parings: wes bennett x fem!reader.

warnings: contains spoilers of nothing like the movies.

status: not requested

a/n: set in the party scene where wes and liz meet again, but i changed some things. reader is going to have the surname “buxbaum” for the sake of the nicknames used in the book, but it will not affect anything else. the ending is awful, so never mind that. again, not proofread cause i cannot stand my own writing.

wesley bennett had the audacity to break up with you over the phone right on new year's eve. who even does that?! did all your time together not matter to him? how were you so easily discarded?

whatever the answer to those question was, did not matter. was bennett was in the past. you now attended ucla; your dream college, where you got to study all things related to everything you loved. you had found a group of amazing friends who you shared a quite enormous house with. life couldn’t be better. your ex-boyfriend was in the past, right?

turns out he wasn’t—not one bit. out of all the thousands of ucla students that could have got tickets to attend the party your roommates were organising, it had to be him. wes bennett was in your house. how dare he? how dare he attend a party hosted by your roommates while looking so damn good?

his smile was the exact same, as he laughed with wade and the other blond guy. you’d almost forgotten how tall he was—or maybe you hadn’t— but he looked even bigger now. his broad shoulders and wide chest made him look more professional than the playful boy you had once known. how was he still so beautiful? he had no right to do so, and you hated him for it.

you went outside to get some air, and lo and behold—once again— he was there. quite the funny game the universe was playing on you, wasn’t it? He was standing next to wade, apparently, a friend you both of you shared, and someone who claimed to be head-over-heels in love with your friend campbell.

wes’ breath hitched as he locked eyes with you for just a moment. you looked different, but in a good way. in a great way, actually. you were more gorgeous than he remembered, being next to you was simultaneously a breath of fresh air, and something that took the air out of his lungs.

“hey, buxbaum.” wow, what a great way to start a conversation with his ex. but honestly, what else was he supposed to say? he couldn’t just scream ‘i love you’— as much as he wanted to do it, this probably wasn’t the right time.

“wes, oh my god.” your words struggled to come together and form a proper sentence, which just caused him to smirk. the temptation to tease you was just right there, too big for him to hold himself back.

“don’t sound so surprised…” his hands reached into his pockets, nodding at your deadpan look. “are you here visiting someone?” you asked, hoping the answer would be a yes— but no, things weren’t on your side tonight.

“no, i study here now, actually,” wes replied, “back on the team and everything.” the look on your face was everything, the way your perfect eyebrows rose up as you let his reply sink in. yeah, back to playing baseball, he could hardly believe it himself.

“oh, uhm, well, that’s— that’s great, wes.” you gave him your best forced smile, and it was very easy for him to realise you weren’t truly happy. the conversation went quiet, akward, for a few seconds, and what came after wasn’t really amazing either.

talking to you, was like talking to a stranger. asking the same, empty questions you would ask that kid from highschool you never really liked, who you bumped into at the grocery store years after graduation. ‘how’s your mom?’, ‘how’s your sister?’

“i’ll uhm… see you around?” you awkwardly asked him, not bearing to be in his presence for one more second. the distance almost hurt wes. but that didn’t matter, right? he had you within his reach now. he’d done the whole ‘befriending and then dating you, despite hating each other for years’ thing once, he could certainly do it again, right?

“see you around, buxbaum.” he winked, and turned away. something was wrong with him, for sure. a wink? was that the best he could do? wes wanted to mentally slap himself. but he refrained; small steps, right? small steps.