Christmas Present

Photo by fotografierende on Unsplash

It was December twenty-fifth, and I couldn’t care less about Christmas. I adjusted the hook on my skirt and checked my hair in the mirror. Before heading for school, I turned to the calendar. I grinned upon seeing the circle mark on today's date.

At the bus stop, I swept my eyes across the area. When I spotted a certain boy in the same school uniform as mine, I approached him.

“Morning, Palm. Merry Christmas.”

Palm glanced at me through his eyeglasses, then went back to his phone. “Morning, Nan… And Merry Christmas, I guess.” His voice might suggest to other people that he was still recovering from climbing out of bed, but I knew better. I smiled.

“Come on, Palm. Don’t act like you don’t care about Christmas. You’re expecting a present from Santa, right?”

Palm arched his eyebrows. “You’re a twelve-grader and still believe in Santa?”

“I expect a present on a special day, you know. If Santa doesn’t exist, you should give me a present in his stead.”

After giving me a weird look, Palm went back to his phone. I giggled. As time passed, the crowd around us grew bigger and bigger. I took the chance to close the distance between our shoulders. He gave me another weird look and stepped away. I followed.

“Can you step away a bit?”

“It’s crowded.” I saw him raise his head and look around. Once he realized how packed the bus stop was, he let out a sigh. “Fine. By the way, I have a favor to ask you,” he said. “The entrance exam’s around the corner. Can you help me out with English?”

“Would you give me a present if I do?”

“Why are you so obsessed with presents?”

“It’s Christmas, for example.”

“For example?”

I intentionally looked away and said, “It’s nothing.”

Palm fell silent. Even though he still looked at his phone, I could tell that his mind flew off to somewhere else. “Alright. Fine,” he said, “I’ll buy you something. Happy now?”

“Yay.” I raised my fist.

When the bus came, I went in first. I intentionally chose the seat where we could sit together despite the mass from the rush-hour. Palm hesitated to sit next to me. But when another male student was about to take the seat I preserved for him, he jumped right in. His face turned red, I giggled.

“Shut up,” he said while resuming scrolling his phone. I stretched my neck to peek at his screen. But as if he had known that I would do that, Palm positioned himself in a way that I couldn't see his screen.

“Are you searching for my present?”

“No.”

“Your poker face is terrible.”

He grunted. I laughed.

*

After school, I met Palm at the school gate. We took the bus to the shopping mall nearby. When we arrived, we headed to the cafeteria and unpacked our books. We went through the material together once, then I let Palm do the exercise. He took longer than I had expected. When he finished, I graded it for him and explained what he did wrong.

“You’re terrible with punctuation,” I told him.

“I know already.” He said as he slid his book into his backpack. A sigh escaped his lips. “You know what? I think I’ll change from a present to a math study session when you need it.”

“No, thank you. I prefer a present. And I want it today.”

Palm pulled his face. “What do you want, then?”

I giggled and told him that he should think of that himself. He placed his chin on his hand and looked up as if the answer would appear on the ceiling. I waited. Shortly after, he got up.

“I’m getting some cash. Wait here.”

I gave him a nod and watched as he walked away. When Palm disappeared at the corner, I let out a sigh. I asked myself what I was doing. We were just friends, and nothing more. I had no right to force him to do this. But still, I hoped that he would return with a little something in his hands. However, I should keep my hope low. After all, nobody cared about Christmas.

“Nan!” After almost twenty minutes, I heard Palm’s voice from behind. I turned around to see him stand waiting. His hands were empty. “Let’s go.”

I pushed away the swelling emptiness in my chest, forced up a smile, and followed him.

He took me to an ice-cream shop decorated with Christmas trees and a bunch of Santa and Rudolph miniatures.

“So you chose ice-cream, huh. How lame.” I jested.

“This is what I can afford with my part-time money.”

“Alright. Alright.” We went inside and sat down. I ordered a large chocolate sundae while Palm ordered nothing.

“You’re not getting anything?”

“As I told you, my budget is small,” he said, looking down, “Besides, I had to keep the money for this.”

As I was about to ask him what he meant, a waitress came and placed a pound of ice-cream-chocolate cake in front of me. On top of the cake stood a candle with the shape of number eighteen. I widened my eyes and turned to Palm.

“How did you know?” I asked

As if Palm tried to hide something in his eyes, he turned away and answered with a little stutter. “It’s… It’s your special day after all.”

I could feel my cheeks heating up and my eyes automatically casting downward. “Y-Yeah... So, this is why it took you almost twenty minutes.”

Palm refused to respond to my comment. “Do you like your Christmas present?”

“To be honest,” I said, grinning, “I couldn’t care less about Christmas.”