“So since it’s officially Christmas,” Micha says pulling away from me slightly to look me in the eye, “are you going to give me my Christmas present?”

I frown. “It’s a really silly present.”

“So what?” he says. “Besides, silly presents are the best.”

I sigh and then sit up, slipping from his hold, and then pad over to my duffel bag that’s on the floor in front of the bed. “Okay, but try not to get too disappointed when you open it,” I say, taking out the wrapped-up box with a bow on it. I climb back in to bed and hand it to him.

He grins at the box as he crisscrosses his legs. “Aw, you even wrapped it and put a bow on it and everything,” he says in a teasing voice.

I shake my head and playfully pinch his arm. “Don’t make fun of me. And Lila made me wrap it.”

“I like that you wrapped it,” he says and then rips off the paper like a little kid would. I put the bracelets into a small box, so he has to open that as well. When he gets the lid off, he stares at the thin strips of leather with the words forever engraved on both of them.

When he doesn’t say anything, I start to grow nervous, like he might not get what they are. “They’re like the ones we used to have when we were kids, but I didn’t get the one that says ‘best friends,’ figuring since we were way more than that I’d just get two forevers.”

He glances up at me and I can’t read his expression at all. “I remember. You actually made me wear the one that said ‘best friends’ and it made me sort of feel like girly.”

I frown, regretting the present. “Yet you still wore it.”

“Because you asked me to,” he says. “And we both know I’d do anything for you.”

“Sorry, it’s sappy, right?” I reach for the box to take the bracelets back. “I should have gotten you something better.”

He quickly picks up the box and turns, holding it out of my reach. “Are you kidding me? This is perfect.”

“But you just said they were girly.”

“No, I said that having a bracelet that said ‘best friends’ was girly and that was when I was eight.” He smiles and I start to relax as he takes out one of the bracelets. “This is the perfect present, Ella May, because it means something.”

“It’s kind of a sappy present though,” I say as he slips the bracelet on.

“Which makes you a sap, just like me,” he replies as he takes my wrist and slips the other bracelet on.