Chapter 25
W hen we wake up the next morning, my body tangled around Ethan’s like I was afraid he would disappear in the night. He doesn’t seem to mind. When he opens his eyes, he kisses me on the nose, then he moves to my lips, taking my mouth in a gentle kiss.
It doesn’t take long for the kiss to heat up.
He rolls us over, settling between my legs as I wrap my arms around his shoulders. He ravages my mouth, his tongue moving around expertly. I roll my hips, trying to get closer. His hand shoots out to still my movements and I chuckle unexpectedly against his lips.
Ethan gives me one final peck then moves back. I turn and sigh, trying to get my racing heart under control. When Ethan kisses me like that—when he kisses me in general—I feel overwhelmed, like my heart will explode from my chest.
“Good morning, babe,” I say.
He runs a hand down the side of my face, his expression tender. “Morning, creep. Merry Christmas…officially.”
I smile up at him and crane my neck, seeking his mouth. He kisses me lightly, but still full of heat. What is he doing to me?
When he breaks the kiss, he trails his lips down my neck, swiping his tongue over my sensitive skin.
“I loved my gift, by the way,” he says against my throat. I hum in acknowledgement, lost in the sensation of his tongue on me, and his whispered breath tickling my flesh. He stops kissing on me and moves back to look me in the eyes. “Oh, and I loved the song, too.”
It takes me a second to get what he’s saying. Then I flush and fumble with my words. “Wha--? No, Ethan, that wasn’t—” I stop talking when I see the playful glint in his eyes. “Are you fucking with me?”
Laughing, he rolls off me. “Of course I am. You should have seen your face.” He holds his stomach, like it was the funniest thing he’s ever seen.
“Fuck you, Ethan,” I say to him with absolutely no heat behind the words.
He glances at me, laughter still in his tone. “That you did, creep.”
I’m sure I’m red from head to toe. “You’re frustrating.”
“I know.” He kisses me quickly, then sits up in bed. “Come on, we have to wake up my parents so we can open gifts.”
I sit up, but I’m not very excited about watching them open gifts.
Rubbing my hands together, I sigh loudly. “I’ll stay here until you guys are done.”
He scrunches his eyebrows and looks at me strangely. “Why? I’m sure my parents will want to see you open your gifts, too. They’re weird like that.”
“Gifts?” I squeak. From his parents?
Again with the strange look. “Yes, creep. Gifts. Come on.”
He pulls me out of bed, and we go wash up and brush our teeth. After we’re done, we leave the room. His parents, already awake, are sitting in the theater room where the Christmas tree is.
Grace looks over from the movie they’re watching and smiles at us. “Good morning, you two. Took you long enough to get up.”
I look over at the clock on the wall and see that it’s past ten o’clock. I’m usually up way earlier, but we were up stargazing at almost two in the morning and…doing other things that took our time. I definitely needed to sleep in.
“Good morning, Grace. Frank.”
Frank rubs his hands together. “Good morning. Gift time.” He looks excited about the prospect of opening presents.
Ethan rolls his eyes, and I laugh.
“Come on, Koby,” Ethan says, dragging me forward. “I’m sure my parents got you the same type of gifts they give me. One practical, one for fun, and something to wear.”
“Oh, please,” Grace responds. “We haven’t gotten you ‘one’ anything in years.” She looks over at me. “He has the gist right, but…we went a little overboard. It’s been a while since we’ve had someone new to buy things for.”
She’s practically bouncing in anticipation. I wonder what they got me, and then I feel like shit because I wasn’t able to afford anything for them. Hell, I wrote Ethan a song because that’s the only thing I could offer him.
I shuffle my feet and look at Ethan. He sees me hesitate, then turns back to his parents. “Give us a minute. Creep wants to change.”
He shuffles us to the guest room, and we hear Grace shout, “Not his real name!”
That makes me chuckle before grow somber and flop down onto the bed. I look at Ethan and I’m sure he knows what I’m thinking.
He crouches in front of me and grabs my hands. “Koby, they don’t expect anything from you. They didn’t buy you things because they expect something in return. They’re gifts. ”
“But, Ethan, how will I ever pay them back? I won’t have money for at least another few months if I get a job while we’re in college.”
He makes a frustrated noise in his throat, surprising me.
“Baby, listen.” I suppress the smile that wants to crop up on my face at him calling me that.
It’s only the second time, but I like it.
