A Touch of Grace

[ chapter twenty two: mistakes ]

Chapter 22: Mistakes

I'm a horrible shopper and as Christmas approached, I began to panic. It was the 10th of December and I was still struggling to think (and purchase) of gifts for my friends and family, not to mention Phoenix. Another thing that ignited panic in me was that Phoenix was leaving on the 20th with his family to visit his grandparent's house for the holidays. It's not the fact that he's going to be gone for two weeks that's bothering me, it's the idea he proposed that is.

It happened on the day that we both managed to sneak out. We were in his car in the parking lot of a twenty four hour gas station with churros, which weren't that great. While I was eating the snack, I noticed he was staring at me, so I asked what was up. His words were, "We should just tell your brother the day before I leave for vacation so he has time to calm down before I get back." It sounded like a good idea at the time but now that I think about it, I'm going to be dealing with my brother's response all alone. I have yet to tell Phoenix about my opposing ideas, and I won't be doing so anytime soon.

I decided to shove the entire confront Leo idea to the back of my mind and focus primarily on the gifts. I eventually bought Christmas presents for everyone on two trips, one with Phoenix and one with my friends. I bought Avery a giant teddy bear, which I needed Leo to carry upstairs to my room while Avery was out with friends. I got Alice a waterproof phone case because she always seems to drop her cellular device in liquids. I got Cam a lipstick color she'd been wanting for a while. As for Leo, I wasted a few bucks on a card for his XBOX. And finally, Phoenix; I got him a leather bracelet with a metal plaque with our initials. Cam and Alice said it was a cute gift and that he'd definitely like it, so I purchased it, had it engraved, and put it in a nice box. I plan to give it to him on the 19th, which is tomorrow, right after the disclosing of our relationship to Leo, which I have not been stressing more than I am in this moment. Despite my attempts to suffocate the ideas, they came back to life and are now haunting the chambers of my mind with a demand to be heard.

Tossing and turning in my bed, I turned to my phone for some comfort. I was spending the day with Phoenix tomorrow. Before he was going to leave for his flight, we were going to tell Leo and let him talk to us for a bit before exchanging Christmas gifts. When I saw that Phoenix hadn't responded after twenty minutes, I decided to try my luck at sleeping again. I succeeded.

When I woke up in the morning at ten o'clock, I saw a spam of messages from Phoenix on my phone. Basically what the messages said was that the flight was at 8 o'clock in the morning rather than at night. So instead of spending the day with Phoenix, telling Leo, and exchanging gifts, I had to wait until noon before he was even able to respond to my messages. I sighed as I stared at the ceiling. With a large huff I got up out of bed.

When twelve o'clock finally rolled around and my phone began vibrating on its place on the table, I quickly lifted the device to my ear. "Hello?" I greeted.

"Grace..." he spoke. "Hey."

"How was your flight?" I asked him.

Rushing through the small talk, he addressed the problem we were both thinking about. Telling Leo. "We didn't get to spend the day together like we planned," he started. "And we didn't get to tell Leo."

"I know," I trailed. So what now? Are we going to wait until he gets back?

"I really want him to find out soon," he explained.

"Soon as in?" I questioned.

"Look, I know it's a lot to ask, but do you think you could do it?" he asked me.

"Do what? Tell Leo?" I inquired with wide eyes. He wants me to tell Leo? All alone? With no protection? The original plan was to have Phoenix say everything while I stand beside him silently and now he expects me to just say it?