The Gift.

It was the last day before Christmas Break.

We were getting 4 weeks off instead of the usual 2 and a half because of a snowstorm. Every kid was excited, except me. Christmas, gifts, snow, break—it should be perfect, right?

But there is one small exception.

You’ve probably seen how, in Home Alone, every single person living on Kevin’s block, including Kevin and his family, had been leaving for the holidays.

Well, that’s what my best friend, Camilla, and her family are doing—visiting her aunt and uncle for the first time since before freshman year.

And just like then, I get this strange feeling—happy for her, but wishing she was here.

Not that I like her or anything. She’s just the Ladybug to my Cat Noir.

Thursday, December 22, 1:30 PM

I was in eighth period, ELA. Cami was in math.

The class was half-empty, like the school. Most kids skipped. I sat in the middle of the room.

The teacher was at her desk, typing away on her computer. And the only other students she had were 4 randoms who I knew but couldn’t be thinking about at the time.

I wrote a note to go with the gift I’d finally saved up for. Something she’d wanted since we were kids.

Something for her to remember me by for the 4 weeks we’ll be separated.

God, why am I even talking about her like this?

She likes someone else. And I know for a fact it’s not me.

It’s Ed Almen, a guy from gym. I never thought much about him, just another kid. I only cared about Cami.

I had no idea why.

We only had three classes together, including lunch, and I was always thinking about her.

Even during tests, I couldn’t stop thinking about her.

I didn’t know why.

The bell rang. I pocketed the note, grabbed my bag, and left.

The principal gave everyone 10 minutes to clean out lockers. It was perfect for me.

I pushed through the stampede to my locker in the main hallway—kids yelling, staff shouting, chaos everywhere. I emptied everything from my backpack I wouldn’t need for the next four weeks.

As I finished putting away the shit, I took out the note, staring at its half-finished state.

I had no idea how to finish it without sounding cliché.

Didn’t want her to get the wrong idea. I swear I don’t like her like that.

She’s just the yin to my yang.

As I stared at the note, I looked down into my nearly empty backpack.

The one percent left?

Just the gift for Cami.

Just then, I heard, “I thought we didn’t do Secret Santa this year.”

I looked up to see Cami, she had an oversized band tee, ripped jeans, red Vans, her long, wavy hair falling like a waterfall, green eyes sparkling, dimples deep, and a slight smile that gave me heartburn.

I smiled, trying to keep my cool.

“Hehe. Wish we did. This place just loves to take away the fun stuff.” I chuckled.

“I know, right? First, no spirit week. Now, no Secret Santa? It’s like they want all the kids to hate them.” Cami said, looking around at all the kids and adults around us. As she wasn’t looking, I quickly put the note in my pocket.

“I’m pretty sure they already do.” I blurted out. I could feel my hand getting jittery.

“Sorry if I spooked ya.” She could notice. I chuckled again, albeit a little nervously.

“Nah, it’s nothin’. Don’t worry about it. Got your locker cleaned out?”

“No, not yet. I’d better go. Meet up outside the back when school ends?” She smirks, and I nod. I made a glance in my backpack at the gift I kept from Cami.

“What’cha got in there?” I heard her say before she tried to look into my bag. I quickly hold it to my chest.

“You don’t gotta know.” I joked. She rolled her eyes.

“Oh, c’mon! Can’t I get a peek? Is it for someone special?” She batted her eyes at me like a puppy. I felt my stomach twist up, but not in a bad way, I guess.

“I’ll show you later before you leave,” I told her.

It’s happening this Friday, later in the evening. My eyes widened at this good news.

“I thought that you were gonna leave today.”

“I was, but the flight got delayed to this Friday night. Thank god.” She said, before she had this cheeky expression on her face. “I guess you must really be loving that, eh?”

I realized I was grinning stupidly.

“Sorry. I guess I’m just glad you’re gonna be here for a little longer.” I admitted.

“Aw, you want me to stay that badly?” She said in a playful tone, batting her eyelashes, inching a bit closer to me.

“Well, who else are you gonna complain to when your dad’s on your arse again?”

“Okay, fair point.” We laughed. I noticed some kids staring at us like we were a couple. Cami saw too.

“What? Got something to say?” She yelled out to them.

“You guys gonna make out already?” One kid yelled back.

“We’re just best friends!” I shouted. Cami looked at me, surprised.

“Sorry, I-”

“No, no. You’re good. I just never saw you this red.”

“What?”

“Bro, your face looks like a tomato.” One of the kids from afar yelled out again.

“Oh, piss off!” I yelled. Cami tried to hide her snicker.

“Dude, you’re blushing like crazy.” She pointed out. I groan, annoyed.

“Aren’t you gonna clean your locker?” I asked. She rolled her eyes and smirked.