I like ‘creep’ more though. “Don’t believe any of that shit your mother said to you.
” I startle at him bringing her up. “Not everyone will want something from you if they give you something. Even before you came to stay, my parents had your gifts. They love you. So let us have this, please?”
Why do they have to be such good people? Down to their marrow, the whole family is good.
Nodding, I exhale a soft breath. “Okay, babe. Whatever you want.”
The smile he gives me is blinding. “Good. Now, put on a new shirt so it doesn’t seem like I lied to my parents.”
I do as he says and we go back out.
His parents are sitting on the floor when we return and they toss wrapped gifts to Ethan and me when we get close enough. Of course, Ethan catches his, but mine tumbles heavily to the floor. I wince.
“Hope it’s not fragile,” I quip, making Ethan bark a laugh.
Thankfully, it’s not. It’s a journal. Something I’ve never thought about using before, but I’m sure will be nice to have. It’s small enough to fit in my bag and has tons of pages. I’m sure I can fill every one of them.
By the time we’re finished opening our gifts, I have a new laptop—one that Ethan tells me I’ll need for school, but I grumble at the extravagant gift—a new phone—which Ethan says I’ll need for school, and I grumble at that as well.
I have a ton of clothes and a few pairs of shoes from Grace and Frank, and along with the journal, they gift me with airline tickets to get to California for college.
That’s the gift that really has me swallowing repeatedly and I try not to break down. I didn’t know how I would get the money to get to school. I hadn’t even told Ethan about my predicament.
It's funny that two people who met me barely five months ago treat me better than my own parents ever have.
Well, I can’t fault my dad. He’s trying, he really is. He kept a roof over my head and made sure I had what I needed. He just wasn’t there.
But I’m sure neither Frank nor Grace would ever speak to me the way my mother has. And that means more to me than any of the gifts they’ve given me today. Hell, that is the gift.
We gather up all the discarded wrapping paper and toss it, then collect our gifts and head to our respective rooms. When I’ve dropped everything off, I go back to Ethan’s room just in time to hear my text message alerts.
I’m shocked to see a text from my dad. Hands shaking, I open his text, and I’m happy and sad at the same time.
Dad: Hey kid. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you before, but I’m out of the state at a paper mill for their inspection. I hoped to be back by now, but they need me for an extra week. I’m sorry I missed Christmas with you guys. I love you, kid. Have a good Christmas and I’ll see you after the New Year.
I sigh and sit in Ethan’s armchair. While I’m glad he texted me at all, I realize how much he misses. How does he not notice the tension between me and my mother?
I can’t recall the last Christmas I saw my father.
Why now? Why is he trying this year when I’m almost out of the house?
I honestly don’t know how I should feel about my father and his negligence.
While I get it, I can’t help but think he got comfortable with his predictable job and didn’t try to find something better, leaving me with Barbara.
Shaking my head, I lean back against the chair.
I can’t blame that on him completely. He doesn’t have anything past a high school education, and around here, that doesn’t get you much by way of employment.
And when you’re just trying to get by, you’re not thinking about furthering your education. Probably couldn’t afford it anyway.
My thoughts about my father are all jumbled. I can’t sort them out today, that’s for sure.
Ethan has been eyeing me since I came in and looked at my messages. “Everything okay?” he asks.
I toss him my phone and he reads the message. His brows furrow and he gives it back. “Is he always gone?” I nod. “You miss him, huh?”
“I do,” I answer him honestly. “We used to be close when I was little. Even though I didn’t like sportsy things, we bonded over wrestling.
Not me participating, watching it on TV,” I hurry to say when I see the incredulous look on Ethan’s face.
“I would wait for him to get home from work on Monday night to watch Raw, and we would yell and scream at the TV together. He even promised to take me to a match when work slowed down.”
I smile at the memories, because they were good. I loved those days when my dad and I sat in front of the TV, enjoying each other’s company. Now, I’m not sure how we would get that back.
Ethan nods. “I get that. You wanna fix it? See if y’all can go back to having a good relationship?”
“Maybe after I leave for college. It’ll give me time to think about how I really feel about him and his absence. I’m not sure if he knows how my mother has been treating me and how bad her drinking has gotten.”
“That makes sense. If you need to talk, I’m here.”
I smile at him. “Thanks, babe.” Needing to change the subject, I ask, “What’s the plan for the rest of the day?”