20

My room is neat. My bed is made. My radio is playing. My gift is wrapped. This is as good as it gets. I am ready to welcome my friends! 15 minutes left till the arranged time. I excitedly walk down the stairs, ready to open the door when the bell rings.

And sure enough, not too long after, a short melody sounds through the house. Three silhouettes are visible through the door. I quickly open it and welcome my friends.

"I know Lucian and Noah live close to each other, but you're coming from the other side, aren't you?" I ask Caden, surprised that he has showed up at the same time as the other two.

"Oh, no, we come from the same direction," Lucian answers instead. The other boy doesn't seem happy with it, but accepts it in silence anyways. "So, where can we put out jackets and shoes?" My light-haired continues, not noticing Caden's displeasure.

I point to the corner where my shoes and a few coat hangers are. After everyone put away their stuff, we head upstairs. I smile, excited to see Noah's face when he opens his gift.

Ever since the day we planned this, I have been feeling nervous, happy, and unable to wait. I always have that with fun things. I look forward to it for days, sometimes even weeks or months, imagining all kinds of happy scenarios.

Then, as the day itself comes, I feel disappointed. It is here now, nothing to be excited about anymore. No more scenarios, only reality. Time flies by as quickly while the wait had lasted forever.

And afterwards, I feel empty. Nothing to look forward to. Just living, going through the day to get to the next one. An unknown world, an empty agenda. The happy moments linger in the back of my head, together with a desperate wish of having new plans.

Now, I realize it is stage two. The smile fades away and so does the excitement. I walk into my room and look back, making sure I have not lost anyone on the way here. Luckily, they all followed. Even Lucian didn't go off to look at something he likes.

"What the heck is that? It's huge!" The boy I mentioned last reacts to my gift. He walks closer to inspect it, then pouts. "Noah, you lucky bastard!"

We go sit in a circle on the floor. Not the most comfortable, but it will suffice. We put the other three gifts next to mine. It's like humans standing next to the Mount Everest.

"Fine. Now everybody grab your own gift," I say, as I grab a little, thin package with 'Nuri' written on it in a neat handwriting I recognize as Caden's. The sound of gift paper being ripped sounds through the room as all four of us start opening our gifts.

I find myself surprised, but mostly joyful as I see the heartwarming gift. It is a phone case, a picture of our band members smiling bright printed on it. I feel warmth spreading throughout my body while I switch it with my old one. The case is a simple gesture, yet touching.

When I am done, I see that Caden and Lucian are looking at Noah, who is struggling to open his gift. "I don't want to ruin the pictures.." he sighs, as he looks for a way to rip the normal wrapping paper.

"Turn it around like this, and... Right. There's a big patch of normal wrapping paper here." I decide to help him out, not wanting to wait for his reaction any longer, anxious that it is too much or not good enough, excited for the happiness and appreciation.

A full minute of carefully removing the paper later, a gasp finally sounds. "You... You got me an airco?!" Noah says. I am unable to judge the emotion in his voice. Nervousness arises in my whole body, but as soon as it appeared, it fades, as the boy turns around looking shocked but delighted.

"It works as a heater, too. I know you don't have one and how bad your house is when it comes to isolation. I thought it would be a nice gift for both you and your family, since you can't afford it yourselves. It works on sun energy, so you won't have any costs for electricity. Though it does also run on electricity if needed," I rant, feeling like I need to explain.

But he looks like he doesn't need any reasoning. He crawls up to me and gives me the biggest hug I have ever received. "Thank you. This will make it so much easier. Thank you," he says, sounding elated. I hug him too, give him a pat on the back, then let go.

After we all unwrapped our gifts, we start chatting happily, showing each other our gifts. I thank Caden for his simple, yet much appreciated gift. He smiles and shows me a small statue of the Disney figure 'Stitch', a small blue monster-like creature.

"It's my favourite Disney character. He is so misunderstood and so different, yet kind and loved. Such a joyful being." He laughs softly, almost like a giggle.

Just then, Lucian runs up to us. "Hey! Look what I got!" he half-yells, pointing to his t-shirt. It's a white, simple t-shirt, unique in just one way: a sloppy drawing is on the middle. It shows the two most energetic boys of our band, Lucian and Noah, arms around each others shoulders, with the text 'Bros 4 Life' at the bottom.

"That's a very nice gift." It makes me smile. Exactly the kind of stupid thing I'd expect from the two of them.

We all laugh and talk for another few hours, but sadly, it can't last forever. "I still have math homework for tomorrow... If I don't make it, or don't put effort in it, Jerah's gonna kill me." I sigh.

"Aw man... He sounds like a tutor from hell. Just like that exam he's gonna give you. Who does that? He must be a jerk that hates people like you for no reason." Noah frowns, disgust clear in his words.

"He doesn't hate me. Or so I hope. And once you get to know him, he's not a jerk, he's just..." A thousand words that describe him come to mind, but none nice or friend-like enough to say out loud. I fall silent, my thoughts scattered, yet all focused on the man that has been confusing me a lot lately.

"Alright. Let's leave, then." Caden changes topics, probably seeing my confusion and discomfort. We walk back down, Lucian and Noah carrying the airco/heater together as it is too big to carry alone.

The four of us wave goodbye, and as soon as I close the door, I rush back upstairs and start concentrating on my homework, scared of being left alone with my thoughts.