Precious [h.s.]

Chapter 45

Blood drips from my hand as I open every cabinet in my kitchen, searching for some kind of bandage while pressing a towel on the cut.

“For fuck’s sake, where the hell did I put them?” I say as I slam the drawers, not realizing that I’m still on the phone with my mum.

“Harry,” my mother calls, and I turn around, sitting down on one of the chairs.

“They're very bad, mum. And now I’ve cut my hand and I can’t find some fu-, some bandage,” I mumble and move the camera from the presents I’ve been trying so hard to make look good back to myself.

“No, they're not. She's going to love them.” She tries to encourage me, lying through her teeth.

“I’m just gonna try again later.” I sigh and look at the clock, checking if I’m on time.

“So how are you feeling?”

“Awful.”

“She’s your girlfriend, Harry. She’s gonna love your badly wrapped presents anyway because she loves you,” she finally admits and I look at them, wondering if I have enough time to learn how to wrap presents from some YouTube video.

“Mum…”

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry. It’s a bit funny seeing you so nervous and all lovey-dovey.” She laughs and I move my eyes from her, not wanting her to notice how nervous I am.

“Shut up, mum.”

“I’m just happy that you’re happy and that everything's going well there.”

“Yeah.” I press the wet towel to my hand, not liking where our conversation is going. “I still miss you, though. I miss everyone.” Even if I have lived away from home for years, it was easy for me to just drive back on weekends and spend my holidays with my family.

“We miss you too, Harry. I can’t believe you’re not coming home for Christmas.”

“Me neither. Maybe for Easter,” I  answer disappointed and Nadine’s proposal from when I went to her house crosses my mind. She never mentioned it again because my reaction was a bit exaggerated and I acted like a prick, but now that I’m chatting with my mum and it seems like people are already starting to talk about Christmas, I feel myself closer and closer to swallowing my pride and just asking Nadine to lend me some money.

I don’t wanna do it and I’ll probably end up keeping the question to myself, but I can’t stop thinking about how nice it would be if I did go home. Maybe Nadine could even come with me. After all the talking I did about her to everyone, they all have grown to love her.

“Maybe you can-“ my mum starts to say, but the ring of my doorbell interrupts her.

Why is she here now?

“Mum, I have to hang up. Nadine's here,” I tell her in a rush and take a look around my apartment, making sure that everything looks alright.

“Okay, okay. I love you. I’ll talk to you tomorrow.” We hang up and I stand up to open the door when I notice what’s sitting on the table. The fucking presents.