"Ready to open presents?" Emily asked with way too much enthusiasm for a Sunday morning.
"Yup," Parker replied with a hint of excitement.
I swear she becomes one of Santa's elves. Right after Thanksgiving, she goes into elf mode and her perkiness would spread to Parker. I guess that's good though because the Christmas festivities were going quite well. As usual Parker and I were spending Christmas with the Emily and Emmett. Parker had decided we should go spend it in a cabin so we could have a white Christmas. Christmas music, chosen by Emily of course, played softly in the background 24/7.
"I'm surprised you never told anyone what you were buying for everyone," Emmett told me.
"Well...I kind of told Emily and Parker who I was buying a Secret Santa gift for."
Emmett's eyes bulged out of his sockets as he realized I was his Secret Santa.
"Fuck, now you know too," I mumbled.
"IT'S CHRISTMAS!" Emily screeched loudly enough that I'm pretty sure the entire neighborhood heard.
After rolling my eyes, I pulled myself off the ground and walked over to the tree. My eyes landed on the crumpled paper bag in the corner. Quickly I grabbed it and then walked back to the group, dropping the sack into Emmett's lap.
"You didn't even wrap it," he complained.
"I bought you a present and kept quiet until now so shut up."
I just glared at him as he pulled out the Chainsmokers CDs. He stared at them with confusion written all over his face.
"It goes along with your chain smoker lungs. You're welcome," I said smugly.
Parker burst out laughing, as did Emily. Then Emily went to the tree and returned with the other Secret Santa gifts. Once she read the names, she gave Parker and me our respective presents. A rectangular object was placed in my hands. My Secret Santa opted for typing my name on a piece of paper and taping it on the wrapping paper. Inside the festive paper was a book titled How to Swear Around the World.
Parker looked over at my present, "hey now you can say something other than Jesus fucking Christ."
Ignoring his comment, I asked, "what'd you get from your Secret Santa?"
"A yoga mat," he said with an annoyed expression.
"I wonder what your Secret Santa is trying to tell you."
All I got was a deathly glare. Luckily, Emily chose this moment to begin kissing him. I was safe, for the moment anyway.
"Stop kissing my sister. It's weird. Kiss her all you want when I'm NOT in the room," Emmett said with his hands covering his eyes. "Are they done?"
Parker and Emily pulled away from each other, Parker pouting because his make out session was cut short. Whoever Emily's Secret Santa was, though I'm pretty sure it was Parker, gave her a necklace with a sparkly Christmas tree.
"Ready to guess?" Emily asked the group.
"I think Parker gave you the necklace, Emmett gave the yoga mat, and you gave me the book," I revealed.
"Party pooper," she grumbled.
"Do you want to build a snowman?" Emmett attempted to sing in a girly voice. Elsa and Anna's voices definitely sounded better.
Everyone ditched their presents and trash to go pile on a few layers of snow clothing. Ten minutes later we were outside in the single digit degree weather. Parker and Emmett were on the ground making snow angels. They were toddlers stuck in hormonal, male, teenage bodies. Emily wasn't any better. She was busy trying to build a snowman, claiming that it would be the best snowman ever. I think for it to be the best snowman ever it would need a round base, middle, and head. Looking at it all I saw was a sad excuse of a base. She would be better off stacking Parker or Emmett's soccer balls and calling it snowman, which I told her.
"You're just jealous and a party pooper. Stop standing by the door and come help me," she retorted.
Since I had nothing else to do, I joined her. We had finally got it to kind of resemble a snowman when something whizzed past us, barely hitting me in the face. Turning towards the direction of where the object came from I saw Parker and Emmett in the snow laughing. The laughter came to a halt when Emily and I hit them square in the chest with snowballs. Soon a full out war was going and our snowman was forgotten. Our fun came to an end when Emily's teeth began chattering.
"I-I-I don't wa-want t-t-to go inside. Our sn-snowman isn't f-f-fin-ished," she attempted to say.
"Babe, your lips are blue and you can barely talk. I could kiss you to warm you up, but I think we should go inside and drink some hot cocoa instead. Your partial snowman can be finished later," Parker said lovingly, as he gave her a peck on the lips. I'm pretty sure that wasn't my brother who was talking.
Inside Parker began making hot cocoa while I sat on the couch reading my new book.
"You know we still have more presents to open. I don't know about you guys, but I'm opening the rest of mine," Emmett announced.
"Me too," Emily agreed, scooting closer to her brother. "Once again, mom and dad came in clutch."
Emmett chuckled at his sister's comment.
Eventually, Parker came out with four cups of cocoa piled high with whip cream. All that could be heard was slurping and paper being ripped. I gave up my reading and started opening my presents too.
"I'll be right back," Parker randomly said.
"Close your eyes, Lee," Parker commanded.
I heard a bit of shuffling and a quiet 'fuck' before I was allowed to open my eyes. Slowly I opened my eyes and was staring at a new surfboard. It was exactly what I wanted and needed since I managed to crack mine in half over fall break. Looking beyond the board I saw Parker staring at me with a hopeful look on his face.
"Thankyoufortheboardandforbeingagreatbrother," I said as fast as possible.
"I'm sorry I didn't catch any of that. Do you mind repeating that?" he replied, feigning deafness and cupping his left ear with his free hand.
Fervently, I shook my head. "Asshole, you know what I said."
"It was worth a shot," Parker said at the same time Emily yelled, "CHRISTMAS."
Parker set down the surfboard in front of me and went back to his presents.
As I watched the others open their presents, I smiled to myself. Although none of us had our parents around to celebrate Christmas with, our little family was still enjoying Christmas. Somehow Parker hadn't lost his temper the entire week, Emily didn't let her anorexia get in the way of eating, and I was making an effort to be social and shove some food down my throat. Our problems were forgotten and we were enjoying each other's company.
