Counting Down The Days To Go

“God, it’s freezing,” Mike exclaimed as we pulled into the school parking lot. It wasn’t officially winter for a few more days but the chill in the air was apparent and people were wearing thick, warm clothing already.

I myself was snuggled up in one of Mike’s pullover sweaters and some jeans with a pair of boots protecting my feet. I decided not to wear gloves today because Mike’s sweater was so big that the sleeves could cover my hands completely.

“Aren’t you comfortable in my sweater?” Mike asked with a smile.

“I sure am,” I said. “I can’t wait for winter break which is like in five days time. And then in just over a week, it’s Christmas!”

“Yeah, time sure flies by.” Mike said.

“Yupp. So, do you want anything in particular for Christmas?” I asked. Mike had showered me with tiny gifts every now and then but I haven’t gotten him anything yet so I felt extremely bad. The thing was, Mike was just so complex and it seemed like there was this whole other side that I didn’t know about him. Every time I pick up something that I thought he might like, I put it down again just because I’m not completely sure if he would really like it. Buying a Christmas gift for him was going to be hard.

“Nah. Nothing in particular. I’m sure I’d like anything you give me. It’s the thought that counts,” Mike said.

“Okay.” I said with a smile.

***

So here I am at the mall. All alone. What am I doing? Buying Christmas presents for my dear friends and parents, of course. As I zigzagged my way through a traffic jam of prams, crying toddlers and annoying holiday music, I waited for some inspiration to strike me. I sort of had a vague idea of what to buy for my parents. But for my friends? Not so sure.

I headed down to Hot Topic, hoping to get something for Aiden. I was buying presents by alphabetical order so no doubt, he was on the top of my list. I hadn’t really talked to him in person for awhile but he does give me calls and texts occasionally. At the end of every phone call though, he would get all weird and talking about me and him being together. I wanted to say ‘dream on, boy’ but I just couldn’t. Oh well. I’m sure that one day, he’d finally get that I don’t really like him in that way.

Aiden was rather easy to buy presents for. I walked around Hot Topic for awhile before deciding to get him this wallet, some barbells for his tongue piercing and a beanie just for the fun of it. I figured that he needed a new wallet since his current one was pretty torn and tattered. And since winter was here, he needed a beanie to keep that mop of pretty hair warm. The barbells were just something I bought for the heck of it. I just wanted to see if he would really wear heart-dotted barbells in his tongue. His gifts weren’t that expensive so I had a reasonable amount of money left over.

After walking around for a bit, I finally decided to get a cute pink music player for Amanda just because I felt that she needed some music to cheer her up during this period in her life. I bought a pair of pink and white headphones that seemed to match the tiny gadget for her too.

I felt all merry and warm inside after buying the presents for two of my bestest friends. The next person on my little list was Chanel. I had heard her mention quite a few times about how much she wanted a little pet to shower some love on so I headed down to the pet store. I headed straight for the hamsters and I felt in love with this one. It was pretty cheap so I decided to buy a cute little cage and other basic necessities too. After buying some basic treats to keep the hamster alive before I gave it to Chanel, I headed out to buy my parents’ presents.

I don’t really see them much so I suppose I should take this holiday period to show how much I love them. For Daddy, I bought him a silk tie from Versace and a fountain pen with a super cool design on it. For mom, I bought her a a set of jewellery I blew a big hole in my pocket after buying the expensive gifts for my parents but I’m sure what they are giving me is far more expensive.

Last but definitely not least on my list was Mike. I had purposely put him at the end because I wanted to have time to consider and carefully purchase a gift for him and not rush through it just because I still had other gifts to buy. I had thought about buying him a book to keep his music scores in since lately, he had been writing his own songs so I thought, why don’t I buy him a book to write all the notes in? But then again, I couldn’t just buy him a book for Christmas.

I went to the music store that he bought the black guitar at and got him a really cool-looking leather bound book that looked something like that. Except that the one I got for Mike had empty spaces known as staves for Mike to write musical notes on.

Okay, so the book was bought. But what else? I gazed around the crowded mall, hoping that the perfect gift for Mike would just fly out of a shop or something.

Just then, I spotted it. The most fabulous thing that I’m sure Mike would truly like.