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Thanksgiving

☆彡𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑙𝑖𝑛𝑎

Narrative + Messages + Instagram

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Before I knew it me and Cam were packing our bags to go home for break. "Do you know where my green top is?!" Cam shouts from her room. I love how she thinks I'm going to know exactly what top, as if she doesn't have like 50 green ones. "which one?!" "The sage green tank top with the sun on it." She was now leaning on my doorway. "You can check," before I can finish she is already in my closet, "but I don't think I'll have it-" "found it!" "Oh." "I'll be taking this back, thank you very much." She holds it up for me while walking out the room. When she is fully out of my vision I look down at my stuffed suitcase trying to figure out what to eliminate. I'm going to be gone for less than a week not a whole summer, but every piece of clothing feels like a need. My thoughts are cut off by the sound of my phone ringing. It's Paige. Ever since the Halloween party I've tried to ignore what happened, but I don't understand why. I think I like her and it looked like she was leaning in as well. I keep thinking about what would've happened if that guy hadn't interrupted up, would I still have kissed he- "Hey Paige what's up?" I set my phone down in front of me. "Not much, just bored." "Oh okay." I struggle to take my eyes off her face through the phone eventually forcing myself to focus on my suitcase. "How's packing going?" She asks squinting her eye and moving her hand to her chin. "If I'm being honest, not great, but I'm pushing through." "You should let me come over, I am quite an expert at packing." I look up at her face again. "I'm sure you are." "Oh heyy Paige." Cam is next to me and all I can do is just stare at her. This girl is crazy. "Hey Cam." She gives her cheesy grin, the one I could stare at for forever. Cam then gives me a telling look. I already know what she is thinking and I hate it. "Anyways, you can come over to help me pack." "Cool, I'll be there in like 10 minutes." She hangs up the phone. I guess she really means it. "Eve, if you don't make a move I'm going to kill you." She smiles before leaving my room causing me to sigh.

Okay, back to packing. I zone out only to regain consciousness when Cam is back at my doorway telling me she is here. Shit. She smirks at me before going back in her room. When I get to the front door I sigh before opening it, and there she is, with that charming smile. "Hey." "Hey." I open the door for her to come in. "How did you get here?" "I Ubered" "oh. I could've picked you up." "Nah it's all good, I don't mind spending a little extra money to see you before you leave." I don't know what to say so I just laugh leading her to my room. "Here's the damage." I point to my luggage grimacing "You have a lot of clothes." "I do, and unfortunately I can't pack all of it." She laughs and my face heats up. She sits on the only open space on my bed and I walk over to my suitcase. "So first order of business what's the weather going to be like?"she asks. "Well, November in New York isn't exactly the warmest, but it's not like winter, but I would definitely say dress warm just not winter warm." I rant keeping my eyes on my bag." "Okay okay, let's see what you have so far" I start to pull out my clothes holding up each one so I can explain why I need it. The whole time I'm showing her clothes she never looks away, almost always focused on me and it freaks me out. Why does she have to be so fine.

"Okay you definitely don't need 500 skirts, and 200 tank tops." "True." I point at her and start eliminating skirts and tank tops struggling to choose. "Okay wait, but isn't this skirt so cute. I can't get rid of it." "But you don't have enough space." "Fine I guess you're right." I start throwing all the tank tops and skirts I "don't need" into a pile by my closet. After I end up with two skirts and 3 tank tops, I move on to my pants. "Okay, definitely keep the baggy jeans those look warm, and keep the sweats." She guides me pointing to the clothing as she speaks. "Can't you do laundry?" "I can but you never know the occasion." She chuckles looking at an oversized shirt. "This is fire, you should definitely keep it." "Okay" I take it out of her hands, rolling it, and stuffing it in my suitcase. "Also, do you have your outfit for tomorrow picked out?" "Shit. I don't." I start moving all my clothes to one side so I can dig through the rack and find a decent enough sweatshirt. I groan. Cam must have all of them. I rush to her room opening the door. "Do you have any of my sweatshirts?" She looks up at me from her phone. "No." I internally groan going back to my room. "What's wrong?" Paige says as I walk through the door. "I can't find any of my comfortable sweatshirts." I walk over to my suitcase. "You can burrow mine." Hello? "Oh no that's okay." "It's not and I have like so many others anyways." She starts to take it off, her shirt coming up with it revealing her abs. God. "Paige I seriously can't take this." "It's fine seriously I don't need it." She tries to put it in my hand but I force it back. "Okay fine." She sets it down on the bed beside her. "Do not leave it here." "I won't I won't" she puts her hands up defensively and I can't help but smile.

