Tessa's Home

Twenty-nine

Tessa

"Holy shit," I whisper, eyes wide and a thumping heart. "That's a lot."

Tyler stops next to me when he sees the piles and piles of pink and green and blue wrapped presents.

"Holy shit," he says, shocked. "There's so many."

We look at each other slowly, grinning from ear to ear. There's only one thought between us both as we look back at the gifts.

"No, we should wait," I say, sitting on the couch without taking my eyes off of the piles.

Tyler joins me, nodding. "It's the right thing to do."

After ten minutes of silently waiting and trying our hardest to convince ourselves not to move, we both get up and kneel in front of our presents.

"Let's just guess what they are," I say, nodding mostly to myself but looking at Tyler anyway.

"Okay," he says, grabbing a blue box. He rips off the wrapping paper despite our agreement and smiles at the expensive looking headphones victoriously. "I asked for these!"

"Tyler!" I scold. He looks at me and just shrugs. Well, maybe he's beyond saving, but I have some self-control.

About half an hour later, though, my fingers start absently picking at the pink wrapping paper in front of me.

It's fine if I open one, right? I mean, there's so freaking many. Who's gonna notice anyway? Besides, it's my birthday. I can do whatever I want.

No! No, I can't. I'm probably not the only one who's waited years for this moment. I'm sure the main reason there's so many presents is because they've all waited so long!

It's not fair of me to open even just one. I can wait until the end of the day, surely. They're just gifts.

Just being able to celebrate today with my family is the best gift in the world.

I look over at Tyler who's literally using his new headphones to watch tik tok. Has he no shame? Does he do this every year?

I get up and fall back onto the couch next to him. At least he hasn't opened up any more presents.

"I'm bored!" I groan. "Tyler! Tyler, Tyler, Tyler!"

He groans, too, but puts his phone down and looks at me. After a second he gets up and puts something into the x-box connected to the TV.

He passes me an x-box remote and turns the television on.

"It's Far Cry," he says, answering my confused eyes. "Shooting game."

I nod and start learning how to play. I don't typically like video games, but they're fun enough when I'm this bored and antsy.

Me and Tyler are the only ones home. Everyone else went out to run errands or something, I don't know. But they said they'd be back soon, like, two hours ago!

I get so engrossed in the game I don't realise another two hours has gone by, and my eyes only leave the screen when my phone starts ringing.

I laugh as Tyler dies and pick it up, but as soon as I see who's calling, my smile drops and so does my heart.

Oh, fuck.

"I'll be right back," I tell Tyler, and then rush upstairs and into my room. I lock my bedroom door and then go into my bathroom, just in case Tyler gets curious and tries to listen in.

I answer the call with shaky hands and put my phone up to my ear.

"Hello, Tessa," Viper says, his voice as cocky and self-assured as always. "Happy birthday, baby."