Baby I'm A Sinner novel Chapter 52

"So are we going Christmas shopping today or not?" Emma asked on the 24th while we're talking on the phone.

I was holding in between my shoulder and ear as I tried to do my toenails.

"Christmas shopping?"

"Yeah, you know, as in, to buy present for our friends? We're all meeting up at Noah's on Lucas' birthday before going out."

"Oh. Right."

"How much money do you have for presents?"

"I don't know? Two hundred quid?"

"I've got three hundred but I don't think I'll spend it all. I need to give some back to my mom or else she'll flip."

"Alright. Let me just finish my toes and then we can go to the mall."

I finished my nails ten minutes later, so after I dressed up and asked my dad for some present money, Emma and I were on our way to the mall.

Jake met us there, and he seemed really pissed off because we made him wait.

"You shouldn't be complaining." I said. "You're always the one who show up 'fashionably late' to everything!"

He agreed, so without further ado, we entered the mall. It was full, as expected, because it was Christmas Eve and the laziest people were out shopping. Well, you couldn't call it shopping because there wasn't that much left of anything really; just ugly clothing, cheap toys, and the most boring books and video games that no one even thought of buying.

"So what are we going to buy something for everyone? Actually, who is even coming?"

"The whole squad. Carly, Zack, Jade, Liam, Noah, Harry, Lucas, and El."

"Jesus. Those are a lot of presents."

I my mind, I was already dividing the money by ten and assigning twenty pounds for each of their presents.

"You don't need to get me anything." Jake told me while we were browsing through H&M for clothes. That was probably what everyone was going to get for everyone; clothes. The small Christmas party/Lucas' birthday that Noah held each year wasn't about presents, it was about being together (and getting wasted but that's besides the point).

"I know you're saying this to seem polite but we both know that you want a present so shut up and pick something that's twenty quid or less."

"You know me so well." He smirked and disappeared in the men's section.

Emma and I bought matching shirts that had a funny message written in big letters across them, that we would then give to each other. Then we decided to screw everything and buy the exact same shirt for Eleanor, Carly, and Jade. I bought Jake a nice beanie and a scarf, a nice jean jacket for Lucas, a phone case and a pair of gloves, and a sweatshirt that said YES for Noah.

"These are the worst presents ever." I laughed as I checked the things that I bought at the cash register, together with Emma and Jake.

"Does it really matter? As long as there will be weed and alcohol, who cares what we bought?"

"You're right." Emma laughs and hands the money for her part to the lady behind the counter.

We wait for the bus for a few minutes, and then each one of us got off at a different station. We made plans to share a cab to Noah's, so we would meet up in front of the school at 7:30.

Once I got home I packed and named every single present, before I got into the shower to wash my hair. As I rinsed out the shampoo, I started panicking because there was a large amount of hair sticking to my fingers, which was unusual.

My hair was falling out now, great. I twisted it into a towel and rushed to my room, where I opened my laptop and looked up 'causes of hairloss'. After fifteen minutes of reading several different articles, I concluded that it was from my eating disorder, due to the lack of protein.

I closed the laptop and walked over to my closet so I could pick out the clothes for tonight. I chose a Minnie sweatshirt, my favorite pair of blue jeans and the black boots I'd recently bought from H&M.

After all the presents were shoved in a giant bag, I walked downstairs to announce my departure.

"What time will you be home?" My father questions as I put on my coat and beanie.

I got an entire set of Bambi pyjamas from Jake that he then made me put on and leave them until I went home, a NERD onesie from Carly and Eleanor together (that I was also forced to wear over the pyjamas), a set of John Green books from Zack, a HOMIES beanie from Liam, a dress from Jade, the whole Teen Wolf season 1 collection from Lucas, and the new 5SOS album from Harry.

Noah insisted he'd be the last one to hand over our presents, because all of us apparently had the same thing, so we were excited about it.

He pulled out ten envelopes that looked exactly the same and had each of our names on it.

"Are you giving us money?" Zack asked and everyone laughed as we opened our envelopes.

"No fucking way!" Jade exclaimed and pulled out what looked like a concert ticket.

I looked into my envelope and pulled out a ticket that had ARCTIC MONKEYS written on it. To say that I was shocked was an understatement.

"Front row seats for the February concert." Noah said, pleased.

"But these must've cost-" I started.

"Not that much; my dad knows their manager."

"I love you man!" Liam said and jumped up to tackle him in a hug. Everyone except for me followed his lead. I didn't, because I was too distracted by the diamond necklace that was in a small Swarovski envelope that was in the initial envelope with the ticket.

I looked up and made swift eye contact with Noah, who winked, and returned to hugging the rest of the excited group. I decided to leave the necklace in the envelope so the others wouldn't feel weird or left out about it, and finally went to join the group hug.

We ordered pizzas and even I decided to eat because I didn't want my hair falling out any longer. Noah seemed to check up on how much I had left on my plate from time to time, thinking he was being slick and that hadn't noticed.

One hour later, after all of us had full bellies and the TV is playing in the background, the boys brought out a hookah and some weed from Noah's room.

"Now that's what I call a party!" Lucas excitedly said and scooted in his seat to be closer to the coffee table.

Zack took out four joints and three of us paired up to share one. Noah sat down next to me and told me that we would share one because he always smokes more than the rest of them and I barely do.