Wait for You (wlw) (Bitter spin-off)

twenty-two

Vic's pov

I'd always liked Thanksgiving. I liked being home, and seeing all of my extended family, and eating delicious food, and just the whole atmosphere that came with it. It felt like the perfect moment to remind myself of how thankful I was to have such a supportive family, I knew many people couldn't say the same so I didn't take it for granted at all.

"What about you Vic, how's your third year of university going?" my aunt asked as I was more focused on my pumpkin pie than on the conversation about my cousin's computer business that was going on.

"Oh, it's good. Challenging, but it's going well I'd say" I said. It actually had been going pretty well, I was enjoying my courses and I'd done well in my midterms, so I really couldn't complain.

"It must be hard. But you've always been a smart one, we all know you can do it" she said.

"Hopefully" I said with a light chuckle.

"Do you like living in Boston?" she asked.

"Yeah, it's great! Always lots of stuff going on, you can't get bored there for sure. But it can get a bit too noisy and chaotic, I definitely wouldn't enjoy it so much if I didn't know I can come back here every now and then"

"She always says she doesn't want to go back every time she has to leave" my dad intervend.

"Okay, that's not true. Not every time" I said, getting defensive. Maybe he was right, though.

"You kind of do, honey" my mom said. "Although thinking about it, you didn't make such a dramatic event of having to go back to Boston when you left this summer. Maybe you're finally getting used to it"

"Exactly" I said, trying not to show my nervousness at someone mentioning the previous summer. "Aunt Jane, you lived in Boston for a few years too, right?" I changed the topic of the conversation.

The truth is I was happy to be leaving that one time because I'd started to associate every place with Mei, and I just didn't want to have to do anything with her anymore. And I didn't want to get sad over the second person in a row who'd gave me false hope for something serious just to tell me they just wanted to be fuck buddies.

But that had been harder than I thought it would, apparently getting rid of a months-long crush wasn't that easy. Most things would remind me of her even if I wasn't home, and memories of stuff we'd done together and said to each other during that short period of time, when I thought we were really going somewhere, kept replaying in my mind.

I missed being able to hear from her whenever I wanted to because she'd never fail to put me in a better mood no matter what, and I really just missed being in her company, the feeling of her hands on my skin and her lips on mine. But she'd fooled me, and I didn't want to waste my sadness on her. I was gradually getting her out of my mind.

Maybe I was doomed to falling for people who didn't want anything serious while not being able to do casual relationships for life, given that the same situation happened to me twice within less than a year. If that was the case, I was just going to accept I'd be alone forever. I'd often thought that maybe I was just unlovable, and maybe that was the confirmation.

When Mei had drunkenly called me telling me she was sorry for hurting me, I definitely wasn't expecting it. She probably wasn't even honest about it, she was just having a moment. And I didn't even want to try and discover that, ending the call as soon as possible was definitely the best option at that point.

Something else I more than definitely wasn't expecting was receiving a text from her the following day.

mei: hey, are you home for thanksgiving?
mei: i know you probably don't wanna hear from me, but can we talk?