Burning Confessions

43 - Iris

"No way!" Harry exclaimed, holding up the yellow jumper I'd gotten him, staring wide-eyed at the front of it and a large grin shaped his mouth as he twisted it around to hold it to his front. "I fucking love Donald Duck!" Something fell out as it unfolded and landed roughly on his lap- a large 750g jar of Nutella and he squealed when he saw it. "I will shoot anyone that touches this." He warned wonderingly, holding it up to stare at with adoration.

"I've been looking for these," Brooke acknowledged, staring at the trilogy box in her hand, reading the words written on the back while the eyeshadow kit I'd gotten her lay balanced on her lap, her hand protectively on the top. Beside her, Ace grinned upon seeing the Cookie Monster top I'd folded up with the Topman voucher while Justin looked at the ACDC and Twenty-One Pilots CDs piled together within his wrapping paper. Matt was already wearing the bike gloves, curling his fingers to test them out for size before fiddling with the small pack of ear buds- bright orange, yellow, green and pink pairs just to clash with his hair. Dan chuckled when he unwrapped the collection of James Bond movies, fingering through them all just to read the backs of them while Cal stood up to try on his new brown leather jacket; the sheep skinned inside pooled over the collar around his neck to act like a cushion around his collarbones. Shane whistled at a 1975 CD as he fiddled to put on the new Star Wars phone case onto his phone and when I finally turned to Nathan, he was already wearing the black leather jacket and brown leather bangles on his left wrist- both of which seemed to fit and suit him better than I expected.

"I feel really bad because I didn't get anyone anything," Ace admitted, looking almost dejectedly towards me but I laughed at him; he was standing in nothing but a pair of joggers hugging his waist as he hauled on his new top.

"We'll make it up to you, China Doll." Matt was still wearing the gloves as he hugged me tightly, squeezing a little too tight to prove he meant it before letting me go and sticking in a pair of buds. "I can't hear anything!" He yelled, no doubt unable to hear how loud he was being.

"Yeah and now neither can I," Shane muttered, winking at me in a way I knew meant 'thank you' as my feet carried me into the kitchen once more. I couldn't seem to stop smiling as I kept picturing their reactions to opening their presents; I wasn't sure what to get each of them at first but after a few weeks of simply observing them and getting to know them each individually, I learnt things about them. Shane and Cal were easy, and Brooke wasn't much harder than them but the others...I was clueless until their personalities seemed to show a little more with time; they were each important and individual within the group.

I was glad my brothers had found something like this to live in.

Breakfast earned a similar reception to the presents when I served them all a plate of it: beans with a layer of cut up bacon, scrambled egg and hash brown all covered in melted cheese. Served like a pie, the English breakfast was mixed together into layers and the boys seemed to think it was some completely new discovery when really, it was exactly the same thing I'd been making them since I got here. Glancing at the time, I mentally chimed that my next surprise of the day would commence at noon- exactly an hour from now so I had to get everything ready for it; Brooke caught my eye and smirked knowingly, but I hoped this would get a better reaction that the last surprise I'd revealed. I was too absorbed in my own thoughts and making the cake for tonight that I didn't see him come up behind me until I turned at the slightest feel of his breath on my hair, seeing him standing about three feet away with a somewhat unreadable expression.

"Here, this is for you." Nathan held a small box to me, wrapped in a dark blue paper tightly, no unnecessary creases or folds around it as the box fit perfectly in my hand as he handed it to me and my eyes flicked up to meet his, my eyebrows scrunching together.