Inevitably Yours

Jaxx left late on Christmas Eve, staying long enough to have dinner with my family. My brother didn’t seem too impressed, but he never did anyway. My mom seemed to like him, and my dad didn’t chase him out of the house, so I felt like it was a win. I tried to go to bed early, but I was in too good of a mood after such a great day.

The following day, my brother and I woke to presents under the tree and happy parents. After a couple of hours of passing presents around and watching each other open them, my mom got up to make us breakfast, my dad to make coffee and cocoa, and my brother and I were left to our own devices.

I stacked up my presents in my arms, carefully carrying them up to my room. My mom’s favorite Christmas songs soon echoed through the house as she and my dad busied themselves in the kitchen. My brother disappeared to his room to play his new video game while I started putting my things away.

My phone chimed on my nightstand as I was looking for a place on my bookshelf to put my new books. I grabbed it and found a bunch of ‘Merry Christmas’ messages from my friends and Jaxx. I sat down on my bed and started replying to everyone. Brina, Carl, John, Reese, and I were all supposed to be meeting at the mall tomorrow afternoon. I hadn’t invited Jaxx yet because I wanted to make sure everyone else was okay with it. Brina and I chatted about the new clothes her sister had gotten her and the concert tickets their mom had gotten them both. When I asked about Jaxx, she quickly told me she had just been waiting for me to introduce him and didn’t want to be too pushy after Carl and I’s little fight.

When she had to go, I switched to texting Jaxx. I invited him to go with all of us and meet my friends but didn’t get a quick response. While I waited, I got up and finished putting all my new stuff away, leaving out some of the new clothes my mom got me to wear for our family dinner that night.

When I finished, Jaxx still hadn’t responded. I grabbed my phone and laid on my bed. I didn’t want to bother him; it wasn’t as if I needed an immediate response. I made sure I didn’t have anyone else to reply to, flipping through my messages. I paused when I landed on Michael’s name; the little heart at the end of his contact name caught my attention.

I really missed him. I thought back to the day we met and how close we had become over the summer. So much had happened, and this uncomfortable chasm between us made my heartache. It was probably selfish, but I didn’t want him written out of my life just because we weren’t in the same pack or dated other people. I still wanted him in my life, even if it meant I could never tell him about Jaxx or anyone else I dated.

ME

| merry christmas

| i know you probably dont want to talk to me but i miss you and hope you still want to be my friend

I bit my l*p, unsure if I should even expect a response. I closed my eyes and tried to be patient. He could be busy with his family today or not want to talk to me. If he didn’t want to be my friend anymore, I had to respect that, however difficult it would be.

“It wouldn’t be easy, but it is still something you could do,” Sapphire encouraged.

“I know it would be so different if he were here, but he’s not. If I can only have him as my friend, then that’s what I want,” I told her.

My phone went off with a message, and I jumped so hard I almost threw it.

MICHAELMICHAEL

BLUE

| merry christmas

| i know you probably dont want to talk to me but i miss you and hope you still want to be my friend

She couldn’t have been more wrong. I couldn’t think of anything I wanted more than to talk to her. We’d woken up late for Christmas, and I sat on the couch watching Tyler open presents. I wasn’t much in the mood to open my own, but it seemed like the Goddess was being generous today. Hearing from Quinn was the only thing I would’ve asked for, and I’d gotten that. So, I decided to open the presents and pretend to be happy for my parents’ sake. I texted Quinn back to tell her Merry Christmas, and of course, I wanted to talk to her. I felt Eros stirring; he’d been lazily lounging thus far and hadn’t said much of anything this morning.

“What’d you get, Tyler?” my mom asked, her camera front and center like most Christmas mornings. “Hold it up for me!”

He was thirteen now, so he wasn’t enjoying pictures as much as in previous years. He rolled his eyes and held up a new hoody; it couldn’t have mattered less to him. My phone dinged from my lap, and I looked down to find Quinn asking if I was mad at her.

“Tell her she didn’t do anything wrong,” Eros yawned. “You’re the i***t, not her.”

“Thanks, d**k. What am I supposed to do? Just move back like nothing happened?”

“You could try literally anything. Giving up isn’t helping anyone.”

ME

| you didnt do anything wrong

BLUE

| i hope you’re having a good christmasContentt bel0ngs to N0ve/lDrâ/ma.O(r)g!

That was a loaded statement to respond to. I gave her a noncommittal answer and started opening the presents my dad threw to me. Headgear to match my new wrestling uniform, a new chord book for my guitar, clothes, the next book in a series I’d been reading about dragon riders, and a few other small items. It was a decent Christmas, albeit smaller than what my mom did before. I’d take not being with Lawrence over more material things for Christmas any day, though.

BLUE

| you play guitar ???

| since when

I smiled down at my phone. I guess we hadn’t gotten to that part before I left. We’d only talked about us both playing saxophone.

