Everyone was reunited downstairs. The Christmas tree was full of ornaments. There were spheres and angels and mini snow globes. There were multi colored bows and bead candy canes. On the tip of the tree, instead of having a star on top, there was an angel.
Under the tree, there were many boxes. It was a sign that Christmas day was truly here. The anticipation of opening the gifts they had grew as they kept looking. Of course, breakfast was always first. Laura would never let them open any gifts before they had breakfast. It was the only rule that she had on Christmas.
After that, there was really nothing else. After breakfast had been eaten, they each washed their dishes and placed them perfectly on the shelves. Their anticipation was growing and there was really no way to stop it from getting bigger than they were.
Landon couldn't get Lauren's present off of his mind. He had gotten her a ring. It was one of those diamond rings that they advertised on tv as cheap but that had the same exact properties of a real diamond. He knew it was cheap, but it was all he could think about giving her. He was truly bad at picking out gifts for people and he completely shut down when it came to that. For his mother, he had also gotten a ring from the same offer as Lauren's but it was a whole different design all together. And for Lance he had gotten a poster of his favorite quarterback ever. Well, Lauren had helped him find it because he by himself couldn't. It was a poster of Tom Brady. It had his name on it and his signature on it.
Lance loved football, and the New England Patriots were his all time favorite football team. He thought that Tom Brady wasn't really that good, but he was the best quarterback ever to his brother. So the least he could do was get him a poster of the guy. He also got another poster with the whole team on it. It was a two for one special so he got them both.
Amazing things can happen sometimes.
They all went out to the living room. Landon followed Lauren to the living room and he sat down on the floor carefully, making sure not to fall on top of anybody and making sure that he wouldn't hurt himself either. Once they were all seated, the opening of gifts began.
They practically forced Laura to go first. She took the smallest gift out of all of them and inspected the label on the box. To Mom, from Landon. "Landon," she said as she took the wrapping paper off the box, "what on Earth did you get me?"
When she opened the box, she saw a wonderful ring. The whole ring was surrounded by diamonds. They sparkled even in the dim light of the room. She wore it on her finger, admiring its beauty. Then she turned to Landon and hugged him. "Thank you so much, sweetie. I absolutely love it. And I am very glad that you didn't spend a fortune on this."
"Mom," he whined, "you didn't have to mention the price and whatnot."
Laura laughed. "Sorry, honey. Well, let's go on to the next gift, which is also from Landon." she said surprised.
She opened it and she saw a picture of her and Liam. Her eyes immediately filled up with tears. She was left speechless. Where had Landon gotten this?
"Dad gave it to me before the accident," he explained. "He told me to give it to you at a later time, that I would know when to give it to you. I didn't understand then but I understood it now."
"Landon..." she couldn't finish. She just hugged him and brought him close to her. This was what she had needed. It was just the right moment. She had always wondered about Landon's ability to know just what she needed at a certain time. It was the same ability that Liam had had. Everything about Landon reminded her of Liam. It was something she couldn't quite explain. She wiped her tears from her cheeks, and then went to open Lance's present.
"This one is from Lance." she announced. After taking off the wrapping paper, she looked at the gift Lance had given her. It was also a picture frame, but it was a family picture. She hugged her son. "Thanks, Lance. I absolutely adore it."
There was one more box under the tree with Laura's name on it. She grabbed it and inspected it. It had come from Lauren. By the huge size of the gift, Laura guessed that it was a painting. After gently removing the wrapping paper, Laura stood the canvas up and looked at it. It was amazing. It had a forest and a cabin in the middle of the forest. In the window of the cabin, there was a shadow of two people. There was no doubt that they were a couple. On the bottom right corner, Lauren signed her name and wrote a "Thank you for everything, Laura."
Laura reached to hug her. "Thanks, darling. It is the best painting I have ever seen. It's an amazing painting and you have great talent."
Lauren looked at her and said, "It's one of my older paintings, and I didn't know how else to thank you for everything you have done for me. I'll never ever forget what you've done for me."