After about an hour of packing and taking random break to talk about random things my bag was finally pack. I spent way more time thinking on it than I need to, but it was nice to hang out with Paige. "I should probably go, I have PT in the morning" "Okay yeah." She stands up off my bed itching her head. I walk to the door opening it for her. "Well I see you when you get back." "Yeah of course.." when I'm around Paige I don't tend to think I just do. and this time, I hugged her. What surprises me is that she immediately hugged back wrapping her arms around my waist. I back out of the hug because I'm afraid if I hold on for too long I might never stop, and as Paige leaves none of us say anything, so I just watch her walk down the hallway. When I close the door and turn around Cameron is right in front of me. "Hello?" "Did you make a move?" I roll my eyes walking to my room to avoid the questions she is going to ask. "Evelina? Don't ignore me." She walks into my bedroom before me. "No I didn't make a move, she doesn't like me Cam." "BUT you like her." "Yeah so?"

"Sometimes you can be so blind. This is driving me crazy." What do you mean?" She walks out of my room. "Cameron what do you mean???" Whatever. I need to focus on cleaning my room before we leave. I go over to my bed looking over my suitcase one more time before I set it on the floor. When I set it down I notice something on my bed. It's Paige's sweatshirt.

P buckets 🏀

Evelina 🇮🇹🗽

You forgot your sweatshirt.

P buckets 🏀

Keep it 😉

Evelina 🇮🇹🗽

🙄

I will be giving it back when I'm back.

I throw my phone down on my bed going back to cleaning my room. For the rest of the night me and Cam don't speak probably because she fell asleep before I was done cleaning.

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The next morning it took everything in me not to turn off my alarm and go back to sleep for the whole day. "Get up Eve, we have to be in the car by 8:30 if we want to make it home in time." "What time is it?" I groggily throw my blanket to the side. "It's eight." I groan sitting up. "Okay just give me a sec to get ready." I realize at this point I'm talking to my self since she left from my door way. I make my bed as best I can with blurry vision stumbling into my bathroom to actually get ready. I change into some sweats, a baby tee and converse. I check over my room one last time going back to quickly put on Paige's sweatshirt, which smells like her. I pray to god Cam won't notice. If she does she will never shut up. "Come on Lina! Let's go!" I rush out of my room turning off every light I see. When I finally get to the car Cam is already in the drivers seat playing music. Sometimes I wonder what I would do without her, probably never be on time.

"You ready?" She asks as I sit in the front seat getting comfortable. "Yup." "Where did that sweatshirt come from?" "My closet." I grab my phone out of my back pocket seeing a text from Paige.

P buckets 🏀

P buckets 🏀

Safe travels

Evelina 🇮🇹🗽 loved a message

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I internally let out a big sigh of relief when I pull into my neighborhood. Waves of memories from the times I would be up and down these streets playing hit me like a ton of bricks. I have been driving the last leg and I feel like never driving again. Even though the drive was less than an extreme 10 hours, traffic sucks. "Are we there yet?" Cam says waking up from her nap. "Basically." She is now sitting up straight, brushing through her hair with her hands.

I park on the side of the road in front of my house ignoring the fact that there are cars flooding my driveway. When we both get out the car we take a moment to stretch before grabbing our bags. "Ready for chaos?" Cam asks me as we walk up to the front door. "I don't think I have a choice." We both laugh.

