Hospital Beds and Memories

The next morning, I woke up early like a kid excited on Christmas Morning. Only, I wasn’t a kid, and it was the day before Christmas Morning. But it was practically the same thing. We were going to exchange gifts today with Alex and Lisa, and we just decided to turn it into our Christmas Morning. It would only be weird to not open all the presents under the tree and have to figure out which ones we could open on which day. We already had all the gifts from my family and Jack’s family waiting for us underneath the tree.

I still heard Jack sleeping deeply beside me because of his heavy breathing. His arm was trapped underneath my body, but he didn’t even seem to care or notice. Lucky for him, I was the first one to wake up, meaning he didn’t need ninja skills to move his arm. However, to be honest, even if it had been my arm underneath his body, I wouldn’t have cared about waking him up today, because I was going to do it anyway.

I sat up and briefly looked at his calm sleeping body, contemplating if I really did want to wake him up. But I was too excited to think about it for too long. I jumped on top of him so I was straddling his waist. His eyes snapped open and he looked at me with shock, letting out a small scream.

“It’s Christmas!” I squealed out in enthusiasm, hitting his chest along with my words.

“No,” he groaned and rubbed his eyes with the back of his hands, “I was having a good dream.”

“I don’t care, Christmas is better than any dream you could possibly be having.”

“I wouldn’t be so sure of that…” He grumbled before looking me up and down. “Unless it’s coming true now.”

I slapped his chest and got off quickly, causing me to stand next to the bed. “Ew. Gross!”

“Oh, come on, you know it’s far from gross.” He smirked and suddenly threw the covers off of him.

Without warning, he grabbed me and threw me onto the bed. He sat on top of my legs so I couldn’t move and started tickling every inch of my body. I squirmed around, trying to get away from the unbearing touch. But his grip was too strong and my giggles were too loud. I kept slapping his hands away, but they’d find another inch of skin to touch, making me jerk my body in another weird angle.

And then he suddenly stopped.

I caught my breath, an occasional giggle still escaping, my vision blurry with tears. Blinking so that I could see clearly again, I looked up at Jack to see him staring down at me. I was about to ask why he was looking at me like that, but he already leaned forward and started peppering kisses all over my face. His thumb and forefinger were on my chin to keep my head steady while I tried to dodge his touch again.

“What are you doing!” I shrieked, my eyes closing tightly so his stubble wouldn’t hurt them.

“‘m kissing all your freckles,” he mumbled and continued executing his master plan.

I kept trying to wriggle away, but he was too set on kissing every square inch of my face. It wasn't all too long until he planted one large one of my lips and finally backed away. His eyes skimmed over my face while he had a serious look on his face before the corners of his lips turned upwards into a satisfied smile.

“I think that’s all of them,” he sighed in contentment and started climbing off of me. “So, I’m going to make pancakes like I promised, and you go do whatever you want to.”

“I’ll first go put on my Christmas pajamas like we said we would, and then I’ll come downstairs as well,” I informed him, knowing that Lisa and Alex were also going to be wearing pajamas they had gotten especially for Christmas.

Jack gave me one last peck on the lips before disappearing out of our room and downstairs. While he was still in his boxers, he didn’t really mind. He couldn’t care less about the small chance of the neighbors seeing him practically naked through the trees and our windows, and Alex and Lisa had seen him much worse, including me. Normally, he would happily wander around the house completely naked, unless Taco would decide to come a little bit too close.

I went up to our closet and got out the pajamas I had gotten a couple of weeks ago before everything was sold out. It wasn't too extravagant, just some simple long, red plaid pajama bottoms, and a t-shirt that had a penguin wearing a Christmas hat while fishing on it. There was some text written on it as well: Wishing You Christmas Fishes. It was way too cheesy to not buy. I actually couldn’t stop laughing when Jack and I went out and bought it… Yes, I was one of those people. I couldn’t help it, ok?

Of course, I decided it would be better to wear a bra underneath my pajamas. It kind of defied the purpose of wearing pajamas, but I didn’t want to risk anything, you know. Time like this, I cursed my family’s history of large breasts. It would have been so much nicer if I didn’t have to worry about that. Around Jack, I wouldn’t have minded, but I wasn’t exactly prepared to do that around Lisa and Alex.

