Misprinted Lies (Alice in Chains/Bruno Mars)

I Pick You

I couldn't wait. I'd spent the past couple of holidays alone. We all gathered at Eric's house on Christmas Eve. It seemed like Bruno had more nieces and nephews every time they all got together.

It was my first time to experience a Hernandez Christmas party. It had a little bit of everything, a little bit of music, games, food, and alcohol. Okay, there was a lot of alcohol.

I sat with Presley in the kitchen, at the counters. I usually ended up talking to her. We were only two years apart.

"Really happy you could make it this year, Lily," she said, pouring more wine into my glass.

"I'm happy to be here," I said, a bit surprised that he'd mentioned that I might come the years before. It wouldn't have been right though at that time. At this time, I couldn't see myself anywhere else for Christmas.

"Do you usually go home to Seattle for the holidays?"

"Mmhmm," I said, taking a sip and nodding my head.

I was so appreciative that Bruno hadn't told them anything.

"I mean," Presley said. "Every year he'd say something like you gotta spend some time with this girl. She's really smart and hilarious. He'd go on and on. I'm surprised it took you guys this long."

"Yeah, seriously," Jaime agreed.

I shrugged my shoulders. I guess everyone knew, except me and Bruno. Maybe we did, but we were too hesitant.

Jaimo, who I hadn't seen in a while, was already ten years old. When I was sitting on a stool in the kitchen, he came up to me asking to play football outside.

"Sweetie," Jaime said. "Lily's relaxing right now. Go ask Uncle Bruno." Bruno sat at the piano bench nearby, talking to Eric.

I got up immediately. "No it's okay, Jaimo. I'll play with you. I'm much better at passing than Uncle Bruno."

"Hey," Bruno said, his voice echoing in the large, open space. "I heard that."

"Well I didn't whisper it," I said with a sarcastic tone, laughing. Bruno did too. Nothing seemed too different from before; we were still best friends. I had nothing to worry about.

"Love you!" He yelled, as I headed out to the yard.

"Love you too!" I responded, still laughing.

Later that night, we fell asleep on top of the covers. I felt him shaking me in the middle of the night. I was still wearing jeans and even shoes.

"Lily, wake up," he whispered softly.

When I opened my eyes, his were very close to my face.

"Merry Christmas."

I looked at the clock. It was three in the morning. "Merry Christmas."

I yawned and got off the bed to put more comfortable clothes on; Bruno did too. We got into the bed and he shut off his light. Even in the darkness, we kept talking and talking for a very long time.

"Thanks for comin' Lil."

I kissed him for a long time, knowing he was smiling. "I'm so glad I did. This is all nice nice...like seriously so great."

The next day was pretty similar. We ate more, and more and more. It was so much better than sitting at home by myself. It was nice being part of a family, a family that welcomed me.

____________________________________________

The next morning, we watched the kids open their presents. It was really early. Lily was still sleeping. She looked so peaceful and beautiful when she slept and there was no way I would wake her up.

"Uncle Bruno?" Jaimo asked.

"Yeah bud?"

"Where's Lily?"

"She's still sleeping. You guys get up way too early on Christmas," I said, yawning.

"I like her."

I smiled. "I do too."

Jaimo went into the other room with the other kids. Presley, my youngest sister, sat next to me. She just kind of stared at me, grinning.

"What are you lookin' at, weirdo?" I asked,

"I've just never seen you like this. Your smile looks different."

I shrugged my shoulders, probably smiling like an idiot.

It's funny how we wait for Christmas for so long and then in like 20 minutes all the presents are ripped open and it's over. It wasn't over quite yet. I took my presents for Lily and took them up to the bedroom.

When I sat on the bed, the motion of the mattress woke her up.

"Sorry, Lil."

She rubbed her eyes. "It's okay. Did I miss everything? I'm sorry."

I winked at her quickly as I gave her one of the presents. "It's okay."

I just wanted to be with her.

"Wait, wait! I have some for you too!"

She sprung out of bed and headed for her suitcase. She had two presents too. We exchanged one at a time and opened them at the exact same time.

I got her a silver necklace with a silver guitar pick that had "Lily + Bruno" engraved on one side and "I pick you" on the other. I bought it the day after the Metallica concert. One of the Metallica picks from the concert was also attached to it. I put on her necklace for her; it hung right next to her dad's.

She held it in her hand tight, smiled, hugged me, and then kissed me so hard I fell back on the mattress. We both laughed.

"I love it, Bruno. Thank you!"

She got me a black fedora with pink gorillas on it. I sat back up and lowered my head; she put the fedora on my head.

"Oh that's hot," she said, making me crack up.

"I love it," I said, standing up on the bed to look at myself in the mirror across the room. "Damn I look so good in this. How did you find this?"

"I didn't...it was custom made."

She looked up at me and teasingly winked the way I do. Soon enough it was time for the second present. We both had envelopes for each other the second time around.

"How funny would it be if we got each other the same thing?" I asked.

She snickered a little to herself, opening the envelope. We both looked at each other's gifts and screamed at the exact same time.

"Arctic Monkeys...in London...ahhhh!" I screamed, kissing her hard. It was a sold out show in a small club.

"A tour of Nintendo...in Japan...ahhh" she mocked, kissing me so hard that I fell back and my hat fell off.

It was a private tour. They don't do too many tours over there, but I'm Bruno Mars...I can get what I want, especially if it's for Lily. I compared the dates on the tickets we had. They were a week away from each other.

"This is gonna be so great, Lil! We'll go to Japan first, do a little sight-seeing in between, and then head off to London...just you and me."

"I'm SO excited!" she shouted, forcing a burst of laughter from everyone in the living room.

"Me too," I laughed.

Her reaction was a gift itself as she couldn't take her eyes off both presents.