Valerie 🥀 • jb x bh

fifteen

Justin

My phone buzzed with a text from Valerie and I did not waste any time in opening it and reading.

Where are you?

'At parents' place for dinner' I replied

Oh, will you be staying there?

'No, I'll go back in sometime. Why?' I asked.

Nothing, just checking after my 'boyfriend'

A smirk crept over my face as I read her reply.

'Oh, you're a nice 'girlfriend' then' I replied and she sent laughing emojis.

Gotta go, talk to you later xox

'Okay' I replied and put m phone away.

Mom, Dad and Ava just made plans of going to Canada for Christmas and New Years'. Its not like I don't wanna go, its just that Christmas in Canada has so many memories. Good ones. Such good ones that remembering them hurts more than anything.

And going to Canada also mean staying away from Valerie and not spending the Christmas and New Year with her.

Wait, but what if I ask Valerie to join us? So that way I can also cope with the memories and spend the holidays with her.

But would mom and dad like that? I mean, they love Val, but this is supposed to be a family Vacation. I should probably talk to them.

I looked to my side and saw that Ava had fallen asleep. I sighed and stood up before picking up Ava and going upstairs to her room. I placed her in her bed and tucked her under the duvet before kissing her forehead and leaving the room.

I walked to the next room which was mom and dad's and knocked.

"Come in!" Mom said and I opened the door.

They were both sitting on the bed, talking while Dad was doing something on his laptop.

"Hey" Mom said and I walked to the bed and sat down with them.

"I wanted to talk about something..." I said and gained dad's attention too. He shut his laptop and paid attention to me and I cleared my throat nervously.

"So I know, this holiday is supposed to be a family holiday and stuff and its not like I don't want it but...." I trailed off and looked down as I fiddled with my fingers nervously.

"But what honey, is something wrong?" Mom asked.

"No no, not at all. Its just that....Christmas and Canada....you remember when Eve came with us?" I said and her face softened.

"Oh..."

"Its a lot of memories mom, and I don't think I'll be able to deal with them very well alone" I said.

"Justin, we totally understand, we can go somewhere else, I'm sure your grandma and grandpa will understand" Dad said.

"No Dad, that's not what I want to say. I do wanna go there, meet granny and grandpa. And I was thinking if Valerie could join us so she keeps me distracted from things that will come to my head and also, I can spend the holidays with her and ya'll simultaneously." I said and they both smiled in unison and shared looks.

"Oh, so Valerie is our point of concern here" Mom said.

"I'm just asking, if you guys aren't okay with that, I won't ask her" I said and they rolled their eyes.

"How many times do we have to repeat that we love Valerie more than we love you?" Dad said and mom laughed and slapped his arm.

"Of course you can ask her Justin, we'd love to have her join us. You shouldn't have stressed over this so much. In fact, you can also invite her parents so she is able to have her family on the holidays too" Mom said and dad nodded.