Evan sighed for what felt like the millionth time in the last couple of hours. He was bored out of his skull. He was in the middle of a twelve-hour flight back home after finally finishing his master’s degree in Theoretical Physics, not for a use his teachers would have approved of though, he had also minored in Programming and Three-dimensional Modelling. See, sometime in their sophomore or junior year in high school his friends convinced him to join them in making this grand vision they had a reality. They would all learn different specialties that would be needed to put everything together. Jason had been learning game design and programming, and had always had a strange hobby of designing custom spaceships down to what Evan saw as an unhealthy level of detail that would actually be pretty useful to them once they got the ball rolling. Rebekkah was going to be handling the business side of everything, finances, marketing, social media, the works.

Kinzie, the last of their merry little band of super nerds, was actually considered the oddest of the bunch. Mostly because she was athletic and attractive, but also because where the rest of them were primarily interested in the software and what they could create with it, she was interested in the hardware. Evan had spent many nerve-wracked evenings unable to do anything but nod numbly at her as she bounced excitedly and ranted about this revolutionary change in VFX cards, or that paradigm shift in the power and versatility of a new line of processors that was coming out. He had never made any moves on her though, his teenage brain utterly convinced that she would never find his gaunt, acne-ridden frame attractive in that way, and that any attempt would drive her away from their group entirely.

He had started working out not long after finishing high school, and liked his chances better now, but still wasn’t sure it would be a good idea. For entirely different reasons, of course, she was going to be their tech wizard going forward and it would be absolutely horrid to have to find another one if things went sour and she left. It would possibly be even worse if things went sour and she stayed and they had to put up with all the extra tension that would cause in the workplace. Better to hold off at least until everyone was settled into their roles in their nascent company before attempting to spark up a romance.

He mused and daydreamed until the flight landed, then zombie-walked through the airport to the baggage check. He had just grabbed his bag when he heard a scream from the entrance. “Eeeevaaaannn!!” he turned to look and was shocked to see Kinzie, girl of his dreams, running towards him. She was even more beautiful than he remembered, her long auburn hair flowing out behind her as she ran and her radiant emerald eyes flashing with barely concealed mischief. She barely slowed at all before hitting him and wrapping him in a hug. “I haven’t seen you in soooo long! How was your big, fancy, number one school in Europe? I was sooo jealous when I heard you got that scholarship! How much of Europe did you go see? Was it wonderful? Did you take pictures? Gimme your phone, I wanna see them!”

She released him from the hug and started trying to rifle through his pockets for his phone. “Hey! Stop that! I’ll send you all the pictures of Europe I took, but I didn’t get to see much, you wouldn’t believe the workload I had out there. How did you even know when I was going to be landing anyways, the only person I told was… nevermind, you totally weaseled it out of Rebekkah didn’t you? I wanted it to be a surprise! You didn’t tell anyone else did you?”

She shook her head, “I heard her talking to a cab company about it and volunteered to come get you so you wouldn’t have to ride all the way out to town with a super creepy cab driver.” As she was explaining her purpose in showing up at the airport a man walked up and threw his arm around her shoulders. “Oh! Hey babe! This is the guy everyone was talking about, Evan the Supergenius. Evan, this is my boyfriend Brian.”

Evan stared at them blankly for a moment before awkwardly blurting out the first words that popped into his head. “That sucks.” After a moment he realized what he had just said and blushed a bit before rushing to make something up to cover his blunder. “Sorry my brain is fried from the flight, I just saw a guy getting patted down by security then escorted off into a private room by a dude wearing latex gloves and that just sorta popped out of my mouth at exactly the wrong time.”

Brian was either really polite, or not too bright, because he turned around to try and see it, staring at the people going through security for a while. Kinzie on the other hand just smirked at him. “Come on, let’s get out of here, let me help you with those bags.” She said, leaning closer to take a bag from him. “You snooze you lose.” She murmured with a devilish grin before sashaying off with his bag in tow.

Needless to say, the ride home was a touch awkward for Evan. Brian was a nice enough guy, a bit dim-witted, but to be fair Evan found most people rather dim, and it made it tough to really hate the guy the way he wanted to. For two and a half hours he was trapped in an unpleasant conversation with the girl he had been in love with since high school and the guy she was dating. Hopefully, this would be the last shocking new development for the day. Or at least the last horrible and uncomfortable new development.

Jason did him the favor of being almost exactly the same as he was in high school, but Rebekkah surprised him. “Wow, Bek! Is that really you? You look fantastic! No more glasses?”

