-Ezra-

Hanukkah with my family is always really nice. It's eight days of spending time with Mom, David and Illa. I convince Mom to take us shopping so I can pick up a Hanukkah sweater for Josh, then pack up a couple more things to bring back to him as I get ready to go back to school.

The drive back is long, but not bad, just bittersweet. On the one hand, my friends are at school, and I'm kind of excited to see Josh for once, but on the other, I'm leaving my family behind yet again.

I take my packages along with my bags as I head back to Josh's and my room, almost buzzing with excitement to share a piece of myself with someone else. I don't really mention that I'm Jewish just out of the blue to people, but I want to make sure Josh sees a good, positive representation of Jewish culture from what I show him.

He's sitting on his bed, reading a graphic novel, when I come in. "Hey," I say, going to drop my bag on my own bed.

He looks up. "Oh, hey. You're back! Finally."

I laugh awkwardly. "Yep. Finally." I gesture towards him with the three packages I brought. "Got you some presents."

"Cool. Can I open them?"

"Yeah. Start with the smallest one and end with the biggest." I sit on the end of his bed and hand them all over.

"Okay."

He sets the largest two aside and opens the smallest one, a little box wrapped in blue paper. Inside the box is a dreidel, a sort of top that's used to play a specific game in Jewish culture. It's just one of the first things most people think of when they think 'Jewish'.

"Cool," he tells me, setting it on his shelf above us and moving on to the second box.

This one's more of a sloppily-wrapped thing, but in my defense, it's hard to wrap a Tupperware. Inside said Tupperware are some of my mom's latkes, because I love them and they tend to be a hit with anyone.

"Those are for you, but if you want to share, I'll be happy to," I joke.

He takes a bite of one. "Mm... I might not, actually."

I laugh. "Fair, I get it."

Those get set next to me as he moves on to the third box. This one was wrapped at the store because they offered and it made less work for me.

He opens the box and pulls out the sweater inside. "Oh my god, they do exist."

I laugh. "Yeah."

"It's a freaking Hanukkah sweater."

I nod. "I promised I would get you one, so I did."

"This is insane. I'm gonna wear this to dinner."

I laugh. "Okay, do what you want with it. It's yours."

He considers it for a few minutes longer before pulling it on over his t-shirt. "Thanks for the gifts, Ezra."

"Yeah, no problem."

His voice is low when he speaks again. "No, really. It... it means a lot that you did this for me."

I give him a smile. "Well... you're welcome."

"Can I hug you?"

"Yeah." I open my arms.

He gives me a quick hug. "Thanks."

"I hope it's not so terrible and lonely next year," I tell him, honestly, as I get up and go to unpack my bag.

He nods slowly. "Yeah, me too."

I start putting my clothes back in my drawers, quietly. Living in this moment is nice.

And now, between Halloween and now the Hanukkah presents, I feel like Josh and I aren't so separate anymore. Maybe not exactly friends, but more friendly than we were before. By quite a lot. I do feel like this is helping our relationship go in a better direction than it was when the school year started, and that makes me feel even better about it.

I think we could be friends, definitely. We're not too different to get along.

Maybe he doesn't really believe that, doesn't think we're similar enough to be anything more than acquaintances, but I don't think he's right about that. I guess there isn't anything more that I can do than wait and see, but I don't know.

I'll just wait. It's all I can do.