Chapter 4

Early Presents

Ty locked himself in his room. Anna rang the doorbell a dozen times and threw rocks at his window, hoping to draw her friend out. It was a good ten minutes before she finally gave up and ran next door to her house, leaving Ty in his solitude. Until his cell phone began to buzz with the phone downstairs ringing soon after, Anna continuing her assault from afar.

In the end, her efforts were in vain. Ty continued to ignore her, pulling his blankets over himself and falling into a restless sleep, numb to everything.

#

It was nighttime when Ty awoke. He poked his head out of the covers and looked at his phone. Nine o'clock. He sat up, rubbed his eyes, and noticed his door was open now, which meant someone must have come in to check on him. He was glad they didn't try and wake him; talking was the last thing he wanted to do.

Usually after a nap like that, he would be lost and confused, unaware of what day it even was anymore. Today, he knew perfectly well where he was, how he got there, and what he had done. And still, he didn’t feel any better about it all, the extra sleep accomplishing nothing but setting an even worse mood.

Ty got out of bed, walked down the hall, and tiptoed as quietly as he could on the stairs. In the kitchen, he could hear talking from the living room, but couldn't make out any of what was being said. Just as well, Ty wanted nothing to do with any of it.

He caught sight of something on the kitchen counter and his heart stopped: the container of juice boxes, open, still with only one missing. Part of him wanted to throw it across the room. Another side wanted to pick the whole box up and take them back to his room where he would cry until the cardboard was mushy from his tears.

Instead, he jerked away, choosing to get as far away from it as possible. He grabbed his hoodie off the coat rack, slipped it on, and exited through the back door. It was way colder than it had been earlier—he never watched the weather, but it wouldn’t surprise him if the temperature was low enough for snow.

Undeterred by the chill, he went straight for his destination: his trampoline. He hopped onto it, rolled into the center, and just sat. He pulled his hood over most of his face, hiding in a darkness deeper than the night.

Inside the hood, inside Ty's mind, were thoughts just as dark. Everything that had happened since his grandfather died hit him hard and left him alone and confused. All he thought he knew about the world, his future, and even himself had been ripped away from him and torn to shreds. Not only that, but some incorporeal figure had then stomped on the pieces, laughing and ridiculing him forever believing in such childish things as “individuality” and “happiness.”

With a grunt of desperation, Ty bolted to his feet and began to jump. He tried to distract himself in the motions’ repetition, tried to fly away with the wind rushing past and against him as he bounced. It didn’t work. He found himself slamming both feet against the trampoline with as much force and anger as he could muster, each time using more strength, more anger, and going ever higher.

Despite the rage, memories slipped in through the cracks: memories of a time when he and Anna would not just jump up and down, but leap into whole other worlds. It could have been into their favorite shows, movies, or video games as they filled the shoes of their favorite characters and acted out the stories they already knew and loved. Other times, they made up their own worlds and stories, usually packed with tons of action, danger, and huge explosions.

They fought dragons—Ty the brave and fast knight danced circles around the beast while Anna, armed with an arsenal of magic, hammered it with spells from afar. They had jumped and run along buildings, flown and touched the skies, fought in many an epic war with swords, futuristic weapons, and everything in between. They’d saved the world and, on a few occasions, brought it to an end themselves.

Tonight, alone, the trampoline was just a piece of springy material. No portal to another world, no magic, no escape.

He collapsed, bouncing one last time, then growing still near the metal springs.

He sighed.

“Did you get them?” Ty's eyes popped open, Anna’s face appearing out of nowhere above his head. Startled, he sat up so fast both of them would have been knocked unconscious if Anna hadn't moved her head away from the edge just in time.

“Sorry! I didn't mean to scare you!” She said in between giggles. He wasn't sure he had ever heard her laugh like that before.

“I-I was just—”

“Dude, it's me. I don't care.” Anna hopped onto the trampoline, sitting on the springs, legs swinging. “You could have even told me you were pretending to murder Barney and I wouldn't think any less of you,” a pause, then, “You really weren't trying to murder a fake purple dinosaur, were you?”

