Something's Gotta Give

Jade's Point of View

When I walked downstairs the morning of Christmas Eve, I just about shit a brick. Surrounding our tree was the most ridiculously large pile of presents I’d ever seen. They were arranged surprisingly well but spread out a good three feet from the base of the tree, encroaching considerably on the moving space in the family room. I had to admit though, that upon closer inspection, they were all wrapped really nicely. Jack had really stepped up his wrapping game.

“Oh good, you saw my present pile!” Jack said, walking in from the kitchen with a mug in each hand. The smell of coffee had been what forced me out of bed, accompanied by the dread that came with organizing any kind of holiday event.

“Did you think that I’d miss it?” I replied, and accepted the cup that he handed me. “What did you do, get something for everyone you’ve ever met?”

“Of course not. I’ve met a lot of people, Jade. That would be impossible.”

Sarcasm was lost on Jack first thing in the morning. “These look great, but maybe we could just keep it to gifts that are for Skye and Alex so we have a little more room, and then bring the other ones out tomorrow.”

“These are the ones for Skye and Alex,” he answered.

I choked on my coffee.

“Trust me, you don’t even want to see Kendall’s pile.” He smiled. “Besides, I still haven’t added the ones for Zack and Rian yet.”

“Why would you add those? It’s just the four of us.”

“No, I invited Zack and Rian, too.”

I closed my eyes and pinched the bridge of my nose. There were so many problems here, I didn’t even know where to start. “Why would you not tell me that? I didn’t buy a big enough roast for six of us!”

“I did tell you that,” Jack responded. “The same time I told you we were going Christmas shopping the other night.”

It wouldn’t do any good to keep arguing with Jack, but I scowled at him. “Quit telling me shit by whispering things under my door. It’s weird, and it’s not helpful.”

“Sorry,” Jack said, and then patted my shoulder as he started to walk away. “I know you’ll pull it off, you always do. Anyway, I’ve got some things to do, so…”

“Oh, no you don’t,” I said, grabbing his arm. “You want to have people over so bad, you’re gonna have to help.”

Though his eyes flashed fear, Jack was surprisingly good help. I let him clean while I focused my efforts in the kitchen, and he obliged my request to reconfigure his absurdly large pile of presents. He even went the extra mile to divvy them up by recipient so exchanging gifts could go a little smoother later on in the evening.

We got ready in shifts so someone could always be keeping an eye on the food, and I let Jack shower and change first since I knew I’d take longer. After I was finished showering, doing my makeup and hair, and getting dressed, I came downstairs to find Jack nervously fidgeting on the couch.

“Oh no,” I groaned. “Please don’t tell me you have diarrhea. Now is not the time.”

I expected a laugh, but didn’t get more than a half-hearted chuckle and a shake of his head.

“No, it’s not that,” he said. “It’s just that I’m really nervous to give Skye one of my gifts, and now I’m thinking maybe I shouldn’t give it to her.”

“Well, what’d you get her?” I asked and took a seat on the couch next to him. “I mean, aside from everything under the sun, apparently.”

“It’s a heart-shaped necklace with little diamonds on it,” he told me. Before I could ask why he would get her something like that, he added, “I know it’s a lot, but I just saw it and thought of her, so I bought it.” His eyes brightened. “Hey, maybe you could give it to her.”

“What? No. Then Skye’s gonna think I’m in love with her or someth-” I stopped myself, realization dawning on me. “Wait, are you in love with Skye?”

“No,” he answered too fast. “Maybe. Yes. A little bit. Sort of. I don’t know.” He let out a moan of anguish, cradling his face in his hands. “I fucked up, I don’t know what to dooooooo.”

This news was a bit of a shock, but not totally surprising. I’d kind of always thought that Jack had a crush on Skye, but it seemed to go away and then reappear sporadically through the years. It just had never occurred to me that it went that deep. And as annoying as Jack could be, I hated to see him stressing like he was.

I stood up and walked over to Skye’s mountain of gifts, picking up a little box on top. “Which one is it, this one?”

He nodded.

“Okay, so here’s what we’re gonna do,” I started. “I have a roll of wrapping paper that I didn’t end up opening, so it doesn’t match any of the other gifts. Go get it from my closet and then re-wrap the necklace, but don’t put a gift tag on it and put it back on top here. She’ll know it’s for her, but then she won’t know exactly who it’s from.”