"Oh, sweetie. I do it with great love, because you're like an addition to our family. And you're the only friend Landon has, because you've been so nice to all of us and I appreciate everything you have done for my son."
Lauren smiled. Then it was Lance's turn to open his gifts.
He grabbed the first box that was under the tree addressed for him. He was a bit disappointed, though, because it looked like two tubes of wrapping paper wrapped together. He honestly didn't know what to think of it. There was no way that this was going to be something he liked. When he looked at the label, he saw it was from Landon. He was so screwed. Landon was never good at picking presents for people and he knew this very well.
One time, during Christmas his dad decided to do a Secret Santa among the family. He remembered it was the last Christmas that Liam had passed with them. It had been great. The only person who hadn't gotten a gift had been Liam, and everyone had given a gift except for Landon. When Liam opened his box, there was literally a piece of chicken waiting for him.
Lance had laughed so hard, but Liam, he had grabbed the piece of chicken like it was something he had wanted since he was a little child and had never gotten it until thirty years later. He definitely loved Landon, and besides it wasn't the gift that counted, it was the thought that counted.
Lance used caution when it came to the gift in his hands. There was no doubt in his mind that it was just wrapping paper wrapped with wrapping paper. He opened it carefully and his heart almost stopped when he saw that they were posters. And his eyes grew huge when he saw that they were posters of Tom Brady and the New England Patriots football team. He was so surprised. He hugged his brother and thanked him like a million times. He had always had trouble looking for a poster. It was amazing.
His next present was from his mom. He didn't really need his mother to buy him anything. All his Christmas days were filled with great joy as long as she was there and his brother was there, too. When he opened the package he found a jersey that read Brady on the back. He was literally going to hug someone to death. They were making him love them more than he thought was possible.
Lauren's gift was the last one and he didn't know what it was. As she saw that hers was the last one, she spoke up. "I'm sorry if you don't like it. I didn't know what else to choose from."
Lance looked at her and said, "Don't worry about it. I'm sure that I'll need whatever is in here."
The wrapping paper came off and he saw that it was cologne. He was definitely right about needing it. He was running out of cologne and he realized that Lauren had good taste in fragrances. This cologne was the same that he had used, it was the same one that was about to finish up.
"Thank you. I told you I would be needing this." he said.
Next, it was Lauren's turn. She had decided that she was going to open Landon's gift last, because that was the one she wanted to treasure. She picked up Lauren's gift first and opened it. In it was a rosary. It was a beautiful rosary. It had colored beads and instead of having the cross, it had a virgin Mary as a pendulum.
She hugged Laura, trying to show all her gratitude in that hug. "Thank you so much."
"You're welcome, sweetie."
She grabbed Lance's gift next. It wasn't very heavy so she knew that there was probably a piece of paper in it and when she opened the small box, her thoughts were confirmed. Of course it was from him and it would be wrong not to read it before she said thanks to him so she read it. The letter said this:
Hi Lauren,
I just wanted to say thank you for everything you've done for us. I suck at getting presents for girls, so I just wrote a letter instead. I know maybe it doesn't seem like you've done much for us but trust me you have. My mom, she doesn't show it but it's good that you're here. She always wanted to have a daughter and well, she couldn't because Dad passed away. Of course, she could still find a guy and you know, restart her life with him, but that's obviously not what she wants at the moment. Your being here has calmed her down..at least I think it has. And well don't even get me started on what you've done for Landon. Seriously, his attitude has completely changed. He was actually planning to do something over the Winter break and trust me when I say that he never made plans. He never ever made plans, even if it was just to go to the park. He would stay here all the time and now he's just all over the place. You've been a good change for him and definitely a sign of hope. I wish there was something else I could do to express my gratitude, but this was all I came up with. Pretty sad, but I hope you like this letter and I hope that it sends the message across rather well.
Sincerely,
Lance.