“No, no,” Ty said, laughing. “I was…” The laugh died in his throat and his sentence was left unfinished.

He could feel Anna looking at him, waiting for him to continue. But he didn’t feel obliged to. Instead Ty got up and sat in the middle of the trampoline, right on the faded star that was once so bright and yellow, now little more than an outline.

“Look, you really shouldn't be here. I haven't spoken to anyone about what happened, but I'm betting I'm grounded.”

“Oh, it's okay. I've got someone on the inside.” She smiled slyly and pointed to the kitchen window.

Ty's father and grandmother were in front of it. His grandma was talking to her son-in-law while his eyes kept darting from her to outside, at Ty and Anna. She went closer to him, mouth moving ninety miles an hour, took him by the arm and pulled him along. Ty could see that his father wanted to protest, but realized the inevitability of it and followed her to the side.

A moment later, an old hand came back into view, thumbs-up sign shining back at them.

Ty tried to fight it, but he couldn't keep back the urge to laugh. The jolly sound was like a punch to the gut, telling him he couldn’t even be miserable the right way. He eventually gave up and collapsed onto the trampoline again in defeat.

Anna joined him. He laid one way and she the other, their heads side by side.

“You just can't leave me to wallow in self-pity, can you?” Ty said as he stared up at the cloudy sky.

“I wouldn't be a very good friend if I did.”

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Ty glanced at her out of the corner of his eye. In that one look, he saw a part of Anna that had never been there. Or, at least, he’d never noticed it before. The way she looked at him was... different, somehow. He turned to face her all the way, but the moment passed and she was just Anna again, the friend he certainly didn’t deserve right now.

He sighed, the biggest ever, and all the rage and helplessness left him. Just like that, she made him forget all his troubles in so few words.

“Thank you, Anna.”

“No problem, just doing my job.” She smiled at him.

They were quiet for a few minutes. Then Anna spoke again. “I brought your gift with me. I was going to wait until tomorrow but... maybe it will help cheer you up if I give it to you now.”

“I can have it now? Really?” Ty said, excited.

“Yep!” She got to her feet, offered Ty her hand and helped him up.

“Now, close your eyes.”

Ty's eyes snapped shut.

Anna took his hand and put something small in it, “Okay, now open!”

Ty did and looked down. In his palm was a single LEGO brick attached to a key-chain. Ty moved his hand closer to his face and the light from his house fell on the small toy. It sparkled and shined in a way Ty had never seen before.

“This isn't…”

“It is.”

“You didn't…”

“I did.”

“But this…” Ty said stupidly, raising his hand with the brick in it farther.

“Is yours.”

“I can't—”

“You can, now shut up, this is getting annoying.”

Ty agreed and quit talking, examining his gift from every angle instead. What he had in his hand was no ordinary plastic brick, no; this brick was made of real gold. He knew they existed from the Internet, but he never thought he would ever see one in person, they only sold them at—

“Not only did you go to Disney World without me, but a LEGO store, too!”

Anna laughed at his sudden outburst. “You got me! I did. The big one at Disney World, even.”

Ty was fuming with jealousy.

“But you know what? I didn't actually go in.”

Ty looked at her blankly. “What? Why not?”

“It would have been strange going there without you.”

His cheeks felt hot. Oh no, why was this happening? He pretended to warm his hands by bringing them up to his face and breathing in them, hiding his blushing from view.

“I gave my mom the money instead, told her what to look for, and she went in and got it—the last one they had.”

“You bought it? With your own money? How much did it cost?”

“A whole lot.”

He held it back out to her. “Take it. I can't let you spend money like that on me...”

“Don't be silly.” She closed his finger over the brick. “You're worth way more.”

There went his cheeks again. He needed to get a handle on that.

“Um... thanks, Anna,” he mumbled, not looking at her, hoping his cheeks would go back to their normal color soon.

“You are very welcome,” she said, beaming at him.

“Still…” He began. “You have to let me get you something as good as this, too.”

She didn't say anything for a while. When he looked at her, he saw that other side of her from before again. He still didn't know what it was that was different about her. He just couldn't place it…

And then she spoke, startling Ty out of his thoughts, the strange feel still about her.

