livejournal fics//joncer

All I Want for Christmas is a Puppy (I Already Have My Two Front Teeth)

Author: foxxcub

 
"I really want a dog." Jon said it so softly, Spencer almost didn't hear him.

"What?" He turned his head on the giant pillow they were sharing on Spencer's living room floor, watching reruns of Mythbusters.

Jon shrugged and tucked his face a little further into the pillow. "I don't know. I said something to my mom about getting one for my birthday, but that didn't happen, so." He shrugged again, knocking his ankle absently against Spencer's. "I'll probably just ask for an XBox or something for Christmas."

"Maybe she didn't know you really wanted a dog." Spencer scrinched up his nose in thought. He was watching the screen, but he'd seen this episode already; he knew there was no way to break the sound barrier with Chevy Cavalier.

"No, she did. I just don't think she likes dogs." Jon sounded resigned and sad, and his shoulders slumped slightly. "Besides, asking for a dog for Christmas is, like. Something out of a Disney movie. Or the 1950s." He didn't sound all that convinced, though.

Spencer snuck a quick side look at him, then nudged Jon's foot back.

~

Ryan's family didn't really celebrate Christmas, but his dad somehow always bought this really good mint hot cocoa every year. There wasn't a tree up, but Spencer always knew he could have awesome hot chocolate at Ryan's after school, whenever his dad was out.

"So, are you getting me anything for Christmas?" Spencer said as Ryan dumped a huge mass of marshmallows into his mug.

Ryan stopped mid-dumping and raised an eyebrow. "Um. No? Am I supposed to? Your parents get you everything you want, anyway, so what's the point?"

"The spirit of giving, Ryan." Spencer knew this was a bad idea to bring up to Ryan first. Turning fourteen had pretty much turned him into a jerk. Then again, Jon was fifteen and still cool and all, so maybe age had nothing to do with it. Maybe Ryan was just weird. Going to a private Catholic school didn't help, either.

"Product of a capitalist society, Spence. We shouldn't be promoting greed in the name of religion." Ryan shook out the last of the marshmallows and handed Spencer his mug. "Spoon?"

Spencer shook his head, wishing Brendon was there to burst into a round of Jingle Bells just to piss Ryan off. "You never complain when my mom sends you guys her pumpkin bread," he mumbled into his hot chocolate.

"That's different. It's food." Ryan ate his marshmallows straight out of the bag while eating his hot cocoa with a giant plastic spoon that was practically the size of his head.

Spencer rolled his eyes.

~

Sometimes it royally sucked having your best friends all attend different schools. And since Spencer's mom refused to let him have unlimited texting on his phone, he had to limit himself to two texts per school day. He'd started assigning days to everyone, and since today was Wednesday, it was Jon Day.

When Spencer got out of History, he had two texts from Jon. The first one said, tom might b gettin a bugle.

The second message read, sry mnt beagle lk snoopy

Tom went to the same high school with Jon; Spencer had never met him, but he'd stopped being jealous of him the day Jon said, "Duh, Spence, he hasn't known me since I was five, okay," and shoved his shoulder playfully. If anything, Spencer liked knowing Jon had friends outside the four of them to keep him company when they weren't around.

Spencer stood at his locker and typed back, r u goin 2 see it?

no :(, came the reply a few minutes later. Spencer bit his lip; Jon rarely used frowny faces in his texts.