Lauren walked up to him and hugged him. "Thank you," she whispered. "You and your family have helped me too. More than you can possibly imagine."
The last present under the tree came from Landon. She grabbed the box and she looked at Landon's name. She was the one who had helped him when he was writing the labels and just seeing how perfect his handwriting was, even after being blind for thirteen years and not using a pencil, was a heart speeder upper, if that was even a word.
She opened the box, not even imagining what could be in the box. She was surprised to see a beautiful diamond ring. It was so amazingly beautiful and it had only one large diamond on the top and that was it. It was so simple and yet it was amazingly beautiful. She was left paralyzed. Why on Earth would he ever buy her a ring? Buying a ring for his mother, she understood, but to her that just didn't make sense at all.
"Wow." she said. "Thank you. I'm seriously left speechless. Wow, Just thank you so much. I love it. It's so beautiful."
"You're welcome." he said. "It was a pleasure. Both of those rings are as beautiful as their new owner."
At these words, a blush came to her cheeks. The way he had said it just sent her heart in a heart attack mode. It was beating super fast. He had called her beautiful and for once, she actually believed it. It was on thing when it came from your parents, because of course they were going to think their own offspring were beautiful, but this was Landon. The Landon who was right about the little things and the big things. It was the guy that she liked and her heart jut melted at the thought that he thought she was beautiful.
Next it was Landon's turn. He picked up the first gift. His mother was the one to tell him that it was from her. "That one's from me." she said.
Landon nodded and figured out a way to unwrap the gift. When he was sure there was no more wrapping paper left, he felt around it and he was surprised to find that it was a book in Braille. He opened the first pages and he saw that the whole book was in Braille. Landon ran his fingertips across the title and he could tell that it was The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton. He remembered that he had always wanted to read it, but there were no Braille editions, at least none that he could find.
"Thank you so much," he whispered.
He then went on to another package.
"That's from me." Lance said.
Landon grabbed the package and he felt that it was more of clothing kind of gift. He wasn't wrong. When the wrapping paper came off, Landon felt the fleece jacket.
"It's for when you're cold." he said. Landon accepted this, but Lance added something else. "Okay, the truth is that I had no idea what to give you. So this fleece sweater slash jacket is a symbol of brotherly love. That way brotherly love can keep you warm."
"That's amazing. I give you both a hug from where I am." Landon said.
Then he grabbed the last gift. He knew that this was Lauren's gift to him. He had left it as the last because that's how much more it meant to him that she was here, sharing this Christmas with him. This was the bet Christmas ever and it knocked out all the ones he spent alone and depressed.
He felt this one, paying close attention to the small details. But he couldn't figure out what it was apart from the fact that it was most definitely a box. When the wrapping paper was off, he opened the box and his fingers poked through. There was definitely a piece of string. At this moment, he was most definitely confused. Had she gotten him a piece of string only?
He was giving her the benefit of the doubt. He pulled on the string and he felt how the weight shifted. There was something definitely attached to the bottom of it. Following the curve of the string, his fingers came to a stop when he reached a pendulum sort of charm.
"It's a locket," Lauren said. "I took a picture one time of us. I don't think you noticed it. To tell you the truth, I don't even think I noticed it. So inside that locket is a picture of us, symbolizing our friendship."
Landon didn't know what to say. Good thing she was next to him, because now he could give her a hug. But of course he asked first. "May I give you a hug?"
Lauren smiled, glad that he had like it. "Of course."
Landon hugged her and her heart went haywire again. She really hoped that he couldn't feel how her heart was basically breaking through her chest. It was beating at the speed of light, or at least that was how she felt.
"It's the best gift I have gotten from anybody else on Christmas. Thank you. I love it." Landon whispered.
There was no explanation as to what came over her next, but a few tears rolled down her cheeks. "I'm glad you liked it. And you're welcome. I loved your gift,too."
Without trying hard, both Lauren and Landon knew that what they were feeling for each other was growing one step at a time.