Christmas Eve
TJ's POV:
"Tj pass me the chocolate chips" Amber said as she pointed to the bag of semisweet chocolate chips on the counter. They were unopened so I just threw them at her, she caught them thankfully.
We always made cookies on Christmas Eve. My parents used to make them but one year they got too lazy to do it so Amber and I continued the tradition. "You going anywhere tomorrow? If not I'll stay home I don't want you spending Christmas by yourself."
"I'm going to Cyrus's house" I told her. "He invited me over"
"Aw that's nice of him" I took a piece of the cookie dough she had in the bowl and popped it into my mouth. "Yeah, he's really nice to me"
"That's good, is he your new Mason?" I scoff at her comment. "No, Mason was a dick. Cyrus isn't like that" I smiled at the thought of Cyrus. He's so sweet and selfless. "But you like him right?"
"No I don't Amber. Just cause he's my friend doesn't mean I like him. Plus we don't know each other well, he doesn't even know about my dyscalculia." I really didn't. I just liked spending time with him. He helped me with my math and I guess he was my tutor. But he wasn't anything more than my friend. "Fine, whatever you say." I helped her put the cookie dough on the baking sheet and put it in the oven. I headed over to the couch while I had to wait half an hour for them to be ready. I looked over at our lit Christmas tree. The tree wasn't filled with gifts like an average family's Christmas tree would but there was two gifts. One larger than the other. Amber and I agreed to get each other one gift cause money was tight, but what she didn't know is I saved up to give her something she deserved. "So wanna open gifts now or later?" Amber asked as she looked in the direction I was looking at. "After dinner" I told her. "What movie do you wanna watch?" I turned on the tv. "Elf?" I had watched elf countless times but Amber never gets tired of it. I let it play while I was on my phone.
The sound of a ding gave me an excuse to get up and leave the couch. I opened the oven all the way to let the cookies cool. The smell of warm chocolate chip cookies filled the entire house, causing Amber to walk into the kitchen as well. "We should get started on dinner, doesn't look like mom and dad are gonna get here any time soon" Amber pointed out looking at the clock. I sighed. It was already 6, they said they'd be back by 4. When our parents are out late. They're out very late.
We were making pasta while Elf played in the background. I wasn't mad that our parents home. But it'd be nice to spend Christmas as a family again.
By 7 dinner was ready, Amber and I ate as we blasted Christmas music. By 8 we were done and were just washing dishes when we heard a knock at the door. "Coming!" Amber yelled as she dried her hands with a towel and headed to the door to open it. "Hey mom, dad" I heard her say. I finished up the last plate and set it on the side to dry. "Hey sweetie I'm so sorry we're late, let me quickly make some dinner-" "No need. We already made dinner, left overs in the fridge" I told my mom. I took the gifts from under the tree and told put them in my room.
After a couple minutes Amber walked in, shutting the door behind her. "You know you don't have to be rude to them" she calmly told me. She knew how I felt about them but she'd never get mad at me about it because deep down, she knew she also felt the same way. She just tolerated it better than I did. "Yeah well, they didn't have to go out and leave their kids home alone on Christmas Eve either but look where we are" I say from my bed. "So we opening up gifts or what?" Amber sat on my rug and I sat across from her. We were in our pajamas already cause there was no need to be dressed up if there was no one coming over and if we weren't going out. "You open yours first" Amber handed her gift to me. It was the larger one. I ripped off the wrapping paper and opened the white box. I pulled out a dark blue hoodie that read KippenSibling in white lettering. "Aww Amber!" I smiled at the hoodie. "I know it's cheesy, but we always called each other that when we're little and I dunno I just thought the idea of it was cute" She stood up and walked out of the room for a moment and came back with a matching hoodie but in light pink. "Now we can match!" She held it up. I stood up to hug her "Thank you, I love it" she chuckled. I put the hoodie on and looked in the mirror. "How do I look?" I smiled at myself in the mirror. "Looks great, ok now my turn!"
We sat back on the floor and I handed her the smaller gift. She took out the tissue paper and pulled out a rectangular white box. She gave me weird look but I just kept smiling at her. She took the top off to reveal a silver charm bracelet with a rosy pink heart shaped clasp. She gasped when we realized what it was. "Tj.." she pulled it out of the box and looked at me. "Tj you shouldn't have" she wrapped it around her hand and i could tell she really wasn't expecting it. "You don't buy yourself nice things, and I know it's hard dealing with me, mom and dad. So you know, I might've been saving up" she almost pushed me all the way onto the ground when she gave me hug. "Thank you so much Tj" she said almost in tears. "You deserve it" I told her hugging her back.
