Pete’s eyes open blearily and he glances over at the clock on his bedside table. 8:45am fuck. He wonders briefly why he’s awake at such an ungodly hour then a sound reaches his ears and he knows exactly what woke him up.

Patrick’s voice drifts in muffled by the wooden door of Pete’s bedroom; “All I want for Christmas is you, you baby!” Pete gets out of bed quickly and throws on some pants and a t-shirt he heads out into the small living room of the apartment he currently shares with Patrick and Joe. There, next to the small bay window he spots Patrick, headphones in his ears singing along to the Christmas songs he always complains about. Pete takes a few minutes to watch his friend, hips swaying to the beat, eyes closed as he hums words he obviously can’t remember before he interrupts with a gentle nudge to Patrick’s shoulder.

“What exactly are you doing man?” Pete’s tone could be interpreted as angry if not for the small smile on his lips.

Patrick quickly pulls the buds out of his ears as he answers his friend “decorating for Christmas, I didn’t think anyone else was awake, sorry”.

“Nah, it’s okay man but like that’s a pretty sad lookin’ tree you got there”. Pete looks around Patrick to the tree he had just been decorating. It’s small and he can tell by the state of the branches that this tree has seen better days, what was left of it was very sparse and distinctly shabby.

“It was the best I could do man, I found a box of old decorations in the basement when I visited my mom a couple of days ago; she said we could use them”.

Patrick wanted to get into the Christmas spirit like he had when he was a kid; his mom’s house was nicely decorated when he visited and it made him wish that he and his flat mates had tried a little harder.

Pete raked through the box of decorations and pulled out some tinsel and a few ornaments, he started to hang them on the small tree grinning at Patrick’s sullen face. “I like the tree” he whispered, “it’s got character”.

Soon they were both humming jingle bells and trying unsuccessfully to un-knot a string of fairy lights found in the bottom of the box. The sight of the two men sitting cross legged on the floor was the first thing Joe saw when he finally emerged from his bedroom.

“What the hell are you guys doing?’

“Getting into the Christmas spirit my friend, want to help?” Pete decides to throw the ball of lights at Joe who quickly throws them back

“Not my thing man, you know that. Oh and I believe that’s Hanukkah spirit you’re referring to right?” Joe leaves his two friends to fuss over the lights and heads into the kitchen to make coffee for them all.

It takes a few hours to decorate the small apartment mainly due to the fact that Pete’s not decorating so much as he’s singing badly at the top of his lungs and dropping ornaments; but finally Patrick can stand back and admire his work, he refuses to agree that Pete helped him.

“It doesn’t look so bad right?” he asks Joe, who is sitting on the small couch watching cartoons.

“It looks fine man, very uh… twinkley” Much to Joe’s displeasure Pete had found a small Hanukkah menorah in Joe’s room and it had been placed on top of the TV; Joe was trying not to look at it. He didn’t really celebrate Hanukkah and being Jewish didn’t really celebrate Christmas, but he was trying to be ‘festive’ for his friends sake.

“Oh and I forgot to tell you, I thought since you’d be here not celebrating and Pete will be here I figured I’d stay here for Christmas, you know, first Christmas in the apartment and all that. I’ll visit my mom on Christmas day but I wanted to spend the holiday with my best friends.” Patrick looks over at Joe, a slight blush creeping up his neck.

The few days leading up to Christmas are hectic for everyone, last minute gift buying meant they all had to spend more hours at work, a side effect of working in retail.

Christmas eve rolled around leaving a tired and irritable Pete sulking in his room; Patrick had given up trying to cheer him up hours ago and settled for watching a bad Christmas movie on the television; Joe settled beside him tunelessly plucking on his guitar strings.

Patrick decided to go to bed early, Petes still in pissy bitch mode and he thinks it might be slightly pathetic to take Joe up on his “let’s get drunk and stoned” offer if there’s only two of them.

Christmas morning Patrick is woken by a Pete shaped thing landing on his chest at six thirty in the morning, way to early in Patrick’s opinion; he yelps and pushes Pete off his bed.

