“Socks?”
Lisette smiles proudly as Sire holds up the gift he gave her.
“What do they say on it?”
“Sober AF.” Lisette still has a smug smile on her face, and Sire burst into a laugh.
“You could’ve done worse. Your gift is going to be easy to get now.”
“No gift is worse than socks.”
“There’s always worse.” They share a laugh, and I have no clue why they gift each other bad gifts for their soberversary, but I love all of their inside jokes.
“Okay, open mine.”
Sire takes my gift, and I wait excitedly as he unboxes it. When his eyes land on the snow globe, he immediately looks over at me.
“Sage, I said we couldn’t cry.”
I fight my tears to stay at bay, and he clearly does the same as he tries not to look at his gift.
“Look at the picture.”
He turns his head to the side, but I urge him to look at it. When he does, a smile creeps onto his face before he pulls me in for a hug.
“What is it?”
Sire lets August take the snow globe as he keeps his arms around me.
“This is a picture from the first time you made a year sober?”
I pull away to wipe my tears and smile down at the picture.
We look like babies in this. We were eighteen, and Sire and Lis were just sixteen. We threw the biggest party the first time Sire made a year sober, and he begged me not to because he doesn’t like the attention, but he deserved to be celebrated. It was also Lis’s soberversary and she almost didn’t go to the party, but Sire dragged her to it since he had to be there.
“It’s the perfect gift, and it’ll be perfect for the collection.” Sire kisses my forehead before taking the gift back from August.
Snow globes have become our thing. It started with the first one I gave him on Christmas when we were kids. I felt bad that he had fewer gifts than August and I. We hadn't adopted him at the time, and our parents didn’t know he was going to be spending Christmas with us. He only had a few gifts, so I gave him a snow globe I got for Easter, and he loved it so much; hesaid it was his favorite gift ever, and since then, I get him snow globes whenever I have the excuse to.
“Okay, at least open my gift before you say hers is perfect.”
We laugh at my twin's jealousy, and Sire opens August’s gift. It's a pair of very expensive headphones, and it's a nice gift since I know Sire mentioned he wanted these. I think mine is still better, but Sire nor I mention it.
I spend the rest of the day with my siblings, and it only makes me realize how much I miss them. The boys spend way more time together than with me and it’s mainly because they’re literally neighbors, but it makes me miss being young when we all lived together and didn’t have our own lives.
When we make it to the rooftop place I booked, Liam calls me so I slip to the bathroom to answer.
“Hello?” I keep my voice hushed, although all of the other stalls are empty.
“Dory, hey.” He lets out a small breath as if he was informed I was harmed and he needed to hear my voice. “Where are you?”
“Why do you want to know, Liam?” With my phone connected to my headphones, I put my phone down as I apply more lipgloss.
He's quiet for a second before he says, “I miss you.”
I shake my head before rubbing my lips together to spread the gloss. “You saw me this morning.”
“Well, I still miss you. I don't like this space stuff.”
