I'm sorry if this took longer than expected. I'm on exams week, it's not as heavy as I expected, but still ugh. Anyway, here it is.
It is a recurrent theme in Normal People that Marianne is incapable of getting decent boyfriends, for understandable reasons. Well, Amy also seems to be incapable of choosing a good man after Laurie.
For those of you who like bookParker, I'm sorry, but this story needs a Jamie (If you have seen/read Normal people, you'd understand).

Florence, Italy

Laurie went back to Florence to his new girlfriend, while Amy stayed with Parker. At least, the conversation in the kitchen eased things between them as they tried to stay friends and respect each other's partners. Parker and Laurie were never going to be as close as they were before, not that they were the best friends before. Actually, they barely talked after graduation. A few messages here and there, but nothing more.

In contrast, Amy found that Helena was actually a sweet girl. It was one of those people who you really want to hate, but couldn't. She was kind and sincere. She knew nothing about art, but she never dismissed it. She was pretty too, with her chestnut long hair and she wasn't so pale as Amy. She figured it out Laurie must have said something to her about their past relationship. So, Amy wasn't sure if her kindness was her trying to be cool about her boyfriend being friends with his ex or if she genuinely was like this. She wouldn't blame her if Helena was jealous, she would too. On the plus side, Jo liked her, which was a huge triumph because she generally hated every single one of his girlfriends.

And it's not that they became the best of friends or anything close to that, but they would exchange a few pleasant words whenever they saw each other. Definitely not the tense environment that reigned whenever Laurie and Parker were in the same room. A situation like the one they were in now. It was Thanksgiving again and the girls offered her apartment to have a reunion as it became a tradition. They still couldn't cook much, but there was definitely an improvement.

Laurie arrived on time with a bottle of wine. He dragged Ernest along with him, one of his closest friends in the university. He was aware of the whole fiasco of last semester between him and Amy.

"Hey!" Carina greeted the boys and let them in. She thanked them for the wine and they made their way to the kitchen where Amy was preparing the food, as Parker was already drinking.

"Hi," Amy smiled at them.

"Thanks for having us," Ernest said. "I really wanted to see how a Thanksgiving day is."

"You did tell them we are improvising, right?" Amy asked Laurie and they shared a smile that didn't go unnoticed by Parker.

"No Helena?" Carina asked.

"She has partial exams," Laurie explained. "Hi, Parker."

"Laurie," he replied.

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"Alright, the food's ready!" Amy announced, internally hoping those two could hold it together.

"Do you mind opening this? My hands are wet," Amy said, giving the bottle to Laurie.

"Not at all."

"These glasses are all different," Parker noticed, kind of annoyed.

"Well, we don't have a full set here. Xavier brought some to complete it." Carina replied.

"Is that a problem?" Amy asked. One of the things she found out really bothered her about her boyfriend was how ignorant he could be sometimes. Like he was rich and expected everyone else to be the same.

"No."

"Smells delicious," Ernest commented to decrease the tension.

"Aw, thanks."

"So, Amy told us your job is to go around Europe to talk to clients?" Xavier asked Parker.

"Yes,"

"Sounds amazing!" Ernest said. "What's your favorite city? I love Berlin and Amsterdam, but I only stayed there for a few days. I want to do backpacking across all Europe!"

"Why would you want to spend your days on trains and hostels?" Parker snorted.

"For the experience," Ernest replied. "You learn more about the culture that way, I think. And you meet new people."

.

"Has Amy taken you to every single museum here?" They all laughed.

"What's wrong with that!" Amy protested, acting as if she was offended.

"Did she give you a class on the Medici?" Annette added to the conversation.

"What's the point of living in the city of the Renaissance if you're not going to enjoy it."

"I'll stay with the planes, thank you. Better than to spend your whole days on a guide book."

"Well, thank fuck for scholarships, eh?" Xavier intervened.

"Sure. I'd cheers to that." Amy replied.

"We should take a trip to Prague one weekend."

"Sounds great!"

"Ah, that'll be perfect. I've never been in Eastern Europe," Xavier mentioned.

"Shocker," Parker mentioned as Amy noticed that his glass was constantly being refilled.

"Hey, maybe we can do it on April vacations!"

"I want to see the Slav Epic," Annette mentioned.

"Why are we bothering with Prague?" Parker asked unimpressed.

"Yeah, sure, that's what everyone says, right? Fuck, Prague."

"Just weird languages and hookers." Everyone looked at their food at Parker's comment. Amy looked very nervous. "We're literally gonna go and sit in a train for two hours to look at art through a million people's camera phones."

"You do know what we study, right?"

"God forbid you might actually encounter an Eastern European woman, Parker," Laurie mentioned.

"Well, you must know quite a few," Parker mentioned.

"What?" Ernest asked.

