Taken by a Stranger (Meadema)

Chapter 18 - Watching Viv Shine ✨

The past two days have been hard for Viv, dealing with her feelings while the one responsible for her feelings is with her almost every moment she is home. The day before yesterday was that conversation, in which she was confronted with a reality check, in which she spent the rest of the day with Beth in her presence, which was terribly difficult. She tried to act as normal as possible, but every time there was Beth asking if she was okay, saying that she was sorry, apologizing again that her phone had brought up that word about her current crush.

As often, they had watched a movie. It was Beth who came to lie under the covers with her, who had come to lie with her body against Viv's, as usual. Viv knew that this was normal, that this had become their routine, lying together on the couch. But she still felt a little uncomfortable about it, she had more trouble putting her feelings aside than she had anticipated. Especially now that it was Beth who was rubbing her side with her hand, trying to cheer her up now that she felt responsible for Viv's sad mood, while Beth wasn't even aware of why her mood was sad in the first place and therefore didn't help at all with her well-intentioned rubbing.

She couldn't help it, but when she lay in bed that night, a few silent tears rolled down her cheeks. She took a good look at herself in the mirror. Viv, the overthinker that she is, had just taken a stranger into her home. And not just any stranger, a stranger she had developed a crush on while she had only known her for 6 DAYS!? It was so not her thing, but she was drawn into Beth's personality, Beth's charisma, the warmth she sometimes can't find with her own friends.

She missed her presence in bed, like she had crawled into bed with her a few nights ago when she had that nightmare. She missed her old self, from a few days ago, who didn't think beyond friendship with every touch with Beth. In a way she was glad that she still had a week with Beth, she absolutely couldn't miss her presence. But on the other hand the week had to be over as soon as possible, she had to distance herself to give her feelings a place.

She was glad that she had training yesterday, to be able to think about something other than Beth for a moment, to be completely absorbed in the football game for a moment. But then, when she got home, saw that Beth had made a whole lunch, was standing in a tracksuit that really came from her own closet, with that friendly smile on her face, she realized again how much she had missed the blonde during the past hours of training.

Beth remained her happy self. She was still the woman who was so happy that Viv had come home again, that she could spend a few hours with this woman again. Time went by way too fast for her. In a week she would be gone from here, it would probably be quite a while before she would see Viv again. But she did see a shift, something in Viv that was changing. She had asked about it, that afternoon when they were sitting on the couch together.

Viv had been open about it, much to her surprise. She had indicated that now with Beth's presence in her house, just enjoying someone's presence again, she found it quite difficult that her crush didn't have the same feelings. Of course she hadn't said that Beth was her crush, but she did think that Beth deserved the truth behind her somewhat changed behavior.

Beth felt quite guilty. She knew she couldn't do much about it, especially since she didn't know who Viv's crush was, but it felt like she was the reason for Viv's sadness. Like she had to get away from here to provide for Viv to be happy again. It slowly felt like a rift was starting to form in their friendship, the first one, which she found anything but relaxing.

Until Viv burst into tears, simply not being able to give her feelings a place. In an automatic reaction, Beth pulled her towards her, let the brunette cry on her shoulder. She had even suggested leaving, finding something else, to give Viv her peace again, but that was absolutely not an option. Viv's tears started to flow faster just from the idea. There was still so much unclear, Beth actually had to know what the truth was... But Viv couldn't say it...