Just Close Your Eyes (Phan)

Chapter 9

Christmas was coming rapidly and I was very excited for it. I hadn't enjoyed it the last few years when I'd lived with my parents, we never were in the mood for it but celebrated anyway.

I had bought a few presents for Phil and Martyn. I hadn't planned it, but one day I had come across a very cute little stuffed lion that I absolutely adored it and I knew Phil would, too.

My present for Martyn had been a little bit more difficult, because it took me a long time to think of something he would like. Although he loved reading and gaming, I couldn't buy a book or a game for him. Music was neither an option, those were all things he sold in his shop. But when I walked past a little shop I used to visit when I needed presents for friends' birthdays, I saw a beautiful Pokémon phone case. The one he had now was simply black and clearly used, which he would probably never admit. It seemed something that Martyn would like, so I had gotten that for him.

Of course the shop would be closed on the 24th and the 25th, but Martyn had invited me and Phil to his apartment. They would go to their parents in the evening, but we would have a little early Christmas in the afternoon.

'Won't your parents mind?' Phil had asked.

'As long as I'm home in the evening, it's fine. They're visiting some of their friends in the afternoon, too,' had been my excuse. I saw Martyn looking at me, knowing he wanted me to tell Phil I didn't live home anymore. But I wasn't ready for that conversation yet.

Phil entered the shop, looking really excited. 'They've put up the Christmas decorations in town! Shouldn't we, too?'

Martyn laughed. 'I knew you were gonna ask that. I've already gotten them, they're in the living room.'

'Can Dan help me?'

I was currently helping a customer, but I looked up when I heard my name. 'If you want to, of course,' Phil added quickly.

'I need to find a game first, but if it's okay by Martyn, I'll help after that.'

'It's fine, it isn't busy in the shop anyway. I think I can manage on my own,' Martyn said while I scanned our selection fantasy games. I picked out the game the woman behind me was looking for and handed it to her. 'Here you go.'

When I turned around, I saw Phil had already gotten the decorations and was sorting them out on the table where usually the newspapers were. He had shoved them all on a pile, making room.

'No one is gonna read them by now anyway,' he said when he saw me looking.

I shrugged, joining him in his quest for the decorations meant for the tree. He had found the box with the tree, but we still needed the balls and the star.

'The star is here,' I said a few minutes later. 'Well, I've found two, actually.'

'We'll decide which one we'll put on the tree after we've decorated,' Phil said.

'Why do you have so many decorations?' I complained when we had sorted out half of it and still hadn't found the other tree decorations.

'Phil,' Martyn simply said. 'Every time he sees something nice but doesn't have room for it in his own apartment, he brings it here.'

'Hey! You've bought half of it, too!'

'I've bought some of it in the beginning, when you weren't so obsessed with Christmas decorations yet.'

Phil laughed. 'That was a mistake then, I've always been obsessed with them. When you didn't have your shop yet, I decorated our parents' house with it.'

'I can only imagine how it must have looked,' I muttered after having looked in yet another box with nothing useful for the tree.

'It looked like a festival attraction,' Martyn joked.

When we finally found the decorations we were looking for, Martyn had made us hot chocolate and had turned on some Christmas music.

Assembling the tree took us a little longer than we had estimated, maybe because half of the time Phil and I were dancing around in the shop and singing along with the Christmas songs. When the tree was finally finished, it was near closing time and we decided we would decorate tomorrow.

The next morning, I was there half an hour before I needed to be there. I had been unable to fall asleep again when the sun rose, I was too excited to decorate the tree today.

To my surprise, I saw Martyn and Phil were also just arriving, although Martyn didn't look very happy. Phil did, I could see his smile from the other side of the road.

'Good morning Dan!' Phil greeted me enthusiastically when I joined them.

'Good morning. I should've known you would be here early as well.'

'He practically dragged me out of bed when the sun wasn't even up yet,' Martyn said. 'Otherwise I could've slept at least an hour more, but no, he had to come to my house and bang on the door until I woke up.'

I laughed at that. 'Phil!'

He blushed a little. 'I couldn't sleep anymore.'

'Well, neither could I,' I admitted.

'You are both hopeless,' Martyn said with a sigh. 'I expect this shop to be fully decorated by noon, if you have this much energy.'

'Only the tree or the complete shop?' I asked.

'The entire shop and I don't want one inch of the shop not covered in Christmas decorations!' He turned the key around and opened the door, letting us enter first.

'Challenge accepted,' Phil said. 'What do we get when we make it in time?'

'I'll buy you guys a Christmas brownie.'

I smiled. 'Is that a thing? A Christmas brownie, I mean.'

Phil turned to me, a bright smile still stuck on his face. 'I don't know, but now it is. Let's get started!'

'Wait a second. What must we do when we don't make it?'

'Dan!' Phil said resentful. 'That's not the right attitude! Clearly you've never put up Christmas decorations with me, otherwise you would never ask that question.'

'Judging by how fast it went yesterday, I'm not sure,' I teased. 'But I just wanna know.'

'How about Phil has to buy us a Christmas brownie, since he's so sure?' Martyn suggested.

'Challenge accepted,' Phil and I said at the same time and both laughed.

'But,' Phil continued, 'less dancing and more decorating this time.'

I agreed with this and we immediately got started. I hadn't eaten yet, but when Martyn got a package of Christmas cookies out of his back, I figured I didn't need to. My breakfast would consist of Christmas cookies and if we were lucky, Christmas brownie.

A few minutes for noon we were done. We were both completely covered in glitter since we had decided we could put it on the tree to make it look like there was snow on it. But in the end, we had gotten more glitter on ourselves than on the tree.

Phil pushed his hair back with his hand, unconsciously getting even more glitter in. 'We're done. And since it's not noon yet, we've earned a Christmas brownie!'

'Let me check first if the entire shop is covered in Christmas decorations,' Martyn said.

'I think you're the only one not decorated,' Phil said, but Martyn held up his hand before Phil could do anything about it.

'No putting Christmas decorations on me. You can decorate Dan a little bit more, but someone has to look professional in this shop.'

'Professional? You?' Phil raised his eyebrows.

'Shut up.'

But in the end, Martyn decided the shop was decorated enough. In his lunch break he went out to get us our Christmas brownie, which we shared between the three of us.

End of this chapter