by Billy Taylor
Why does he do this? I wanted to shout, Just tell me you love me you moron and stop being so sweet, and stop smelling so good!
Before I opened my mouth, my Dad shouted from behind us. “Enough of that, thank you!”
Of all the times to be an over protective Father, he had to choose now.
December 2nd
Madeline refused to let go of Ethan as we tried to leave our parent’s house. We made the correct decision of packing all our bags and putting them into the car before stopping to say goodbye. Madeline was ready to leave for school.
“I don’t want you to go!” She shouted and started to cry.
I knew my emotions were not capable of lasting long so I quickly hugged everyone and rushed back to the car. Ethan’s emotional side was far stronger than mine. “Are you ok?” He asked, sliding into the car alongside me.
“I’m fine.” I replied.
Today Ethan was wearing his piano tie I bought him for our first Christmas. The design of it is very self-explanatory, it was a sideways keyboard printed along the tie. “Is there anything you want for Christmas?” I asked to distract myself. I’ve decided to give him the letter from his Mum on Christmas Day. Anytime before then may affect his concentration towards his performance on Christmas Eve.
“I haven’t given it much thought to be honest, ties are clearly essential, but you only need to buy me one or two. There’s no point buying loads because it’ll ruin the tradition.” Ethan replied, peering out of the window.
“You must want something?”
Ethan wiggled his face. “I already have everything.”
I scowled at him in sarcasm. “Stop turning into my Mum and tell me what you want.”
“How about a holiday?” He responded quickly.
I thought for a second, “You already have a plane?”
He patted my knee, “Yeah, but the holiday still needs organising, doesn’t it? The plane gets us to wherever we’re going.”
I nodded, “Ok.” My mind began to wildly search for the perfect holiday destination. “I’ll surprise you,” I added.
“Perfect, thanks August.”
December 10th
Better late than never as my Dad would always say. So now I am frantically arranging all of my Christmas presents. Today was a productive day. I spent the entirety of my morning working out in the gym. My New Years resolution is to work out more and stay in shape. I’m trying to make my six-pack appear a little more prominent. I can also wear all the running clothes I own for what they’re supposed to be used for.
After my workout, I took a shower and grabbed my laptop and searched online for my Christmas presents. I had written a list of everyone’s gifts.
Mum –High heels
Dad – New TV
Madeline – Sneakers, tour around ice cream factory
Max – Concert tickets
Eleanor – The same gift as Mums
Ethan – Holiday, personalised playing cards, ties
Since Ethan is giving my parents our house from us both, I realised my gifts to them should be more… normal. So, I got Mum, Eleanor, Jasmine and I, four of the same sized black high heels, we all have the same size feet. I added Jasmine to the list when I decided to call the genius who designed and created my dress. He also does heels. He explained he would deliver my Mum’s shoes in person since he’s visiting his boyfriend’s family for Christmas, and they only live thirty minutes away from my family. So that’s very, very, very convenient and cute. He’s extremely nice and polite. He’s French, and has a very lovely broad accent. He wasn’t too happy with the short notice I left him with, but because I looked so good in his dress he made an exception for me. He said he would surprise us, too. So I’m super excited to see what these shoes look like. If they’re as good as my dress I don’t think we’ll be taking them off!
I ordered Madeline six pairs of Converse – purple, red, black, white, blue and pink. I know she’ll love them. It’s the unwrapping I’m sure she will enjoy the most, having all those boxes piled up for her. Her excitement will be uncontainable. And I called Ron’s ice cream and organised a tour around their factory or whatever they call it where they make the ice cream. So she’ll be able to see how her beloved bubblegum ice cream is made! It’s going to be the best gift ever! I can just imagine walking around and turning to find Madeline had vanished, then the next moment I just see her swimming in the bubblegum ice cream mixer.
When I spoke to Eleanor about a gift for Max she explained that Max would like two tickets for the ballet. Obviously they’re for her, but she said to get them for him anyway. I know it doesn’t really make sense, but I followed her instructions. Her happiness brings him happiness I guess. Relationships are weird.