“Ow you bastard, it’s six thirty Pete, six fucking thirty.. Go back to bed, or at least get out of my room and leave me alone”.

“Nope.. Present time, you better have bought me a present Stumph or I’ll kick your ass!!’

“Ugh… give me five minutes.” Patrick stretches and yawns loudly and obnoxiously hoping Pete will get the idea and fuck off for a few minutes; at least until he’s had time to get dressed.

Patrick wanders out into the living room to find a sleepy looking Joe hugging a blanket round his shoulders

“Why do we live with this five year old again?”

“You know Pete, he never grew up, I doubt he ever will.. humour him and we’ll get this over with quickly, then I’m going back to bed”

The two share a knowing look, Pete really is a child and they can’t be mad at him for it, it’s not his fault he’s excited for Christmas. A few minutes later Pete comes bounding back into the room, presents clutched in his hands looking expectantly at his friends

“Well.. Where are all the gifts?? I expect loads of presents from you guys, I stayed here instead of going to my parents’ I demand to be rewarded for that!”

Patrick heads to his room and returns with packages wrapped in red and green paper; Joe gives Pete a look that clearly says “you’re pushing your luck”.

Patrick takes a seat next to Joe on the couch and Pete hands his two friends their gifts; Patrick opens his suspiciously. It’s big, wrapped in gaudy purple paper with a huge bow on top; he looks inside the box to find a smaller gift wrapped in the same paper

“I didn’t want to give away what it was man, it’s such an obvious shape”

Patrick quickly unwraps the gift and looks at the c.d, it’s familiar

“I know you already have it, but your other copy is so scratched I’m surprised it still plays, you listen to that album too much Stumph”

Patrick smiles and flips the c.d over in his hands to read the back; “Sign ‘O’ the times” is one of his favorite albums.

Pete hands a small square gift over to Joe, it’s not wrapped. Joe looks at the Morrissey

mix c.d and smiles, Pete’s such a loser.

“Thanks man”.

Patrick starts to hand his gift over when it’s grabbed out of his hands by an over enthusiastic Pete. The wrapping is torn off quickly to reveal a new hoodie, pink with sparkles on the sleeves. ‘Nice and gaudy, Pete’ll love it’ Patrick had thought when he saw it. Sure enough Pete tugs the hoodie over his head and launches himself at Patrick, all arms and legs and hugs.

Patrick’s stomach suddenly fills with butterflies, he thought long and hard about what to get Joe; he wanted it to be special.

“Look man I know you don’t like do Christmas or gifts and stuff so uh, happy Wednesday…” Patrick holds out the neatly wrapped gift for Joe who just sits looking at it.

“Just take the fucking gift!” Patrick is getting exasperated, he’s nervous his gift won’t go down well and Joe won’t like it.

Joe rolls his eyes at Patrick but takes the gift from his hands; he pulls apart the paper and takes out the guitar strap. It’s custom, he can tell; it has the image from The Smiths ‘meat is murder’ album running down it. He loves it and is at a loss for words; Patrick’s looking at him expectantly, blushing like a school girl.

“Wow, man. This is awesome. It must have cost you a fortune.”

Joe can’t take his eyes off Patrick, that blush, it’s intoxicating; he’s embarrassed when he doesn’t need to be. The gift is so thoughtful and he didn’t even get Patrick anything.

“Dude, let me see that strap” Pete’s voice breaks the two friends from their thoughts

“So Patrick this is why our decorations are so shitty? You spent all your money getting a fucking custom guitar strap for Joe?” Pete knows how to ruin the moment, how to draw attention to the fact that Patrick did put a lot of thought into Joe’s gift.

Luckily, Joe has the ability to completely deflect Pete’s statements no matter how true they are. He turns to face Patrick and reaches up to cup the side of his face, he leans in. The kiss is soft, sweet and reassuring. They break apart a little breathless both smiling

“Happy Christmas Patrick.”

Pete bounds over and squeezes between his two best friends, hugging them both close. ‘It‘s a Christmas miracle!”

“Uh, Hanukkah miracle I believe that was”.