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“This is a really dumb idea,”
“It’s not that much of a dumb idea,” PJ retorts, looking over at Dan. “A lot of people do this.”
“Secret Santa?” Dan scoffs. “Isn’t this a game for little kids.”
“No. All ages can do Secret Santa. It’s fun, and it’s festive.” PJ says. “Would you quit being such a Grinch and just do the damn game, Daniel?”
Dan cringes as soon as PJ calls him by his government name, Daniel . “Don’t call me that,”
PJ smirks, and then he looks up when the door opens. “Well, it’s about damn time!”
“Sorry I’m late,”
Dan’s head quickly whips over as soon as he hears the sudden familiar voice, and he sucks in a deep breath as soon as he sees that it’s none other than Phil Lester, the boy he’s had a crush on since freshman year. Now they’re seniors, and he’s absolutely no closer to having the courage to talk to Phil, despite PJ always constantly pushing him to talk to him. Dan’s just too scared. He instantly looks back over at PJ and glares at him. “PJ, what the hell?” He hisses.
PJ chuckles. “Still don’t wanna do Secret Santa?”
“You’re not doing Secret Santa with us?” Phil asks, walking over to the group. “I thought-”
“No, I… I-” Dan stutters, quickly shaking his head. “Sorry. I’m just…”
“I mean, it’s cool if you don’t want to do it. I understand. We’d just have to struggle to find someone else to join us on such short notice. You know?” Phil sighs, and plops on the bed beside Chris. “It’s December fifth, after all.”
Dan rolls his eyes. “Don’t be so dramatic,” he mumbles. “I’ll do the Secret Santa.”
PJ whoops. “Excellent. Then let’s get the names written down and we’ll draw,” he says, reaching over to grab a pen and paper from his desk.
Dan ends up drawing Phil’s name, because of course he would. That’s just his luck.
Dan doesn’t know Phil. Not really, anyways. All he knows is that Phil’s smart, and he’s a nerd. He likes nerdy things, from watching him and from what PJ has told him.
“Before we go, we should say what we all like, so everybody knows what to shop for,” PJ says, and Dan sighs in relief. He’s so relieved that he could kiss PJ right now.
“No,” Phil argues, and he stands up from the bed.
“What do you mean no ?” PJ asks, frowning as he looks up at Phil.
“Yeah, I’m with PJ on this one. I don’t know you or Chris very well. It would be helpful-”
“I just mean-” Phil laughs. “We should keep it a surprise. That’s what Secret Santa is all about, right? It’s to surprise someone else with a thoughtful gift. We should let everyone else guess what their person wants. That way they’d be totally surprised when they open their gift.”
“You are such a sap, you know that, right?” PJ asks, raising his eyebrows.
“I know. Mum tells me all the time. I can’t help it,” Phil shrugs. “Anyways. I gotta get home, and do some homework. I’ll talk to you guys later?”
“Later Phil,” Chris says, waving as Phil walks out of the bedroom.
Dan doesn’t think about Secret Santa for about a week, until PJ brings it up at school.
“Shit,” Dan groans, and sinks into his chair. “I haven’t even started shopping!”
“You realize there’s only ten days left until Christmas, right?” PJ asks, raising his eyebrows. “Dude, you’re going to run out of time.”
“You think I don’t know that?” Dan asks, looking over at PJ.
“Clearly not,” PJ snorts in response, and he sighs. “Come on, Dan, it’s Friday. Let’s go shopping after school. I’ll drive. You think your mum will be okay with that?”
“I’m sure. It’s Friday. Usually I can do whatever I want on the weekends. I’ll text her,”
Finally, the school day ends. PJ takes Dan to the local mall to find a Secret Santa gift.
“I’m guessing you got Phil?” PJ asks as they walk into the mall.
“You know, sometimes you really are the worst?” Dan retorts, looking over at PJ.
PJ snorts. “I know. So, you got Phil. He’s not going to be hard to shop for, you know? Phil likes a lot of different things. You know him. He’s quite the nerd. You see something he might like, then let me know and I’ll tell you if he’ll like it or not,”
Dan raises his eyebrows. “So, who did you get?”
