Obstinate and Headstrong

Part 10

William was at my door...

Why was William at my door?

To give your phone back, obviously.

He shouldn't be here. No, he can't be here. Not with everyone, including my mother in the other room. 

I shook my head to free myself of my stupor, grabbing my phone from his outstretched hand.

"Thank you, I really appreciate it. Goodbye now!" I rushed as I attempted to close the front door on him.

William wasn't offended by my hasty attempt to get rid of him, if anything he seemed to find the whole situation amusing judging by the smirk dancing on his lips.

He would, since he didn't know what it was like to live in constant fear of being embarrassed by an overly flamboyant mother. No, his whole family was dripping in sophistication and smelled of old money. 

Which only increased my apprehension of him being anywhere near the inside of our house.

"Willie!" came the nasal voice of the very person I was trying to spare William from ever meeting.

Her voice filled my insides with dread.

This woman has no shame...

William's eyebrow twitched up accusingly at me before his attention landed on my mother who was fast approaching from the patio.

I don't know what he suspected me of, but my mother's overly-familiar way of addressing him was all her own doing. I have never and certainly will never in my life call William, Willie. Calling him such, was inappropriate for various reasons which I did not care to explore at present.

I can only imagine what he must be thinking at this very moment. He probably took me for some lovesick teenage girl, doodling my little pet names for him with glittered gel pens in my notebook. 

I was going to kill my mother. It was going to be a slow death.

You know you cannot actually kill your own mother right?

A girl can dream...

William did not show the dissatisfaction that he must have been feeling on the inside from the potential encounter with my mother. I give him credit for keeping a straight face as my mother in all her sweet perfume repugnance came to a standstill in front of him.

"Finally, I get to meet the William Knight," She exclaimed, latching her pink manicured fingernails around his forearm, "Elizabeth has told me so much about you."

No, the hell she has not.

There was another slight quirk of William's eyebrow and if you did not know him, you would not have noticed nor have known what it had meant.

I could only stare at my mother and William's exchange, rooted firmly to the spot. I was a bystander to the car crash that was my life.

"The pleasure is all mine," William said with a genuine smile as he placed one hand over my mother's.

The gesture seemed way too familiar. 

Why was everyone acting completely insane today?

I expected as much from my mother, she didn't have any sense whatsoever. But William was a constant personality, he did not deviate unless purposely done. He wasn't fake and would make it very clear if he wasn't pleased with a situation. So what on earth could be the meaning of him not acting coolly towards my mother as I would expect him to do in this situation? She had no connection to him whatsoever and I knew how he felt about letting people get close to him. And yet, here he was allowing her to touch him, talk his ears off, lead him out to the patio with their arms linked...