Always Been You | Tom Holland

TWO

Y/N

These parties are either really fun or super boring. There is never an in-between. Typically, they're pretty fun, but since Tom is in town, all I've been hearing about all night is Tom this and Tom that. Usually, I'd love to have the attention off of me and my pursuit of a Doctoral Degree, but this is just getting annoying. Nobody cares about my psychology degree when a movie star is in our home. Granted, if it was anyone else I'd be just as excited. And, if I'm honest, I do love Tom's Spider-Man movies, I just have to separate him from Peter Parker.

I've been here for 2 hours, eaten dinner, and had many glasses of wine. I know my mum will fuss if I leave too early, so I pour myself another glass of wine and find myself talking with some random execs from my mum's company. Honestly, it's more of them talking at me while I nod my head and throw in some oh, wow's every so often. These people will talk to anyone about their jobs for as long as they can. I usually tune them out – kind of how Charlie Brown's teacher sounds in the Peanuts show – and sip on my wine and try not to get too distracted. Though, I'm not very good at that.

"Y/N?" I hear a woman's voice in my ear. "Did you hear what I said?" I refocus my eyes and notice a small silence in our – their – conversation. Clearly, I wasn't listening.

"Sorry, no, what did you say?" I smile weakly and twist my fingers around the stem of my wine glass, now feeling a bit too empty.

"I asked you what you plan on doing after you graduate," the woman smiles at me and sips her drink. Ah, my least favorite question.

"Oh, I want to work as a school psychologist," I say, the looks on their faces contorting into the fake smiles I'm so used to seeing. "The school I'm interning at currently has already offered me a position for next school year."

"Wow, that's so... admirable," and there it is. My least favorite response to my least favorite question. These people don't understand the idea of not working yourself to death for a big corporation. It's exhausting.

"Yeah, that's why I chose this field," I finish off my wine and feel my chest getting tight. I need to get out of this conversation. "Excuse me, I'm going to get some air." I smile and walk through the kitchen, stopping off to fill my wine glass, and head out to my parents' backyard.

I sit on one of the benches by the bonfire I assume my brother started and breathe in the smell of the summer air mixed with bonfire smoke. Nobody really comes out here when my mum hosts these parties, mostly because nobody wants to waste a moment of networking time. When I still lived at home, Ben and I would hang out by the fire for most of the night. Now, he's schmoozing his way up to a position at my mum's company, so he's been absorbed into the swarm of execs and other rich people inside.

I look up at the stars, wishing my parents lived somewhere more rural so they were more visible. When we were younger, Ben, Tom, Paddy (when he was old enough), Harry, Sam, and I would all sit out here and try to point out as many constellations as we could – even though I'm pretty sure we made most of them up. It was one of the very few activities that Tom and I could do without getting into an argument. I often find myself wishing I could go back to those years – so young, so naive, and so limitless. Or so we would think. Now we're all practically adults, drinking at our families' dinner parties and pretending like we don't hate every minute.

"Is it okay if I sit out here, too?" I hear Tom's voice behind me, dragging me out of my reminiscing.

"Oh, uh, yeah. I won't stop you," I shrug. I know Tom hates these parties, too, so I can't blame him for needing to get away as I did. We sit in silence for a few minutes before he speaks again.