Just For Glory | COMPLETED

The Disney Lover Buys Happiness

As per usual, I slept until almost noon on Christmas morning. It wasn't the most enthralling of holidays for me. Jamie, however, still woke up at six at the latest to see her presents. If I was lucky, she'd just bring my presents up to my room so I didn't even have to go downstairs to the fake tree we used every single year.

This was not one of the lucky years.

I was on the couch, lazily unraveling a bow that had been on one of the presents my mom had got me, studying the tree disinterestedly. The phone rang, and I leaned over the couch to answer it after no one else did for five rings. "H'lo?" I grunted into the receiver.

"There you go again with that articulate wit. How do you manage it all the time, really?"

"Hey, Piper."

"Hi. Okay, so guess what?"

"You're going to get a puppy," I replied automatically. It was almost all she'd talked about for the last week. That and the color of her walls, but the puppy subject outweighed paint.

"Today!" she practically yelled.

"Yes, I know, you've told me and told me and told me again."

"Whatever, I know that deep down, you're just as much as a dog-lover as me. Okay, maybe not just as much, but pretty damn close, Donovan."

"Aren't you supposed to be painting your room today, too?" I asked, sitting up and glancing around the living room for the present I knew I had somewhere. Piper's present hadn't been hard for me to pick out, but when she told me she was having a hard time with a present for me, I just told her not to bother. Long story short, we argued, I won. She reluctantly agreed not to buy me anything under the condition that we would at least hang out.

"Yep, I'm in my room right now," she said. Then I heard a sharp intake of breath and a muttered exclamation from her end, though I'm pretty sure she didn't mean to do so into the phone. "Stupid thumbtack—why did I drop you on the floor? Brilliant." Again, I didn't really think she was talking to me.

I laughed slightly. She scoffed and said, "I'll have you know that the unnecessarily sharp end of that just drew blood from my feet. At least you're amused though, right?"

"Right," I said, smirking even though she couldn't see me. "Hey Piper, I'm going to come over, okay?"

Piper paused for a long moment before suspiciously asking, "Why?"

"It's a secret."

"How old are you again?"

"As if you don't know."

"Aren't we self-assured?"

"Nope, just confident in your freakish memory."

"Knowing a person's age is not freakish."

"Remembering the name and breed of his dog from eight years ago is."

"Flag was a great dog."

"That's why I had him."

"Seriously, Donovan, why are you coming over?"

"Seriously, Piper, I'll see you in a few minutes." Piper was already protesting my response when I said goodbye and hung up the phone.

I grabbed the keys to my mom's car and yelled to the general household that I was leaving. While I was still taking her car when I needed it, I was more than halfway there with my fund for a black Mustang LX that I'd found at a used car lot. It was from 1989, but it was also in decent shape and, let's face it, I just wanted a Mustang.

It was below thirty degrees outside, but there was no snow. When I got to Piper's house, I had to resist the urge to run to her door, because I hadn't thought to grab a jacket before I left and the flannel shirt I had on over a black t-shirt wasn't doing much. I knocked on her door, but her father answered. "Oh, hello there, Donovan. Merry Christmas," he said, standing back to let me in. The moment I was inside, I smelled paint.