unbreak the broken ✘ shawn hunter (BMW)

T W E N T Y E I G H T

I was the first one to wake up this morning, and when I saw what time it was I realized why. 7:00 flashes on the clock. Why does it have to be so early?

Untangling myself from Shawn, who is still sleeping peacefully, I exit the room and use the bathroom. While brushing my teeth, I decide that I'm going to wake everybody up by making breakfast.

I start with throwing some bacon in the oven, then make some pancake batter. After about 40 minutes, there is a table full of bacon, eggs, pancakes, and a fruit mix of strawberries and blueberries.

It's now 8 o'clock, and I deem that the perfect time to start waking everyone up. Before I do anything else, I throw on a pot of coffee and wait for it to boil. I start with Shawn.

"Shawn, I'm going to do this nicely the first time, but if you don't get up, I'll start jumping on you like I'm 6 years old," I sing as I wave a cup of freshly made coffee in his face.

Shawn lifts his head and smiles brightly, "Who says I don't want that?" He sits up and takes the coffee from me, sipping it as he rubs the sleep out of his eyes, "And Merry Christmas, Ophelia."

I lean over and kiss his cheek, "Merry Christmas, Shawn. Breakfast is hot and ready, so get your ass up."

In a similar fashion, I wake everyone else up. Topanga was already awake, but she heard me go into the other rooms first and wanted to get served coffee in bed, too.

In no time, we're all scattered around the living room drinking coffee and eating breakfast.

"Thank you for cooking for us, Phelia," Jack manages to say through his bites of pancake, "It's delicious."

A chorus of thank you's go around.

My mom used to wake Keith and I up every Christmas with breakfast on the table. I've never had the privilege of making Christmas breakfast before because Keith and I didn't really celebrate Christmas once Mom had passed.

I vividly remember the last Christmas Mom was alive. She was so frail, everyone was almost afraid to even touch her, much less hug her. But that never stopped her from pulling you in and squeezing as tightly as she could. She was riddled with cancer, but still tried her best to make Christmas amazing. It wasn't soon after that she passed.

I am pulled out of my head when Topanga sits next to me and gives me a hug. "Your face looked sad, figured you need a Topanga hug."

"Just thinking about my mom is all," I hug her back. "How are you doing? I know this is the first year you've gone without spending Christmas with your parents."

"One year in high school I spent Christmas with the Matthew's," Topanga informed me. "Celebrating holidays without my parents hurts, but I wouldn't trade being with you guys for anything else."

We all finish eating, and Cory and Topanga offer to do the dishes. Once the kitchen is cleaned, it's time to trade presents. Jack turns on Christmas music to "set the mood."

As much as I love watching everyone else open gifts from the others, I love seeing the reasoning behind the gifts.

I start with Cory, giving him his headphones, and open his present to me at the same time. Taking the wrapping off of the box, I reveal a Phillies shirt.

"You finally look like you live in Philly, wear this shirt with pride," Cory grins. I give him my thanks and a hug.

Next is Jack. He gets giddy about all of the new coffee that he gets to try, and tells us that nobody is to touch any one of the bags he just received. His gift to me is a journal that has a beautiful flowery cover.

"We always have deep conversations, but I know you have so much more to say. Now you can write it all down without having to think about it first." Jacks words almost bring tears to my eyes, as they often do, and I kiss his cheek in gratitude.

Topanga's eyes water as I hand her the T & C necklace I bought.

Topanga bought be a photo album book that holds polaroid pictures; "I want you to be able to see them all. Plus your box is already filled to the brim."

It almost makes me sad though, because I have yet to buy a new Polaroid camera since Keith broke my last one.

Eric declares his new cologne as "taken man cologne" which makes me sigh in relief. I'm almost confused when I open his gift because it's new film for my polaroid camera.

"We need our little Ophelia to take as many pictures as possible, now you'll never run out of film," Eric grins.

I chuckle and thank him, "As soon as I get a new camera, I will use this film to take as many pictures of you as possible."

Shawn is the last person I need to trade gifts with, and we hand each other them at the same time.

"You go first," I wait with my present in front of me.

"No, you," Shawn challenges. "I've been waiting for this forever."

I roll my eyes and open it up. It's a brand new Polaroid camera. Shawn Hunter bought me a new freakin' camera.

Shawn speaks up after seeing the tears in my eyes, "Now you don't have to wait."

"Shawn, this is-"

"I know, the best gift you've ever received."

"Exactly what I was going to say. Now open yours."

Shawn opens his present and lets out a laugh, "Great minds think alike, huh?"

I giggle and nod, "Yours is a digital camera. I remember you said you wanted to get into photography so I figured this would be a great start."

I stand up and walk towards Shawn, throwing my arms around him and thanking him, "It really is the best present."

Shawn's arms snake around my waist and he hugs me tightly, "Anything for you."

Once we clean up the living room, Cory, Eric, and Topanga leave to go have Christmas lunch with the Matthews'. Jack end up leaving to go spend the rest of the day with his mom and step-dad.

Shawn and I find ourselves hanging out on the couch watching The Grinch.

I admire the side of his face as he watches the Christmas classic, "Thank you, again. I haven't. had anyone put as much thought into a gift before. Definitely the best gift I've received in a long time."

Instead of answering with words, Shawn smiles at me for a second. Before I could say anything else, Shawn leans towards me and kisses me.

And this isn't one of those kisses that we've had before. Not light, not quick.

It's one that would knock me off my feet had I been standing. I lay my back against the couch, Shawn's one arm wrapped behind my back, the other holding him up as he's on top of me. Our mouths mold together perfectly, and neither of us want to stop to take a breather.

The kiss lasts a while, dare I saw we didn't stop for an hour.

What's more romantic than making out on Christmas Day as The Grinch's heart is growing in the background?