GOLD RUSH; wes hicks x fem!reader

CHAPTER NINE; holiday-ish

"and when i look at you
and you look back at me
there's nothing i would rather do
you're the most holiday-ish sight that i could see"

---

y/n's pov

"Do you ever even use this telescope?" I asked Wes one night in November while sitting on the edge of his bed pulling on a pair of socks.

It wasn't very late, only around 8 pm or so.

"I used to a lot more when I was younger." He admitted. "Not so much anymore."

He pushed the covers off of his legs and stood up, stretching a little before walking over to the telescope.

I watched Wes as he adjusted the zoom and focus on the telescope's lens before waving me over to him.

I walked over and sat beside him as he looked into the telescope again.

"What're you looking at?" I asked and he smiled, moving back.

"Take a look for yourself." He told me and I did.

He had the telescope focused on the moon, the bright white crescent in the sky that lit up his dark bedroom through the glass window.

His fingers slowly traced along my back and I sat up again, looking over at him.

"This is actually pretty cool." I told him.

"I used to use it every night when we were like... 12? I think it was around then."

"Why don't you use it anymore?" I asked.

"I don't know. School, friends, all that stuff." He shrugged. "I used to have a ton of Astronomy books, if you remember."

"Yeah, you'd bring them to school every day and read them during lunch while the rest of us were talking." I recalled.

"They were really interesting." He defended himself.

"Relax, Wes, I'm not picking on you." I chuckled and he sighed. Not a disappointed sigh, but a content one.

We both looked forward out his window as it slowly began to rain and he put an arm around me.

For me, that was the moment I knew I was in love with Wes Hicks.

It wasn't anything special. Just the two of us sitting together in his room.

I never told him about that. About the exact moment.

And the first time we ever said 'I love you' to each other was a month before he died.

Ridiculous, really, when I had known all that time.

I wish I had said it sooner.

---

After November came December. And in December was Christmas.

And while it was my first winter break without my dad, we still tried our best to keep it a happy time.

Part of that included going to the same annual Christmas party Judy used to host.