It still hadn't sunk in. I don't think it ever will. My mind will never, ever get used to Toby Turner saying my name. He actually doesn't even say my name, now that I think about it. He calls me, "Belly." It's a play on my middle name, Isabella. But ever since school started up again after I got back from my insane adventure with him, I gained like, fifty friends who all call me that, as well. Sure, it scares me that they suddenly all loved me when they found out that I hung out with an internet celebrity for the summer, but I like to think that it just took that fact for them to notice me. I hope they actually like me for me and not for Toby, but does it really matter? I like going to school now because everyone is nice to me, regardless of the reasoning.
I sat there, in my bed with my little laptop camera pointed at my face. I'll be the first to admit, I have a habit of watching myself rather than the friend I'm Skyping with; I just need to make sure I look good, y'know? I Skype a lot, with a specific girl, so it's a pretty relevant problem. When I Skype with Toby, however, I never look at myself. I can never take my eyes off him; he's way too beautiful. And also, I can never wipe the smile off my face. Everything he says is hilarious, I swear to god. So you can imagine how I felt when he lowered his voice and got all solemn.
"In all seriousness, though, I have some bad news." I couldn't help but sink into my mattress a little bit more.
"W-what is it? Are you okay? Is everyone healthy? Good god, I didn't even ask…"
"No! Everyone's fine, you silly noodle," he giggled. Relief hit me hard.
"What is it then?"
"Um, well, I did do something for you for Christmas, but it isn't going to get to your house in time, I'm afraid…"
Oh my god, Toby. You gave me a freaking heartattack. I actually kind of forgot it was the day before Christmas Eve, despite the festive tree behind him. I guess his beauty was kind of distracting.
"I don't care! This call is good enough for me! I don't even have anything for you, actually. Here, have a puppy." I picked up my spaniel, Kay, from the foot of my bed and shoved her nose in the camera. I wondered if she would be able to recognize Toby's face on the screen…I seriously doubt it. But she fell head-over-heels in love with him when he came to visit in early July. She didn't leave him alone; she followed him around everywhere. Of course, Toby being the giant dog person he is, did not mind one bit.
"Hey gorgeous!" he griffin-voiced at her, "Who's my favourite doggy? Hm? Whoops…" he broke character. I watched him leave the frame, so I put my dog back in my lap.
"What happened?" I asked.
"I offended Griffin." Toby threw himself back into the chat with the little dog in his arms. "No seriously, he tried to get up and leave when I said that, HA. I'm sure it was just a coincidence."
We chatted until it was 1am for me. That's only 10pm for him, so he didn't realize how long he was keeping me, and sent me to bed as soon as he did. I couldn't sleep because as soon as I lay my head on my pillow, I had a thought. Toby had told me he got me something for Christmas, and I really, really wanted to know what it was. I had no idea when it was going to get here, but I had heard from a few of his friends that he is really good at giving gifts. I had kind of experienced this already, with the scratched up Thunder Thursday shirt as a get well gift, so it was killing me to know what he got me this time. I'll just have to be patient, I guess…
*~*~*~*~*~*
Christmas Eve was very relaxing. I did almost nothing all day. I lay around the house, ate, read, and thought some more about Toby's gift. At around 8:30pm or so, the doorbell rang. I got up off my bed to run to my window. When I little, I always had my stepping stool set up there, so I could look out the window to see who was at the door. I'm tall enough to not need the stool anymore, but I still love being nosey. To my surprise, I saw Santa at the door. I knew what that meant, immediately. In my town, the postmen work on Christmas Eve. As a little bit of a gag - if you will – they put on Santa suits so the little kids get to think that Santa is delivering their Grandma's gift to them, or whatever. I know this because I've seen it happen to my neighbours, and I was at my friend's house once when she got a gift from her boyfriend a couple years ago. But it had never happened to me. Of course, since my mind was completely set on something very specific, I assumed it must have been a gift from Toby, right away.
He told me that it wasn't going to make it on time. It can't be from Toby. But if it isn't from Toby, who's it from? Oh yeah! I keep forgetting that I actually have quite a few friends now, thanks to him. Maybe it's from one of them! Wait, maybe it isn't even for me. This is killing me, I'm just going to go see.
Of course, by the time I got downstairs, my mum had greeted the postman at the door. He was wearing the fakest beard I had ever seen. There was cheesy Christmas music blasting as I stood at the top of the stairs and watched my mum take the big box from his hands. She put it on the floor beside her stance, signed for it, and closed the door.
"Who's it from? Who's it for?" I screamed
"Calm down, Maddy! I don't know who it's from; they asked to keep it anonymous. But it's for you." My heart skipped like, ten beats.
"C-c-can I open it now?" Maybe it's from a boy at school…
"Sure, I'll call your dad and your sister." I watched her descend into the basement, and I flew down the stairs to my knees beside the box. It was a pretty big box; it was as tall as my shin, and it was coated in green and red plaid paper. My mum came back up from the basement with the other half of my family following closely behind. They all wore a huge grins on their faces while they sang along to the music playing on the stereo.
"Open it! Open it! Open it!" My sister hopped up and down. I gave her a smile and looked at my mum's face for a seal of approval. She nodded, so I carefully tore the pretty paper off the box. Underneath, there was a brown box with slits in the sides and a suspiciously sparse amount of tape. One single square in the middle of the four flaps at the top of the box held it together. I looked up at my family. They all had their hands up near their faces with the same huge grins. I looked down at the box again and drummed on the top of it to the music as I slowly pulled the square off; I wanted this exciting moment to last just a couple seconds more than it needed to. I yanked the flaps apart and was shocked to see what was inside.
"OH MY GOD!" My sister screeched. My mum had to hold her back from running to the package while she laughed out loud. There, at the bottom of this giant brown box, sat a white ball of fluff. I saw the romantic scene playing in my head. I'd get a text from a cute boy in a few minutes, asking if I got the puppy he sent me, then he'd show up at the door and kiss me Merry Christmas. I knew it was another dog as soon as I saw it, but my stomach completely flipped when the little white pup looked up at me. I recognized the face. I stopped breathing as I picked up the dog to confirm this sudden realization. He licked my face while I tried to pick up his tag. There, on his collar, definitely read, "Griffin." My mom gave a little bit of a peep of excitement, and ran to the door. No one had knocked or anything, but the postman stepped back in the house. He reached up and pulled that disgustingly fake beard off his face. There stood Toby, in my home, dressed in red and white. I watched his lip tremble and I squeezed Griffin harder while I tried to comprehend all this. I looked over at my mum who was ready to burst, waiting for my reaction. I couldn't help it, I broke down. I was a complete, sobbing mess. I stumbled over to him and nuzzled my face into his soft, red jacket. He had his forehead rested on top of mine while we just stood there, leaning into each other and bawling together. Griffin started to struggle, so I put him down. He and Kay flipped out at each other right away, so I giggled and went back to Santa's embrace.
"Stop crying, you're making me look even less manly than I already am." All five of us laughed. Toby's voice fell to a whisper as he murmured the words, "Merry Christmas, you nugget."
