Pretty Venom |N.H|

49

Niall Horan

Ten years ago.

"Niall! Hurry up! I'm checking out soon, so get what you want and let's go," my brother half-shouted as he walked past me through the shop, holding a scarf in one hand and a necklace in his other.

My eyebrows furrowed at the sight of two gifts in his hands, and I was standing here with just one -- a bracelet I was more than satisfied with, but it's one less than he has, and now I'm starting to worry.

Was I supposed to get two?

"Wait!" I called out to him, and he quickly turned around to see me standing a few feet away, stress clearly displayed on my face.

Way too much stress for an eleven-year-old.

"What's wrong?" he asks as he steps closer, his eyes analyzing every part of my body as if my shout to him made him fear that something had happened to me when he wasn't paying close enough attention as he shopped on his own. When he notices that nothing is wrong, he starts to walk away, sighing out of relief, but I'm feeling the complete opposite.

"Why do you have two gifts?" I ask, pointing my hand with my money in it in his direction.

He turns back around as he looks down to his hands, then back up to me. "One is for Christmas, and one is for her birthday," stating it as if my question was redundant.

Oh no.

No no no no no.

My brother, my father, and I are in London right now visiting family for Christmas. Today is the day after, and we are out getting last minute gifts for our mother back in Ireland. My dad gave my brother and I some money, just enough to buy her gifts for the holiday, since she couldn't come with us this year to visit my cousins.

I had a really nice Christmas this year.

I had written a bunch of things down on my list, but my favorite gift is one I didn't have written down. I didn't even think of writing it down, because I didn't think it was possible to be gifted this on Christmas, but I guess an exception was made for me.

I actually made a new friend.

His name is Harry.

He came over to my cousin's house two days before Christmas, and his parents exchanged gifts with my aunt and uncle. Since I was there, I got stuck with Harry and my cousin, but he turned out to be really nice.

We have only been friends for three days, but we said we would write each other letters once I was back home in Ireland, and we would catch up again when I came back over to visit my family.

My Christmas was going really well, and the whole process of getting a gift for my mother was going well too, until my brother mentioned the need for two gifts.

Her birthday is just a few days after Christmas, and I had made the wrong decision of assuming that we would both get one gift for her, and use one for Christmas and the other for her birthday.

But now he's standing with two gifts in his hands, and I only have one.

How am I supposed to afford to get another?

Not to mention that he's already almost out the door, and I don't think I would even have time to look for another possible gift.

"Come on, we have to pay," he reminds me, snapping me out of my trace where I had been trying to figure out how to explain only purchasing one gift when he bought two with no hesitation at all.