Secret Santa

7: Alone

Elliot's view

I head home and walk into my apartment. I glance around and don't see my brother anywhere.

"Max!" I yell and get a faint reply from the bathroom.

I walk into the bathroom and find him lying down on the bathroom floor looking horrible.

"Do you have my medicine?" he asks struggling to sit up.

I hand him the bag with his medication and he replies, "What the fuck took you so long?"

"Excuse me, I was taking the girl I like to the hospital because you helped me poison her with expired chocolate," I retort back angrily.

"Okay, okay, I'm sorry. You didn't need to punish me by taking so long with your girlfriend," Max replies taking the medicine.

"She's not my girlfriend," I say.

Max looks at me stunned, "Well you better make her your girlfriend after everything that happened."

"Steps, Max. Everything takes steps."

"Well at least tell me you passed fucking step one," he replies getting up to wash his mouth.

"As a matter of fact I did pass the first few steps. We have a date," I say happily.

"Nice. When and where?" he asks.

My smile falters, "Oh shit. I don't know. We didn't exactly work out the details."

Max sighs and shakes his head, "You useless lesbian."

"I have a couple of days to think of something, okay. It will be an amazing date!" I tell him.

"You couldn't even think of a present to get her for secret Santa," Max reminds me.

"Hey, whose side are you on?" I challenge.

"Yours, sorry. Let me help you plan, I happen to be quite the lady's man back at university," Max boosts.

"First of all, the chocolate idea didn't exactly work out. And second of all, mom said that the girl you liked rejected you though," I say deflating his ego.

"For the last time I didn't know the chocolate was expired!!! And dammit, that was classified information. Mom wasn't supposed to tell anyone!" he groans.

I laugh and help him onto the couch so he can take a nap. Then I grab my laptop so that I can look up nice places to take Brooklyn on a date to.

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Brooklyn's view

When I wake up it's already dark out. I glance over at my phone and notice that it is nine p.m. I have been sleeping for four hours. I check my messages and see that Elliot sent me a message.

Elliot: Hey, Brooklyn. I just wanted to see how you are doing now? Are you feeling better?

Seeing her message gave me butterflies. She is so cute and considerate, even though I did get poisoned by her gift.

Most people wouldn't care about you enough to ask how you are after, so I'm thankful that she did. It's nice having someone think about you. So I send her a text.

Brooklyn: I'm feeling better now. I just woke up from a big nap. Thank you for checking up on me. :)

Then I notice that I have another message on my phone. It's from my brother, Lucas. I immediately open the text and read.

Lucas: Hey lil sis. How are you doing?

Brooklyn: Hey Lucas. I'm doing good, thank you. What are you up to, brother?

Am I coming off as to try? Or am I trying to hard? I don't know what to do. Lucas and I have never been close, so I don't know how to talk to him. It's been three years since I last saw him.

Lucas: I've been travelling all over the place, Brooklyn. It's been amazing. Although I have bad news.

Brooklyn: What's wrong, Lucas? Did something happen? Are you okay?

Lucas: Yes, I'm okay, sister. Don't worry about me. I meant that the bad news is that I won't be able to come home for the holidays. I'm sorry Brooklyn; it's just that an amazing offer has come up to travel to Africa. I can't pass it up.

My heart broke reading the text. I was going to spend another Christmas all alone again. I was really hoping he would come this time, but I guess I was wrong. I shouldn't have gotten my hopes up.

Lucas: You understand, don't you, Brooklyn.

Brooklyn: Yeah I understand, its okay, Lucas.

Lucas: You're the best. Love you, sis.

Brooklyn: Love you too.

I put my phone on the bed side table and try not to let the tears out, but it's no use. I feel like a small child stupidly crying out for her big brother and parents, but there's no one for me. No one is going to hug me and reassure me it will be okay.

I need to reply on myself. I only have me and I need to be strong. Like always.

I wipe away the tears and get up to make myself hot cocoa. It helps me calm down when I am upset.

Today has mostly been a shit day and I just want to get through it and move on to the next day. Hopefully I can get better fast. 

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author note: Enjoy this short chapter. I wanted to emphasize the differences between sibling relationships.