Willow
Arriving at the car after school, I'm startled to find Tanner and Asher waiting there as well. I greet them a little awkwardly, not sure that I want to be alone with them. I have no idea how to act around them when I'm all by myself. Tanner especially makes me feel all kinds of uncomfortable feelings. He is casually leaning up against the car, studying me with a lazy grin on his face. When I blush and look away from him, Asher gives me a soothing smile. He seems to understand my distress and sympathizes with it. Maybe he's not all that closed off after all.
"Come on," he gently says to Tanner, causing him to turn his disconcerting attention away from me with an amused laugh. My word, the boy is all golden light and dazzling beauty! I cannot stand looking at him for too long, it causes rather uncomfortable heart palpitations.
I'm profoundly relieved to see Hunter hurrying over to us. He unlocks the car as soon as the remote signal is within range. Asher opens the trunk so that everybody can load their baggage into it and moves to take my bag, but I shake my head, giving him a slight smile. "Thanks, but I'll keep it on my lap."
"What are you doing?" Hunter wants to know, seeing me clutching my bag to my chest.
"I'll keep my bag with me and sit in the back. That way I can get out of the car faster," I explain. "It will save time."
Hunter tilts his head, arching his brows.
"Why don't I just slow down when we reach the approximate area of our neighbourhood and get someone to throw you out the window in the general direction of the house? Imagine how much time we'd save then."
Why is he being like this?
I frown at him, my chest constricting with uncertainty and he shakes his head, smiling a little dolefully. "You can put your bag on the back seat if it makes you feel better, but at least sit in the front," he suggests a lot more gently.
"Asher won't be comfortable in the back and then you'll end up being a taxi driver when I get out. It will take longer to drop me off if he has to change his seat to sit in the f-front..." I explain. Seeing Hunter's frown deepen as I progress, I eventually just let my speech taper off.
"I'll be fine-"
"Hey, Miss Priss! Why is it okay for me to sit in the back? Are you trying to say that I'm small?" Tanner pipes up, interrupting Asher. His outburst actually improves the mood a little for some reason.
"I'm trying to say that Asher is taller than you and I am not Miss Priss!" I snap at him and to my surprise, he gives a satisfied chuckle. He really enjoys yanking people's chains. The way he's gazing at me makes me feel extremely vulnerable. It's disconcerting that someone with such an angelic face and smooth, gentle voice can be so horribly un-angelic and everything but gentle.
"Only about one centimetre," he points out as if that matters.
"Four point seven centimetres," Asher corrects him.
"Oh, wow, thank you, Mr Precise!" Tanner growls, making Asher chuckle.
"I thought that was Jakes," Hunter corrects him, and after thinking about it a little, Tanner agrees that, yes, Mr Precise would indeed be Jake Davenport.
"You can sit in the front with me and Ash then," Hunter tells me with a scowl. All three of his passengers are now giving him odd looks. That makes no sense at all. There's barely enough room in front for Hunter and Asher. Besides, there are only two seats in the front.
♫
Asher
Hunter is being weird. More than usual. He's always had some strange quirks and impulses, but I've never seen him act quite like this before. He's glaring at Tanner. That in itself is not strange, everybody glares at Tan; the guy inspires a lot of glaring. But this is different.
"It's fine, I can fit in the back," I say, studying Hunter's face for clues to the reason for his weirdness. I don't find any visible signs there, so I look at Tan and see his roguish grin. The sun just rose in my head. I give a soft laugh, shaking my head. Apparently, Hunter does not like the way Tanner is looking at Willow, which in turn pushes Tan's normal arsehole levels up a notch. Bloody Tanner.
How have these two not killed each other yet?
"No," Willow insists, "please, I'll be fine in the back. Aren't you in a hurry?" she asks Hunter and opening the passenger side back door she climbs inside with her bag on her lap. She's incredibly considerate, but I cannot help but think that her motives aren't purely due to kindness. She seems to be extremely uncomfortable. Hunter is looking at her with a deeply miserable expression on his face. He turns away and now he's glaring at Tan again and Tanner is glaring right back at him. Surely, he doesn't really think that Tanner would do anything to Willow? Willow is part of the Drake family now.
"What the hell, Drake?!" Tanner finally barks. "Why don't you just lift your leg against Miss Priss and mark your territory?"
Hunter blinks. He glances at Willow waiting in the car with a startled, confused expression on her face. I don't think he knows why he's acting so possessively. It would've been amusing if it wasn't so sad. He turns on Tanner, scowling. "That's not what... Behave, that's all. Just behave. Don't mess with her."