When I came downstairs, Jack was already at the stove putting the batter in the pan while he had a plate to the side to put the finished pancakes on. I sneaked up behind him, noting that he had already given Taco her food, and wrapped my arms around him. His chest grumbled as he chuckled, telling me he already heard me coming. Although I didn’t scare him, I still nuzzled my head between his shoulder blades and placed one innocent kiss on the back of his neck.

“How about you go upstairs and get changed while I finish off the pancakes?” I suggested, slowly retreating from the hug I had started.

“Hmm… ok.” His arm moved as he slid the contents of the pan onto the plate and put the spatula down on the counter.

He took a step to the slide to let me take over, but I couldn’t help but frown at what I saw. What the hell was he doing?

“What is this?” I asked, pointing at the plate with large thin pancakes and the bowl of very watery batter.

“I thought I’d try making them the European way,” he shrugged, making me raise my eyebrows in a questioning way as I didn’t believe a word he was saying. He sighed and shook his head, “Taco distracted me by playing with a piece of paper and I added too much milk. But if I added more flour, we would have way too many pancakes, so I just decided to roll with it.”

“That makes more sense.” I nodded and picked up the spatula to continue his messed up work. He was lucky because my mom sometimes used to make these when Cam and I were kids, plus she recently showed me how to make them at the cafe because she was considering on selling those too.

“I’ll also get some wood from the garage so I can light an awesome fire in the fireplace.” Jack started walking out of the kitchen to go upstairs to get changed first.

“Wait, that fireplace actually works? It isn’t one of those fake ones?” I inquired as I poured a spoonful of batter onto the pan.

“Yeah, I just haven’t used it in ages. Now's a good time, especially since we can immediately burn the used wrapping paper.” Jack added before rushing up the stairs.

----

So, he managed to make a fire after quite a lot of cursing, many failed attempts, and a lot of matches. However, in the end it was worth it. The living room looked complete with it and the entire house got a cozy feeling. It wasn’t just a normal house that Jack and I lived in with some occasion Christmas decorations, it actually looked like we were celebrating something while it was freezing cold outside.

It warmed my heart.

Alex and Lisa came down just after I had finished setting the table, which was a pleasant coincidence. Apparently, my laughter from Jack’s tickling had woken Alex up, but Lisa had slept through it, so he waited for her to wake up before getting out of bed. It sounded quite cute that he would let her sleep in, but then again the thing Jack and I did wasn’t any less coupley. It just happened to be loving in a different way. Maybe having been in a very long relationship also changed the way you did things, but it could also have been our personalities.

Also, Jack’s weird pancake mixture actually turned out to be really great. Although they were very flimsy, they actually managed to make me full in no time. I only ate three before I was completely full -- of course Jack managed to eat five, but that’s Jack for you. Alex made a joke about us not having enough jam, which made me excited to give me his Christmas gift.

To be honest, I had no idea what to get anybody, so I literally just got everybody some joke gifts. None of it was very serious, and I also didn’t really have the money to be able to afford big amazing gifts. I just didn’t think it would have been so difficult to shop for Jack. You see, I couldn’t think of anything on top of my head, and although he knew whatever he wanted throughout the entire year, he seemed to just suddenly have forgotten it all just before Christmas. So, basically I thought his gifts were the shittiest I had gotten, but at least I tried.

Anywho, the two guys had managed to finish the pile of pancakes without any trouble, and we were all cleaning up the table together. Well, that was the plan. Just as I was about to pick up some of the condiments off the table, I noticed Jack standing next to me and staring at me out of the corner of my eye.

I turned to him and tried to decode his expression. “What you looking at?”

“I missed some…” He remarked out loud. It was then that I realized he had been staring at something specific. His eyes weren’t just on me in general, but they were focused on my right cheek.

“Oh, no, you don’t.” I pointed my finger at him and started running.

He followed quickly behind me, just a couple steps too far to catch me. I predicted that Alex and Lisa had no idea what was going on, but I was more worried about escaping Jack’s wrath. My journey went from behind the couch, around the dining room table, jumping over the couch, nearly crashing against the wall with his tour passes, contemplating whether to go upstairs or not, to finally being trapped in the kitchen.

