/ / / 2 \ \ \
"Yo, Stiles."
"Yeah, Ben?" Stiles turned around to look at the guy who lived a couple of doors down from him. Ben was nice but perpetually stoned and could only be counted on to be sane and lucid for about twenty minutes of every day. If he caught you at other times it was a strange conversation, with way too many references to cats, that was almost impossible to extract yourself from.
"Hot guy was leaving this by your door." Ben reached into his room and held out a box that had been wrapped in plain brown paper.
"Who?"
Ben shrugged. "Never seen him before but you should really try and get his number."
"For you?"
"Nah," Ben said, with a smile. "I don't like men like that, they're too grrrrr in bed. Women are so much more mellow." Ben slipped back into his room so Stiles assumed the conversation was over.
Stiles shook his head and walked back to his room. He threw his stuff on the bed and made his way through the boxes he had already packed. He pulled the envelope off from the outside of the box. It had been almost three weeks since the last one but he still hadn't pulled the letter, or the certificate, from his board. He recognised the writing as soon as he had seen the box in Ben's hands.
The letter was shorter this time.
Stiles,
I realised that perhaps my last gift did not make you smile as I intended but perhaps made you think about grief and loss.
I wanted you to be happy when you thought of me and my gift.
So, I'm giving you another one. Again it is anonymous because you do not need to know who I am to know you are amazing and you deserve so much more than you would ever ask for for yourself.
Congratulations on almost being a university graduate.
Santa
Stiles sighed, no one had ever put this much effort into him; never. He put the paper down and unwrapped the gift, laughing when he saw what was hidden underneath.
"What's that?" Nathan asked, throwing the door open.
"A gift."
"It's a Mr Potato Head."
"It's a R2-D2 Mr Potato Head," Stiles twisted it around. "Artoo Potatoo."
Nathan nodded but Stiles could tell that he didn't really get it.
"I had one of these years ago, it was so cool but then it was destroyed." Stiles paused to think about the fight that had broken out in his bedroom when he'd been about to graduate high school. "R2-D2 was always my favourite. You just know he was sassing them all in his beeps and squeaks."
"Oh…kay."
"It's cool," Stiles defended.
"Okay."
Stiles looked down at the toy happily. "I like it."
"Whatever, dude, I'm going to the library to study. You just play with your Mr Potato Head."
"Deal!"
Stiles debated pulling the toy out of the box but in the end he caved and pulled it out to make Artoo Potatoo do things while he watched the first Star Wars on his laptop.
TBC…
