All things considered, I was more prepared for this year's Feast of the Winter Star than any prior. I only had to stop into one gift shop to find the perfect trinket for Elliott: a quill with erasable ink.
I was actually pretty psyched to give it to him. When I approached him, though, I... almost got the vibe that he was more psyched to receive it. As he saw me, his eyes went all wide, and he seemed a bit taken aback. I supposed everyone was at least a little surprised when they found out whose "secret friend" they were every year. I knew I was.
"Hey, I'm your gift giver this year," I smiled.
"Oh, what a pleasant surprise!" he said rather jubilantly. "T-Thank you so much!"
When he opened it, I can legitimately say he looked like he was a kid again. It was honestly kinda cute.
"Oh... you know me so well!" he reacted. "It's... beautiful! Oh, this is going to be a delight to use! Thank you so very much!"
"Of course!" I laughed. "I've been excited to give it to you since I laid eyes on it!"
He looked up at me, straight into my eyes.
"You are such a kind soul," he told me. "How could I ever thank you?"
"I... It's Winter Star," I replied. "It's... the spirit of the season or whatever. You don't have to do anything for me."
"Oh... okay," he conceded. "If you insist. However, I still cannot thank you enough for this wonderful gift."
"You're absolutely welcome," I smiled. "Well, I'm gonna go grab some pie, so if we don't speak again, merry Winter Star!"
"The merriest of Winter Stars to you as well!" Elliott beamed. "I hope to speak to you again soon!"
"Yeah, me too!" I smiled, walking toward the dessert table.
Somehow, whoever had made the cherry pie this year had upped their game, and the subtly sweet shell combined with the powerfully sweet cherry filling to create a perfectly meshed galaxy of sweetness in my mouth that almost made me oblivious to Shane's walking up to me with a gift in his hand.
I in fact did have to do a bit of a double-take when I saw that. He was standing there and looking at me with a present. Shane?!
I guess I made my surprise a little too obvious, because the first thing he said to me was "Never expected the rude, grumpy guy to be the one giving you your Winter Star gift, huh? Well... here you go." He held the gift out to me.
"Well... thank you!" I smiled, taking it.
I opened it to reveal a nice gift box, which I opened to reveal probably the shiniest, newest set of spinners I'd ever seen. They all had purple bobbers, and shined in a way that made the surface look like a bunch of carefully-woven carbon fibers.
"I know you're down at the beach fishing all the time," he said. "So... I saw those and figured you could get some use out of them."
"I think I most certainly will!" I reacted. "Thank you so much!"
"Yeah, of course," Shane smiled.
And I mean that. There was a smile on Shane's face.
On top of that, he actually continued the conversation.
"How's your Winter Star going?" he asked, rubbing the back of his neck a few times.
"Fantastic so far," I answered. "I don't think I've been so confident in a Winter Star gift in my life."
"I saw your secret friend was Elliott," said Shane.
"Yeah!" I said. "The first gift shop I went to... it had escalators, it was sick... and it had this beautiful quill with a vial of erasable ink!"
"Wow," said Shane, raising his eyebrows.
"Yeah, and as you also may have seen, he loved it," I said. "Whose secret friend were you this year?"
"Actually... Elliott's," Shane replied with a bit of a chuckle. "He got me a wallet with a chicken on it."
"Ooh. cute!" I said.
He paused a second, then reached into his pocket to take out said wallet and show it to me. The wallet was brown, with a cartoon chicken sewn with tan string. It was raising its wings and clucking enthusiastically.
"Awww, that's so cute!" I reacted, especially to the chicken's adorable face.
"Yeah, I suppose," said Shane, putting the wallet back in his pocket. "He was thinking of me, at least."
"Yeah, yeah," I nodded.
Then, there was a lull in the conversation. I took a bite of my pie, and it took until I swallowed it for me to notice that Shane was still there. This was by no means a bad thing. Quite the opposite, really. Perplexing, at least. The guy hardly ever spoke to me, and from what I'd heard, I wasn't the only one. I could probably count the number of times he's spoken to me on one hand.
Oh, shit, maybe I was in the way of a dessert I wanted. I was still standing by the dessert table, after all. I then realized, though, that he wasn't holding a plate.
Just as I was about to open my mouth to continue the conversation, though, a familiar voice piped up from my left.
"Hey," it said, plainly but still with a bit of cheer.
I turned to see Sebastian standing there.
"Oh, hey!" I smiled. "Merry Winter Star!"
"Back at you," Sebastian smiled back. "...Sam, Abby, and I are hanging out by the river if you wanna join us."
Abby as well? Maybe she and Sebastian had talked things out? Even if they weren't back together, maybe they were friends again?
"I'll be over there, then, thank you!" I said.
I looked to see that Shane had left. Then, replaying the entire-ass conversation I'd just had with him in my mind, I sought out my friends and headed their way.