Olive Green [GxG]

CHAPTER 11

THE TIME LEFT until the Christmas holidays was getting shorter and shorter. Don't get me wrong, I was happy at the thought of having my family there and spending time with them and then having my friends over for the New Year. However, I still hadn't prepared all the presents. But then Leah and Jade came up with an idea and asked if I wanted to join them while shopping for Christmas presents. They said that the boys never agreed to go, and Amani went with them only like two times. I actually felt a little bad. I'd never had a muslim friend. Everyone I knew in my home town, was either a Christian or an atheist, so this was a bit of a change, and for this, I wasn't sure how the thing with Christmas was happening in this friend group.

  With my hands in my coat pockets, I walked out of the Tube while trying to dodge the people around me. They were everywhere, like annoying ants. So pleasant. I quickly went to the closest building so I could look around. The girls should be there. At least soon. My eyes scanned the street, but they were nowhere to be seen yet. Only a bunch of other people everywhere around me.

  "Sid!" I heard a familiar voice call out suddenly, to which I turned to face Leah, who was quickly walking towards me.

  "Hey," I smiled at her, looking around once again to see if Jade was somewhere around already, too. Thankfully, I noticed the redhead not so far away from us as she made her way in our direction. "So, can we go now?" I asked when she joined us with a quick greeting.

  "Sure," Leah nodded. "Where should we go first?"

  Shrugging, I waited for Jade to give us any ideas. I hadn't been their friend for long, so I had no idea what to buy these two or the boys. And what about Amani? Thankfully, I had most of the presents already bought. Well, except for Evelyn and Jonah.

  We made our way into the shopping centre, and it seemed like Leah was dragging us with her. I was actually glad that at least one of us knew what she wanted to buy for others. Deciding about these things was pretty hard sometimes.

***** 

When we were in the second shop, my eyes fell on some scarves. That could be a good present, right? But again, people's tastes changed all the time. With a sigh, I went over to them and touched the material. It was pretty comfortable. The colours were nice, too.

  "Wow, those are pretty," exclaimed Jade next to me, observing what I had found.

  "Yeah," I smiled. "I was thinkin' about gettin' one for Amani. Or is it a bad idea?"

  Jade blinked at my words. Probably thinking about what I had meant. Thankfully, it didn't take her long as she then shook her head, "Oh, I forgot. We usually give her tea, since she loves it, as we all feel bad about leaving her out. But this is very nice."

  I nodded in understanding. That made me feel better—a little. Although I also felt a bit bad for overreacting about the whole exchanging presents thing. I always forgot how stressful the whole event could be.

  "Yeah and uh, you don't need to think too hard 'bout it, yeah?" Jade nudged my shoulder, which made me look up at her. "It's just Christmas, not a challenge."

  I chuckled at her words. She was right, of course. However, a challenge was something people made up from the thing, right? 'I need to buy something for him, for her, oh I don't have anything for my parents yet'—such chaos and stress out of it just for the thing to be over quite fast.

  And so, I took the lemon yellow one and turned to Jade, who was watching me. Looking down at the object once again, I asked, "What 'bout this one?"

  "I think she'll like it."

  "I hope so," I nodded in agreement, to which I got an idea. I didn't have presents for two of my friends in my home town either. A scarf could be nice for one of them, too, right? And so, my eyes went over the rest there before I grabbed the dark grey one for Jonah. It would go really well with that coat he got last year for his birthday from his mum.

  Soon enough, we were out of the clothes shop, meeting up with Leah, who got a dark purple beanie for her brother. From what I had seen in the last month, he wore a couple of them, so it was probably a very good present. And now I had to think about something for him, too.

  "What 'bout we get some coffee later?" Jade suggested.

  "I would like tea, but sure," I gave her a smile as we made our way through the shopping centre, looking out for one we could visit.

  Our next stop was to buy something for the girls. It would be such a nice idea if I knew what to buy for Evelyn or these two. If only people were as easy as some might say.

  "I think I'll get this for my mum," Leah suddenly said, bringing me back to reality. She showed us some perfume. That was a good choice for her mum, I suppose. I bought one for Daphné, too.

  I nodded in agreement, hoping we would get this over with soon. The tea or, well, coffee sounded like the best thing to do now. This time of the year, especially.

  Fortunately, my requests were heard, and we exited the shop quite soon. We all agreed that this was the time for our small break at a coffee shop, to where we headed next. I could buy Evelyn tea...

*****

Sipping my beverage minutes later with Jade and Leah across from me, I was watching the people outside the coffee shop. Such a busy time of the day it was. Were we all always like this? Hurrying here and there...

  "Ah, I didn't need to see her here," Leah mumbled, making me turn my attention to her.

  I raised my brows in a quiet question when Jade asked out loud, "Whom?"

  "Ava," Leah rolled her eyes, nodding somewhere behind me.

  Furrowing my brows, I turned to look there. The girl in question—Ava, apparently—was indeed there, standing with a group of her friends from school. They were probably shopping for Christmas just like us. But one thing I couldn't understand was why Leah was always the one who got annoyed the most with her.

  I turned back to my company, sipping my tea once again. Jade was eyeing Leah with a kind of weird expression that I didn't understand, to which she cleared her throat, "Anyway... Sid, did you hear 'bout the Christmas party?"

  "Christmas party?" I asked, confused. I couldn't remember anyone telling me anything about that event. Also, Christmas was still a couple of weeks in the future.

  Now, Leah's attention was back to us as her face brightened a little, "Yeah, at the beginning of the holidays."

  "Nice."

  "When will your father get here?" Jade asked, sipping her coffee. They got pretty nice mugs in this business—big and colourful. Kind of comfy.

  "Uh, the eighteenth, I think."

  Both girls nodded in understanding while I was waiting for them to say something more about that party. If my dad and others were supposed to come on Monday, going to that party shouldn't have been much of a problem if it was being held at the beginning of the Christmas break.

  "Great," Jade smiled at me. "So, on the Friday evening after school at Smith's. Just so you know."

  This time it was me who nodded in understanding. My first party here. Great. I could be almost a hundred percent sure that Mum was going to let me go—this was going to be the last Christmas break before attending university, after all.

  "So, what do we do next?" Leah asked, giving each of us a quick glance. I shrugged.

  "I still have a couple of things on my list."

  "Same," Jade chuckled, agreeing with me. And so, not so much later, the three of us got up with a plan to look for some more presents. A few more moments of indecisiveness were about to come.