“Well, that would defeat the whole point of Secret Santa, wouldn’t it?” PJ smirks.
“Once again, I’ll say it… you are the worst,” Dan groans.
It feels like they walk around for hours. Dan thinks he finds some things that Phil might like, but PJ is quick to shoot them down quickly. Dan thinks it’ll be impossible to find Phil a gift.
Dan is feeling frustrated by the time he gets home, a few hours later.
“Oh, hi sweetheart. You’re back. How was shopping with PJ?” Dan’s mom greets when Dan walks into the door. He looks over and sees his mom sitting on the couch in the living room.
“I don’t want to talk about it,” Dan mumbles.
“Not good?” She chuckles. “You still have time to find the right gift.”
“I have ten days left, mum. If I wanna find him the most perfect gift and impress him, then I need to find it now. Not the day before bloody Christmas,” Dan grumbles. He sulks over and slumps down on the living room chair, sighing in disappointment. “We walked through the whole mall, and everything I thought Phil would like, PJ said he wouldn’t. PJ knows Phil best.”
“I think that’s your issue right there, Dan. It’s probably best if you go shopping on your own. You know, I need to do a bit of last minute Christmas shopping for you kids too. Why don’t we go back to the mall tomorrow, and go our separate ways? We’ll go to the mall bright and early so that you have plenty of time to shop around. How’s that sound?”
“How early are we talking?” Dan asks, raising his eyebrows.
His mom chuckles. “Not that early. How does ten sound?”
“That’s fine, but I am sleeping in on Sunday and you can’t stop me,” Dan mumbles.
“Of course not, dear. Never in my wildest dreams would I keep a teenager from sleeping in,” she laughs softly before standing up. “I’ll get dinner started. You do your homework.”
Dan groans, before pushing himself back up. He sighs, and looks around. He’s got to think long and hard about his gift for Phil. He doesn’t just want to get him a gift. He wants it to be perfect.
This would be different if PJ or Chris had been the one he got for Secret Santa. He’s known the two of them personally for years. But Phil . Phil is different. Dan doesn’t know him. Not really, despite having the biggest crush on him for years.
Dan is feeling determined as he walks into the mall the next morning. He stayed up all night, and even did a little Facebook stalking to figure out some things Phil likes. He noticed that Phil’s a big Buffy The Vampire Slayer fan, so he’s thinking that’s something he can work with.
He goes into Hot Topic first. He’s greeted by a young female employee.
“Hi, my name is Kelly. Is there something I can help you with today?” She asks.
“Actually, yes. I’m looking for anything that has to do with Buffy The Vampire Slayer, specifically Sarah Michelle Gellar. Do you have anything?” Dan asks hopefully.
Kelly thinks for a moment, before smiling. “I believe we do! Follow me,”
Dan is relieved. He finds a shirt with Sarah Michelle Gellar’s face on it, and he even finds a couple of pins he thinks Phil might like. He also decides to get a ten dollar Hot Topic gift card, because there’s a lot of cool stuff in that store he thinks Phil would maybe like to get.
Dan is finally feeling confident.
“You seem a lot more chipper today than you did last night. You found something?”
“Hell yeah. Phil’s going to absolutely love this shit!” Dan exclaims.
“Daniel,” his mom warns, glaring at her son. “Watch your language.”
“Sorry, mum. I’m just really excited. That’s all,” Dan says as he gets into the car. “We have wrapping paper at home, right? I didn’t buy any. I just grabbed a gift bag.”
“Don’t worry. We always have wrapping paper at the house,” she is quick to assure him.
to PJ :
hey nerd I found the perfect gifts for Secret Santa
from PJ :
what the hell? We just went shopping yesterday dude
you didn’t find anything
to PJ :
well I decided to do a little stalking on Facebook and went to HT
phil’s going to love my gifts ^__^
from PJ :
you are ridiculous
Dan can’t help but laugh, because he knows PJ is right. He is a little ridiculous.
Finally, after anxiously waiting to give Phil his Secret Santa gift for over a week, the four boys meet up the day after Christmas. They decide to meet up at Dan’s house this time. His parents are gone, and his little brother is locked up in his room, distracted by new video games.
