Not for a Single Second - [Elizabeth Olsen]

Chapter 21: I'm Thankful for You

When I'm with my friends, I'm not alone
And even when we're far apart, they'll always be in my heart
And part of me will always be with them

Friends - Johnny Stimson

Y/N's POV

November 25th, 2021

Today I have to present my scene for my 'Acting' Class with Andrea. We still have like two weeks left from the semester, but Professor Simmons wants to give us a break from everything we have to do before graduation. Plus, he's going on vacation next week and won't be back until the ceremony.

Andrea was kind of nervous, but I told her we've practiced multiple times and every time we presented our progress to the professor, he really liked it. Once our names were called, we both jumped on stage and gave a 'marvelous performance'; the professor's words, not mine. I was actually really happy on how it turned out and very proud of Andrea and me.

In the US, today is Thanksgiving. Since most of the producers, executives and actors in the movie are from the US, all of them flew back at the beginning of the week to share the holiday with their families. I love Thanksgiving, the food, the vacation, the time to spend with friends and family. It's a really good holiday to open the Christmas season.

In Canada, Thanksgiving it's at the beginning of October. When my parents were alive, we would celebrate together, and every year was special. Now that I'm alone, I depend a lot on my friends to celebrate.

While in NYU, I attended a lot of Friendsgiving parties, but these past few years that I've been living in London, I normally cook a small meal and spend the rest of the night watching movies. This year however, since I don't have to go to set and 'The Collider' is getting decorated for Christmas, I decided to host Friendsgiving.

I invited Julie, Mac, Steph, Willa, Tim, April, Logan, Joe, and Tony. They're coming later today so, right now, I'm running around the kitchen getting all the food cooked and ready for dinner. From that list of people, there's someone missing, more specifically, someone I wished was here.

It's been two weeks since Lizzie left, and I miss her so much. I never thought I could miss someone as much as I've missed her these past two weeks. We've talked and had a few phone calls, but every time we actually start to 'spend time together', she had to go to an after party or a meet & greet, and we would only talk for a few minutes before she ditched me for Hobo Jesus. But there's no time to think about sad things, today is going to be really fun, and I should focus on that.

It was around 7 PM and my friends started arriving at my loft. The first group was everyone from the club. Soon after, Julie arrived, followed by Mac and Steph. Everyone was sat in the living room, and I was just moving the dishes to the dinner table. Julie and April helped me set the table, so we all got to sit down and enjoy dinner around 7:30 PM.

There was stuffing, mashed potatoes, my family's recipe of Mac n' Cheese, cranberry sauce, corn bread, two salads, gravy and a big, sliced turkey in the middle of the table. There were sodas, alcoholic, and non-alcoholic drinks as well.

I stood up grabbing my glass with Welch's Sparkling and started speaking. "I wanted to thank everyone for coming today. I wanted all of you to know that I love you and I'm so thankful for having you in my life. For someone that has been alone for so long, friends are a big treasure, and I couldn't ask for better friends than the ones that are here today. Cheers everyone", I say, and everyone says 'Cheers' back, clicking their glasses together. "Dig in".

Of course the boys went into beast mode, and absolutely devoured the food. The ladies kept it together and we all shared a nice dinner with crazy story telling and laughs all around.