Before I can knock the second knock the door swings open revealing both of our moms who start yelling words I can't understand. My mom wraps her arms around me giving me a hug I practically melt into. "I missed you baby." "Missed you too mama." We pull away so I can hug Cam's mom and Cam can hug my mom. We walk inside to be greeted with my living room full of people. The rest of our families, childhood friends, and other random family friends. It's takes 30 minutes to hug everyone. "So what's Connecticut like?" My dad's childhood best friend asks. "It's cool, I have a good group of people so it's pretty nice." "Cool cool, I heard they have good basketball over there, you go to any of the games?" "I do, well actually Cameron works for the women's basketball team so we go to the games often." Before he can say anything else I'm pulled away by someone. "Okay, Cam has told me, Ruth, and Maggie everything. So you will be staying at my house tomorrow telling all the details." I awkwardly laugh. "Amaia whatever Cam is telling you is probably so dramatic." "I don't care you still are my friend and we need to have a a big sleepover like we used to. Be at my house at seven. Anyways I have to go now so I will see you tomorrow." She hugs me before saying goodbye to everyone else and leaving.

After a while Cam leaves with her family and by 5 pm it's just me and mine. I'm in the kitchen leaning on the counter with my mom as she makes dinner. "Hey Lina?" Matteo says walking in and standing next to me. "Yeah?" "I have a question." "Okay, shoot." He opens his phone going to instagram and scrolling to a specific post. "Are you friends with her?" He is showing me a picture of Paige. "Yes." "No fu-," my mom eyes him and I laugh, "No way, you realize who this is." "I do, but how do you know. Aren't you only into men's basketball?" "No. Well when you live so close to Connecticut and you have friends on your school's girls basketball team you hear stuff okay?" "Oh okay." I cross my arms. "Mom, can we go see one of their basketball games?" He looks over at her. "Sure. Whenever your sister invites us back." We both laugh. He gives me a look before putting his headphones back on and talking on the mic. "So. You are making some new friends?" "Yeah I guess so." "Well that's good. I was honestly worried that you were going to just be friends with Cameron all of your college life." "You say that like it's a bad thing." "Oh it's not. Anyways, tell me about this Paige." I internally groan. I can't escape her. "Well you know how Cam got a job as a physical therapist assistant? Well, she basically became friends with the whole team and then I became friends with the team including Paige. End of story." I lean back on the counter. "That's nice, maybe we will just have to come see a game." "Okay mom."

I leave the kitchen going upstairs to Gabriella's room. "Come in." Her small voice says from the other side of the door. "Watcha doin?" "Just playing with Barbies." "Can I join?" "Yes!" She grabs my arm pulling me to sit down next to her. "Dinner!" I hear my mom say after me and Gabi had been playing to the point where our Barbie's are fighting. We then race down the stairs like we used to do when we were younger, but this time I let her win. "This looks amazing amore mio" my dad says sitting down first. "Okay,  before we eat I think it's time we give Evelina her birthday present." "You got me a present?" I wasn't expecting anything, especially since I wasn't home on my birthday. My mom puts an envelope on the table and I open it revealing two plane tickets inside. "You are joking." I'm going back to Italy during winter break. I stand up giving every one of my family members a big hug and kiss on the cheek. "Thank you guys." "There is one for you and one for Cam." "She is going to love this! Thank you thank you thank you." For the rest of dinner I day dream about all the things me and her will do while we were in Italy and I can't wait.

When we all split up as a family and head to bed I dread going up to my room. I have been avoiding it all day. The room filled with who I was before college. Gross. Immediately, I spot all the posters, my bright sheets, and how cluttered it is even after I took most of it with me. That night I continued to think about Italy and how much I miss it.

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The next day wasn't anything special. I hung out with family and now I'm getting ready to spend the night at Amaia's. I already know they will all be asking me a thousand questions about Paige. Which is not exciting at all. I have practically dug  to the bottom of my closet trying to find an over night bag. My high school back pack will just have to do. I catch myself thinking about Paige while I shove clothes in the bag. I wonder what she is doing right now.

P buckets 🏀

Evelina 🇮🇹🗽

I think my brother is a fan of you.

P buckets 🏀

Fr?

Evelina 🇮🇹🗽

Yeah, yesterday he was asking

about you and I thought it was funny.

P buckets 🏀

He should come to a game.

I can hook you up with tickets

Evelina 🇮🇹🗽

He would love that, he loves

basketball

P buckets 🏀

He play?

Evelina 🇮🇹🗽

Yup. You should come teach

him a few things

P buckets 🏀

Because you can't play?