“You don’t think she’ll figure it out?” he asked.

“Maybe, but since you invited Rian and Zack, it’ll be a little bit harder for her to narrow it down.”

Having Zack and Skye under the same roof after so long was bound to keep it interesting. It’d been years since they’d dated, so I hoped enough time had passed that they could be as civil as Alex and I were. But then again, while Zack was a nice guy, there was something about Skye that made him act like a real fuckboy.

While Jack went upstairs to re-wrap his gift, I double-checked the food. Almost as soon as Jack came back downstairs and put his present for Skye back, the doorbell rang. Skye, Alex, and Zack had arrived with Rian right behind them. They were holding bags of gifts and snacks, which we split between the kitchen and family room.

“Let me give you a tour,” I offered once the bags were where they belonged. Skye had been in quickly to drop off Kendall, but no one had seen the entire house yet. “Jack, since you already have everyone’s gifts separated, why don’t you keep playing Santa and divvy up the ones our lovely guests brought?”

This way, I figured, Skye wouldn’t notice that Jack’s gift had already been there when they walked in.

After the tour and Jack had finished separating presents, we all grazed on some of the snacks that they’d brought and had a few glasses of wine while the roast finished up. We laughed a lot through dinner, and even Alex seemed to be in a better mood than he’d been the past few weeks. Clean up went pretty quickly since everyone helped, and then it was time to open presents.

“Jack, this might be the understatement of the century, but I think you may have gone just the tiniest bit overboard,” Rian remarked from behind his stack.

There were way too many gifts to take turns opening, so we all just started ripping and tearing away the paper. The constant chorus of excitement and thank you’s rivaled that of children on Christmas morning.

I kept waiting to hear Skye’s reaction once she got to her mystery gift, but was distracted when Alex exclaimed, “Jade?! Did you get me a goat?!"

“Not exactly,” I answered, unable to keep myself from smiling. “I sponsored a rescue goat for you for a year, so you kind of have a goat. Also, three chickens.”

Aside from asking about marriage, one of the things Alex had been talking to me about the most while we were touring was how badly he wanted a baby goat. Since we all lived in the suburbs, I obviously couldn’t get him an actual goat, so I figured this would be the next best thing.

“That’s so fucking cool! Thank you!” He came over to hug me. “Seriously, you’re the best fake-sometimes-girlfriend a guy could ask for.”

“Never been called that before, but I’ll take it,” I joked. Rian started to ask what the hell that meant, but was cut off by Skye.

“Oh my God! This is gorgeous!” She had the necklace box open in her hand, smiling brilliantly. She picked through the wrapping paper next to her and looked confused. “There’s no tag, so who’s this from?”

My eyes slid over to Jack, who I figured would have made himself a dead giveaway. He was an awful liar. Instead, he was acting quite convincingly like he’d never seen the necklace before either.

After a few moments of silence, Skye said, “Seriously? No one wants to own up?”

Still, nothing. She shrugged in response. “Well, whoever this is from, I love it. Thank you so much!” Skye motioned for Alex. “Lex, help me put this on?”

We finished opening presents about twenty minutes later and cleaned up the ocean of wrapping paper that had flooded our family room. After everything was squared away, we played a few rounds of Cards Against Humanity. By the time everyone finally left around two-thirty, my stomach hurt from laughing and my jaw ached from smiling so much.

Jack and I stood in the doorway waving goodbye to everyone as they drove away, and locked up once they were out of sight.

“So do you think she liked it?” Jack asked, fidgeting again.

“Liked it? She loved it,” I assured him. “Are you ever gonna tell her it was from you?”

He shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe. We’ll see.”

“Suit yourself,” I said. “Don’t forget to set your alarm though, because we’ve gotta be at Mom’s for breakfast tomorrow at ten-thirty.”

“Aye-aye, captain.” Jack saluted me. “Maybe we should take separate cars to Mom’s though, because I don’t think everything’s gonna fit in one.”

“Wait, just how many more gifts are there?”

Jack smiled and began skipping up the stairs. “Oh, you’ll see in the morning!”