Dinner is good, and it's cool. I've never had a Christmas dinner before, and having it with family like this one...It makes me forget about how horrible I felt the week before last. Everyone passing around the food and bickering and stealing food from each other's plates, mostly Mateo and Carlo bother Xander, Niccolo, Elijah, or Zia Cecilia.
After about an hour, Nonna stands up, "Alright, everyone get comfortable in the living room. It's time for gifts!"
And so a few moments later, everyone is in the living room, Alessandro is sitting in the armchair, Elijah on the couch next to Emilio, Zio Alessio, and Francesco. Nonno is standing by the fireplace with Nonna, everyone is kind of scattered between the floor and the couches.
"Alright, everyone pick a person."
Mateo sigh exaggeratedly.
"Here we go," Gio sighs in pure exhaustion.
"Do we have to do this every year, Mateo?" Zio Alessio says.
Vittorio just watches Mateo with an amused expression.
Mateo is really layering on the dramatics, "Since obviously Niccolo is gonna pick Giovanni, I guess I'm stuck with Vittorio again this year."
"If it's that much of a problem, I'll choose him," Niccolo says teasingly.
Mateo glares at him, "Shut up, Nico, I already chose him."
"Leave your brother alone, Niccolo, you know he always picks Vito," Zia Cecilia says.
"Maddie, who do you wanna pick?" Giovanni asks.
"Pick your favorite sibling!" Mateo reminds me.
"Enough, Teo."
"Um..." I look around at my brothers, they're waiting my response. "Can I pick Sandro?" I say unsurely.
Nonna smiles, "Certainly."
"I'll choose Carlo," Xander says.
"Emilio and Francesco," Elijah says, and I suddenly realize it's because there's an odd number of people.
Once everyone is paired up and grabbing gifts, I walk over to the tree and shuffle through the mass amount until I find my gift for Sandro. I walk over to him. I don't know why I'm so embarrassed to give it to him. I walk back over to the couch, Sandro has the gift for me on the floor beside him.
I hesitantly hand him mine. I didn't know what to get him, and I didn't want it to be something I just bought at the store. I want him to like it though.
He opens the small box, inside is a small thin bracelet with a simple rose charm on it. Its really inconspicuous, but I've prepared myself to not be hurt if he doesn't like it or doesn't wear it. He looks at it for a while, his grip on the small box slightly tightening, "Thank you, Madison." He sounds genuine.
He sets it on the coffee table in front of him and reaches beside him to grab my box, I instantly feel bad about mine at seeing the size of his. It's not big, but it's bigger than mine and I start to wonder if mine was too simple. This was the only gift I bought with my own money but should I have gone for something else? Something besides a stupid bracelet. I try to convince myself it's stupid because I really wanted him to like it, and I want to brace myself for him despising it, even if he doesn't.
He hands me the box, I open the wrapping paper gently, it's a square shoebox. Shoes?
I remove the lid, and inside lay the most beautiful pair of ice skates I've ever seen. I glide finger along the engraving on the blade: Elena Rose Acosta.
"These belonged to El—" He hesitates, "These belonged to mom. She took them when she left, they were her prized possession. It's come to my attention your love for ice skating, I want you to have them."
My eyes glaze over as my gaze locks on the skates.
I turn and hug him, careful not to knock the skates off my lap. He places a hand on my back in a partial hug as he removes the box from my lap so they don't hit the floor, "Merry Christmas, Maddie."
"Merry Christmas."
. . .
4 part update!
i started spring break last week and i finished all 4 of these in a few days, its insane-
what do you think? any favorite characters?