Merry Christmas, Elijah Lucas
by DJ Adams
December 25th, Christmas
Last night, it didn't take long for Bruno's family to get the message: He and Elijah were a couple. In truth, to them, it was as good a gift as Bruno could give them; Seeing him so happy was all they wanted. The fact that Elijah was such a sweet boy made the deal that much better.
On the ride home after the party, Bruno's parents gave the relationship their blessing.
This morning was Christmas!! The most wonderful time of the year!!
Bruno woke to a text message already waiting for him on his phone. It was a picture of Elijah in a Santa hat with the caption, "Merry Christmas, Bruno <3," attached to it. It made his heart sing – Two minutes into Christmas and he had already received the greatest gift of all.
At the Lucas house, the gift-giving had already commenced. Elijah was quite happy to receive a new mitt to play baseball with, come spring. A few other things followed: A Pacman PS1 game, an iPod, a few articles of clothes.
Elijah didn't have money to give a gift to his parents so he insisted on making the Christmas dinner.
Elijah's mother jumped at the proposition – The notion of not actually having to cook, for a change, was delightful to her.
Later on, at the Jørgensen home, Christmas dinner had concluded early, at about 4:00.
After dessert, Bruno asked if he could go drop off his gift for Elijah. His parents agreed. Before they left, Bruno asked to borrow his Mother's camera – She knew exactly what it would be for.
Bruno grabbed the camera and the unwrapped box that contained Elijah's gift. Out the door for a surprise visit they went – Shadow tagged along, too, never wanting to be far from Bruno.
At Elijah's house, the family laughed and talked and watched The Christmas Story on TV. What an annoying movie; Nobody particularly cared for it but it was a tradition to use the film as background noise for the holiday.
Elijah decided to tell his parents that he and Bruno were officially a couple. It was a simple conversation – His parents had already known and were just waiting for Elijah to tell them. The pair got Elijah's family's blessing.
A few minutes later, there was a knock at the door.
"Are you expecting guests, Elijah?" Mr. Lucas asked.
"No… " Elijah replied, looking confused. He went to the door and opened it. It was Bruno.
The Jørgensens and the Lucases conversed happily in the living room with Mrs. Lucas petting Shadow, while Bruno and Elijah worked in the kitchen.
At about 6:00, Elijah called happily, "Dinner's done!!"
Both families sat down at the table. The Jørgensens weren't planning to eat at the Lucases but Elijah's ham DID smell very good. Mr. Lucas carved the ham and the dinner commenced. There was the meat, the mashed potatoes, the peas, the corn, the cranberry sauce, the garlic bread and, of course, some gingerbread cookies for dessert, courtesy of Elijah. Even Shadow had himself a plate of food.
After dinner, the families retired to the living room. It was almost time for Bruno's surprise but, first, there was one final preparation to be made.
"Mom? Can you take a picture of Elijah and I in front of the tree?" Bruno asked.
"Absolutely!!" Mrs. Jørgensen replied. She stood and took the camera.
Elijah and Bruno stood in front of the tree, Bruno's arm around Elijah's hip and Elijah's hand of Bruno's chest. Shadow jumped up and made it a point to sit in front of the two boys for the photo. They all laughed. The boys smiled wide and the camera flashed.
"Great!! Mr. Lucas, do you have a printer?"
"Bruno!!" Mr. Jørgensen reprimanded.
Mr. Lucas chuckled. "He's okay." He said to Bruno's Father. "Come to my office Bruno."
Elijah went to follow Bruno but Bruno stopped him. "Oh no you don't. I've got a surprise for you. Wait here." Bruno said as he scurried after Elijah's Father. Now Elijah was getting excited. What could Bruno have up his sleeve?
Bruno went with Elijah's Father into his study. Bruno explained his idea to Elijah's Father. Mr. Lucas smiled happily – Bruno was a fine boy and he would make an outstanding boyfriend for his son.
The computer turned on, the camera plugged in, the picture was printed and the photo was trimmed.
Bruno put the finishing touches on Elijah's present. It was show time!!
The two returned back into the living room. The parents fell silent as Bruno approached Elijah. He presented the small box to him.
"Merry Christmas, Elijah."
Elijah was so touched that his eyes began to fill up.
"But… But… I don't have anything for you… " Elijah said, suddenly feeling ashamed.
"YOU'RE my gift, Elijah. You're all I want in the world." Bruno said tenderly.
Elijah smiled. "I love you."
"I love you, too." Bruno smiled. "Now, open it… " He added, giving the box to Elijah.
Elijah smirked and opened the top. His jaw dropped and the tears streamed down his face.
Inside the box sat the leather photo holder Elijah had seen in the store. Elijah opened it up and found the picture of he and Bruno and Shadow on one side, along with his and Bruno's names tooled into the heart on the other.
"But… I thought someone bought it?! It was gone when I went back!!" Elijah said excitedly.
Bruno teared up, too. "It was gone because I took it off the shelf. The same night I met you, I tooled our names into the heart. I loved you, even then."
Elijah threw his arms around Bruno and the two boys kissed. Their parents clapped for the two of them. Shadow barked in approval.
Elijah pulled back. "Merry Christmas, Bruno!!"
"Merry Christmas, Elijah!!"
Authors deserve your feedback. It's the only payment they get. If you go to the top of the page you will find the author's name. Click that and you can email the author easily.* Please take a few moments, if you liked the story, to say so.
[For those who use webmail, or whose regular email client opens when they want to use webmail instead: Please right click the author's name. A menu will open in which you can copy the email address (it goes directly to your clipboard without having the courtesy of mentioning that to you) to paste into your webmail system (Hotmail, Gmail, Yahoo etc). Each browser is subtly different, each Webmail system is different, or we'd give fuller instructions here. We trust you to know how to use your own system. Note: If the email address pastes or arrives with %40 in the middle, replace that weird set of characters with an @ sign.]
* Some browsers may require a right click instead
