hooked ↣ joshler ✓

14. Presents

"... happy birthday dear Patrick, happy birthday to you!" The group sang as the mentioned boy smiled and then blew out his candles.

"I'll go cut cake," Dallon offered, picking the dessert up. Josh quietly thanked him as he began to walk off. "You guys can start on presents."

Patrick squealed with delight as he grabbed the first present from the stack and plucked the card from the top, reading it aloud.

"'Dear Patrick, happy birthday. I'm so grateful to be your friend. Madison,'" the birthday boy smiled at the end and began ripping open the gift. "Oh my gosh, thank you!" He held up the three coloring books and a pack of 64 crayons. "This even has a sharpener!" He beamed.

Josh laughed and held his hands out. "Next present," told him, taking the art supplies and beginning to put them off to the side.

"Wait!" Patrick froze as Tyler shouted and pulled out his phone. "Grab the presents," Patrick did as he was told. "And smile," the birthday boy's face went from nervous and confused to joy as soon as he realized Tyler was taking a picture of him. He watched him press the screen a couple times and then he looked away. "Okay, go on."

Patrick set everything back down and picked up the one from Pete. "'To my best friend. Love, Pete'." Quickly, he unwrapped it and scrunched his nose up in confusion when he saw it was just a white box.

"Hey I thought I was your best friend!" Madison called out.

"I can have two best friends!" He stuck his to tongue out at her. "Open it!" Pete giggled.

"Okay, okay!" Patrick laughed back, carefully lifting the lid off. Sitting there was a black fedora and next to it was a smaller white box. "What's with the hat?"

"I dunno, I saw it in the mall and grabbed it. I looked weird in it," Pete examined his friend. "But you, have a good hat head."

"A hat head?" Josh asked as his little brother put his gift on, smiling brightly as he realized it sat perfectly.

"A head that looks good in hats," Pete toothily grinned. "Now open the smaller box!"

Patrick obeyed and grabbed the smaller box, and opened the lid like he did with the first one. He gasped when he saw what was in it. Josh saw a glimpse of silver and then saw Patrick delicately take it out. It was then that Josh finally saw what it was– a thick wired bracelet with a little music note on it. "Oh, Petey! It's beautiful!"

Pete blushed. "I know how much you love music class..."

"Thank you!" Patrick ran over to his best friend, engulfing him into a hug. Tyler raised the phone and snapped a picture of it.

"What's with the pictures?" Josh asked. "You don't seem like the sentimental type."

Tyler shrugged. "I dunno, Patrick looks happy and I figure he'd like pictures to look back on."

Josh was about to continue but Dallon poked his head through. "Hey the cake and ice cream are all scooped out on plates."

"Thanks, Dal. We just have your present left. Come watch," Josh patted spot next to him on the couch.

As soon as the taller boy was sitting, Patrick grabbed the last gift and unwrapped it. "Harry Potter! Holy smokes, thank you Dallon!" Stacked nicely on top of one another were the first three books in the series.