I scoff at her response, but before I can respond someone is at my door. "Lini can I come in?" Gabi says with a quiet knock. "Of course." "Where are you going?" She says while looking at my bag. "I'm staying the night at Amaia's house, but don't worry I will be back tomorrow to keep playing Barbies." She smiles sitting my bed. She continues to watch me pack my things until I realize I have to go pick up Cam since I have the car. "Okay bye family!" I yell from the garage door only getting a response from my mom and Gabi.

When I pull up to Cams house she runs out the door practically jumping into the passenger seat. "What's the rush for?" I turn down the music I was playing and put the car in drive. "My parents won't stop bombarding me about college life and I need a break!" She says causing laughter. The rest of the drive was filled with Cam ranting to me about all the questions her parents would ask and how she would respond. "Then she had the audacity to ask me if I was with any of the girls on the team. And guess who she said...Paige. I was like no mom. she is taken by Evelina." "You said that???" "No but I wanted to. Anyways long story short I need my parents to get off my back about dating. I don't understand how they can't understand I don't want to be in a relationship right now." She groans and I laugh.

Amaia's house hasn't changed one bit since I was last here. The flowers that decorated her porch are still alive and brightly colored, the pictures in her living room remain in the same place, and the kitchen was still covered in retro tile. Being back home has been filled with so many memories. "Okay, I'm DoorDashing pizza and ice cream, any requests?" Amaia says sitting on the floor. "Chocolate chip cookie dough!" Cam yells. "Okay," Amaia says between a laugh, "is a large pepperoni pizza and cookie dough ice cream good for everyone?" Me, Maggie, and Ruth all nod our heads. "Where are your parents?" Maggie sits up looking around. "They are out of town for thanksgiving, I'm not sure where though." "How do you not know where your parents are?" Ruth asks. "I dunno, I mean as long as they come back is all that matters to me." We all laugh. We then pull out random card games and play them till the pizza arrives. I don't think I've ever realized how competitive Cam can get when it comes to uno. She was yelling every five seconds.

The pizza finally gets to the house and Cam has won her third round of uno doing a victory dance around the living room. "So Eve, we've heard some stuff about your girlfriend." Amaia says making me almost choke on my pizza. "She isn't my girlfriend." I glare over at Cam. "Okay but still, you have to tell us everything." Now everyone is staring at me and I have no choice. "Okay fine. There is this girl Paige and she is NOT my girlfriend we are just friends, but I may or may not have feelings for her and I may or may not have almost kissed her at a party," I speed up my words towards the end. "EVELINA! you didn't tell me you almost kissed her!!!" Cam throws her pizza down while everyone else just basically smirks at me. These mother fuckers are creepy. "I know I know Cam I'm sorry, also can you guys stop looking at me like that I'm scared." They all just start laughing. "So what does she like you back?" Ruth chimes in. "No I don't think s-" "I think she does, in fact I have a  bet  going with one of the players."

Excuse me. I swing my head to look at her. "Cam who do you have a bet with??" "I can't tell you, just trust it's someone close to Paige." My head falls back on the couch and I cover it with my hands. Someone close to Paige, that could be practically all of them. "So what you just know for a fact Paige likes me back?" "I do." My heart drops and I squint my eyes at her. "You are messing with me." " Nope." I can feel the girls eyes going between me and Cam. I refuse to look at Cam in the eyes now, so I go back to eating my pizza praying someone will change the subject. "Okay, my turn. There is this guy at the coffee shop near my house, and I think I'm in love with him...." I start to zone Maggie's voice out as I think about all the times where Paige could've been showing she liked me back. My brain feels like it's overheating.

For the rest of that night I don't think I was ever fully present. My mind was always going back to her.

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Tagged: @maggieandrews

@cambennett

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Tagged: @amaiakattan

@ruthwell

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Tagged: macaronii

Liked by muhl.10 and 24 others

evesradio back with my babies

cambennett who is that hottie in the blonde wig

➬macaronii you are lowkey hot as well hmu

pbuckets5 I like my sweatshirt

➬evesradio 🙄

amaiakattan missed you!

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ruthwell tell cam to give me back my wig.

➬evesradio 🫡

maggieandrews never leave us again. I can't take it.

