Page 165 of We Shouldn't Be Together
Clapping, she stands up with us. “Cake now?”
Parker bolts to the staircase. “Heck yes. Sugar is a must.”
As the boys head downstairs, Jamie signals for me to hang back. “They can’t start without you, and I want you to open your gift.”
She lifts the wrapped gift from the carpet, and it’s so cute I can’t help letting out a mocking tone. “Aww, Jamesy, is this from you?”
She hands it to me. “Happy birthday, King Kai.”
“Thanks.” It’s a foot tall and I can’t help giving it a shake. “It’s such an odd shape.”
She laughs. “Come on, open it already.”
Grinning, I perch on the arm of the couch, ripping at the paper and taped seams of the gift.
Jamie clasps her hands together and giddily squeaks. “I hope you like it.”
When the wrapping paper hits the carpet, my mouth falls open. Half boxed and covered in hard plastic; is a drone. I take a couple of tries to get my thanks out.
“Jamie, this is insane.” When the worry hits me, I look up at her. “Is it okay that you got me this?”
“What do you mean? Of course, it is. I know how devastated you were when your last one crashed. I saved up to buy you the latest model.”
“But…” I pause, gritting his teeth. “It’s a lot of money.”
“Okay, when I say I saved up, Maddy did help out. She’s downstairs, so you can thank her too.”
“I don’t think you’re getting what I’m saying. It’s fine for my parents or grandparents to buy something like this for me, but you and Maddy…”
I stop myself before I let something revolving around the word “poor” roll off my tongue.
“We wouldn’t have gotten it for you if it was a problem.” She squeezes my shoulder. “Just say thanks, Jamie.”
I exhale, releasing the tension, and smile at her. “Thanks, Jamie. This is great, considering I threw my last one against the wall and it smashed to pieces.”
Jamie sniggers. “Lemme guess. You took it as a personal attack when you couldn’t fix it?”
I brush past the comment. “We gotta head to the skatepark and test this out.”
“My thoughts exactly. It’ll just need to be charged first.”
“No wonder you were giving me attitude when I wanted to pick up the part for my broken drone. Did you have this already?”
“It was still on lay-away, but basically, yes.”
“Malakai,“ Mom shouts from below the stairs. “Will you hurry up?”
“We’re coming,” I call out, tucking the drone under my arm and dashing downstairs.
When I get downstairs, I veer around everyone to reach Maddy. “Thank you for this,” I say, giving her a one-armed hug and a kiss on the cheek. “I know it can’t have been easy to get.”
“Don’t sweat it,” Maddy says, pleased. “We appreciate you, Kai. You’re such a good help at the cafe, and you keep my niece out of my hair.”
“Make sure you tell my mom I’m a good influence,” I joke, as Mom is still coaxing me to join her and my brother.
Mom corrals everyone to the dining table, and Dad haphazardly lights all sixteen candles. Like a big dork, Dad then conducts everyone like he’s leading an orchestra, and they all sing “Happy Birthday” to me and Milo.
“Okay, photo, photo,” Mom says loudly, pushing me and Milo together.
