Page 51 of No Cap

“You first, big sister,” Tay called out, looking a little too smug for my comfort.

Then, he pulled out his phone, as if he was about to record. Which only made me more nervous.

“Oh, this one is special.” Mom clapped her hands, leaning against my father’s chair as she watched me slowly rip the paper off the present.

I opened up my first present with everyone watching.

The moment I ripped the paper off, my heart skipped a beat.

This was what I wanted…could it be?

A brilliant smile overtook my face, and then my mom started to giggle. Tay leaned forward in his seat, and I knew I was being recorded.

That smile fell off my face so damn fast it might as well have never been there.

Because I knew with that stupid giggle from my mother that the computer I’d been needing for the last six months wasn’t what was actually in the box.

I opened the box, and sure enough, there was a sticky note inside it that read ‘IOU.’

I gritted my teeth and set the box on the ground, more than aware that Quincy looked down at the box and stiffened.

Purposefully not making eye contact with Quincy as he stared at me for my reaction, I crossed my arms and waited patiently.

My sister opened next, and I watched as she ripped open a huge messenger bag that she’d been going on and on about for the last three months.

She squealed and hugged it to her chest, her face a mask of excitement.

She paused, her face tilting slightly toward the bag, and then she ripped the bag open and pulled out…my computer.

“Oh my God!” she cried out, bouncing on the couch excitedly. “You are the best, Mom!”

I gritted my teeth.

The man beside me stiffened even further.

“Your turn, Tay,” Mom urged.

Tay opened the present from me—something I’d had to save up for over a four-month period—and grinned. “Thanks, Hollis!”

It was a new amplifier for his guitar.

It’d cost me almost eight hundred bucks, and it’d drained my savings account to buy. But looking at the smile on his face, it was worth it.

“Oh,” Dad looked sheepish. “I didn’t realize you got him that.”

Nausea churned in my belly at his words.

I frowned. “I told you I was getting it for him two months ago… Why?”

Dad pushed a box toward Tay.

A bigger box than the one I’d given him.

Tay ripped it open and gasped.

Because inside was an even bigger, and better, amplifier.

The same one I’d gotten him, only twice the price, and twice as good.