I grabbed the first thing to protect me, which happened to be the most useless object ever. Pointing it at Jack, I tried menacingly scowling at him. “I have a plastic disposable spoon to protect me. Come any closer and I will not be afraid to use it.”

“Oh, no! Whatever will I do now?” Jack sighed pathetically while placing the back of his hand against his forehead to act like a damsel in distress.

“Give up!”

“Nope.” He popped the ‘p’ and ran up to me, placing his hands on my cheeks and kissing the freckles that he had been staring at just before. “Yes, I win!”

“No!” I groaned out in defeat and handed him my deadly weapon. “Here, I give you my mighty spoon in shame.”

“I got a spoon!” He yelled out in delight, causing Taco to sprint from in front of the fireplace to all the way upstairs.

Jack happily clutched onto his spoon and skipped back to the dining room table to finish cleaning everything up. I followed soon behind him to pick up a couple of the last things as well. Alex stood next to the chair he had been sitting on during breakfast and chuckled when Jack wouldn’t put down the spoon so he could carry an extra plate back.

“How often do you guys do this?” He asked me while Jack hugged the spoon like a soft toy.

“Whenever a situation calls for it,” I replied with a shrug. It was pretty normal for Jack and I to suddenly switch from being a normal couple to acting like five-year-old kids back to a couple again.

“Every second of the day?”

“I guess…”

As soon as the whole table had been cleared, we moved over to the living room and made coffee and hot chocolate. I, personally, wasn’t very sure which one of the two I wanted, so I made both for me. Who was I to turn down the caffeinated beverage or the chocolatey goodness? They were both lifelines I couldn’t just leave. So, while everybody else had chosen one, I had two hot mugs on the coffee table in front of me.

When all that was set up, it was time to open gifts. I wasn’t expecting much of course, and I already knew that there was one great gift I was going to get. That envelope that my dad gave me wasn’t just some random envelope, nor was it money. But I was going to keep it as a surprise for Jack, because he had no idea about it. I just really hoped nothing would get in the way, or the whole surprise would be for nothing. And I didn’t want to think of the possibility of him not liking it, because then we would have a very big problem. I had been talking to my dad and Jack’s parents for quite a while to organize this. They were all very excited, so…

There was also another ‘small’ thing I had been able to organize for him.

“I just want to warn you that all my gifts are shitty,” I warned everybody, none of them being an exception, while Taco decided that sleeping next to Alex on the couch was a good idea.

“Don’t worry,” Alex laughed as Taco pushed up against him completely, “any surprise is better than two dogs freaking the fuck out because I smell like cat when we get home.”

And so we started. We chose Lisa to be the one who had to open one of her gifts first. Why? Just because we could. I mean, it sounds like a nice gesture when you’re telling somebody else to open a present before you, but I honestly wanted anybody but me to go first. It was always so awkward to me to be opening the first gift and have everybody’s attention. If it had been done by someone before me, a little attention would already be diverted. Simple logic to me.

Even though it was supposed to be a joke gift, Alex loved what I got him. Rather than getting him a typical ‘manly’ gift, I decided to go towards the inside joke direction. This basically meant I referred back to the question Alex had asked me when I had done my Q&A (which I had finished editing and had put up on youtube). On the label, I had written all the names we had called Alex in the video, but the gift was the main thing. I found a book on ‘how to make your own jam’. And, no, it was not about musical jams, but about real jam jams, as in marmalade, strawberry jam… blueberry jam…

He absolutely loved it. And it wasn’t just in the haha-thanks-for-getting-me-this kind of way. He actually was going to get the ingredients and try it out. If it worked out, he’d make us some as well.

Another ‘important’ gift was something that Jack and I had managed to get each other. The gifts were very similar, but just slightly different. The idea behind them was the same, but the way they physically looked was different.

