Wirt x Reader - Remember Me?

Rejection

    Wirt sat on the edge of his bed, staring at a tape within his hands. Contained within the cassette was a whirl of emotions that he could hardly bear to think about. He had poured his heart and soul into it, all of his conflicted feelings of love and anxiety were mixed into one piece of audio and neatly wrapped up with two simple words.
    For Sara. 
    He’d been rejected earlier that day. After a year of holding on to that tape, he had finally worked up the nerve to ask her out. He had the greatest idea planned: he’d take her out to a movie, and then he’d bring her to his house before finally allowing her to listen to the tape. It was the perfect plan, but he was shot down before he’d ever had a chance to put it into action. He was stuck in the black hole that every man must become familiar with at some point in their life. The friend zone.
    He wasn’t ready to let go of it all. Even when Jason Funderberker started to make a move on Sara, Wirt had retained a fleeting hope that he would have a chance with her. That grew into a sense of optimism when Jason lost interest and went out with someone else. Ever since then he’d been working up the courage to make his own move on her. All of the hours of writing poetry and thinking of her… They were wasted.
    In one fluid motion Wirt stood and threw the tape against the wall with as much force as he could muster. It broke upon impact, laying on the ground with its reels of tape strewn about the floor. He stared at it numbly before scooping it up and dropping it in the rubbish bin. He had to get rid of it. He had to get rid of everything. How was he supposed to forget about Sara when sonnets dedicated to her littered the floor?! He reached down and took up the papers, ripping and disposing of them without a second thought. Days, weeks… A whole year, wasted. How much emotional turmoil had he suffered over her? He felt the weight of the world on his shoulders when he even thought about asking her out. Confessing was some huge obstacle that even a year of giving himself pep talks could only barely overcome.
    He’d climbed the mountain. He’d found that courage. Things were supposed to be better after overcoming the initial insurmountable problem. But things were worse; much, much worse. All of the internal grief had been for naught. When he broke the cassette, a large piece of his heart broke along with it.
   Wirt collapsed on his bed, staring up at the ceiling. Now that the want of Sara had been proven pointless, he had to go back to how things were before. But he’d had a crush on Sara for such a long time. It existed as a secret admiration for many a year, and only in the past year or so had he actually thought about acting upon it. Going further back would mean that he’d have to recall how things were before Sara moved to Aberdale.
    Everything was fuzzy. Sara had moved to Aberdale in the fifth grade, and elementary school up to that point had been a blur. Mostly everyone in his classes back then were still at the same school. Only a few had moved away. He suddenly recalled (y/n). Of course, how could he have been so stupid? He used to be in her class, but he always chose the desk furthest away from her. Preferably in the back of the room, where he could observe her without seeming like a creep. He knew that if he sat close to her he’d screw up. Whenever he tried to talk to her his knees got all weak and his voice would choke up.
    Hah, even back then he had a crush on a girl. But she moved away, and that story ended. Well, almost ended. Back then Wirt had lived with his mom and dad across the city. A few months after (y/n) had moved away, his parents got divorced and his mom met another man. The splitting of his family and the idea of a new father was already bad enough, but his mom added even more pain into it by moving in with his new stepdad.
    To top it all off, his stepdad had been living in (y/n)’s old home.
    The room that Wirt had been sleeping in for the past five years had once been (y/n)'s room, and the room that Greg now occupied had once been her playroom. Wirt could still see the marks on the door frame showing how tall she had been along with the date and her age. At the time everything had been so heart-wrenching that he’d just bottled up all of his anger and tried to forget about it.
    That was when Wirt realized that there was no going back. He wanted to be like a kid again so that he could forget Sara, but nothing would be the same. His parents would never be back together, and he’d never be the happy only child with a loving mother and father he had once been. But this was by no means a new observation. He’d known that his family was permanently broken long, long ago, when their parting was still considered recent. And at that time his heart had been broken, laying about the floor in shards as it did now.
    At that time Greg walked into the room, humming the happy tune to an all too familiar song. The upbeat melody sent memories flooding back to Wirt almost violently.
    They were sitting at a table surrounded by animals dressed as late 19th century schoolchildren. Everyone was downcast, and all rightfully so. The school was going to be closed soon, the children’s lessons weren’t sufficient, and Miss Langtree’s lover had left her. Not to mention the wild gorilla on the loose. Thinking back now, Wirt knew how Langtree must have felt. She was lucky. It all worked out for her in the end. But Wirt wasn't even getting the chance to experience love.
    To top it all off, the food was bland. Even the white, featureless potatoes seemed to match the crestfallen emotions shared by everyone.
    But Greg was there to fix things. He was always there to make people feel better. Even if the song was so catchy that it was annoying, it made Wirt smile very time he heard it.
    “Hey, Wirt!” His small half-sibling greeted as he sauntered over to his bed. “So, I was just thinking about what we should do for Halloween this year, and I got to wonderin’, what’re you gonna be?”
    The question struck Wirt profoundly. He hadn’t even given Halloween the slightest thought aside from telling Greg that it was too soon to be preparing for it. He’d been trying to avoid the idea of Halloween for months now. But it was creeping up on him, approaching much too quickly for his comfort. One day it was June, and the next July. Before he could blink his eyes it was the end of August. Soon it would be September, and October would be breathing down his neck. He shuddered, realizing that a few moments ago he'd been thinking fondly about it.
    His costume from the previous year had been tucked away in a box and stored in the darkest corner of his closet. He desperately wanted to forget the events of last Halloween, and there was no way that he was going to wear it again this year. Greg, however, seemed completely intent on being an elephant again. God knows why. Wirt hesitated before sighing and giving the response that seemed to be his answer for everything.
    “..I don’t know, Greg. I don’t know.”