Willow in the Woods: Guarding the Willow

Chapter 20

Drew

Once Drew got her to the gas station and those pretty lips touched that strawberries and cream ice cream, that was it. She let it all out in a wave of emotion and tears.

She looked like she had been ready to burst at the seams the whole night.

Drew parked the car in an old darkened and empty shopping center, lifted up the center arm rest and pulled Willow onto his lap and into his arms as he held her for a while, letting her cry it out.

Granted a lot of this was his fault. Back at the gas station he had asked her one question. "Do you love him?" At first she had said "Noooo" and laughed it off.

Well honey. This little fool had done the same thing once upon a time. Drew put that car in drive and tried to make it to a more private location before the waterworks hit hard.

She may have been in denial, still might be. But this was love. In all of it's glorious misery.
Well.... There fell Drew's hopes of bringing a date for Christmas right onto Drew's shirt with the rest of Willow's tears. Stupid dog.

Drew sat there starring out the window watching the snow fall and the occasional car pass by. Half an hour later the tears were still rolling, and Drew needed a smoke. So Drew carefully maneuvered around her, doing his best not to interfere with the progress she was making in this therapy session. She had been overwhelmed for a while now. This could be an all nighter.

Auntie Syl had spilled the tea all over the kitchen while they had been baking and cooking for Thanksgiving. Damn this girl had been through a lot in the last month alone, and from the sound of what her mother was like, Drew couldn't imagine how long she had been holding her shit together before hand.

They would have found Drew in a mental ward, or in a jail cell, if that had been him in her little shoes. And according to Aunt Sylvia, Willow had barely shed a tear. Through the loss of a spiritual companion who had helped to keep her life together, through uprooting her shitty life so that she could make a change to better herself, to going home to face her demons, and now Marcus and his stupid moral compass.

Drew blew a long line of smoke out of the cracked window, after turning up the heat for Willow so she didn't get to cold. No. If there was one thing he had learned when working with spirits that were filled with regrets, it was that life was too damn short. Take chances, break the rules, and don't waist time worrying about what others think.

When it came to Drew's family especially his father, that last one was hard. But he was going to get there one step at a time. Sometimes it took baby steps. And before he know it  making leaps and bounds.

Drew watched as a large vehicle pulled into the other side of the parking lot. He caught a glimpse of the ice blue from a far away street lamp.

Drew quickly pulled his phone from his pocket, typed in his password and scrolled through his contacts till he came across Dumb-Ass.

Dumb-Ass

Drew:

No. Go home.

Dumb-Ass:
I'm here for Willow.