Remember the photo frame Abagail had managed to break, ruining the photo in the process? Yeah, well Jack and I both got each other something to replace the empty space. I had gotten him a very nice photo somebody else had taken with a camera when I still had my long hair, while Jack got me a much more recent picture. My hair was short, and it was obvious by the length that it really only had to be a few weeks before. Something told me it had been taken in LA. There really hadn’t been any other time it could have been snapped, but I had no idea who took the photo and gave it to Jack. But it didn’t matter. We now had two beautiful photos to put along with all the other ones, one from the beginning, one from the ‘end’.

Further, I had also gotten Jack the care package I had given him as well last year. The rubber chicken was back again (Jack certainly enjoyed making it scream in my face), the Jack Daniels was ready to be finished in one evening, however there wasn’t a bra this time. I just told Jack that if he wanted a bra so badly, he could just go upstairs and open the drawers in the closet to find one. When he realized that, he seemed to be content.

Alex got Lisa some beautiful jewelry, something she absolutely adored. Apparently, she had been eying a particular bracelet for ages now, and Alex had finally decided to give it to her. I, however, was very happy I hadn’t gotten anything like it. Not because it wasn’t beautiful, because it really was, trust me, but because I had told Jack not to get me any jewelry. It wasn’t some weird hint towards me actually wanting it, I just thought he had given me enough jewelry since we had been together. I had my promise ring, my necklace, and my bracelet. Nothing more was needed. It did, however, lead to Jack not getting me much more than all these ‘joke gifts’ and things that weren’t all too serious. Not that I minded, though. Our gifts just happened to be very different to Alex’s new watch and Lisa’s expensive bracelet.

“Ok, I got you one more gift,” Jack said just as I thought everything was over except for my two awesome gifts I was going to give him. All the wrapping paper had slowly turned into ash in our fireplace, it now it seemed like some more was going to be added.

Jack got up from his seat and rushed over to the bookcase, moving a book to the side and grabbing a small box. When he handed it to me, he sat down and excitedly stared at me, waiting for my reaction. The box was very similar to the one I had seen Cam holding just the day before, only this one was in black. When I caught a glimpse of Alex and Lisa, I saw their faces full of shock and intrigue, their eyes wide with anticipation. I just frowned and lifted the top slowly, confused why they would be so interested in such a small thing.

“Oh my god!” I gasped as I saw the gold inlaid with a small gemstone. It was absolutely beautiful. The grin that had swept across my face wasn’t going to leave anytime soon.

“So…?” Jack asked me with an unsure tone.

I jumped up in delight and climbed over the back of the couch to rush upstairs. “I need to add it to the other ones!”

Once in our bedroom, I easily found the charm bracelet Jack had given me before my leukemia tried to destroy me. The charms already on it were small things to commemorate important events in our relationship, but the one he had gotten me this time was for the biggest ‘milestone’ yet. It seemed pretty simple, a golden four leaf clover with a small green gemstone in it, but I knew exactly what he had gotten it for. The luck I had had the past year was so big. I managed to beat cancer even after it seemed like nothing was going to help. It was just all pure luck.

I added the new charm to the chain and put it on my wrist. Before going back downstairs, I made sure to grab the two gifts I still had for Jack to open. One was in my purse, reminding me I still had to hide Cam’s engagement ring, and one was in the bottom of the sock drawer. Both in envelopes and only giving the actual gift on a later date.

I ran back downstairs into the living room before they would start to wonder where I had disappeared to. Not only was I super excited to give Jack the last two presents, but I also wanted to show him the new charm now getting a permanent place on my bracelet.

Alex and Lisa looked a lot more calmed down than before. Maybe my gift hadn’t seemed as thrilling as they originally had thought. I still thought it was the best thing I had gotten for Christmas that year. Although it might make me sound like an ungrateful bitch, it was much better than the expensive makeup my mom had given me. I was sure I would have loved it if it had been a bit cheaper, but I rarely wore makeup, and to get me something so expensive kind of seemed like a waste to me…

Anyway, back to the charm bracelet. I jumped back onto the couch so I was sitting Indian style beside Jack. He looked at me and already started making excuses without there being any reason to. “I know you said no jewelry, but I needed to get you that--”

Before he could go any further and say something he’d regret, I decided to interrupt him, “I love it.”

“Are you sure?”