“Who has you smiling like that over there?” my mom asked, her eyebrow c****d as she lit a cigarette.

“Oh, no one,” I lied, but I couldn’t stop smiling at the thought of playing for Quinn. An idea began to form in my mind for later.

“Well, I have one more thing for y’all,” my dad said, standing up to walk into the other room. I gave my mom a questioning look, but she shrugged and shook her head. She wasn’t telling me anything.

When he walked out, it was almost a replay of our birthday. From the general shape of what he was holding, I could tell that it was a guitar. I wasn’t ungrateful, but I had a guitar now. So, I was confused.

Apparently, I wasn’t good at hiding my face because when he handed it to me, he said, “Just open it, you’ll understand.”

I ripped away the wrapping paper to uncover a hard guitar case. It was too heavy to be an empty case, so I unbuckled the clasps along the edge and slowly opened it. It was the most beautiful guitar I’d ever seen. It was polished and almost mirrored spruce with darker mahogany sides and a neck with twelve strings. I’d seen them online before, but I’d never touched one in person. In the place where each of the six strings would usually go was a set of two strings. Strumming across it open in front of me sounded like heaven, and I couldn’t wait to play it.

“Thank you!” I almost shouted to my parents. They were both smiling at me in their own way, and it hit me that this was our first Christmas together. I wondered what this felt like for them after being separated so long and being somewhat of a family suddenly. This was probably one of the lightest moments we’d had since we left, and there was no hint of Lawrence around. It was nice just to breathe.

“Oh, thanks,” Tyler said, the appreciation not quite reaching his voice. He was holding a new handheld game console, the latest model. He’d been asking for it for a while, because he wanted something he could take out of the house. “They didn’t have red?”

My mom’s face fell a little, and it pissed me off immediately, “It’s the same thing. Don’t be a d**k, Tyler.”

“They were all sold out… I tried to find one, but it’s the same console in a different color-”

“There’s no need to explain yourself,” my dad said. “ Let’s just be thankful for what we have.”

“Fine,” Tyler g*****d, shoving a game into it and going to his room.

I rolled my eyes and kept texting Quinn. I wondered why she was texting me all day when Jaxx was in the picture, but I wasn’t going to question it. Knowing she missed me and wanted to talk to me would be enough to keep me buzzing all day between her messages’ chimes.

“It sounds like a damned machine gun over there with you texting,” my mom complained, throwing a pillow at me. “Be present with your family.”

“Sorry,” I muttered. She was right, although I had no intention of to stop talking to Quinn. Still, it was time to give my parents their gifts.

I handed my mom and dad their presents. I only had so much money, but I tried to make it memorable. I’d been able to find my mom a leather-bound signed edition of her favorite book series about a woman who fell through time to find love. She’d introduced me to the series a couple of years ago, and although it was probably not exactly appropriate for me, it kind of became our thing. I was fortunate to find it in a half-priced book store in near perfect condition. She almost squealed when she opened it and ran over to hug me. My dad was harder. Since finding out about being a Galbraith, I’d been doing some research about our family. When he opened the small box I handed him, I could tell he was shocked. A tear rolled down his face, and he pulled me in for a long hug. It took me a moment for my body to relax because I felt like I should recoil from him. Instead, it was a warm, comforting hug that didn’t mean he wanted to hurt me. He pulled the ring from the box and looked it all over. It was a silver ring with our family crest on it, but I’d had three eagle feathers engraved on it to signify the chief of our clan. He was the rightful Alpha, and that belonged to him. I’d spent the rest of my money getting the ring and the engraving, so I was glad he liked it. My mom had helped me with sizing, so she just beamed at us as she watched him open it and put it on.

The morning was winding down, and as usual, we ended up watching movies, eating cookies, and drinking cocoa as we enjoyed the various things we’d been given while in each other’s company, except Tyler, who’d already disappeared. Once an appropriate amount of time with the family had passed, I excused myself to my room to play my new guitar. I’d been turning it over in my head all day, but I wanted to give Quinn something for Christmas. The way she reacted to finding out I played guitar cemented it, but what song should it be? This was important. We didn’t have a ‘song,’ and we were supposed to be just friends right now. It shouldn’t be too intimate, but I felt what I felt about her.

The song that kept coming to mind is the one that reminded me of what we’d had over last summer, even if it was fleeting. I grabbed the capo off of my guitar hanging on the wall, set it on the third fret, set my phone up on my old music stand in front of me, and hit record. I took a deep breath and set my fingers to E minor, the feel of the double strings both new but familiar enough to a six-string that it didn’t matter.

“Of all the days I still remember, summers never looked the same….”

It took me a few takes, but I finally got something I was happy with. This wasn’t the first time I’d sang to a girl, and I’d done more than one solo in choir over the years. Still, for some reason, my heart was pounding as I typed out, “My first Christmas present to you. Merry Christmas, Quinn,” and pressed send. I hoped, if anything, it would make her smile.