“Yeah, I probably should. And then I’ll go see if Ed is still here and say Merry Christmas.” She said, bragging about it to my face. I rolled my eyes and scoffed, and she giggled again.

“What?” I asked her.

“When I said Ed’s name, your face looked like that one time when your mom said we couldn’t see Halloween ‘cause ‘it was too scary.’” She said with a chuckle.

“It’s tame compared to other movies we’ve seen.” Why did I get so mad? She’ll probably take Ed to prom.

“I’m just saying. You sure you’re alright?” Cami asked, eyes narrowing at me.

“I’m good. You should probably-” I tapped on my wrist, her face lit up at the reminder.

“Oh, shit! Yeah, thanks! See ya!” She grabbed her bag and sprinted off. I watched her go, feeling a strange ache as I glanced at the note in my hand. I wiped my eye, put the note away, and shut my locker for four weeks.

The last bell rang, and everyone rushed out. The teachers just tried to survive the stampede.

I had finished the note, and quite honestly, I have never been more proud of anything in my life.

I didn’t read the note—I needed to beat the traffic. I bolted through the hallways faster than ever. That’s what happens when you want to see someone so badly.

Our usual spot was outside the gym, the bleachers not far. I managed to sneak through the rush of kids through the back doors, where I expected Cami to be, leaning on the wall, her arms crossed. She wasn’t. Weird. It was still snowing slightly; the sky was whiter than a vampire. I looked to my right and saw everyone saying goodbye, leaving for their buses or cars, some of them dashed straight onto their trucks and blasted whatever hip-hop they had ready, and sped out of the parking lot. I thought maybe she was stuck in traffic. I stood there waiting for her. As I waited for her, I looked at the note again. Now that it’s finished, in all of its glory, I began to feel something creeping in my stomach.

I tried to blame my nerves on the cafeteria food—Cami always warned me, and she loved every “I told you so.”

But this feeling was different—my stomach twisted in a good way. My phone buzzed: a text from Cami.

behind u

Before I could turn, hands grabbed my shoulders. “BOO!”

I shouted and tripped forward, almost face-planting onto the snow, before managing to regain my footing. I held my hand with the note in it to my chest as I panted, out of breath. I turned around, seeing Cami bent over, holding her stomach as she cackled relentlessly.

“Was that really necessary?!” I asked.

“Sorry! I couldn’t resist!” she laughed. I slipped the note into my pocket before she noticed.

“Sorry. You okay?” She asked, and I nodded, calming down as well.

“Yeah, apart from the heart attack you gave me.” She giggled again, looking down, covering her mouth. Leaving the school, we headed out the back, going past the park. Our houses weren’t that far.

“So, your place or mine?” I asked.

“Mine. I need help to finish packing, then we can just. . . y’know.”

“No, I don’t know. Care to clarify?”

As if I were supposed to have the answer, Cami rolled her eyes at me. “I wanna finish packing, then we can just do whatever. I only have today before I leave tomorrow.”

Her reminder made me frown, even though she wasn’t wrong. I wish she were. We kept prodding down the street where we passed by houses that were decked out in Christmas lights and decorations. I glanced at her; she kept looking at them, awestruck.

“How do you think they all do their lights?” She asked me, and I grinned, amused at her. She looked like a little kid in one of those light shows or whatever they’re called.

“I don’t even know. I think that’s why stores like to put up Christmas stuff all the way after Halloween ends, so people can raid all the lights and crap.” I theorized.

“So that’s why they do it. I thought it was just another capitalist scam.”

“It kinda is, that’s what they did to Christmas in general.”

Cami nodded as we neared her house, an average ranch-styled place that was covered in snow and had only half of Christmas lights compared to every other house. There weren’t any cars in the driveway.

She groaned in delight and tilted her neck backwards, looking to the sky in gratitude.

“Thank god, no one’s home.” She let out. We got onto her porch, and she took out her key, inserted it into the keyhole, and unlocked the door. I wiped my feet on the welcome mat as we walked in. We removed our shoes and went upstairs to her room.

It’s now Friday, December 23rd.

The day she leaves. The day I give her the gift.

When we got to her place, we spent the day packing everything she wanted to take and then just hung out, doing all sorts of crap we’d like to do, like blasting whatever song we had on our playlists and dancing like idiots, or putting on movies we hated but watched so we could complain about how crap they are.

Every moment passed in a blur from the moment I woke up, to getting to Cami’s place, to having one last dinner with her and her family, I could focus on one thing. Giving the gift to Cami.

At the dinner, I was sitting next to her and even though her parents and little brother were all having one big conversation on what they were doing for the trip, me and Cami were in our own little word. To the point where her dad had to force her to join in, much to her chagrin.