"Wouldn't dream of it."
We all manage to squeeze into the small car. For a second the vehicle seems to be about to groan and collapse, but the little car bursts into life and song when Hunter turns the key in the ignition. Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star at top volume slices through bone and marrow until Hunter kills the volume.
"Sorry," he chuckles, noticing the pain on my face.
"Ash," Tanner grumbles from his uncomfortably squashed position behind him, "remind me why we accepted this jerk's offer of a ride to the gym in this pill box."
"It seemed like a fun idea."
♫
Willow
Pulling out of the schoolyard, I glimpse Hunter in the rear-view mirror, glaring narrow-eyed at Tanner. There's definitely something up between the two of them. Did Tanner actually urinate on him in the end? I turn my head to see what Tanner is doing to offend him.
To my surprise, he is pressing himself against the door as if he's in terrible fear. At first, I think it's meant as a commentary on Hunter's driving skills, but then he exaggeratedly pretends to hide behind the baby seat separating him from me. He peeks at me rather lewdly over the top and I finally realise that Hunter's frustration with Tanner has something to do with me. If I'm reading the pantomime correctly, Tanner is pretending to be stalking me and to be terrified of Hunter who is glaring at him.
I giggle, though the whole situation is making me feel rather awkward. Why does it upset Hunter so much? Tanner wouldn't really do anything to me, would he? I have no idea what kind of behaviour is expected of me. I'm completely out of my comfort zone.
"Seriously, Trent, don't make me pull over," Hunter warns.
"Then what, Dad?"
I'm surprised to hear Asher actually laugh out loud; I didn't know that he could. He reaches over and gives Hunter's shoulder an encouraging squeeze, which manages to relax the tension from his jaw a little bit.
After seeing my blushing face and how ill at ease I am, Tanner - having at least some capacity for human compassion - behaves himself the rest of the way. He doesn't look at me again, which suits me just fine. It's also possible that compassion has nothing to do with it, he might simply be bored of messing with Hunter.
Most of the journey passes in amicable conversation about some console game I know nothing about. I don't seem to be required to participate, which makes me relax. I listen, finding the unfamiliar topic captivating. I've never had an opportunity to listen to the normal everyday conversations of boys before. I always thought they talked about mergers, hostile takeovers, and stocks or boasted about their achievements. Those were in any case the only conversations I've ever heard snatches of.
This is the first time I hear boys talk about things like Ashbringer and Frostmourne and the Lich King. It's like listening to a completely new language. I hope that I'll one day get a chance to see what it is that they are talking about. I'm going to have to run an internet search for it on my phone later if I can remember the terms.
They start to argue about whether they're going to wow or pubgee this weekend... A completely different language. After a bit of exposure to their interactions, I no longer get anxious when their voices rise, and they seem to be on the verge of violence. I'm beginning to understand that most of the growling between Hunter and Tanner is just that: growling.
One moment they seem to be ready to kill each other, just to happily laugh the next. Fascinating! Perhaps they are both a little bipolar. Tanner definitely does not bring out Hunter's patient side. Asher is like a solid, peaceful island in their sea of turmoil.
I'm surprised, and if I'm honest, a little disappointed, by how fast we reach the turn-off where we're going to part ways. The route seemed a lot shorter than I'd thought it was. Hunter doesn't seem to be getting ready to stop, though. I think he's planning on turning off into the side road to take me all the way home.
"Stop, stop, stop, stop," I say and put my hand on the door handle as if I'm prepared to roll out while he's still driving if he doesn't stop. He pulls the car onto the shoulder of the road and brings it to a standstill, then he turns in his seat and everything about him indicates that he doesn't like dropping me off here and is going to argue.
"Willow..."
"I'll be fine. If I get lost, I'll ask someone for directions," I smile brightly at him, making his frown dissolve. I thank him for the ride, say goodbye to the others, and hastily get out of the car. I shut the door before Hunter can say anything more. When I hurry to the junction and turn left into the road intersecting with the main road, I'm relieved to see the pink car finally pull away, re-joining the traffic.
Why is Hunter making such a big deal out of this? I'm not fragile and this is a pretty safe neighbourhood as far as I can tell. Aunt Beth said so too.
