Set Me Free

21. Wish Granted

     "Merry Christmas, Dan!" Kyle hugged me tightly.

     "You too," I smiled.

     "Are you nervous?" He suddenly turned to the dark question. "Like, for-"

     "Not really," I answered before he could finish.

     Nothing had given me or Apollos a sign yet, nothing to indicate a sign of his father or Helldeer being nearby. It was literally four hours until that time. Hours for us to try and banish Apollos' father. We had tried to do it the day after Polia came, but the stone wouldn't do anything, instead giving a carved message that the banishment was not to be done until Christmas Day.

     Well, it was Christmas now.

     "Care to do our present exchange right now?" Will asked from his sitting spot. I totally forgot to get a Christmas tree due to the supernatural stuff that's been happening this month.

     "Sure, I guess," I shrugged with an accepting smile. I wanted to push this problem to the back of my mind, yet I couldn't.

     "You first, Will," everyone looked at him.

     Our bassist dug into his large arsenal of gifts, pulling out the first, labeled with Apollos' name. The reindeer shuffled himself out into the open from his corner. Will slid the box across the floor to him. A smile grew across my lips as he began to gently tear the wrapping with the tip of his antler. His mouth dropped open with a grin, if it was possible for reindeer to even create that type of face.

     Having the soul of a fifteen year old inside him, Apollos playfully tossed the green quilt to his antlers. My smile only grew bigger. Was it weird that I felt happy for a reindeer? I shoved the question to the back of my mind as Will tossed a present to me. I tore it apart and gasped at the shiny vinyl record held in my hands. An Imagine Dragons record sat between my fingers.

     "Dude!" I cried out in joy. "You have no idea how long I was trying to find this!"

     "It was on their website," he rolled his eyes at my stupidity.

     "Thanks, William!" Apollos shouted with joy from the opening of my living room.

     "No problem," he chuckled at him.

     "Me next!" Kyle exclaimed, then a box was slid across the floor to his feet. "Ooh! A beanie!" Ky grinned as he shoved the woollen hat onto his head.

     "Mine better be good," Woody muttered. "You're all lucky that Chrissy let me come out to Dan's flat."

     "Just open the damn thing," Will sighed and threw the seemingly light package at Bastille's grumpy drummer.

     Woody shrugged a smile when he held up a pair of green Nike runners, custom made with the Argyle Greens logo on the sides.

     Going in clockwise order, Woody gave out his gifts next. He lazily passed them to the rest of us and stared at his phone while hearing our childish shrieks of joy in the background. Each of had received mug with our names on them- typical of Woody. Apollos had gotten a...well...he had been given a pot of grass. I don't think Woody understood that he wasn't actually a legitimate reindeer.

     Nice going on that one, Woody.

     Then, Ky excitedly tossed each of us a gift. The lightness of the box told me that he had given me something that wasn't fragile, which was a good thing in my books, since me and my clumsy body of mine would have been capable of breaking it. I ripped open the present to find that he had bought me a Twins Peak jumper. Apollos and I gasped with joy at the same time. He had be given a soccer ball pillow, which was probably even better than Will's quilt he had given earlier.

     "Nice one!" I laughed and high fived my mate.

     "Of course," Ky made that scrunched up smile and pretended to flick away hair like a sassy girl would.

     "Well, here's yours, Will," I smiled and passed the flat present to him.

     "Woah!" He gasped with a wide smile. "A pencil kit?!"

     I nodded and let out a small laugh while passing the wrapped snow globe to Woody.

     "What's this?" Woody made a confused face. "Fuck it's heavy."

     "Don't drop it," I chuckled.

     His grumpy eyes lit up as he picked up the globe from the ripped up wrapping paper. He looked at me with that teddy bear smile of his. He likes it. Woody tapped at the glass and shook the globe before he watched the snow drift down with fascination. And while he was doing that, I took the cardboard box, poked with multiple holes, and gently put it down in front of Kyle's lap.

     My best friend looked at me with a weird face before his hands carefully tore away the tape that was binding the flaps together. Before I knew it, two lanky arms were wrapped around my body, nearly squeezing the air out of my lungs as a girly squeal escaped from Kyle's mouth. He went back to the box and picked up the milky brown kitten, holding it up in the air like those two animals from the Lion King.

     "You didn't leave this guy in the box the whole time, right?" He raised an eyebrow at me while his new kitten clawed the air.

     "Of course not," I shook my head.

     "You gonna give him that?" Ky pointed to the kitchen, where a sphere shaped present sat on the floor.

     "Oh yeah." I mumbled and went to go get it. "So, erm, I dunno what you're going to do with this, but uh...hope you like it," I blushed and rolled it to Apollos.

     "No way!" His raspy voice cried.

     "You're welcome!" Kyle beamed. "I helped Dan choose the-"

     "It's green! My favourite colour!" Apollos shrieked. "You guys are the best!"

     "Who said we weren't?" I smirked.

     "Nice to see that you're optimistic," Will poked me in the leg.

     "Well, I got my wish," I shrugged and slumped to the floor, gathering all the ripped paper.