"Laurie knows what I mean," of course Parker was referring to Laurie's days of drinking and fooling around. Amy got even tenser. She hated remembering that part of Laurie's life when he was lazy and a disaster. It's not really fair to keep bringing back past mistakes, especially when he had done so much progress.

"It's just a fun way of spending time with friends, you know?" Xavier turned back to the trip.

"I'm gonna go get dessert." Amy stood up, visibly upset.

"Or, you can stay here making your girlfriend angry after she spent the whole day cooking dinner for you," Xavier mentioned.

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"Are you all right?" Carina followed her. "Amy," But Amy kept preparing the plates without saying anything. "Are you gonna say anything?"

"About what?"

"Are you serious? What is even happening?" Carina was getting a bit desperate at Amy's silence. "It's horrible in there, isn't it?"

"Right, sorry."

"Listen, Amy, I know you and Laurie are trying to be friends, but did you have to invite him?"

"What else could I do, leaving him alone on Thanksgiving?"

"If I were Parker I would also be pissed off. I mean he's not my favorite person but he adores you."

"Can you bring the forks?"

.

"Ah, yes!" Ernest exclaimed when he saw the tiramisu coming.

"Carina made it."

"My mother taught me."

"You girls are awesome. I'm going to hang out here more often," Ernest joked.

"He just wants free food," Laurie said.

"An Italian dessert on an American holiday?" Parker asked. This was his fourth, fifth glass of wine?

"Well, this whole dinner wasn't exactly the traditional Thanksgiving… and we are in Italy," Amy replied and Parker snorted. There was little Amy could tolerate at this point. So she just stood up and went to her bedroom.

"Jesus," Parker followed her.

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"Ok ok, I'm sorry for mocking at the stupid dessert."

"You think this is about that? We all just want to enjoy dinner and you are the only one who can't behave himself!"

"What the fuck is he doing here?!"

"It's Thanksgiving, Parker. Besides, he's not the one making everyone uncomfortable."

"He could have gone somewhere else. You didn't have to invite him."

"Yes, I did."

"Why?!"

"Because he's family! Regardless of what happened between us, he's still part of my family. He lives in front of my house and he's my sister's best friend and my friend. "

"That's bullshit!"

"It's not!" Amy raised her voice too. "I'm sorry, but that's the way it is. It's how it's going to be Thanksgiving and the Holidays...and you knew that."

"We're spending Christmas and New Year with my family."

"What?!"

"Yes, they're coming to Paris."

"You never told me that."

"I'm telling you now."

"I don't want to go to Paris! I'm going to stay here. I already have plans, Flo is coming, we're having dinner here. I told you about this a week ago!"

"I heard, but my parents told me about it the other day and I assumed you'd be alright with it."

"You assumed?"

"Sorry, ok, for thinking you might want to meet my parents."

"It's not that I don't want to meet them, but I don't like you making decisions for me!"

"This is not about Paris, is it? You want to stay here with him?"

"Don't start again with this!"

"No, no. Seriously I'd like to know. Have you been fucking him behind my back?"

"Oh my God! Of course not!"

.

In the other room, everyone stayed silently, hearing the fight. They noticed the tone raising and raising from both of them.

"Shut the fuck up!" They heard Amy screamed and Laurie had enough. He got up and went to them.

"Hey, what's going on?" Laurie entered the room.

"Oh great, your knight in shiny armor is here."

"Amy, are you ok?" Laurie ignored Parker's comment, he only cared that Amy was crying.

"I'm alright."

"Hey, Laurie now I understand why you took so much care of her when we were in Concord. You wanted her all for yourself! You bastard, you were just waiting for her to ripe."

"You're drunk," Laurie commented, although internally he wanted to punch the guy.

"Please, I'll handle this." Amy tried to remain calm.

"Handle this? Oh, let me make it easier for you. I'm done. Fuck him or don't. Whatever, I couldn't care less about you. You're worthless" He made his way out of the apartment.

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"What's wrong with me?"

"Hey, don't let him get into your head. You're fine. He's the idiot" Laurie saw Carina standing at the door. She approached to take his place. It was better to leave Amy with her roommate. Xavier and Annette had already left and the boys grabbed their coats and went back to their apartments.

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"I'm sorry I ruined your friendship with Parker," Amy mentioned one day.

"Don't be. We barely talked after college."

"Do the rest of your friends hate me too now?"

"They shouldn't. They know how Parker can get."

"Well, I'm sorry if this causes problems among you guys." It didn't actually. Well, Parker did go on to say a few things about her and Laurie. There were those who told him "I told you", and those who either didn't care or Laurie didn't care to listen.

Notes:

What do you think about Amy's actions? I don't want to make her a saint and Parker a villain. He definitely is an idiot, but did he have reasons to be jealous? Relationships are messy.