Charlie’s friend stood up and grabbed the envelopes with a muttered, “Thanks, Breezy.”
“You can trade these,” Jax called out as the room started to descend into chaos.“We tried to find something for everyone.”
Ben spotted gift cards for Forever 21, Hot Topic, and TJ Maxx changing hands almost instantly.“They spent so much on this,” he realized.
“I keep telling you,” Phil said.“Sometimes having money and spending it is good.”
“That’s different,” Ben told him.“This is just…giving it away to other people.”
Phil shook his head.“Why are other people worth spending money on, but you and I aren’t?”
Ben opened his mouth and then closed it again.He hadn’t put up more than a token protest about Phil spending money on Charlie.It was only when he himself profited off the luxuries of Phil’s life that he felt guilty.
“Obviously, the kids here need sixty bucks in clothes a lot more than I do,” Phil said as if he owned a single article of clothing costing less than sixty bucks.“But I can foot the bill for their Christmas giftsandpay someone to clean my house without it being a big deal.”
“Did you foot the bill?”Ben asked.
“We split it between the four of us,” Tom told him.“Me, Phil, Breezy, and Jax.”
“What about Luca?And Lunes?”
From Tom’s other side, Luca snorted.“They would not let either of us pay for anything.”
“They’re still on ELCs,” Phil defended.“They can be charitable in a couple years when they’re making the big bucks.”
Luca rolled his eyes.“Fortunately, we are not so easily cowed.”He got to his feet and picked up the box he’d carried in from Breezy’s powder-blue pickup.
Breezy frowned.“I don’t remember that box.”
“No,” Luca said.“This one is from Diego and myself.”He opened the box in the middle of the floor.
“Books?”Jayden asked dubiously.
“Oh, I’ve read that one.”Charlie pointed toThe Song of Achilles.“It’s really good.It’s about, like, ancient gay dudes.”
For those teens not occupied with trading coupons to their favorite shops, “ancient gay dudes” was incentive enough to inspect the box’s contents.Using the distraction, Luca handed Mara an envelope.
“Diego also sent this for you,” he told her quietly.“He couldn’t be here today, but he says ‘Merry Christmas.’”
Mara smiled her thanks, and whatever she found inside made her light up.A note fluttered out of the envelope as well, and her eyebrows went up as she read it.
“Okay,” Breezy said, clapping his hands.“We’ve got one more gift for you guys, and I hope you like this one.”He reached deep into his gift bag and pulled out a box.“We’re going to let Mara open it so it doesn’t get too chaotic here.”
He handed over the box.
She eyed him suspiciously and peered inside.
“Seriously?”she asked.
“Yeah,” Jax said.“Seriously.”
Mara looked around at the kids.“Okay, guys, gals, and nonbinary pals.We’re going on a field trip.”
Jayden squinted at her.“Did they get us tickets to the aquarium or some shit?”
“You know they do other things at Cyberian arena besides play hockey, right?”Breezy said a touch smugly.“We got you guys concert tickets.”
An excited murmur went through the room.
