The Way I Loved You

It was Christmas morning. We had all stayed the night at Alex and Rian's house. I got woken up at about eight in the morning by Jack jumping on Alex's bed.

"Jack, you need to go...now," Alex said in a menacing voice while grabbing me by the waist and pulling me close to him.

"But it's Christmas and we should be up exchanging gifts and celebrating the dear Lord's birth," he whined.

"How many times did you have to practice that to get it right?" I asked.

"About twenty."

"Fine. Go wake up everyone else in the house. We'll meet you in the living room," Alex said, compromising.

"Okay. But you better come. Or I'm going to get really pissed at you," he said, trying to scowl at us. Or more so Alex.

"Yeah yeah. Just go," Alex replied, throwing a pillow at him. Jack dodged the pillow and I watched as it hit the door.

"Good one. Now we only have one pillow," I said.

"Nu uh. We have two."

I was about to ask him how when he stole my pillow and pulled my head to lay on his chest.

"Ah, much better," he said with a sigh.

I giggled before stating, "We should get into the living room. Jack will shit himself if he doesn't get his presents."

"Oh, alright."

I stood up and put on my fuzzy boots before watching Alex throw on a random t-shirt. He grabbed my hand and pulled me out into the living room where a very pissed off Rian and very tired Kara sat.

"Long night, Kara?" I asked winking at her. She immediately blushed and turned her head into Rian's neck. He laughed at her reaction and pulled her by her waist into him.

Alex sat down on one of the la-z-boys and pulled me onto his lap.

Jack then walked out with Holly. Caroline and Zack walked out right behind them.

"Who wants to play Santa Claus?" Jack asked, scanning the room.

"You," we all said at the same time.

"Well, if you insist," he said, picking up the first gift.

"To Rian. From Kara."

We watched as Rian unwrapped his new set of drumsticks. This went on for a while as Jack handed out presents and people unwrapped. For only exchanging with loved ones, there were quite a few presents under the tree.

"This one is to Brynn from moi," I laughed at the little French that he knew and started to unwrap the present. It was the first copy of their new cd and my favorite perfume.

"Aww Jack. Thanks." I stood up and kissed his cheek before sitting on the floor beside Alex. He took my hand and held it in his.

"This one is to Alex. Love Brynn. Not from Brynn. LOVE Brynn," he said, putting an emphasis on 'love'.

I watched as Alex unwrapped the box. He was handed a pocket knife by Zack and started to cut it open. When he pulled out the guitar case, he had the most shocked look on his face.

"You didn't," he said, astonished.

"I did."

He quickly opened the case and looked at the guitar that he has been looking at for quite a while. It was exactly what he wanted but I knew he wouldn't buy it until he saved up some money. He has money, don't get me wrong, but he likes to plan for these things so that the reward is so much greater in the end.

He pulled me up onto his lap and started kissing me all over his face.

"I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you," he repeated, over and over again. I just laughed until he decided it was enough.

"Well, that's all that's under the tree," Jack said. I was a little disappointed. Alex didn't get me anything. I turned my head away from him so that I was looking into the kitchen, trying not to show him that I was upset.

"What's wrong, baby?" he whispered in my ear.

"Nothing," I mumbled. I wasn't mad that he didn't get me anything. I'm not materialistic. I just thought he would have gotten me a little something.

He stood up, pulling me up with him.

"What? Did you think I didn't get you anything? Get real, Brynn."

He pulled out a little blue Tiffany's box. He opened up and inside held a pink diamond set off by two white diamonds. The band was sterling silver. It was so pretty.

"Brynn, I'm not quite ready to marry you. But I will be, someday. This is my promise to you that one day you will be my wife." He slipped the ring onto my right ring finger. My eyes started to tear up.

"This ring represents my love for you and yours to me. Promise me one thing," he paused and waited for me to say something. I nodded and he continued. "If you ever stop loving me, take off this ring. I don't want to put myself out on the line. The day you realize you have no more feelings for me, you can take it off. But until then, please wear this." he said, wiping the tears away that had fallen down my face.

"I won't ever need to take this off. I love you so much," I said, wrapping my arms around his neck and hugging him.

"I love you, too. You're perfect," he whispered in my ear. I pulled away and noticed that no one was left in the room.

"When did they leave?" I asked.

"When Jack said it was the last gift."

"You planned this." He shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly and smiled at me.

"Well, let's go see what everyone is doing," I said, pulling him into the kitchen. Kara smiled at me as I walked in before looking down at my hand.

"What's everyone's plans for today?" I asked.

"Well, you, Alex, Holly, and I are going back to Mom's to have lunch with the family," Jack told me. Awesome. That means I should make something to take.

"Rian and I will be going to my parent's house, then his," Kara explained.

"And Zack and I are going separate ways then meeting back up later," Caroline said.

"Well, should we plan something tonight?" I asked.

"Well, you and I are going to my mom and dad's house," Alex said. I nodded.

"I'm going to make a dessert then. Should I make it for my mom or your mom?" I asked Alex.

"Why not both?"

"I guess I can. Okay."

I got out all of the ingredients for banana dessert and started making it. About an hour later, I finished and put it in the fridge.

"We'll have to stop back by here to get the dessert before going to your mom's," I told Alex, jumping up onto the counter. He smiled and kissed my cheek.

"We should all start getting ready," Jack said, glancing at his phone. I slid off of the counter and went up to Alex's bathroom. I took a quick shower so I would not use all of the hot water and got out so I could start getting ready. I didn't see Alex come in and as I finished getting dressed, he shoved me down onto the bed and climbed on top of me. He started kissing up my neck and I giggled like crazy.

"Alex, my dear, you need to go shower. You smell," I giggled.

"Fine, but only for you, my love," he said in a perfect British accent.

He went into the shower and I did my makeup and hair. He walked out and got dressed. I sat down on the bed and watched him spray axe all over his body before starting to blow dry his hair.

"What?" he asked.

"Nothing."

"No, why were you watching me?"

"I don't know. You're just too cute," I said.

He continued to do his hair and would occasionally shake his butt. I would roll my eyes before staring at the wall. When he was finished, he grabbed his wallet and keys before throwing my jacket at me and sliding into his.

"You ready to party it up?" he asked, wiggling his eyebrows.

"Yeah," I laughed.