As they finished putting all their luggage in her dad’s SUV, I gripped the gift in my pocket so hard, I worried that I was gonna ruin it.

We had forty-five minutes to kill; her parents were in the house, wrapping things up, her little brother was in his room, sleeping, and me and Cami were outside on her front porch, watching the snow fall.

We sat side-by-side. I looked to Cami, she had this frown on her face, her eyes looking at the ground. It was like that time she found out about her old goldfish dying while we were at school.

“So, you leave tonight,” I said, breaking the silence. She looked at me with a sad smile and nodded.

“Yeah.” She whispered, hugging her knees to her chest. “Idon’twannago. . .”

“Hmm?”

“I don’t wanna go.” She turns to me.

“I know, I don’t want you to go too.” I whispered back. Her lips formed into a miserable line that quivered for a moment before she looked away and wiped her eyes.

“What do you want for Christmas?” I didn’t have to ask her that, I already knew. I guess I was just making sure she still wanted what I got her.

“You forgot? That black necklace with the gem that looks like Ghostface, remember? The one we saw at Spencer’s when we got lost that one time?” When we were 10, we were with my mom and we stumbled away because she was taking forever in Zara and we ended up in Spencer’s checking out all the cool stuff. Her eye caught the Ghostface necklace that she had been desiring for but couldn’t get because it was expensive and her parents wouldn’t approve.

“Oh, yeah. The one your parents wouldn’t get you because ‘it’s evil?’” I snickered.

“Oh, c’mon! It’d make me look cuter!”

Aren’t you cute already? I thought to myself that a lot of times.

“What?” I heard her ask me. Apparently, this time, I thought it out loud.

“I mean- what else do you want?” I knew she heard what I said.

“Just to stay here at home.” She looked down sadly. “With you.” She murmured to herself before her eyes bulged out in shock, like she didn’t mean to blurt that out. She turned to me, and her face was as red as mine had been yesterday at the lockers. I hated it when her parents interrupted us. Except this time. They called her upstairs and she gave me one last look before she went inside. 5 minutes later, her parents walked to their car, carrying her little brother who was still sound asleep.

As they all got in, Cami was about to get in the car before she turned and faced me.

“So, I guess this is it.” She said.

“Yeah, before you go, I want to give you something.” I told her, I digged into my jacket pocket and took out the gift I had for her. “Something for you to remember me by.” I handed it to her. She looked at me and slightly smiled before she opened it. She took out the not but didn’t read it because she was entranced by what she saw.

The Ghostface Necklace.

Her jaw dropped as a tear, one of joy, fell from her right eye.

“You. . .” She couldn’t finish her sentence. She took out the silver and ebony necklace and put it around her neck, fixing her hair and straightening the metallic Ghostface pendant. It centered on her chest. She finished checking it out and locked eyes with me. We had a staring contest, getting lost in each other’s eyes.

“I. . . I don’t know what to say.” She said to me.

“It’s okay. I knew how much you’ve been wanting that. How much you loved it.” I took her hand, feeling our palms grasping. “You don’t gotta repay me.” I told her, she smirked.

“Actually, I do have something for you. Something I’ve been wanting to give you for a while for being the best person in my life.” She said, her tone lowering as the soles of our shoes were mere centimeters from eachother.

“I thought that was Ed.” I joked, she rolled her eyes at the mention of his name.

“I thought so too, but he has a girlfriend.” I was both bummed out for her but felt oddly relieved.

“I’m sorry.” She put her finger to my lip.

“Don’t be. Because he’ll never get what I have for you. Close your eyes.” I closed my eyes. “Hold out your hand.” I held out my hand, my heart was beating rapidly, like it was about to explode.

“You ready?” I nodded.

A moment of nothing happened before I felt her hand grabbed mine and she thrusted me towards her. I could only register that before I felt the fantastical sensation of a pair of lips, covered in black cherry lip gloss connect with my average lips, twisting and connecting our mouths.

I held her arms.

She held my face.

I opened my eyes, her eyes were opened too.

We got lost in everything. Our snogging. Our eye-contact. Our world.

She slowly pulled away. We giggled as we looked at each-other.

“Merry Christmas, Cams.”

“Merry Christmas, loser. We’re gonna text, call, video-chat everyday ‘till I’m back.”

I nodded. Cami walked to her parent’s car and got in the backseat, giving me one last wink and a grin that made my heart feel like an ice cream cone in a sweltering June day.

We kept looking at each other the entire time the car was pulling out of the driveway. I watched as the car disappeared down the white road into the smog of snow.

I walked home where I only told my parents that I just said goodbye to Cami, nothing else. I went to my room and sat at the window watching the snow fall. I didn’t care that she was states away. I knew that she was with me and I was with her the entire break.

Best Christmas gift ever.