Holidays

Chapter 6: East-her: Will

Will and Sarah had been dating for a few months now, but their relationship was changing. They were changing as people. Sarah asked Will to meet him at a local coffee shop.

“I asked for you to meet me here — I think we should see other people,” Sarah said quickly.

Will spit out his tea. “But I thought we had a good thing going here?”

“Not anymore, I get it every time we’re in a public place, I see you checking people out. I get it you’re bored of me.”

“No, I’m not.”

Sarah waved her hand in front of Will’s face. “See you’re doing it right now.”

“Huh? I’m not I swear.”

“Really? It’s okay, I’ve gotten bored of you too. It feels like I know everything about you, but you only know a few things about me.”

“No, I know your favorite color is red, your favorite number is seven, and your favorite movie genre is rom-com. That’s the type of movie we every time we go to the movies.”

“Yeah, but what’s my favorite movie?”

“Um, the Devil Wears Red?”

“It’s the Devil Wears Prada! I’m outta here!”

“Sarah, wait! Let me take time to get to know you.”

“I’ve given you enough time, bye!”

“I was going to invite you to Easter dinner at my parents’ house.”

“I don’t think I’m ready to meet the rest of your family.”

Sarah stormed out of the coffee shop. Will didn’t follow her, he knew as much as he tried, it was over.

Before Easter dinner, Will took his mother’s car and picked up bread crumbs, since she asked him to. It would take his mind off the breakup and telling his family about it.

“Hurry back, the guests will be arriving soon. I can’t wait to meet your girlfriend!” He remembered his mother mentioning.

“I will and I can’t wait either,” Will half-lied.

He returned later and the guests had all arrived.

“Hey, Will. My mother told me your girlfriend would be here. Where is she?” Joel asked.

“We — ”

“Dinner’s ready!” Janice shouted.

“Need to eat,” Will continued.

They all gathered in the dining room and sat down.

“I like your hat. Did you see the game last week?” Will’s grandmother asked.

Will took off his cap to look at it and it had the city’s baseball team logo.

“Thanks, I saw it at Rite Aide and I bought it. I’m not really into sports, but I thought it looked nice.”

“It does look nice on you.”

Will set the hat next on the empty seat next to him.

“So, where’s your girlfriend?”

“Yeah, where is she?” his mother asked as she set the platter of ham on the table.

“We broke up.”

“Why?” his mother queried.

“We were just growing apart and we wanted to go our separate ways.”

“Lame, what really happened?” Joel asked.

“I’ll tell you later,” Will whispered to Joel.

“Well, too bad. I hope you’re doing okay,” his mother consoled.

“I’m fine, mom. I just can’t wait to dig into this delectable ham you cooked.”

“Let me cut it first and then we can eat.”

Will’s mother cut the ham into thin slices and each person used their fork to grab a piece.

Will handed the rolls plate to Joel and everybody started eating.

After dinner, Will’s mother told the little kids to wait upstairs as she hid the Easter eggs. Will helped his mom hide them around the first floor and once they ran out of eggs, Will shouted upstairs for them to come down. They ran downstairs and Will pulled Joel by the arm upstairs.

“Don’t you want to help your cousins find the eggs?” his mother asked.

“No, I’m too old for all this. I need to talk to Joel about something upstairs.”

“Okay, just be back before everyone leaves.”

“Ow, you’re hurting me,” Joel said as Will pulled on his arm. “Alright, alright. I’m coming.”

They walked upstairs and into Will’s room.

Joel shut the door.“So, tell me, what really happened between you and Sarah?”

“She broke up with me. She asked to meet me at the coffee shop downtown.”

“Coffee Plus?”

“No, Coffee City, my new favorite coffee shop.”

“Where is that one?”

“It’s on — it doesn’t matter. I thought we were going to just talk and we did, but–.”

“But what? Get to the good stuff, how did she break up with you?”

“She started with ‘I think we should see other people’.”

“How cliché.”

“I know, then she said that she knows everything about me and I only know a few things about her. Which is wrong, I don’t think she knows everything about me.”

“What else did she say?”

“She said I check out other guys and girls, which I do not.”

“Oh, you so do.”

“Really, when?”

“Like when we were at the mall the other day picking out Arya’s birthday gift, thanks again by the way. He loved it, but I digress. I saw you checking out every Tom, Nicki, and Harry in the mall.”

“No, I wasn’t.”

“Will, I saw you doing it with my own two eyes.”

“Hey, that was after the breakup.”

“So?”

“So, it doesn’t matter and it doesn’t hurt to look.”

“Whatever.”

“You are a perv, you know that. I hope you find someone that’s as pervy as you.”

“I will, there’s plenty of pervy fish in the sea.”

“I bet there is.”

“So, how’s are you and Arya?”

“We’re good. We have a lot in common.”

“Like what?”

“We both like Lakedale, superheroes, and writing.”

“That’s great.” Will looked down at his phone’s wallpaper, it still had that picture of him and Sarah.

The one when they went to the lake.

“We’re still in the beginning stages of our relationship. We’re testing out the water. This is my first relationship with a guy and this is his first relationship with a guy.”

“I get it, you don’t want to jump into the deep end or dive in headfirst.”

“Yes. How’s the single life treating you?”

“It’s only been a few weeks, but–”

“Joel, we’re leaving! Come down and grab your jacket!” Joel’s mother shouted from downstairs.

Will followed Joel downstairs and they said their goodbyes.