It warms my heart and makes me feel guilty when he acts all concerned and protective like that. I've never had a man be protective of me before. Maybe my father was when I was still very small, but I cannot really remember that. There was also Mr Fitz, my grandmother's butler, but his protectiveness fell into a completely different category. To be honest, I'm afraid of misinterpreting Hunter's intentions and getting my heart broken. He is apparently taking his mother's request to take care of me very seriously.
♫
Hunter
I can feel Asher's speculating eyes boring into me from the side and Tanner's from behind. I wish they'd both just shut up.
"What?!" I finally demand.
I feel a little bad snapping at Asher like that. I never feel bad about snapping at Tanner.
"Why didn't you just ask Tan to sit in front if having him back there with Willow upsets you so much?"
I give Ash a pained frown. Now he suggests that!
"It doesn't upset me..."
He just chuckles, shaking his head. Hearing his laugh is making me relax my grip on the steering wheel a little. If I don't want them to think that I'm upset, I'm going to have to start acting like a normal person.
"Why was she hell-bent on taking up as little space as possible and being gone as soon as possible? And why are you acting as if you're her over-protective dad?" Tanner finally demands to know.
"You picked up on that?" I choose to ignore his last sentence. I'm in the zone. I'm acting like a normal person. If I react to what he'd just said about me, I might burst out of the zone and jam my fist down his throat. He's right though. Why do I act like her over-protective dad?
I don't know why Tanner's capacity for empathy always surprises me, I know he's not really self-centred and don't care. It's just self-protection. He's a very perceptive person and if anything, he cares too bloody much. I guess he just plays the part of a selfish jerk too well sometimes and I forget.
"Dude, she all but hired a skywriter to announce it and I know you better than I know myself. What did you do?"
"Why do you assume it was me?" He's also very good at pissing me off.
"She's living with you."
He actually has a point.
"I don't know. She's like that all the time. She wanted to walk home when she heard that I need to go to the gym today. Maybe she's overwhelmed. Maybe she doesn't like being around me. Maybe she's... dunno..."
Did I do something?
I think back to our afternoon in the study yesterday. That had been rather nice. For once I didn't hate sitting there, I even did some of my homework. Seeing her working so hard, made me want to work a bit too. She's really trying to catch up and I'm just pissing away my time and my schoolwork. It started to bother me suddenly. Just because I've given up on my original dreams doesn't mean that I should do as badly as possible in my final exams.
Nothing seemed to be wrong then, she'd seemed relaxed. Happy... and very, very sweet... Maybe it was the muddy hug I'd given her. No, she seemed fine after that as well. I suddenly remember her words last night when we were discussing the bathroom doors.
"I'm sorry, this must be truly insufferable. Thank you for trying so hard."
Could that be it?
"I think Willow hates being an inconvenience. Ma did say something about her being used to following orders and staying out of the way when she's not wanted. I thought she was just exaggerating, but it might be true."
"What the hell?" The information clearly upsets Tanner.
"That might be it," Asher agrees. "She's very polite and disciplined. Pay also said that Willow apologizes a lot."
"Yeah, I noticed that too. I'm not sure," I sigh, glancing from Tanner in the rear-view mirror to Asher next to me. "I don't know how to speak to her. She always looks so freaked out and nervous when I try to. I seriously wish I could find a way to really talk to her. You know?"
Asher smiles at me, his confidence in me as misplaced as always. "You will. You always find a way."
"I don't know, Hunt. I don't think it's talking that you want to do with her." Tanner, as always, does not have any doubts about the level of my depravity. I flash a disgusted look at him, but he is unaffected, sticking with his stupid theory. "Are you sure you didn't just call dibs on her and are getting pissed because your friends might be finding her kinda... uhm... cute?"
I glare at him, but as usual, he just glares back, unyielding. He might actually have another bloody point. I don't want my friends to... What exactly?
"I didn't call dibs... she's not the last friggin' donut!"
Asher puts his hand on my shoulder. It's comforting, but it also pisses me off a little because I can tell from his slight smile and sparkling eyes that he actually agrees with Tanner.
"You know it's okay if you did, right?"
"No, Ash, it's not bloody okay! I mean... I didn't!"
♫
Willow
I don't feel half as confident as I'd pretended to be. After about a block the road splinters into a spiderweb of side streets. I've only travelled this road in the homeward direction twice. Once half asleep in my mother's car and once glued to Hunter's back. During that last trip, I'd been awfully distracted by his muscles and his fragrance and his warmth. I'm far from certain which road to take. As long as I arrive home before Hunter comes back from his training it will all be fine.
Well, I guess I'll get to know the neighbourhood very well today.
