Chapter 19

Before I had the chance to say thank you, there was a knock on the door. I pulled away to let James get the door and he came back followed by two guys. One of them had short brown hair and bright green eyes. He had to have been at least six feet tall but still looked short next to James. The other had short black hair and bright blue eyes. He looked to be just under six feet. Despite seeing these two for the first time, they looked to be just as kind as James. 

The others walked up to them and greetings were exchanged as well as hugs, lots of hugs, while I stood in the back feeling a little shy and uncomfortable with so much going on. 

Once it calmed down a little I spotted James looking around and I saw his face light up when his eyes landed on me. He walked over and put his arm around me. I tensed a little from the contact and he leaned down to be closer to my ear, a little concern in his eyes. 

“You okay?” I nodded quickly and he guided me to stand in front of the two strangers. 

“Sera, this is Michael,” he said pointing to the guy with brown hair, “and this is Steve,” he said pointing to the other. “They’re both really good friends of mine.” 

Trying to be kind I stretched my hand out in front of me but instead was pulled into a hug by both of them at once. Right away my whole body tensed and I heard a sound of objection come from behind me, but there was nothing they could do. I forced my body to relax and awkwardly returned the hug before they pulled away. 

“Nice to meet you, Sera,” Michael spoke. 

“James’ spoken a lot about you,” Steve added. I turned to James whose cheeks were tinted pink. 

“Has he?” 

“Oh, yeah, he told me that you really liked Arrow, so I bought you this…” Michael disappeared around the corner and returned with a human-size cardboard cutout of Oliver in his Green Arrow costume. Once it had been set down in front of me, I couldn’t control the squeak that left my throat. 

“That’s awesome!!! Thank you!” 

Steve then grabbed a gift off of the couch and handed it to me. He must have set it down earlier. 

“He also said that it looked like you liked reading, but he wasn’t sure so I hope he was right.” I looked towards James trying to figure out how he knew that and he looked hopeful. 

“I do actually. In fact, I love reading.” I unwrapped the gift to find a book called Avalon High by Meg Cabot. Quickly reading the back I discovered that it was about a reincarnation of King Arthur and also included romance. “Wow, this is actually perfect. I love King Arthur and romance.” 

Steve looked grateful at that and then they both handed out presents to everyone else. I started reading the first chapter already very interested when I heard Tessa say that she was going to start lunch. I left the book on the couch where I started reading and followed her to help. 

We spent the rest of the day just talking. I had taken a special interest in Michael and Steve. They were really funny and very nice. I learned that Michael was a mechanic. James had met him when he hit a deer on his way home one night. Michael had fixed his car for him. 

Steve was working a desk job at a very large company, but he had been recently laid off. He needed a job quickly but sadly the only place he could find a job at was a gas station/convenience store. James had stopped in for a quick snack and thought it was weird for a grown man to be working there. They talked and Steve ended up with a job in James’ accounting business. 

After lunch, we played a very intense game of Pictionary, girls against boys. With the guys’ one person lead they managed to win, but then we played Taboo which the girls won. After that, Michael and Steve had to get home to their families. 

We sat down and had dinner, which was just leftover from lunch, but no one cared. After dinner, we took all of our stuff upstairs and put it away before sitting down in the living room to watch Rudolph and Frosty.