“Your mum really goes all out for Christmas, doesn’t she?” Chris asks as he walks in. He’s the last one to show up. This doesn’t come as a surprise to any of the three boys.
Dan chuckles. “Well, yes. She’s a big fan of Christmas,”
“Evening, lads,” Chris greets as he walks into the living room.
“It’s about time you show up. We thought you weren’t going to make it,” PJ complains.
“Please, of course I was going to make it, Peej. I can’t believe you have such little faith in me. Look, I just have a tendency to be a little late sometimes,” Chris retorts.
“A little,” Dan mumbles playfully, before plopping down on the couch beside Phil.
Dan watches as everybody else exchanges their gifts, and suddenly, it’s his turn.
“Well uhm, obviously I got Phil,” Dan says, and he reaches over to grab his gift bag. He nervously hands it to Phil. “It’s not much. But, I hope you like it.”
“I’m sure it’s going to be great no matter what it is,”
Dan watches nervously as Phil starts pulling out his presents.
Phil unfolds the shirt and gasps as soon as he realizes who is on the shirt. “Dan!”
“Do you like it?” Dan asks nervously.
“Do I-?” Phil looks over at Dan with wide eyes. “This has Sarah Michelle Gellar on it-”
“Oh, here we go,” PJ groans.
“How did you know that I liked Buffy?” Phil asks, stunned as he looks over the shirt.
“I… may have done a little bit of Facebook stalking, and I noticed that you posted quite a bit about Buffy The Vampire Slayer. They had this shirt at Hot Topic. I knew I had to get it,”
“Dan, this is really incredible,” Phil chuckles, and then he reaches inside and pulls out the pins. “I love them. Thank you so much.”
“There’s one more thing in there,” Dan says, pointing in the bag.
“You went over the money limit, didn’t you?” Chris asks.
Dan shrugs. “Only a little bit,” he looks back over at Phil, and sees him pulling out the giftcard. “There’s only ten dollars on it, so I hope that’s okay.”
“Dan, it’s perfect. Thank you,” Phil says, and he reaches over and pulls Dan into a hug.
Dan instantly melts into the hug. “Oh. You’re welcome,”
Phil pulls away from the hug, and grabs the shirt again. “Okay. I have no self control. I have to go put this shirt on,” he looks at Dan with a grin, and immediately rushes up to the bathroom.
Dan smiles big to himself, and then he looks over at Chris and PJ, who are both looking at him with raised eyebrows. “What? Why are you both looking at me like that?”
PJ laughs. “You are so gone for him, it’s a bit sad Dan,”
“I’m not-” Dan begins, and stops when he sees the look on their faces. “Whatever. It doesn’t matter. Phil’s never going to ever be interested in me anyways.”
“How would you know? You won’t ever talk to him,” PJ replies.
“It’s complicated, okay? I don’t want to talk about it,” Dan mumbles.
Dan tries to act as normal as possible throughout the rest of the evening, throughout dinner.
It’s not until Phil pulls Dan aside, pulling him into the kitchen.
“Sorry for the scare. I just wanted to ask you something. Are you doing anything next Friday?”
“Next Friday?” Dan asks, blinking. “I… uh. No? Not that I’m aware of. Why?”
Phil chuckles. “Well, I’ll be honest with you. I heard you talking to Chris and PJ earlier, after I left to change my shirt. I- I promise I didn’t mean to eavesdrop on you. It’s not really something I like doing. I was just turning back to say something, and I heard you guys talking. You should have said something to me sooner.”
“Say what, exactly?” Dan asks, sucking in a deep breath.
“Anything,” Phil says. “I like you a lot, Dan. I think you’re super cool. I’d like to hang out more. So, what do you say? Would you like to hang out on Friday? After school?”
Dan can’t help the smile that forms on his face. “Friday sounds great,”
“Excellent. I’ll see you Friday then,” Phil says, and he leans down to kiss Dan’s cheek, and smiles softly at him before walking out of the kitchen, leaving Dan feeling even more in love.