A Bad Boy's Brother (Book #2)

10. Christmas

Ryder's P.O.V.

No one had said anything in almost an hour. Even the twins were silent.

Great. Even Amber and Ruby were picking up on it.

We were all sitting in the living room, and it was about nine in the morning. I was sitting on a couch with Cain, the twins were on the floor, and Corey was on the couch opposite of us, staring at me. His eyes were burning in to me, and I was looking at Emily. She was the only one that wasn't picking up on the intense feeling in the room, and she was staring at the presents under the tree with an intense desire on her face.

"You kids ready to--" Clarice stopped mid sentence. "Um."

"Ready to what?" I asked a little too eagerly.

"Open presents," she said slowly.

"Yes!" Emily exclaimed, jumping up and down. "Yes, yes, yes! I want to open them!"

Her excitement cooled down the tension in the room a little, and Gerald entered the room just a moment later. She picked up a pink box with a white ribbon tied around it, and I noticed that it was the one I had bought her, though the tag said "From Santa" on it. "It's from Santa!" she yelped, untying the ribbon quickly and tearing open the paper.

Emily's eyes lit up when she pulled out the doll. "It looks just like me!" she said, still yelling from her excitement. "It has green eyes and black hair, like me! Look, it's even wearing an outfit that I have!" She grinned up at Clarice, who snapped a picture.

She moved on through her other presents, and eventually came to one in a black box. I noticed that there were a few more presents wrapped in black. Emily opened it, and stared with wide eyes. "Roller skates!"

"Corey! Did you get your sister roller skates?" Clarice exclaimed.

"Yes." His voice was polite, but I could still feel his eyes on me.

I snorted quietly. She was going to make me teach her, probably.

"Alright. Twins' turn."

They opened their presents. I had gotten them both some clothes, since that's what they had been asking for, careful to make sure that each outfit matched their individual styles. They thanked me, and opened the black boxes, which had two differently colored iPods in them. Roller skates and iPods? Corey seemed to be trying to prove something with his presents to his family.

His mother noticed too, and sent him a look when the twins started squealing and hugging him, but he ignored it.

By the time we had made it through his family, he had gotten Emily a set of roller skates, the twins iPods, his mother a very beautiful bracelet, and his father a set of expensive looking electric razors. There were still two black boxes under the three, however.

"Cain, your turn," his mother said warmly.

"You didn't have to get me anything, mom." He sounded a bit embarrassed.

"A mother is allowed to give her son a gift for Christmas. Besides, it's from your father too."

He opened the box and stared in to it.

"What is it?" I asked, leaning in toward him so that I could see inside the box.

"It's...a tattoo machine," he said slowly. "I mean, a picture of one, but it has a bow on it and it's in my apartment."

Clarice and Gerald beamed at him.

Cain got off of the couch suddenly, hugging his mother tightly and shaking hands with his father, thanking them both. When he returned to sit next to me, I could almost feel his happiness radiating off of him. It was really a wonderful present for someone that aspired to be a tattoo artist.