“There is… one thing I want.”

“Anything!”

Anna came closer to him, the trampoline moving and squeaking with her every step. Ty's heart began to race. He had only been this close to her during the few times they had hugged, an exchange that was usually fast and over with before he knew it. Right now, he could really see her, all the details he had never had a chance to look at.

Her hair was smooth and shiny, a milky dark shade that smelled vaguely of candy. The scent of it filled him, making him light-headed and Ty figured this might be what it was like to be drunk—but with more happiness and less crashing into things.

Now she was close enough that he could see the color of her eyes, even in the darkness. Light brown surrounded her pupils, spiraling out over the top of a darker shade. It was like chocolate, melting from the inside out. Those same eyes had a blazing, serious look that seemed to say she’d made up her mind about something, and nothing was going to get in her way.

At least I’ve seen that look before, Ty thought as she came even closer and their lips touched, at which point Ty lost most of his ability to think.

#

They pulled away, the kiss that felt like an eternity to Ty really only lasting seconds. Ty's heart started beating again and he was forced to admit that he was still alive. That was a problem, because now he was faced with what to say next. Ty opened his mouth several times, hoping something intelligent would come out. Nothing happened, and instead, he just looked like a fish gasping for water.

Thankfully, Anna didn't see. She was looking down, away from him, her hair blowing in the wind. He could tell that she was lost in thought, the way he usually was. She looked beautiful, standing there… Ty almost punched himself for thinking that. It was Anna! What was wrong with him?

“I've wanted to do that for a long time.”

Anna's words interrupted the mental battle going on in Ty's head. Good thing, too, because he wasn't sure which side he was on.

“Um… really?”

“Yeah,” she said, still looking at the trampoline beneath their feet. “You probably think I'm weird, huh? You must just see me as 'one of the guys' or whatever and never as… you know, more than a friend.”

To Ty's horror, she turned to face him now, her chocolate eyes hoping to lure out an answer.

“N-no, that's not…” He stopped, took a small breath, then continued, “Well, I guess it’s kind of like that… But it's not that I haven't pictured you as… 'more than friend' because I see you as a guy. It's more that I've never pictured any girl as a… girlfriend.”

Never had one word been so hard to choke out.

“Oh, I see.” She looked away, this time at the sky. “I'd always heard that girls mature faster than boys. I guess this is what they meant.”

Ty felt that he should say something—anything—but was again at a loss for words. He opened his mouth to give it a try anyway and—

“It's snowing!” Anna yelled, cutting off what Ty was certain would have just made him look like a fool.

He looked up and, sure enough, it was snowing. Slow at first, but the size of the flakes and the speed of their descent increased quickly. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Anna, smiling and arms outstretched, snow falling all around her.

“Wow.”

“Yeah, the snow sure is beautiful, huh?” she said, glancing at him.

Ty looked away. “Th-the snow… right.”

Then, silence.

And a boy and a girl, unsure of what should happen next.

The snow decided for them.

“I th-think I should be heading home,” Anna said through chattering teeth. “I-it's getting pretty cold.”

“Oh yeah, me too.”

They hopped off the trampoline to the already snow-strewn ground. They rounded up their shoes and pulled them on. Ty took a bit longer than usual tying his laces, almost hoping she would leave without talking to him. But there she was when he stood up.

“Um… thanks for the present,” he said, sticking his hand out for whatever reason. Whether it was supposed to be a gesture for a high five or a handshake, he wasn't sure; it would have been stupid either way.

Anna simply laughed and slapped his hand. “No problem.” She turned and sped off toward her house, adding over her shoulder, “And thanks for mine!”

Ty watched her as she ran to her backdoor and slipped inside. He didn’t look away for a long time after she had gone. The snow kept falling, piling up around him as he tried to take in all that had happened, and figure out where it even came from.

He tried to remember her acting differently around him but he couldn't think of a single time that she hadn't been… Anna. The only semi-logical conclusion he could come to was that girls and all womankind were mad creatures he would never be able to understand.

Girls...