A few of the boys and I had similar concerns over getting a Christmas present for our significant others, and decided to put our heads together to try and come up with proper gift ideas.
Hey, why not? Between myself, Eddie, and Julian, there had to be enough brain power between the three of us to make something worthwhile happen, right?"
...
...Well, if we couldn't, that was why we brought Saberwolf. Also, for security purposes, because bad things seemed to happen whenever we tried to go out and just do things. It also didn't hurt that he looked scarier than any of us, so anyone looking to price gouge the mutant kids had to consider dealing with him.
We hadn't dealt with too much static from people around. Salem Center was so accustomed to mutants being around, we hardly even got looks from anyone anymore, even with a floating boy and a giant metal wolf in tow.
All things considered, we all just went out and goofed around, looking at storefronts, trying to find some stroke of inspiration. Some of us had more luck than others.
By others, I meant Eddie.
Between him and Julian, who had been close friends with Cessily for just about two years, they were able to work together on ideas for the girl. And fortunately, we all settled on something I was actually able to help out with.
Not for the first time since we'd picked them up, Eddie pulled out a pair of Dazzler tickets and stared at them, laughing to himself in disbelief, "Dude, are you sure I can have these?" He asked, also not for the first time.
I was willing to reassure him as many times as it took to get the point across, "Consider them my Christmas gift to you," I said, "It's not like I can use them now. I'm just glad someone can. I was planning to try and re-sell 'em anyway."
I had no interest in going. I'd originally bought them right before homecoming for Megan, because she liked Dazzler's music. I'd planned to take her when the show rolled around near Valentine's Day. Well, due to the collapse of that relationship, it wasn't exactly an avenue I could stroll down any longer. And Laura wasn't really a fan of Dazzler. With her hearing, she probably wouldn't have enjoyed music blared her way at decibels that would damage a regular person's ears.
Better to let someone else get some kind of benefit out of it, at least. Eddie was my boy, so if he could use the tickets to make Cessily happy, good for him. Making my friends happy made me happy. Or at least made me less grumpy.
Yes, I wasn't the grumpiest person in the group for once. That designation went to Julian.
"Why does this have to be so hard?" He moaned, "You'd think with all of the goddamn commercials on, I'd have noticed something that grabbed her at some point."
"It is what it is," I said, though I could feel his pain to an extent, "The pressure's still on. That's what you get when you put all of this meaning into random days on the calendar," I couldn't help but add a little high-and-mighty spin in there.
Instead of getting more disgruntled, Julian sent a smug grin my way, "Oh, like birthdays?"
I paused mid-step and glared at him. I could feel a jab when someone sent it my way, "My birthday, yes. Why do you even know about that?"
At this, both Julian and Eddie had a laugh as the former explained, "You kidding? You having a hate boner for your birthday got around quick. All of the girls on the team were like, 'Aww, Bel. Poor broken, baby bird. Something terrible must have happened,'" He said in a high-pitched voice, "You're lucky. They had to be talked out of doing something to make a big deal out of it."
Good. I owed whoever did that a steak or something, because I would have been breathing fire the whole time. Very little I could think of would have annoyed me quite as much, even done with good intentions.
"Either way," Julian continued, getting back to his current issue, "It doesn't change the fact that between the three of us, the best idea we've had are hand-me-down tickets," He gestured to the tickets I'd given to Eddie, "And they weren't even for me!"
Eddie pocketed the tickets and smacked Hellion on the arm, "Julian, Bel is in the same boat as you, and you don't see him whining."
I mean, I wanted to, because fuck holidays, but I was being praised, so there was no need to derail my hype man while he was bigging me up. Eventually, I did interject.
"Cut Julian some slack," I said, clapping the man in question on the back, "This is probably the first purchase of any consequence he's had to make without access to his parents' black card."
Eddie grinned, picking up that I was messing with him, "Yeah. It probably sucks when you can't just buy Sofia a car or something and call it a day."
Julian swatted my hand away, but there was still a bit of a smile on his face, "I wouldn't have bought her a car," He insisted.
I played along, just to bury him further; in a fun way, of course, "Right. Just some obscenely expensive piece of jewelry, or something else that would get her room raided at school."
This seemed to irk Saberwolf, who'd been content just tagging along, "I would not let that happen," He asserted. I must have insulted his pride as head of security, "Julian Keller, feel secure in purchasing Sofia Mantega as expensive a trinket as you would like."
Julian's ears burned red with embarrassment, "It's not a matter of would, it's more a matter of could... seeing as how I'm not rich anymore."
Even though he was saying it to what was essentially just a machine, it was a mortifying admission for him to make aloud. Being disowned and broke would do that. To be fair, Julian had mellowed out a lot since the summer when it had presumably happened, and it had been such a shitty deal that I couldn't help but feel bad for the guy, not that I'd say it aloud. Not that he would prefer that I would either. He'd rather I skirt the line by making jokes and treating him like normal, which was respectable.
He could still be a prick, but as long as you knew what you were doing you could keep him in check, and when you could he wasn't bad to be around at all.
Damn it, when had I become actual friends with Julian Keller? I'd barely even noticed the shift.