Forever Never After

c h a p t e r e i g h t e e n

Willow and I sat on her bed, waiting for Graham to dry his hair.

 "Opal?" I turned to face Willow, the sunlight streaking in from a nearby window illuminating her face. 

"Don't take this the wrong way, but do you think Graham is..okay?" What? 

"Um, yeah. Sure, he might be weird sometimes, but I think he's a pretty, uh, okay person. Why?" Willow shrugged. 

"Those visions of his give me a bad feeling, I don't know-" Willow stopped whispering and looked outside, Graham walking in with a towel. I gave her a questioning glance, but she looked away. 

Does Willow think Graham is..not all there?  I get how Willow may not like Graham, but I didn't think that she'd feel uncomfortable around him. Willow had always been protective of me. Maybe she just wants to protect me from Graham, even though there is nothing about him to protect me from. Well, except that creepy woman.

"I'm back! Now, if only my eyes would stop being gold." Willow glanced at me, her hands fidgeting. "So, Graham. What did you see?" I asked. He froze, then started playing with his hands nervously. "You don't want to know, trust me." Willow raised an eyebrow. "Come on, we want to know!" I pressed. Graham looked up at me and sighed.

 "Well..it started in a forest, like last time. But, something was different. We were running, but this time, something was different. There was no monster running after us. You were running ahead of me. I needed to tell you something. I didn't know what, I just knew that I needed to tell you something badly. I was injured, so I couldn't keep up." He sighed, and ruffled his hair. Willow narrowed her eyes at him. 

"That's it? That doesn't explain why you kept on saying 'I don't want to'." Graham's eyes widened,and looked away. 

"Y-you heard that?" Willow nodded. 

"I don't remember saying anything like that." Graham said, meeting his gaze to Willow's reluctantly.

"Well, you did. Along with crazy, psychotic stuttering." Graham's face turned a light shade of red. 

"That never happened to me before. This is all new."

"Well, maybe you should start getting used to it." I picked up my phone, which had just buzzed.

Mum: Will you be back by dinner? Where are you, sweetie?

I quickly texted her back.

Me: I'm at Willow's house. Sorry. I forgot to tell you.

Mum: That's okay. Does Willow want to stay for dinner? I made extra.

I smiled. My mum was always so thoughtful.

"Sure," I texted back.

 "Hey, Willow?" Willow turned towards me, smoothing out a crinkle on her jeans.

 "Hm?" 

"My mom says you can come over for dinner if you want." Graham looked up at me and smiled. 

"I would love to!" Graham squealed girlishly. 

"Shut up, Graham. She was talking to me." Willow retorted, satirically flipping her hair in a snooty fashion. Graham rolled his eyes and put his hands on his hips.

 "Excuse me, darling. I bet Opal would love to have me at her house for dinner." I opened my mouth to interject but Willow interrupted me. 

"Love to? Uhm, try again,'darling'." Graham raised an eyebrow. 

"Ooh, sassy. Did someone wake up on the wrong side of the bookshelf this morning?"  I groaned. 

"Graham! Stop it." Graham looked up at me with an innocent smile on his face.

 "My sweet 'marshy, I'm simply telling Willow that I would be a better dinner date for you." I flicked his forehead and glared at him. 

"First of all, I am not, and I repeat not, your sweet "marshy". Are we clear?" Graham crossed his arms and pouted.

 "Secondly, I'm just going to bring you both, so you too don't scratch each other's eyes out. And if you fight in front of my parents, I will handcuff you two together. Understand?" Graham nodded, and glared at Willow. Willow proceeded to ignore him and smile at me innocently.

Oh dear.