothes mostly, video games too."

"You're not gonna mention the football you got? You were kicking it around ten minutes before they showed up," Zayn chuckles.

"Oh yeah, that was cool," I brush it off. I know Harry's gonna ask me about it, but I don't care. I can't act ungrateful towards Zayn, not after how much he's done today like staying strong while mum and dad are gone.

We all pass around our gifts, Harry ending up getting me a friendship bracelet. Zayn was pouting for five minutes about how Harry never got anything to symbolize their friendship, and Harry just shrugged and said I was his favorite.

"Harry, open what I got for you," I say excitedly, running over to him with a gift in my hand, shoving it into his chest as he takes it.

"Alright," he chuckles, opening it slowly. I roll my eyes with a grin on my face - he does everything slowly. It opens and he sees the paper airplane necklace in it, gasping with a smile on his face. "Lou, it's so beautiful!"

"Geez, you both give each other couples gifts, and it's getting a bit suspicious at this point," Niall breaks the silence.

"Shut up, Nialler. It's a nice necklace," Harry rolls his eyes. "It's lovely, Lou, thank you." He puts it on, staring at it dangling from his neck for a few seconds before sitting back and smiling contently, and I smile at the sight. He's the best friend I've ever had.