Rebekkah laughed and turned a full circle for him. “Yea I got tired of being Fatty-Four-Eyes and Ugly Duckling-ed on everyone. Laser eye surgery, and lots of portion control research and even more exercise. How’ve you been? I see you’ve filled out quite a bit, been working out?” She paused for a brief moment. “Don’t get any ideas from that, I’m still way out of your league.” She said, punching him in the arm. The mirth in her voice made it obvious that she was just kidding around.

They spent the rest of the day catching up with each other, falling back into their old dynamic with effortless ease. Eventually, though, Evan decided it was time to leave. He had to go visit his dad, then go home and visit his mom. Everyone got a bit quiet when he told them. “It’s fine guys, I’ve been at peace with it for a while now, it’s just been a long time since I was able to visit in person.” He said his farewells and walked out.

It wasn’t a large town, so it didn’t take him more than fifteen minutes of walking to get to the lamppost on Main Street where his dad had been killed by a hit and run driver ten years ago. He had left most of his bags at Jason’s house where he planned to stay for a bit, but he had brought his backpack with him. He reached inside and pulled out an ornate snow globe with an intricately detailed crystal rose inside it. It would probably be stolen by someone in the next day or two, despite the engraving along the base that said In loving memory of Fredrick Ebonheart. Evan didn’t really care if it stayed here long, bringing it here and leaving it for his dad were what mattered to him. His parents stressed that a lot when he was growing up.

Son, the giving of a gift is special, just as much as receiving one, but in both cases, you should always remember that the item exchanged is unimportant. What’s important is the fact that someone cared enough to give it to you, or you cared enough about them to give them something you think they would want or need. Strange things can happen in life, and things can easily be broken, but the bonds you build between friends and loved ones can be stronger than the strongest steel if you put the proper effort into them. They are what matters, never the things.

“Toothpick?! Is that really you? I thought you scuttered off to some fancy pants smart boy school on the other side of the world after I ran you up that flagpole!”

Evan groaned. “Joshua Dingle, what an absolute pleasure to see you again.” He deadpanned, recovering from the crouch he had been in to place the snowglobe.

“Yea, I’m glad you’re back, been a bit boring around town without all the nerds to torment.”

Evan looked him up and down. “Aren’t you like twenty-seven? Isn’t that a little bit old to be running around town trying to bully the people you used to pick on in high school? Sort of childish if you ask me, although I commend you on your growing vocabulary, torment is a pretty big word for you if my memory serves.”

“Oi! Screw you Toothpick! Ain’t no uppity nerd gonna smartmouth me like that! I think it’s time for another run up a flagpole for you!” He spat on the ground and… waddled is the best adjective Evan could come up with for the way he approached him. When he got close enough he immediately took a swing at Evan, who managed to duck in time despite his surprise that a grown man would actually act that way in public, or at all really. He had taken a few self-defense courses over the years as a way of getting in shape, and a couple of them had involved live sparring. Josh took a second swing at him, and the smell of stale beer filled Evan's nose as he barely dodged in time. Evan realized there were only two ways out of this, fight and win, or just run away. He refused to run away from the site his father had passed for some drunken idiot though, which made his choice easy as he ducked under a third punch and threw a mean hook into Josh's gut.

Unfortunately, his fist just sort of sank into Josh’s protective wall of blubber with no visible effect beyond making him angrier. Josh dropped his elbow on the arm he had punched with instead of drawing his arm back, and the meaty appendage clobbered Evan across the shoulder, making him wince and pull back. Josh tried again with a looping left hook that seemed ponderously slow to Evan, and he leaned back to dodge it while throwing a leg up to kick him in the groin. He didn’t really have any qualms about fighting dirty against a man twice his size that had decided to assault him for no better reason than ‘for old time’s sake.’

Joshua doubled over and wheezed in pain for a moment before he launched forward suddenly and slammed his shoulder into Evan’s gut. He was sent staggering backwards for a few steps, one of which was down the curb, and it caused him to lose his balance and fall. He landed with a thump and gasped for air for a moment before he spotted Joshua staggering towards him with murder in his eyes, and he started to struggle to his feet. He had barely made it to his hands and knees when the pavement beneath him flickered out of existence for a second or two and he found himself plummeting to his doom in a pitch-black pit that had simply appeared out of nowhere.

He rotated as he fell, and it was as though time had slowed down for him. He heard piercing girly screams he could only assume were his own, and he saw Joshua looking around wildly at the edge of the pit for a brief second before turning to run-waddle as fast as he could. It figures that prick would dumb-luck his way into not falling into the magically appearing Pit of Despair. It was the last thought he had before he hit something with a wet crunch and a wave of agony unlike anything he had ever experienced sent him tumbling into the blissful embrace of sleep. Or, more accurately, it made him faint.