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𝗟𝗼𝗮𝗱 𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘀

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It was now thanksgiving meaning there was never a quiet moment in this house. My mom invited Cam's family over so it felt like double the people. Our moms were making noise in the kitchen, surprisingly my dad is watching football also making noise, Gabi and Cam's younger brother were playing a game, and Matteo was upstairs yelling at all his friends on Fortnite. Never a moment of silence. We leave tomorrow meaning that I can't escape to my room like I did in high school, I have to soak up as much of my family's energy as I can. I probably won't see them again till summer, which is scary to think about. The thought of going back to school and facing Paige is also terrifying. Unfortunately, there is no way to make this day move in slow motion. I still haven't told Cam about Italy yet, I think I want to wait until we get back to Connecticut so when she gets stressed out I can pull them out.

"Time to eat!" Cam's mom yells from the dining room. The only thing I pay attention to is how fast Matteo comes to the table, all he does is eat.

"Wow, isn't this just great, we get to have our girls back for thanksgiving." Mrs. Bennett announces to my mom before sitting down. I can feel my mouth water before I even get to the table. "Amore mio and Mrs Bennett you two out did yourself this time, it looks amazing." He kisses my mom on the cheek. I can see Gabi and Matteo gag, but I can't help to admire the love they have for each other. When I was younger I used to keep myself up thinking about if I would ever find love like them, which is sad, but you know I still haven't found it yet. "Let's dig in!" Gabi says immediately going for the bread rolls. We all laugh filling our plates up with the mix of Italian dishes and traditional thanksgiving dishes.

By the end of the night I'm so full I think someone might have to roll me to my bed. I definitely ate way more than I should've and by the groan Cam just made next to me, I think she is in the same predicament. "I don't think I could ever eat again." "Same." I agree leaning on the wall for support. "At least you are already home."

"True." "And I fear I may have to drive since my parents love alcohol." She says causing us to laugh. "Okay Cami. Let's head home." Her dad says putting his arm around her shoulder. "Okay dad." She leans on his shoulder as they head towards the door. "Bye Roni and Mr and Mrs Bennett." They wave goodbye, Jack running out the door to catch up to the family who almost left him.

"I like him, he should come over more." Gabi says coming up next to me. She starts yawning and as if it was on cue my mom walks in. "Alright Gabriella, go get Jammie's on." "Okay mamma."

She leaves my side slowly making her way upstairs. With Matteo back in his room, Gabi in bed and my parents passing out together on the couch I head to bed. I am not looking forward to the drive tomorrow.

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The next morning I wake up to the smell of cornettos and it immediately takes me back to mornings in Italy. They are my nonna's favorite food to make, she makes them almost every morning when I'm there. To my surprise it's my dad in the kitchen instead of my mom. I thought my Nonna only taught her the recipe, but I guess not. "Good morning Eve!" He says sliding me a plate with two cornettos. "Before you eat go wake up your siblings." He interrupts me about to take a bite. I drop the Cornetto running up stairs to quickly wake up Gabi and Matteo so I can get back to eating.

✰✰✰

The time had finally come and it was time for us to head back to Connecticut. Our bags were thrown into the back of our car and now all that's left is trying not to cry. My mom scoops me up in her arms followed by my dad hugging us both, then Gabi, and Matteo. It's like they want me to cry. "I'm going to miss you guys." I say trying to hold back tears. I have to drive first and I cannot be driving while crying. I can tell that Cam is also trying not cry which sucks because if either one of us sheds a tear it's over. Saying goodbye is probably the worst thing a person should have to do. Every time I do it's never enjoyable.

As we drive away my thoughts go back to Paige. AGAIN. The same question repeating in my head over and over: what is going to happen when I get back?

Tagged: @cambennett

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Liked by paigebueckers and 546 others

evelinaricci best thanksgiving break ever

cambennett never take candid photos of me again.

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Amaiakattan come back I miss you already.

nika.muhl come home the kids miss you.

➬evelinaricci omw 🏃🏽‍♀️‍➡️

𝗟𝗼𝗮𝗱 𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘀

˚. ✦.˳·˖✶ ⋆.✧̣̇˚.

I think this is the longest chapter yet 😓