The wind is cold, but the sun is hot. I'm a little footsore and overheated and, oddly cold when I finally enter the Drakes' house. I also feel a great sense of achievement. I'd decided to find the park, rather than the house since I can now easily find my way home from there and I thought the park would be easier to find than the house. It probably is, but my assumption that all the roads lead to the park was wrong. I'd more or less accidentally found it after many wrong turns. Who would've believed it possible to misplace such a big park?
Little-Piddle tries to eat me when I step into the house. He is screaming at the top of his lungs, so I pick him up to get him to stop. After dropping my school bag in the study, I find Aunt Beth at the kitchen island, pouring over a magazine. Frankie comes waddling into the kitchen behind me. Apparently, he'd tried to join the dog in meeting me at the front door but got side-tracked and forgot about his original mission.
"Hello, I thought it might be you that set off the alarm," Aunt Beth smiles, nodding towards the dog I'm setting down on the floor. "You look tired, Honey. How about some coffee?" she offers, indicating the freshly made pot.
"Yes, please, that will be lovely," I say opening the refrigerator to get the milk. "I'm really sorry about Piddles, I know he's terribly shrill. I think he'll settle down soon. If you'd rather I found him a new home-"
"Oh, my goodness, what are you even talking about?" Aunt Beth protests. She pours me coffee from the steaming pot she'd made in anticipation of my arrival. "He's already getting a lot better, and he's been keeping that little munchkin busy all day," she says, looking at Frankie yanking at the hem of my dress. "We took him for a walk earlier, I hope you don't mind. Frankie needed to run around in the park, and I thought Piddles would like to join him. The two of them had so much fun." She laughs at a memory. "Frankie was fascinated by the dog urinating against the trees. I had my hands full preventing him from joining in the fun. Well... he succeeded once. Oh, well..."
I giggle too. Frankie is pretty good at handling the pull-up training pants he wears as underwear. He isn't always so good at picking the place to take them off, though. I take the little boy in my arms and gratefully accept the coffee Aunt Beth places on the counter near me.
"Thank you, I'm sure Piddles was really happy about the excursion," I smile, adding milk to my coffee before replacing the container in the refrigerator. I'm really happy about it too; I wasn't relishing the idea of going for another walk. Aunt Beth offers me some home-baked biscuits, which Frankie immediately confiscates from my hand.
"Don't steal my biscuits," I growl in a low voice, tickling his stomach. He squeals with laughter and offers me one wet cookie that had been at least partially in his mouth.
"Do you want to be rid of Piddles, Willow?" Aunt Beth asks, watching my face closely. "Is his presence causing you pain?"
I shake my head. "He might've been my grandmother's dog, but he was in a similar boat as my mother and me. My uncle was going to have him put down, I couldn't let him do that. I didn't know anybody I could give him to, so we took him with us. I just want him to be safe and happy. Seeing him doesn't bother me at all, but if he's a problem and you know of someone..."
Aunt Beth smiles and standing up, she moves around the counter to give me a hug. She takes Frankie when he protests loudly against being the filling in a human sandwich. "I think he could be happy right here. He certainly loves you and Frankie is enjoying him, which helps me a lot."
♫
Hunter
Training went more or less as planned. I didn't kill anybody, and nobody killed me. Not today. Always a good thing, I guess. Coach was working us hard. Dad must've tipped him off about our game in the park on Monday. I don't know why Dad and Coach Dev hold onto their delusion that drilling us will stop us from doing the things we do when we have no idea why we even do them.
Tanner gets rather pissed about it every time since he never takes part in the ball game because he cannot afford visible injuries. Tan getting pissed off for being unfairly worked hard by Coach always improves my mood a little. Not today though.
Willow haunted me all through training. That wasn't part of the plan. One would swear I'd dropped her off in hell or something. She's not blooming helpless.
I started training irritated and I'm still irritated in spite of the exhausting exercises. I dropped Tan and Ash at home and didn't stay to play games or mess around with them as I usually would. I wanted to get home, take a shower, feed Rover and cuddle her until I feel like myself again.
Well, I am in my bedroom. I've taken a shower. I've fed Rover. I'm tired and I'm still irritated. Cuddling my cat did nothing to stop me from feeling on edge. There's only one thing left that might break me out of this funk.
I stuff my earphones into my ears and crank up my phone's volume to one of my current favourite Joywave songs: Somebody New. I grab a canvas, slam it onto the easel and open my paint drawer.
♪♫♪