We started to eat as mom started handing out presents. The first few presents ended up with James and Blake, the first one Blake got was a video game, I couldn't quite see what it was. The one James got was some book that he seemed really excited about.
The next ones came to Xavier, Carlos and me. From James. Mine read, I opened it up, it was a big photo frame with a bunch of pictures in it. From just chilling in the living room, to being with Felicity and Damian, there were photos of myself and some with my two best friends two. But I think my favourite one was the picture of Felicity and I at the wedding, we were sitting down at one of the tables, a small smile over my face as I looked at Felicity, even though she was looking somewhere else.
Smile.... I've been doing that a lot more lately, smiling. To be honest, I've been a lot happier lately... I have Felicity to thank for that. I looked over at James, a smile wide over my face. "Thank you James, I really appreciate this."
"No problem." Felicity took the frame from my hands, having a look at it. "Tu sorridi molto..." [You smile a lot...]
"Questo perché ho qualcosa di cui essere felice..." [That's because I have something to be happy about...] I said, pulling Felicity into a hug. "Could you guys, I dunno, speak English?" Xavier said, I glared at him. "Fanculo Xavier, sto parlando con Felicity in italiano perché posso, stiamo parlando da soli, non stiamo parlando con te, quindi fottiti." [Fuck off Xavier, I'm talking to Felicity in Italian because I can, we are having our own conversation, we aren't talking to you so fuck off you prick.]
"Don't swear so much." I heard Felicity mutter, I chuckled as I turned to her. "Says the one who threatened to bite me." Felicity smacked my chest, I let out a laugh as I pulled her into a hug.
A few presents later, there were none left under the tree. "Cooper... there were none from you..." Mom said, seeming disappointed. I just smirked, I stood up and made my way over to mom. I walked to the fireplace, reaching behind it and pulling out a wrapped gift. "Harrison, I believe this one was yours." I handed him the gift, I pulled out two more. "Carlos and Blake, these are yours." I handed one to each, I grabbed out one more gift, throwing it at Xavier. Felicity giggled slightly, quickly going quiet as Xavier glared at her.
"Don't glare at her. I'll gladly take that present back. Now, James, this one is yours." I handed him the biggest one, honestly, I'm shocked I managed to hide all this behind the fireplace. I turned to mom, a small smile on my face. "Where did I leave your present?" I started looking around, before looking back at mom and pulling it from behind my back. "Found it." I winked at mom as I handed her the present, she gave me a confused look. "You open yours last... I want to capture the moment."
Everyone, except for mom, opened their presents. James, Blake and Carlos seemed extremely happy about what I gave them, Xavier seemed... happy. I turned to Harrison. He had a smile on his face as he showed mom the locket.
I sat down in front of mom, getting comfortable as she looked at the wrapped present. "Open it." I said, a joyous smile on my face. Mom started to open the present, her eyebrows scrunched as she saw the cover. She kept opening it up, once the wrapping was off, she gasped.
She covered her mouth as her eyes glazed over with tears, I kept looking at her, not looking away for anything. "I-I thought I l-lost it..." She whispered out, beginning to flick through the pages. "I found it when we were moving, I had it in my box of Raman noodles..." I said, mom let out a small laugh.
"I thought this was gone! I thought I'd lost everything." She said, a happy sob leaving her mouth as she looked at the photo of Jax and I with cake on our faces. "I remember that day... we both smashed each other's faces into the cake... you got so mad..."
"I missed this..." She said as she got further into the book... the last picture being of dad and Jax's grave stones, flowers decorating them. Mom gasped, covering her mouth again as tears welled in her eyes, not happy tears... "I forgot to see them last week..."
"It's okay mom, I went. I got them presents too, I told them you said hello, I've caught them up on everything." I said, feeling tears in my own eyes. "Oh by the way, daddo and Jax approve of you Felicity." I said, trying to add a bit of humour to the now sad situation. I heard Felicity and Harrison let out a small chuckle. I turned back to mom, her lip was trembling as a tear slid down her cheek.
"I think I need a famous C-J hug..." Mom said, I felt a tear slide down my cheek as I crawled over to her. I wrapped my arms around her in a bear hug, holding her tightly as she started to sob. "The big bad bear has you now momma." I whispered into her ear, feeling her pull me closer to her.
After a few minutes, mom let go of me, sitting back as she wiped her eyes. Smiling at me, as I let my own tears fall. "What's a famous C-J hug?" Felicity asked, mom and I turned to her with a smile.
I walked over to her, crouching down in front of her as I held up two fingers. "Once upon a time, there were two little cubs, Cooper-bear and Jax-bear. One day, after they came home from hunting for honey, they saw their mommy-bear crying. So the two little bears walked over to their mom, hugging her as tightly as they could, squeezing out all of the sadness. Mommy-bear loved the hug so much, she named it. C-J hug."
I explained, Jax and I had been pretending to be bears, hense we always explained it like a fairytale. "So Cooper-bear hugged the sadness out of mommy-bear?" Xavier asked sarcastically. I just nodded my head, I turned back to Felicity. "Would Felicity like a C-J hug?" I asked, holding my arms out. Felicity let out a giggle as she stood up, jumping into my arms.
I wrapped my arms around her, crushing her in a hug. I heard her let out a satisfied sigh, causing a smile to grow over my face. I let go of her, taking a small step back. "The famous C-J hug..." I said, a small smile on my face as I looked back at mom. "Merry Christlemas Mom." I said with a chuckle, I always used to think it was Christle-mas instead of Christ-mas.
"Merry Christlemas Cooper."
YOU ARE READING
𝐻𝑖𝑠 𝑐𝑢𝑟𝑠𝑒, 𝐻𝑖𝑠 𝑑𝑖𝑠𝑒𝑎𝑠𝑒
Romance"It's getting harder each day, so much harder. It drains me to have to constantly put up a mask, hiding how I really feel behind a smile that isn't even true. I don't think I'll ever find that easy, because it's not. The easy part for me is lying, i...
