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Tre wrapped an arm around my shoulders and hugged me. "I loved it," he said, "It's simple..but now I remember that day so well... Thanks." he continued. I shrugged at him this time. "We know each other too well not to get a good gift for each other." I told him.

Even if it wasn't much, we both got each other something that would last us a long time, and it would never lose meaning. I also noticed something; throughout the years, some things just never change. We never stopped being best friends, and we would stay that way.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Probably one the best Christmas I would ever have, with or without my family around. The gift I got from Tre, it was now one of the most special things I owned. It gave me this strange feeling, knowing it came from him, and why it'd seemed so special to me. I shook away the thought and focused attention back on reality.

"You wanna come to my house? We can find something to do there." I offered to Tre. He knew I wasn't trying to be offensive, there was really nothing to do in his part of town. "Sure, it wouldn't be fun to hang out here and do nothing." he agreed. See? Even he knows it's boring here!

We walked back towards my house, all along the way trying to play around and be extra careful not to hurt each others gifts I was entirely sure why he brought his as well. I just put it in the back of my mind to think about later.

Every once in a while when there was a chance moment of silence, I'd just look down at my gift and my mind would start to wander. Wander to things that hadn't crossed my mind before. And I wasn't nearly disgusted by the thought. The opposite, actually. And that made me..not worried, but kept me thinking.

"What are you turning red about?" Tre asked jokingly. I didn't even know that my face was turning red just because of what I was thinking about. "Nothing you need to be worrying about." I said, trying to use the same tone he had.

But I guess he heard something different in my tone, something I didn't mean to throw in there. For once, he didn't push the subject any further. I wondered what he thought I could've been thinking about.. Okay, never gonna repeat that, way too confusing.

Tre left the subject alone and we continued on talking about mindless stuff, whatever we felt like. I really wasn't the type to talk about something I wanted to avoid. And he knew when he was going to far with something..sometimes. We kept on like that until we arrived at my house a little while later.

It sort of threw me off when I heard some noise and saw a few lights on in my house. Nobody was home, or at least no one was supposed to be home.  I walked in through the back door, with Tre right behind me, and went to investigate just what was going on.

The voices grew louder and as we got cloer to the living room, walking super slow, the people in the house became quiet all of a sudden. Talk about people showing up at your house, with no warning, to just brighten up your day.

"Surprise, we're home!" my mom said as Tre and I were just inside the living room. She had a big smile on her face, something I didn't get to see often. And all my siblings were at home too, including the older ones who didn't live at home anymore.

"What are you all doing back?" I asked, slightly confused to say the least. My mom looked at me as if it was the most obvious thing. "Because.. You really didn't think we were going to leave you home alone on Christmas Day." she said, a few of my siblings smiling at me.

To think, I just thought they all were just pretty annoyed with me, ya know, the baby brother thing.  "That would just be pretty selfish to be worrying about just ourselves, don't you think?" she said, coming up to hug me. "Merry Christmas, hun." she said. "Merry Christmas, mom." I said, a grin growing on my face.

I could feel quite a few eyes on me but I didn't care at that moment; I got what I wanted, not to be alone on Christmas. And my stepdad wasn't lurking around! I wondered where he could be... But it was easy to forget about him, and focus back on reality. I turned back and saw Tre no longer behind me.

I stuck my head out into the hallway and saw him heading out the backdoor. "Tre, wait!" I called. He turned around as I ran down the hall to stop him. "Where are you going?" I asked, once again confused. He didn't seem so hyper or bouncy for once and just shrugged.

"Well..I dunno, your family's home now. Got what you wanted, didn't you?" he asked, more himself than me. It surprised me; he was so ready to leave, like I expected him to leave. But I didn't want him to go, I never did. He was my best friend. Yeah I was happy my family was home, but I considered him as close as family.

"Yeah, but.. I don't want you to leave. You should know that." I said, hoping he would hear the way I was trying to say it. He brought his gaze up to me and looked slightly hopeful. "I guess so.. You just seemed so much more happy with them around."  he said.

I don't remember ever seeing him feel this..excluded, before. Him feeling like he wasn't welcomed in my house? When did that shit happen? I don't swear a lot, but c'mon, he was still one of the two closest people to me.

"I was happy, but I was plenty happy when it was just me and you, too. Just stay, please..?" I said, almost pleading with him. I wouldn't ever admit that to him, though. He looked unsure and asked me, "Well, sure, but what can you say that would make me stay?"

Kind of an odd thing to ask, if you ask me. He was almost an extortionist for a moment. I quickly looked above me and was thankful to see someone had hung a mistletoe while I was gone. I just hoped this wouldn't all blow up in my face.

"You remember before, when my face was all red and like..blushing?" I said, flinching a bit when I said the word 'blush'. He nodded and then I pointed upwards at the mistletoe. He looked back down at me and I saw a look of understanding on his face.

Before I had a chance to stop myself, I realized I was going into kiss him. He didn't seem all that surprised at me and he didn't push me away or anything. Pretty much the opposite. When I kissed him this first time..well, I can't really describe it to you. I no longer thought of him as just a friend anymore, not when he kissed me back like that.

Pulling away and opening my eyes, I could see him almost glowing. "That good enough to make you stay?" I asked, laughing a bit. His eyes got big and he smiled wide. "Of course I will now." he said. I took him by the hand and walked back into the living room.

Looks like this Christmas was more worth remembering now.