Underneath The Mistletoe {Phan} (Book Three)

🌨Seven🌨

"Dan! Phil! Wake up! Santa came and left presents!"
Ellie's excited shouting woke me up the next morning. For once, I didn't rub sleep out of my eyes and let out a groan. How could I do that on Christmas, my all time favorite day of the year?
"Okay Ellie, we're coming." I said to the excited ten year old as I sat up and began stretching. "Go downstairs and wait by the Christmas tree, okay?"
"Okay." Ellie replied before she turned and began heading downstairs.
"It's Christmas." Dan whispered tiredly as he sat up, moving as slowly as a sloth as he did so. "Man, time really flew by."
"Yeah, it sure did." I nodded in agreement as I reached over towards the bedside table and put on my glasses. Even though it was Christmas, I didn't have the energy to put in my contacts. I know I told both Dan and myself that we were going to push the fact that we were going to send Ellie off to live with someone else, but I just couldn't help but think about it. I knew that it was the right thing to do in the long run, but sometimes the right thing to do is the hardest thing to do.
"Hey, you go out there with Ellie and tell her that I'll be out in a couple of minutes." I watched as Dan bent down and pulled his phone off of his charger. "If she asks what I'm doing, just say that I'm talking to my family, even though I want nothing to do with them after what happened."
"Try not to take too long." I stood up, knowing full well what he was actually doing. "Also, can you do me a favor and give my great grandmother a call and tell her that she doesn't have to let Ellie live with her?"
"Don't worry, I more than likely won't take that long at all." He assured me as he put his phone up to his ear. "And yeah, I'll call her."

*****

"Where's Dan?" Ellie asked me when she looked over and saw me walking down the stairs.
"He's upstairs." I replied as I sat down next to her. "He'll be down in a little bit."
"What is he doing?" Ellie scooted closer to the Christmas tree and stared at all of the presents that were underneath the Christmas tree.
"He's talking to his family." I lied, something that I've been doing way too much for my liking.
"Are we going to go and see his family?" Ellie took her gaze off of the presents and put it onto me.
I shook my head. "No, we're going to see my family. Do you remember when we went to go see my great grandma?"
She nodded.
"Well, we're going to go over to her house and you'll get to meet more of my family."
"Are they nice?" Ellie asked, nervousness lacing her tone.
"Yes, they're all very nice." I assured her. "You're going to love every single one of them. They've been really looking forward to meeting you."
Ellie was about to respond when Dan's footsteps could be heard throughout the entire house. I honestly had no idea why he would be stomping his feet. Perhaps something had gone wrong in one or both of the calls he had made?
"Okay people, let's get to opening some Christmas presents." Dan's enthusiastic tone severely contrasted with how angry his footsteps seemed to be.
Oh well, I'm sure I'm just worried about nothing.
"Yay!" Ellie cheered as excitement gleamed in her green eyes. "You guys have to open your presents first!"
"Oh, okay..." Dan trailed off, clearly surprised that Ellie didn't insist on opening her presents first. "I could give Phil his present first..."
"No, no, that's not what I meant." She stood up and walked over to the corner of the Christmas tree and crawled underneath it. A few moments later, she reemerged with two small items. It wasn't until she walked back over to Dan and me that I was able to get a closer look at them.
In both hands, she was holding two small presents that were wrapped with paper and string. One of them had "Dan" written neatly on it and the other had "Phil" written just as neatly on it.
"I made you guys presents." The smile on her face warmed my heart. "I wrapped them with paper and string because I didn't want to use any of your wrapping paper."
"Ellie..." I struggled to allow words to escape my mouth as I carefully took the gift from her as if it would break if I wasn't careful while I was handling it. I cupped her gift in my hands and looked over at Dan to see that he had done the same with his gift. Almost as soon as I looked over at him, his brown eyes met mine. Just by looking at his eyes, I could tell that he was speechless and in complete and utter shock.
I don't blame him for being in shock though, mostly due to the fact that I was too.
"Aren't you guys going to open your gifts?" Ellie asked sadly.
"Of course we are." I looked back over at her and saw that her smile was gone and had been replaced by a frown. "Dan and I are just surprised that you made us gifts, that's all." I paused for a moment as I looked back down at my gift. "Here, we're going to open them right now."
Without even looking to make sure that Dan was opening his gift along with me, I began untying the string. Once it was untied, I laid it down next to me before I began to slowly and gently tear the paper. As I was tearing it, I noticed just how thin Ellie's gift was. I had absolutely no idea what this gift could be.