Bitter (wlw) (txs)

twenty-two

I spent most of Christmas Eve helping, or trying to help, my parents with the cooking for the evening and the following day. They knew I was helpless at it but insisted on teaching me, since I was living on my own and "couldn't just eat packaged food all the time". Which was kind of true. Even if Sam had been cooking most of the food I'd been eating recently.

While dinner felt more or less like Thanksgiving had, I noticed I'd been missing the feeling of being home way more by then. I was less annoyed at my family and more glad I got to spend some time with them.

First thing I wanted to do once I woke up the next day was to text Sam, but she preceded me.

sam<3: Merry Christmas, love. Hope you have a great day
sam<3: Feel free to call me whenever you can in these days, I miss your voice

you: merry christmas <33 hope you have a great day too. i'll call you when i can:)

I also sent her a picture of my favorite Christmas jumper I was wearing for the day, which she seemed to have greatly appreciated.

My parents really loved the gifts I'd got for them, as I'd predicted.

They gave me a hand knitted red scarf "for the cold weather in New York", which was actually much better than the last handmade objects made by my mom I'd seen.

And I was shocked at the fact that both them and my grandparents had organized a few vegetarian dishes for me to eat at lunch. They'd probably been missing me more than I thought they would too.

"Ellie here has been doing great in her exams" my mom said as the subject at the table shifted from gossip from church to, well, me.

"I mean, let's see how my January exams go before saying that" I laughed.

"No, I'm sure you'll do amazing. You always have. The professors there must like you so much" my grandma said, almost causing me to suddenly choke on a mouthful of green beans.

"I mean..." I said, coughing. "There's way too many of us for them to remember who their single students are"

"Well, they'll recognize you when you become one of the best students in your course" grandpa nodded.

"We'll see" I chuckled. I didn't like it when they put an unnecessary amount of academic pressure on me, but since it was just my grandparents I found it sweet of them.

After lunch mom wanted to go with me for a walk around the neighborhood to look at the Christmas lights, "like in the old times". I thought that maybe time away from me would have made her realize how differently she could have treated me in the past few years.

But judging by her talking to me as if I hadn't even left the place, I came to the conclusion that maybe that would never happen. I didn't mind that much, though. I was at peace with myself and that's what mattered.

I talked to her about what I'd been studying, how I'd been coping in such a big city and stuff like that. That's what she really seemed to be interested about.

All that talk about university just led me to thinking about Sam way too much.

I was able to retire to my room after having leftovers for dinner and greeting my grandparents, thanking them for the gifts and the food they'd brought.

The only thing I wanted in that moment was to hear Sam's voice, so I tried to call her, knowing that she probably wouldn't pick up. But she unexpectedly did.

"Hello, you" I heard after a few seconds of ringing.

"Hi! Merry Christmas" I said, smiling only at the sound of her voice.