As for Ethan’s gifts, I’ve designed him some golden playing cards that have his own cool design on the back with his initials inscribed on them. Every card is the same, apart from the Queen of hearts; on that one it has a photo of me with a cheesy childish grin and two thumbs up. I thought it’d be funny. They come in a lovely wooden box. I hope he likes them because I spent the forever designing them!
As for a holiday I booked a trip to the Maldives. The main reason I booked this holiday is because it’s beautiful and sunny and we’ll be marooned on a small island for ten days. Meaning we’ll be able to spend lots and lots and lots of time alone.
And of course, ties. I had a long search through a huge collection of ties, although none appealed to me. The perfect one inevitably showed itself. Nothing else came close to this tie. It was a sky blue tie with falling snowflakes draping on it. It even came in a unique crafted box, how cool is that? Out of all of his ties, this one would be my favourite.
I shut my laptop after ordering everything, letting out a huge sigh of relief. Ethan was doing press-ups in the gym when I emerged from my bedroom. I rushed in and laid across his back as he continued, wrapping my arms around his chest. We’re by far the cutest couple, not to be a couple, ever.
December 16th
It’s almost midnight. Ethan and I are sat in bed watching an episode of Patrick Miller’s show. I wasn’t watching it to tell you the truth. I was drifting off to sleep. Something had been on my mind all day though, the source of where all this came from. Ethan paid for it all, but the money in that bag I saw a while ago hasn’t paid for everything.
“Ethan?” I whispered, rolling over and onto his chest.
“Yes, dear?” He replied, flicking his eyes off the television.
“How did you pay for everything? Honestly.”
I closed my eyes in hope he’d think I was adorable, so he wouldn’t get mad at me for asking.
He inhaled and exhaled deeply. “My Dad didn’t drink himself to death. He was… shot, because he owed a casino owner in Italy a severe amount of money. When the owner found out he didn’t have the money he was owed, he shot my Dad. I went over to Italy as soon as I left the hospital, saw my Dad one final time before having him sent back home to be buried next to my Mum. The casino owner had twelve casinos scattered around Europe. They all closed that same weekend. Each one mysteriously emptied of its sixty or seventy million banks... I walked away with seven hundred and seventy three million by the end of the weekend. I bought myself a private plane with the money from the first winnings, to fly me to every other casino. Then I went to Switzerland, to open a bank account where the money remains now… not bad to say I’d just come out of hospital, huh? I think we can both agree that I’m pretty good at roulette.”
I remained silent. A tear ran down my cheek as I winced my eyes. I know why he had kept this a secret, it’s not easy telling someone your Dad was murdered. And then so many questions would have to be asked. I felt nothing needed to be said, so I cuddled up to him and squeezed him, snuggling my head into his chest more. He already knows that I’m sorry and I’ll always be there for him. Our emotional moment was interrupted when I burped out of nowhere. Ethan laughed so hard he had to roll out of bed to compose himself.
“Way to
brighten the mood, August!” He joked.
Embarrassed, I laughed with my head underneath the pillow, desperately wishing that didn’t just happen.
December 17th
Horrible cramps struck me at lunchtime, resorting me to my bed, feeling sorry for myself. Ethan, being the annoying person he is, brought me a hot water bottle, a basket of assorted muffins, a large tub of Ron’s cherry ice cream, a huge bunch of flowers, and last but not least a massive teddy bear bigger than me. He stumbled into my room, dropping the bear beside my bed as he scanned my room to find a suitable place to put it. He was wearing the love heart patterned tie I bought him for our eighth Christmas together.
“Sorry I didn’t come to your aid earlier, I was busy searching for things I thought would help.”
I snatched the hot water bottle off him, settling it on my stomach.
“Come here.” Ethan said, sliding into bed and cuddling me.
“I want my bear.” I murmured into his chest.
Next thing I knew, there was a teddy bears face smothering us both.
