Spots (mxm)

Chapter 17: Gifts

His mother tossed a few pieces of fruit onto the tiny spot between Arron's potatoes and bread, but he didn't mind. He loved fruit.

"Thank Mrs. Leo for cooking, hun." She said before getting a plate for herself.

She cooked all of this?

Arron quickly set his plate down and ran over to her, dodging around the half-full plate she held to give her a strong hug.

"Thank you so much for cooking, Mrs. Emma."

She smiled and patted his head with her free hand, then kissed his hair.

"Of course, Arron. I love cooking and wanted your birthday to be special."

She gave him a nudge back toward his plate and he happily obliged. After being sick, then sleeping for so long, he was absolutely starving. He found himself a seat next to his mother and Rylan, then got busy digging into his food.

"Oh man, this is good." He nearly moaned as he chewed a bite of food that tasted like pure heaven.

Rylan smirked and gave a light laugh. "Of course, my mom's cooking is the best you can get."

Arron grinned at him and laughed. It was obvious that he was playing nice for their parents, but either way, he was enjoying his attitude change and had no interest in calling him out on it. If he was going to be nice, Arron wasn't going to stop him. Especially not on his birthday.

The football game was still on, so they all eventually settled down to watch that for a good hour. Snacks were brought out after lunch, but they were all waiting on the cake.

When the game finally went into half time, Jordan jumped up and grabbed Arron, helping him up, too.

"Alright you! There are some candles that need blown out and cake that needs to be eaten."

He had no issue doing either of those things! Arron quickly snatched the covering off of the cake in the kitchen and grinned.

Jordan got the candles lit and Arron's mother gently settled her hands on her son's shoulders before he leaned forward and blew out the candles. It hurt not having his father there, but with Jordan, Emma, Rylan, Jamie, Jared, and his mother, he definitely felt like he still had his amazing family.

Tarren wasn't able to come, but he had noticed that there was a card from him sitting on the table earlier, which also meant a lot.

Once the candles were out, Rylan picked up a big knife and handed it to him to cut the first piece. There was no hesitation from him as he carved out a huge chunk of chocolate fudge cake and put it onto his plate. Everyone snickered because it was nearly a fourth of the cake, but there was more than enough left for everyone else.

His mother elbowed him lightly as he took the giant piece of cake back to his seat. She followed him with a fork. "We'll be sharing that, mister. We don't want a repeat of the last time you overdosed on sugar."

No, we probably don't.

Everyone ate cake throughout the second half of the game, but as soon as it was over Arron grabbed the first box from the stack of presents. Being the little brat that he was, he shook it, then smirked as he tore into it. Of course, his mother gave him a bit of a tap on the head when he ignored the card that was attached. With an annoyed grumble, Arron quickly tore open the card and read it out loud.

"From mom, with... love."

So mushy.

Either way, he set the card aside and finished demolishing the box... only to find a rock? His mother was giggling behind him as he grabbed a small piece of paper nearly hidden beneath it, then flipped it over to see what it was.