I Can't Be Without You

Having Keith around on Christmas was probably one of the more exciting things that happened. The same day that Keith had showed up, Matt dropped by to drop off some presents for us.

"Hey, Josline! Where is the can opener?" Keith asked, walking into the kitchen, which was right by the front door.

"It's in the drawer next to the fridge Keith. Why?" I asked, shutting the door behind Matt. He was staying whether he liked it or not. He had his truck, he could drive home.

"I wanted some spaghetti-o's." Keith came into full view, and Matt stared at him.

"Keith? Keith Scaeth?" Matt handed me the two presents. Keith looked at Matt for a moment before registering who he was.

"Dude! Is that Matt Webb?" Keith and Matt did their little 'bro-hug'. "So this is where you ended up?" Matt chuckled.

"Yeah, pretty cool town though. Small...too small." Matt said.

"How do you guys know eachother?" I asked the two of them.

"Aw, man. Josline, you gotta hear this story,"Keith started,"We went to the same school. Some buddies of mine dared me to go join choir cause there were supposedly some 'hot babes' in choir. That's where I met Matt." Keith said, smiling.

"Yeah, and Josh. You and Josh were pretty good buddies in choir." Matt added. Keith paused for a moment.

"What, is Josh living here too?" Keith asked, a little surprised. Both Matt and I nodded. "And was it the Josh I'm thinking of that you were talking on the phone too?" I nodded again. "ARE YOU DATING JOSH FUCKING RAMSAY?" I turned red when Keith said that.

"Nah, man, they're too cool for that." Matt said, trying to relieve some of the awkwardness in the air. I looked at Matt thankfully. He just nodded and smiled at me.

"Ah. Where is Josh anyways?" Keith asked.

"Back in Vancouver." Matt said. "Wont be back until after Christmas."

"Fuck, what bad timing I have! Oh well." Keith shrugged and laughed. "RIGHT! Spaghetti-o's." Keith started digging around the drawer's for the can opener. I led Matt to the living room, where Airin was.

"Thanks for saving my ass Matt." I smiled at him.

"No problem. I do, however, think that you guys should make it official." Matt said. Airin started coughing loudly when Matt said that. He had his water bottle in hand, and was choking on the water. He stopped his coughing fit and looked apollogetic. I saw Airin shoot Matt a look that I couldn't quite register. There was a slight awkward silence between everyone in the house.

"Oh! Matt, I have something for you!" I said, getting up from the couch. I picked up a flimsy package from under the tree and handed it to him.

"Thanks Josline!" Matt smiled at me.

"OPEN IT!" I said, jumping up and down slightly.

"But it's not..."

"OPEN IT!" I said again.

"Okay! Okay!" Matt laughed unwrapping the package. He lifted up a t-shirt, not saying anything.

Now, I know you'd think a t-shirt wasn't that great of a gift. But the t-shirt I gave Matt, he was going to love me the rest of his life for it.

"Josline...are these authentic?" Matt looked at the Areosmith t-shirt in his hands, his finger tracing over the signatures on the back of the shirt. I nodded at him.

"It was my dads. But it got too small for him, and it wouldn't fit Airin, so I got it. I don't wear it, and it's a bit too big for me. I thought, 'hey, Matt will love this'!" Matt got up and hugged me.

"Now my present seems insignificant!" Matt laughed.

"Aw, I'll love it anyways!" I said hugging him back.

"You better! I spent my hard earned money on that!" Matt said. I backed away from her, putting my hands on my hips. "Okay, I spent 10 bucks on it." I kept looking at him. "OKAY! 5 bucks." I rolled my eyes and laughed.

"Yeah, well, I didn't spend anything on ANYONE!" Airin said suddenly. "I made everyone things." He said. Airin then sped off to his room, appearing a few seconds later with a paper thin, lamely wrapped present. He handed it to Matt, who carefully unwrapped it. It was a picture that Airin had found in his picture box. It was when we still lived in Vancouver.

Airin and I actually went to the same school as Josh and Matt, but we weren't friends with them back then. There were little circles drawn around certain people in the picture. Airin was in my class because it was a grade 7-8 split class. Matt was staring at the photo for a long time before he started laughing. "I used to look like THAT?" Matt said,still laughing.

"Atleast you didn't look as bad as Josh there!" Airin pointed to Josh on the picture, whos hair was in bed-head state, and he looked very grumpy, like he didn't want to be there on picture day.

"That's true! Hey, who's this? I don't recognize her." Matt pointed to a small girl that was at the front row. She had big glasses, too big for her face. Her long hair was pulled into pig tails and she was wearing torn jeans and a dirty t-shirt. She was a bit on the chubby side aswell. Airin started to laugh and Matt looked confused.

"Dude, that's Josline." Keith said when he returned with his spaghetti-oh's. Matt looked at the picture, then at me.

"Oh, my God! Josline, I'm sorry, but that's terrible!" Matt said, smiling a little at me.

"I know it's terrible!" I threw my arms up in the air. "You know, Josh actually used to pick on me when we were in that class." I said. Matt looked at me for a moment, then again at the picture. One of his hands covered his mouth, just realizing something.

"Aw...you were 'Chubs'." Matt hugged me sympathetically. When I was in grade 7, Josh did pick on me for being a little bit chubby. He used to call me 'Chubs'. "I wonder if he still remembers that..." Matt said.

"Probably not." I shrugged.

"You got cute though." Matt said, nudging me a little.

"And you're still the frizzy haired weirdo from choir."

Everyone laughed, and it felt good to be laughing at old memories, even if some were a little bad.