“Where on Earth did you get this?” I asked.
He laughed, “Teddy bear shop.” He kissed my forehead and squeezed me.
“No kissing.” I growled.
“Ok sorry.” He released his grasp and rolled the teddy bear off of us. A muffin then appeared in front of my eyes, which I immediately inhaled.
“You’re so adorable.” He whispered.
I reached over him and grabbed a couple of muffins, stuffing one into my mouth and one into his. We spent the whole day laying in bed and watching movies. If I weren’t in so much pain this would have been a wonderful day.
We shared the ice cream while watching When Harry Met Sally. Not the most convenient film to watch regarding my situation in all honesty. So I fell asleep. Later on at 11:42pm, I woke up, still in Ethan’s arms. I slipped out of bed and wandered to the bathroom.
When I came back, Ethan was still asleep. I sat beside him and watched him sleep peacefully for a minute or two before kissing his forehead and whispering, “I love you,” making sure I avoided waking him.
December 19th
As I strolled downstairs this morning, the biggest bare Christmas tree I had ever seen in my entire life was planted in the corner of our living room.
“How the hell did that get in here?” I asked as I descended the stairs.
“That’s for me to know, and you to find out.” Ethan replied.
I shook my head in disbelief, and wandered into the kitchen after gazing upon its magnificence. There’s no way that tree could have fit into the elevator. It must’ve been fifteen feet high.
“We’ll decorate it later, we need to get decorations first. I figured you’d want to go shopping with me for decorations.” Ethan said as I sat on the sofa, observing the tree while eating our breakfast. He was wearing his lovely bird tie today. A dark navy tie, with a pattern of white birds on it. However, they’re not proper birds. Can you remember drawing at school, instead of drawing a seagull or a bird, you’d draw a funny styled tick? Like the tick you would use to mark someone’s question correctly on a paper? The tie had those ticks on it anyway, showing them as birds. I bought Ethan this tie for our tenth Christmas together.
Later on, Max and Eleanor and Ethan and I all went shopping for Christmas tree decorations. Since Eleanor has lived here longer than us she knew all the handy places to get all the required essentials from. We bought several boxes of lights, and a cute little, huge star to go on top of the tree. We found loads of boxes of nutcrackers and snowflakes, the typical Christmas tree decorations. We didn’t have a colour scheme, we just chose the coolest looking decorations. My favourite was the small snow globe you can hang on your tree. Inside, Santa and his reindeer are flying over a village. So cute! I kept it aside and left it until every other decoration had been hung up since it was easily breakable. Ethan bought some funny styled Christmas jumpers to wear while we decorated our tree. Ethan’s had a big snowman on the front with googley eyes, and mine had a Christmas tree on the front with little tiny bells hanging from it. Ethan thought it would be funny to buy me a jumper that’s six sizes too big for me. So the jumper pretty much covered my knees and the arms almost touched the floor. Ethan threw me onto his shoulders to try and place the star on top of the tree. But we failed because we were too busy laughing at one another. We hadn’t thought it through. I was still a few feet away from reaching it, too. So the star, unfortunately, didn’t make it to the top of the tree. We placed it on the mantelpiece instead.
December 20th
As I lay in bed this morning the floor below me started to vibrate. Like a booming noise, shaking the whole room in a repeated pattern. I threw my dressing gown on and rushed downstairs. Ethan had discovered the surround sound button for the music system, but didn’t know how to turn it off. He was wincing with his fingers in his ears. “Sorry!” He was wearing his coffee beans tie I bought him for his twelfth birthday. I rolled my eyes at him, snatched the remote off him and turned the music down.
“I didn’t know we had that.” He said, removing his fingers from his ears. He examined the remote with great wonder, and skipped through the songs, stopping on a song, Elvis Presley – Can’t Help Falling In Love – one of Ethan’s favourite songs. I rolled my eyes at him when he grabbed my hands and began to sway. He raised my right hand, placing it into his shoulder. Linking his right hand with my left, he lowered his left hand onto the small of my back, smirking in amusement as I tripped over his feet. He lifted me off the ground and slotted my feet on top of his. “That’s better.” He whispered as we gracefully swayed around the living room. I blushed as he moved his arms around my waist, to which I joined my hands at the back of his neck.
