The Flaw in your Heart

37. The Bauble Incident

Chapter 37

Tessa’s POV

It was the last weekend before I broke up for the Christmas holidays, Ralph and Will were coming Christmas shopping with me and Dan. I hadn’t quite come to terms just yet about the daunting confirmation of open heart surgery, but as long as Dan and my family were with me, I felt I could at least get through it. 

“Are we getting a Christmas tree today too?” I asked Dan as we got in the car.

“Maybe”, he said, grinning.

“We are, aren’t we?” I asked, getting excited.

He nodded, smiling, and I hopped up and down in my seat. “Yay! Ah thank you!” I cried.

“It’s alright”, Dan smiled back. 

We drove to the car park singing along to Christmas music on the radio, and saw Will and Ralph waiting for us down the road. We parked up in a space and walked down to them, Dan keeping his arm around my shoulders to keep me warm. I had to be extremely careful not to get ill or catch anything such as a cold in the coming weeks to the surgery, as I would be prone to infection in the hospital and they would have to postpone the whole procedure; something Dr Wills was 100% dead against.

“Hey Dan, hey Tessa”, Ralph called.

“Hi mate”, Dan waved.

We reached them and I received a warm hug from Will and then one from Ralph, before we all began walking down to the shopping centre. I’d brought all my money I’d saved up to buy all my family and friends presents, especially a special one for Dan.

“Tessa, you go with Will”, Dan said. “And I’ll go with Ralph”

“Okay”, I smiled, walking over to Will. “See you later”

Dan gave me a little wave as he walked over to the escalators and me and Will walked the opposite way to look for things to buy.

“Ooh! Look at that hat!” I said, pointing to a cat-head-shaped hat in a window. 

“Kyle would certainly love that”, Will said.

We went into the shop and discovered there were quite a few hats, so I bought two, one for Kyle and one for Janna. Will bought a couple of things in there for Woody and Dan too before we went looking for some more good shops. Will stopped with me each time I ran out of breath, and I repeatedly thanked him for doing so.

I bought a few CD’s for Dan and Louis in HMV, and then bought Christina an Adventure Time shirt, knowing she was a fan of the show like I was. I found Woody a Back to the Future jumper, to add to his collection of Back to the Future merchandise. Will then helped me choose a nice, and affordable, perfume for Chrissy.

“How do you know all about perfumes?” I asked Will.

“I don’t really know myself”, he replied.

“You’re a mystery”

“Yes. Yes I am”, he said in a mysterious voice, making me laugh.

“I know I’ve already bought Dan a CD, but I want to buy him a special present”, I said. “Any ideas?”

“A life size model of David Lynch”.

“If only they sold those”, I said.

“They probably do somewhere”, Will chuckled.

We looked round some more shops until I found the perfect thing. It was a snow globe with a big wolf and a baby wolf inside, with the words “Big Brother” engraved on the side. Will smiled fondly as I asked for it to be gift wrapped.