10 Things to Give Up in Order to Move Forward: #9

England x Reader

#9: “Overlooking the positive points in life.”

“Hello?  Oh!  ___, what a surprise!” your British friend, Arthur, stated with wide eyes after opening his front door.  He cocked his head to the side as he asked, “What can I do for you?”

“May I come in?” you questioned monotonously.  You appeared to be a bit aggravated and Arthur could tell.  Because of this, he opened his door up wider, allowing you access to his abode.

“Sure thing.”  Without another word spoken, you made your way into Arthur’s living room and plopped down onto his couch.  Wordlessly, he followed you and proceeded to sit down onto a chair across from the sofa.  With a small smile he then asked you, “So, is there any particular reason for your arrival here this evening?”

“I just need to vent to somebody,” you mutter, crossing your arms over your chest defiantly.

“About?”

“How my life is just freaking Hell on Earth.”

“In what aspect?”  You release a pent up sigh of anger and let the words just flow out of your mouth.

“My mom and dad don’t listen to me, my siblings are always setting me up for trouble, my boyfriend hasn’t texted me back since last night, I feel like my job is overtaking my life making me have no time to do the things that I would like to do, and I have numerous homework assignments that keep piling up on me.  Honestly I feel like my head is going to explode!” you conclude your long tirade by grabbing a hold of your head and pretend like your squishing your own brains out.

“…May I interject for just a moment?” Arthur said calmly.

“Um…okay.”  Sitting on the edge of his seat and leaning towards you, Arthur gave you a stern look.  Looks like he’s about to lecture you.

“I think what you’re forgetting here is that regardless of how bad things get, you always have something to be thankful for.”  You let out a scoff as you lie yourself down on his couch.

“Arthur, you don’t know how wrong you are.  I have nothing to be thankful for.”

“Think again ___, because now you have no idea how wrong you yourself are.”  You can’t help but give a small glare towards the Brit, not because you were mad at him, but because you were confused by where he was going with that.  That is until he started preaching to you exactly why you were wrong.  “You have a family that loves you more than you realize.  There are several people out there who don’t even have parents.”

“But-” you tried to speak, but Arthur cut you off.

“And then as for your siblings getting you into trouble, that’s just what siblings do. Trust me.  I would know.  It’s their job to do those things to you because that’s how they learn right from wrong.  You’re their teacher.”

“But they-”

“In regards to your boyfriend, you haven’t even given him more than 24 hours to contact you.  Give him some space.  He’s his own individual just like you are.  You can’t control everything in his life, so just let him do what he needs to do and wait it out.”  You remained silent since you knew he wouldn’t let you speak until he touched on all of the topics you brought up to him.

“Lastly, your job and homework assignments shouldn’t be stressing you out as much as they are.  Talk to your boss about your schedule and how you need your own personal time to finish your own tasks back home.  Doing this should allow you some more time to work on your homework for your classes, therefore decreasing your stress.”  Arthur then placed a gentle hand on your knee and starting rubbing slow circles into it.  “Really, I feel that you’re just overworking yourself and absolutely have no idea that that’s the case.” 

“You know what?”

“Hmm?” Arthur murmured, almost as if he were half asleep.

“You’re making me feel guilty,” you deadpanned.  Arthur chuckled at your declaration.

“Sometimes it takes feeling guilty to understand that you really do have a lot to be thankful for.”  With that, your British friend stood up and made his way towards his kitchen.  “Would you like some tea?  It would help you to calm down a bit.”