Life Starts Now

Chapter 17

Chapter 17

I spend most of Christmas break worrying. The bad part about this is, I have no clue why I was! Everything was going perfectly fine, Alex was spending all his time with me and Helena gets off of work a little earlier meaning each day we get delicious dinner.

“Leo,” Alex smiles.

“Yes?” I ask peering up at him.

“Do you think Helena would like this?” He points to a coffee mug reading, ‘World’s Best Mom’. I Laugh to myself and shake my head.

“Maybe something like this,” I walk over to the blue tea set that I’d spotted the moment we walked into this store.

Alex had insisted that we buy something for Helena. I of course agreed she did take me in when I had no other place to go. We’d been shopping for at least half an hour and I haven’t mentioned the tea set until now.

“She does like tea.” He picks up a cup and flips it to the bottom, “it’s kinda expensive though.”

I roll my eyes, “You only buy her on thing a year, think about everything she gotten you.”

Alex nods with a grin that shows off his bright white teeth, maybe using as much toothpaste as he does really does work.

“You know in a way she sorta got you me.” He says picking up the tea set.

“I guessed she did.” I smile sheepishly remembering the horrible memory that brought us together.

This is going to be the first Christmas without them, shouldn’t I be home grieving rather than out shopping for presents. I think about mother with her warm smile, how my dad would always complain about how cold it was, my sister praying that she got the new dress she wanted, and my brother would be sitting up in his room listing to loud music on his IPod, they would want me to have a good Christmas. I know they would.

Alex buys the tea set and we walk back to his car. I get in and he hands the fragile present to me, “Hold on tight so it doesn’t fall.” He closes my door and jogs to the driver’s side. Then we head back home.

We spend an hour trying to wrap the thing; turns out we’re not very good at that. We finally settle with our mediocre job.

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"Leo," Alex smiles consolingly. I slowly look up at him with a sheepish grin. "What's wrong?" he asks shifting to his back. I snuggle back up to him.

"N-nothing." I stutter. Great now he'll obviously know something is wrong.

He furrows his eyebrows with concern, “Tell me." I sigh and decide it's better to share what was wrong rather than keep it to myself.

"It's just, I don't know." I frown," it's just I feel like something is wrong. Something isn't right."

Alex kisses me lightly and pulls back with a smile, "Everything is perfectly fine Leo. Christmas is tomorrow and I got you like the best present ever!” once this escapes his mouth he quickly covers it with one of his tan hands.

“You got me a present?” I ask slightly embarrassed because I didn’t even think about getting him one. Then again I don’t have any money, so it was out of the question anyways.

Alex slowly removes his hand,“Eh sorta, well yeah. It’s not that great.”

“But you just said you got me the best present ever.” I remind him.

Alex bites his lip, “I guessed I did. Ha, how would I know if it’s the greatest present ever though? I mean Its really your decision.”

I smile at him, ”Well I’m sure whatever it is I’ll love it.”