Thirty-one
Eli
I spent Christmas Day with Ricky just like we did every year.
Ever since I started spending a lot of my time with Javier, we spent less time just the two of us.
I missed my best friend and it felt great to be around him again.
We played video games and stuffed our faces with dessert, it felt just like old times.
Javier asked me to spend Christmas with him, but I couldn’t break Ricky and I’s tradition. That was how we determined that I would spend Christmas Eve with him and his family instead.
The Cortez’s had a lot of extended family over and I got to meet all of them.
Each one of them were very friendly, but I couldn't tell you any of their names if I was held at gunpoint even though everyone introduced themselves to me.
It was a bit chaotic. There were at least twenty-five people in the house at once, so I couldn't go anywhere without someone else being there.
I guess it didn't matter, though, because I spent the entire day glued to Javi.
He broke us free from the chaos and brought me upstairs to give me my gift in private.
Nervously, he pulled a tiny box out of his pocket and opened it to reveal a necklace.
It was a thick silver chain bar necklace, the skinny pendant hanging vertically in the middle.
Inscribed in tiny letters on the pendant was 'E & J.’
"Woah," I whispered as I ran my finger over the inscribed letters.
He pulled his knees up to his chest and rested his chin on them. "I noticed you don't wear any jewelry, so I thought you might like it. I got it inscribed that way whenever you're not okay you can remember how much I care about you. It’s cheesy, I know."
I felt a rush of warmth that went all the way to my cheeks as I stared at the necklace. It looked pretty expensive, but I was afraid to ask just how much it cost. I had never owned something as nice as it before.
"I love it." I was still whispering. It was like I couldn't find the bass in my voice because of the sweetness of his gesture.
He chuckled softly. "I'm glad you love it."
Keeping the necklace in my hand, I rolled off the bed and walked toward his closet. I spoke as I opened it. "Uh, so now that I am thinking about it, my gift may seem childish compared to yours. I didn’t mean for it to be that way, I just thought you would like it."
Javi watched me from the bed. "You got me a gift?"
I nodded as I rummaged through all of the junk in the closet. It was unorganized, to say the least. "Emerson actually let me use her debit card to buy it, with a budget of course. She said it was my gift for always doing her math homework."
"You could’ve gotten something for yourself with that money."
I had found the gift that Gabriela had hid in the corner of the closet underneath a pile of clothes. It wasn't wrapped so I held it behind my back to keep it hidden as I walked toward him.
When I got to their house earlier that day, I immediately found Gabriela and got her to hide the gift for me.
I didn't want Javi to know that I got him something until he was ready to give me what he bought for me.
I thought it would be a nice surprise since we didn't think I would be able to get him anything in the first place.
I had a little money saved—very little. By very little I meant that all I would have been able to buy was a couple of boxes of cereal, and that was not enough to buy what I wanted for him.
I asked Emerson to help me out when she was in one of her better moods and to my surprise, she agreed.
She handed her card to me and assured me that if I went over the budget she gave, she would never be that kind again.
“Why would I do that?” I asked seriously. “Then you wouldn’t have gotten a present from me.”
I then dramatically revealed the soft brown teddy bear with hazel green eyes to him. His lips curled into a soft smile as he took in the sight of the bear that was about the size of his torso. Javi took it from my hands and rubbed his hand over the fuzziness.
"I know that you aren't five years old, but it reminded me of you," I chuckled awkwardly. I held the hand of the bear and turned it upward which showed the tiny heart on its palm. "See how on its hand it says, 'I love hugs?’"
"Well, I do love hugs, so accurate." Javi blinked softly as he gave the bear a tight squeeze. "I love the gift, Eli. So much."
I kneeled onto the bed in front of him, the weight of my body resting on my fists as I leaned forward. He was still holding the bear like his life depended on it.
"Really? I thought you would, but I wasn't sure.
I've always liked teddy bears because they’re so fluffy and soft.
They're always there when you need them because they literally can never go anywhere.
Obviously, that's because they’re inmate objects, but still.
And…I don't know, I just like them." I took a small breath.
"I realize that I'm rambling about damn teddy bears and that this is pretty cheesy.
I just thought you should understand why I wanted to give it to you. "
Javi was biting the inside of his cheek as he listened to me. When I finished speaking, he didn't respond right away, he continued watching me with a small smirk.
I scratched my forehead. "What is it?"
His head tilted slightly. "You're really cute, you know that?"
I offered a sheepish shrug to which he laughed. He leaned in and gave me a peck on the lips, the bear weirdly squished between us as he did. Afterward, he picked up the bear again and held it in front of him.
"What should we name you?" Javi asked the bear. He gave it a moment of thought. "You choose, Eli. Should we name her Everest or Fallon?"
"It's your teddy bear, but I like Fallon."
He pouted dramatically. "But I like Everest more."
I suppressed a silly grin. "I like Everest too."
His eyes flickered to the bear and then back to mine. He squinted at it and nodded sharply. "Her name is Fallon Everest."
“First and middle name?”
“Nope, both are her first name. Cool bears have two names as their first name.”
He sat Fallon Everest down next to us so that he could grab a box hidden behind his bed.
It was my birthday present, one that I did not realize he was getting for me.
He apologized for it being late and said that the delivery service had been slacking all holiday season.
I didn’t mind, I was still surprised that he had gotten me another gift at all.
Javier bought me my own helmet to wear on his motorcycle. It was a nice sleek black helmet that looked almost identical to his. He assured me that we could ride his bike whenever I wanted to, no questions asked.
He had no idea just how grateful I was for the meaning that went into the things he picked out for me. They were always so personalized, and it made me feel so special.
He made me feel special.
***
School started up two weeks after that and then we were right back into the normal routine.
We were officially in the home stretch of our senior year of high school and it was unbelievable.
Everything mattered now, at least that was what everyone kept saying.
It was all about to be over, so we needed to make the most of the time we had left.
It was also acceptance and rejection letter season.
Students were seen crying in the hallways as they opened their phones and read the ‘We regret to inform you…’ emails that colleges would send.
Others jumped with joy and excitement because they received the opposite email, wasting no time to brag to everyone about every college that accepted them.
I had applied to a few in and out of state colleges.
I had no real desire to go anywhere specific, I just wanted to be away from the toxicity of my family.
I was not worried about getting into colleges since I had already been accepted into a couple.
My only concern was whether the extra scholarships I applied for would give me the money.
I wouldn’t know that for another couple of months, though.
Today was the third round of the academic competition—the round that would determine if we made it to finals.
Javier and I had already completed the third round of it and were waiting anxiously for the results.
This round was chemistry. It was difficult, to say the least, but chemistry in general was difficult so that was not surprising.
The way the competition was set up this time was different from the rest. Unlike the other times, this time we were encouraged to work together. It sounded like an advantage at first, but the judges knew what they were doing.
See, the challenge of it was to see which duos could work through their disagreements the best. They put a bunch of straight-A students in one room and had them solve chemistry problems with partners, it was a recipe for disaster.
If there was a disagreement on how to solve a question then one of you had to suck up your pride and go with the other way, even though you believed it was the wrong way.
If you dwelled on which way was right for too long, then you hurt your team.
I was nervous at first. Neither me nor Javi liked to believe we were wrong, and I did not want that to be the cause of our failure. There were fifty questions and they weren't simple in the slightest, but they were doable.
What I failed to realize was just how far my rival and I had grown from the beginning of the school year.
We were not the same two guys that hated each other's guts and would rather die than admit defeat.
No, now we were two men that respected the other enough to work with instead of against each other.