Love's Not A Competition

I couldn’t sleep that night. I was too nervous. I kept thinking about the next day. What would Christmas hold for me this year? I must have finally fallen asleep because somebody was jumping on me. I opened my eyes and pushed Eric away.

“Come on! Get up! It’s Christmas!”

I rolled my eyes before sitting up. He pulled on my hand until I was standing. I pushed him out of the room before going into the bathroom and getting dressed. He was still waiting for me when I walked into the hallway. His huge grin was infectious and I couldn’t stop myself from smiling back. Everyone was eating breakfast and we all wished each other Merry Christmas. We all ate our breakfast, smiles on our faces. It was after breakfast that we exchanged gifts. We did it in the lounge. I handed my gifts out and got five back in return. There was a package for me from Rebecca and the other’s had their own gifts from their families. I opened the package from Rebecca first. It was a lovely silk cocktail dress. It was a deep purple, my favorite color and it was amazing. One single tear escaped. I was so happy that she would take the time to buy me something. I quickly moved onto the next present before more tears came. I was so grateful to my friends. I got new running shoes from Brittney, a book from Katie, a stopwatch and sweatbands from Aidan, perfume from Eric and a CD from Zeke.

“This is great!” Brittney squealed.
I turned to see her holding a key in her hand.
“What’s that for?” I asked.
“My parents got me a car!” she yelled.
“What kind?” Eric asked.
“A Lamborghini,” she told us.
“Me too!” squealed Katie.
“What color?”
“Pink, yours?” she asked.
“Yellow, this is so cool!”
“What did you get from your parents?” Eric asked Aidan.
“Oh, uh, a beach house on their private island. What did you get?”
“A laptop and a Porsche,” he said.
“What did you get?” Katie asked Zeke.
“Some money,” he said.

I sat back in my chair and pretended to read my new book when they all turned to me. I didn’t lower my book and just kept reading the first sentence over and over.

“What did you get?” Katie asked.
I lowered my book and grinned at them. “Money,” I lied.
“Who’s the dress from?” Brittney asked.
“Rebecca and Mason,” I said.
“Who are they?” Katie asked.
“My brother and his wife,” I told her.

They all started talking about something else and I raised the book again so it was covering my face from view. After a while they started to leave the room so they could ring their parents or put their gifts away. I was walking back to Brittney’s dorm when someone grabbed my arm and pulled me into a room. It was dark and I turned on the light. Zeke stared back at me.

“Whose room is this?” I asked.
“I’m not sure. I needed to give you something.”
“But you already got me a CD,” I said quietly.
“That wasn’t your real present. I want you to have this.”

He handed me a small velvet box and I opened it slowly. Inside the box was a gorgeous locket. It had wings carved into the heart shape locket which hanged from a small silver chain. I looked up at Zeke. His face looked worried.

“I love it,” I breathed.
I closed the lid of the box and stepped forward. I kissed his cheek lightly before stepping away from him.
“Thank you,” I said.

He smiled at me before I left. When I reached Brittney’s room she grinned at me from her bed. I had slipped the box into my pocket and sat down beside her. I looked over her gifts and held up the binoculars.

“Who gave you these?” I asked.
“Zeke,” she smiled.
I rolled my eyes and spied a box from Victoria’s Secret.
“I don’t even want to know what’s in that box,” I said.
“Aidan got me that. I saw that Katie had one too.”
“Did Aidan buy it for her too?”
She smacked my arm playfully. “Don’t be stupid. It was obviously from Zeke.”
“I know,” I sighed.

My hand went to the box in my pocket and pulled it out. I ran a finger over the smooth velvet and smiled to myself.
“What do you have there?”
Brittney snatched the box out of my hands and opened it. I heard her gasp.
“Who got you this?” she asked.
“It came with the dress,” I lied.
“It’s gorgeous. Put it on,” she demanded.

I lifted the locket out of the box and Brittney held my hair up so I could reach around the back of my neck. It hung just below the middle of my collar bones. I fingered it and saw Brittney grinning at me.

The weekend before school started back up all the students wanted to throw a party so we started making plans. I was in on the decision making and decided to do a themed party. I was trying to get Katie and Brittney to help me come up with a theme for the party on the Thursday.

“Let’s do a Bleach party,” Brittney said.
“No, let’s do a sexy party,” Katie yelled out trying to make everyone listen to her.
“What about a beach party?”
“What about a famous couple’s party?”
“Why don’t we do just a costume party and everyone can come as whoever they want?” I asked.
“Yeah, that sounds good,” Zeke said coming into the room where we were planning the party.
“Go away, this is a private conversation,” Brittney growled.
“Ah, I wanted to see Katie.”
“Liar,” we all muttered.
“So, how’s the party planning going?”
“It was going great before you interrupted.”
“Whatever anyways so what are you all going to wear?” Zeke pondered.
“Why don’t we all go shopping tomorrow to pick out a costume?”
“Why don’t you just wear the present that Aidan brought you, Brittney?” Zeke smirked.
“Hey, those are for Aidan’s eyes only,” Brittney huffed.
“I think we should do the shopping idea,” Katie said.

I agreed and we made plans to go shopping with the boys tomorrow. I had informed all the other students what the theme was and everyone seemed to be excited.
The next day everyone went to the mall. We were wandering around the mall trying to look for a costume shop when we heard someone yell.

“Look over there it’s a costume shop, I bet they have Bleach costumes there as well!” Aidan yelled.
We all looked at him funny and he coughed loudly.
“I mean, cool, yeah, whatever.”

I rolled my eyes and we all walked into the shop. As we browsed through the costumes I wondered what I would dress as. I had no idea what to go as to the party. I found a few costumes I liked and the boys sat outside the changing rooms as us girls changed. We came out at the same time. Brittney was wearing a ballerina costume, Katie was wearing a spacesuit and I was wearing a pirate costume. The boys all shook their heads and we went to try on our next outfit. Katie was wearing a belly dancing costume, Brittney was wearing a cowgirl costume and I was wearing a fairy costume.

“You should wear that one, Katie,” Zeke smirked.
“There’s too much material in this costume,” she laughed.
“I agree,” said Zeke, completely serious.
Brittney and I rolled our eyes at the comment.
“You look, ah, nice,” Eric said to me.
I threw the plastic wand at him before going back into the changing room.
“Giddy up, cowgirl,” Aidan said.
“Nice,” Brittney said sarcastically.