“I wouldn’t be wearing it if I didn’t.” I pointed out and made the two enveloped appear from behind me. “Now, to make you feel less bad about the shitty gifts I got you, I still have two things for you to open.”

“Did you just make them appear out of the blue?” Alex asked with a laugh. I understood what he was thinking. After Jack had gotten me something expensive, it looked like I was trying to make up for it by quickly putting something into some envelopes.

“No,” I scoffed, waving around the one I most recently had gotten in my possession, “my dad gave me this one yesterday, and it’s not actually from me, but for both me and Jack from them and his parents, I just happen to know what’s in it. And the second one I’ve been hiding for a while, but Taco likes opening mail by biting and scratching at it, so I didn’t want to risk it.”

“Seems like she outwitted you, Alex.” Lisa poked his side in a teasing manner.

I rolled my eyes a little and turned back to Jack. “So, which one do you want to open first? The one for both of us given to us by our parents, or the one I got you? They’re kinda the same gifts but for different things.”

“Which one’s the better one?” Jack asked before realizing how stupid the question actually sounded. “You know what, just put them behind your back and I’ll blindly choose one.”

I nodded and did exactly as he asked me to, switching both gifts back and forth between my hands a couple of times. When I was done, he chose my right arm, which happened to be the gift our parents had gotten us. I couldn’t wait until he found out about its contents. He was going to be confused, and I just really hoped nothing would get in between it all.

He carefully opened the envelope that had both our names written on it in my dad’s beautiful cursive handwriting and pulled out two pieces of paper. “Tickets to… to… ma-- mau-- maur-- Mauritius? What?”

When he looked over at me, a puzzled look on his face, I decided to explain. “You know, an island in Africa, it’s ‘just off’ Madagascar. Anyway, my dad is basically having a midlife crisis right now, if you haven’t realized, and he did some impulsive buys. Most people might spend their money on weird home improvements at that time, for me buying a bag of chips is practically impulsive. My dad, however, he decided to randomly buy a beach house on an island he’s only been to once. So, there’s that. He contacted your parents, and now they organized for us all to go over there during my birthday -- which was coincidental, they actually forgot about that. So, it’s going to be your parents, May, Joe, my parents, and two of my cousins -- Cam’s going to be too busy working on new music.”

“Ok…” Jack accepted, but had one more question to ask. “Which cousins?”

“The one you’ve met, Aunt Doreen’s youngest, and another one you haven’t met, who is Aunt Doreen’s eldest.”

“Aunt Doreen?” He looked at me with a terrified glance.

I shook my head frantically. “No, she’s not coming. That would be a disaster.”

He let out an audible sigh of relief, making me giggle. I completely understood where he was coming from. To be honest, I felt the same exact way. If she had been there, she would only gush over us 24/7, ruining the whole vacation for us. I would not be able to handle her wanting to intervene in our love life the entire time, wanting to know all the details. There were some things I didn’t mind sharing, but most were kept to either me and Jack or really close family like Cam.

And then came the next gift. The one I had gotten for him all by myself. I handed it over, and he once again took out tickets, only this time there were four.

“Flights to Texas in the beginning of February?” He frowned, waiting for me to explain this one as well. There wasn’t really a reason why we’d go to Texas, except for the obvious one he somehow didn’t realize.

“Go on, check the other tickets…” I urged, wanting to rip them out of his hand and shove them in his face so he could see what exactly I had managed to do for him.

“Super Bowl tickets!” He shrieked out, looking between me and the precious paper in his hands. “What the shit!”

“No way,” Alex gasped from the other couch.

“These can’t be real!” Jack exclaimed right after.

“I’ve got some connections,” I smirked, happy to see he was so thrilled about it. But I should have known that I couldn’t have gone wrong with this gift. “My family is pretty big, you know.”

“Can I steal your family for a second?” Alex whispered, not wanting to seem too jealous.

“Oh, hell no! These are mine!” Jack screamed and attacked me so he could give me a kiss. “I love you so much! Oh my god!”

Later that day, I had managed to get some positive reactions from Jack’s fans after he tweeted out:
@Jackalltimelow: Best Christmas ever created by the best girlfriend ever! Am I really going to watch the Super Bowl kickoff IRL?