“You have bad morning breath.” He said as we gazed into each others eyes.
“Oh shut up! Where did you learn to dance?”
“I took dance lessons for prom.”
I looked into his eyes as he looked beyond me, focusing on his steps. I was a second away from grabbing him and kissing him. “Ethan that is the sweetest thing I have ever heard.” I replied, tightening my hands around his neck.
“Being August Bishops prom date was a big deal, I didn’t want to disappoint you.”
This was possibly the most romantic gesture I had ever heard. I don’t know what came over me. I was leaning in to kiss him. I really was.
Then a knock came at the door, breaking our trance. Whoever it was on the other side I may attack. Ethan walked over to reveal Max.
“I was walking by and I remembered I left my rubber duck radio in your shower, so I thought I’d collect it,” Max said.
Ethan laughed and turned to me to see if I found it as funny as him. I forced a fake smile, but quickly returned to my poop stare at Max.
Ethan ventured upstairs to retrieve Max’s stupid radio duck. Meanwhile I wandered over to Max and punched his arm.
“Ouch! What was that for?”
“I was about to kiss him you moron! And you bloody interrupted for a radio duck. Are you kidding me?” Some swear words may have been replaced with non swear words in that sentence, but I can neither confirm nor deny I said such things.
“I won’t disturb you with my radio duck issues anymore.” Max smirked.
“Better not.” I snarled with glaring eyes.
Ethan returned and handed Max his stupid radio duck. And I slammed the door on him before he could say another word.
December 21st
Of all times for Ethan to plan a last minute trip to Miami to meet Natasha, he had to choose today. Of course I’m jealous, it’s a natural thing for me to feel. It’s his relationship with Eleanor all over again. I tried to not let it bother me, still, it constantly toyed with my mind. The TV even appeared to be against me, repeating all of Ethan’s shows ahead of Christmas Eve. Then the next channel was repeating episodes of Patrick Miller’s show. So, I popped over to Max and Eleanor’s. I hadn’t discussed my schedule recently with Max, and was hop
ing a few more movie roles had come along to attract my interest.
“My first article will be in next weeks magazine,” Max said as he passed me my cup of tea.
“Great work Max, congratulations!”
“Can I speak to August alone for a moment, Max?” Eleanor asked, raising her eyebrows.
It concerned me because I was certain I’d done something wrong although I wasn’t sure what, and I’d only been here two minutes.
“Oh, ok. I’ll go…. and buy you some flowers from across the road.” He replied, swiftly leaving the apartment.
Eleanor sat beside me on the sofa, almost knee to knee. “August, I know.”
“Know what?” I replied, my voice shaking.
She squinted, “About Ethan and the crash.”
I dropped my sight to the floor. “I thought he would’ve told you when you saw his scars.” It surprised me that he didn’t tell Eleanor about the crash, his scars are hardly discreet.
“He told me it was a sporting injury, I don’t know I didn’t want to upset him, so I avoided mentioning it.”
Max obviously broke the news to Eleanor, I still was unsure how much she knew. Did she know his heart stopped?
“What else do you know about the crash?” I asked.
Her eyes suddenly darted at me with a look of sorrow.
“Oh.” Her response wasn’t required.
“I know it’s a hard subject, but I wanted to speak to you and see how you were doing? Does it still bother you?”
I took a sip from my tea. It was too hot, so I placed it straight back down.
“It plays on my mind now and again.” I replied.
She hugged me and rubbed my back. “Do you want to talk about it?”
I shook my head on her shoulder.
“Are you sure?”
I nodded my head on her shoulder.
“Why do I feel so guilty?” I asked in a weirdly exhausted voice.