Where the Willow Meets the Sun

Chapter Two

-My World Collided-

Panic was all over my body. In my hands, in my heart, and lacing all through out body. Maybe this was a bad idea. I thought. Mom was trying to handle this and I'll just make matters worse if I'm not careful enough. That's what scared me those most. My hands shook as I glanced up at Jackson through my eyelashes. 

I couldn't tell what he was thinking, but Jackson was hard to read in general. He was always business, there was never a time he wasn't. I don't think I got a joke out of him until two months after we met, and I took pride in how funny I was. 

"Jackson, will she get mad at me?" Of course I was having second thoughts about him bringing me here. Why wouldn't I? 

Jackson shrugged his shoulders. "I can hide you for a couple minutes but that's as far as I'm going to go. Knowing her she'll find you within minutes and yell at me." 

I ran my fingers through my hair as I thought of everything that could happen. But the thoughts stopped as soon as I found a knot in back of my hair. I worked it out trying to move my mind to something else. As I sat there, I tried my hardest not to think about how everyone was scrambling around in the building. I knew it was going to be chaos in there as soon as I took a step in. 

As I thought of that building. I thought of Dad's desk. I didn't want him gone. What would my Sunday nights be full of now? Laying in bed wondering what that Monday would bring? As opposed to making breakfast dinner with Dad and making a mess out of the flour and syrup because it didn't matter how much older we got we still made a messes. Or those times I'd call him from the stuffy dorm and complain about my English professor? What would happen then? I wouldn't get anymore remarks. There wouldn't be anymore calls either. I wouldn't hear, I'm safe, again. I wouldn't hear his voice say, I love you. 

While I was thinking, my hand had moved to the hem of shorts and had started to play with the string. I didn't know why since hadn't done this since high school, but it was a high stress time. When I looked out the window, I picked harder at the hem as if that would help anything going on. 

"Will you stop messing with your shorts." He muttered while grabbing my hand. "It's very distracting." 

A laugh left my lips, but soon I felt my cheeks get wet with tears. As they started to fall, I looked around the car trying not to make complete and total eye contact with Jackson. He'd break me apart and crumble me like a cookie. 

"Don't cry, Willow." He whispered. "I'm only so good at getting people to stop crying." Jackson got quieter.

I shrugged my shoulders wiping my tears with my free hand. "I don't know what to do when other people cry either. I'm of no assistance because when I cry, I listen to sad music to get it all out. But this isn't really a time to do that, is it?" I asked, quietly. 

"What's some of the music you'll listen too?" 

"Fine Line, Yellow, Sparks, countless others. I have a whole entire playlist full of songs on this old phone." 

"Ah, yes. The Coldplay songs that never fails to make people cry. I'm very familiar with those ones."

"Do you like their music?" I asked, trying to stay distracted by the obvious shit show going on around me. "They make me happy."

Jackson nodded his head and kept his eye contact trained on me. "I do like their music and listened with my mom all the time because my Dad wasn't one for the music." He nodded his head. "But that's alright because all my siblings loved music and those boys are some of the stupidest people I've ever met. So it's worth it."