Destined Part I

The Gift

There was no cake at my birthday this year; it would be pointless to have that kind of tradition here. But there was a pile of presents, and I couldn’t believe my eyes at the sight of how much they had splurged on me. I knew that I didn’t deserve this much.

I walked over to the coffee table that held all my gifts and everyone followed, sitting down in the seats around me. Haiden and Angelina plopped down on the floor in front of the table and Grace, Cain, and Marcus took a seat on the couch across from me. Giada and Kristopher stood next to them, their arms around each other’s waist.

“Open this one,” Angelina said, as she handed me a gift that was wrapped in silver paper with a pink bow pressed on the top. “It’s from Grace.”

I looked across me to see Grace smiling, and I grinned at her, ripping open the box. I wasn’t one of those people that meticulously unwrapped their presents, one seam at a time. I was way too impatient for that. I dove into the gift with dedication and I heard some of them chuckle quietly because of it.

“Oh my goodness,” I gasped, as I opened the lid of the present. “New boots!”

Grace laughed out loud and leaned into me as I hugged her from across the table.

“I figured it was about time I got my boots back,” she teased.

I could see out of the corner of my eye that Haiden was smirking, so I turned to him to speak.

“And what are you grinning at over there?” I asked, sarcastically.

He shook his head, and raised his eyebrows innocently as if he hadn’t been smiling about what she had given me.

“All I was thinking was that it is about time you had something besides flip flops to wear,” he answered.

I stuck my nose in the air at him as Angie handed me another gift, this one from her and Marcus. This one was enormous and was wrapped in hot pink polka dots with a black bow resting on top. I figured Angelina was the one that wrapped it out of the two of them. I ripped it open, regretting only for a moment that I had torn the pretty paper, and dove into the cardboard box. Confused, I pulled out another box that was very heavy, and had bright orange and yellow flames all over it. When I laid it on the ground and twisted it around, I screamed when I read the words on the front.

“Ahh!” I screeched, “Aerosmith Box of Fire 13 CD compilation!”

I threw my arms around Angelina and then around Marcus and nearly knocked over Haiden in my excitement.

“I think she likes it,” Haiden commented to Marcus, and everyone started to laugh.

“I love it,” I corrected, grinning wildly at them both.

Angie smiled back at me and handed me another gift, this one covered in newspaper. It was very small, so I had no clue what it could be, but my curiosity was peaked.

“It’s from me,” Cain said shyly, and I could see his cheeks getting pink behind the strawberry blonde hair that was covering his face.

I tore the newspaper as delicately as I could muster, and pulled out a maroon box that I could tell was from a jewelry store. When I opened the case, peeking at what was inside, I nearly began to cry right there on the sofa. I looked up at Cain, my eyes swimming.

“Grace said that it reminded her of you,” he declared, “so I just had to get it.”

The necklace was beautiful. It was a white gold, delicate chain with a tiny pale yellow butterfly charm dangling from it. It was perfect. I lifted the chain to my neck, and Haiden got up, kneeling beside me, and helped me with the clasp.