Charlie's POV
I feel that it's a bit obvious why I've been acting the way I have this past month, but I will still explain myself.
"Dating" Willow should be the best feeling for me right? I got to give her kisses and hold her hand and hug her, but it didn't make me feel nice, it made me feel more sad.
Why? You might ask. It's because I knew it would end. I don't want it to end. Now Austin is over her and even more pain is headed straight for me.
Now, I could care less about Austin getting over her. Now, I feel mad, and sad, and hurt because I just hurt the one person I love the most. I hurt her. It's all my fault for lying, but I can't tell her the truth about why I'm sad. I need to fix this.
So that's what I'm doing right this instance. Attempting to fix things.
Since Willow was my ride, I half walked half jogged all the way to my house.
It was now around 2:00am and I got home at midnight. For two hours I have been searching through the garage for a ladder. (Willow locked the doors to her house every night.)
As I was loudly moving things and looking for the ladder, my mom came in the garage wearing her bath robe, slippers, and her eyes looking tired and squinty from the light.
"Charlie James Miller! What on earth are you doing!?" My mother, very loudly, yelled at me.
"Okay. I'm gonna make this short. I screwed up and now Willow is mad at me and I have to fix it. Mom, I have to do this because she's my best friend and she means-" but my mom cut me off before I could finish. She put her hand up to stop me blabbering.
"Just go fix it. I'm proud of you that you value your friendship this much, but I'm also upset that it's 2:00am and you're still up. Now what are you looking for? Before all this racquet wakes up your sister."
"The ladder." I reply to her quickly.
My mom then pulls out the ladder from behind a shelf full of nails, wood, tools, etc. and hands it to me.
I gave her a quick kiss and a thank you and bolted out of the garage and over to Willow's house next door.
I set up the ladder to go up to Willow's window. Yes I do realize how this looks and sounds but I can't have Willow upset. I just can't.
I climbed up the ladder and quietly opened the window, which took probably 15 minutes to figure out. Wow I'm lame sometimes.
When I was halfway through the window, I looked to my right. Willow was asleep in her bed, a book in her hand, mascara smeared and streaked down her face, with her bedside lamp still on. I let out a quiet sigh.
I climbed all the way in her room and shut the window to prevent a cold breeze waking her up or making the room cold.
I very stealthily walked over to her bed and looked down at her. She had her earbuds in.
There's another thing about Willow. She has playlists for certain things, like her moods. Some are for when she's happy, sad, mad, confused. Her least played playlist happens to be her best friends playlist. Whenever I'm away on vacation or something like that, she said she plays it, because she misses me that much. Willow said that to me. And I don't think she will be playing that tonight considuring I treated her so bad.
One ear bud was out and laying on her pillow next to her head. I took the risk and lightly took it and put it close to my ear, close enough to hear what was playing. Music meant a lot to Willow and this was one way to tell how she was feeling.
The best friend playlist. Her best friend playlist was playing. She missed me? But she was so mad... Girls are on a whole other level because they can be so confusing.
Willow began to stir ands move around so I dropped the ear bud on the pillow and ducked beside the bed so she wouldn't see me if she woke up.
I stopped hearing movement and assumed she was just rustling in her sleep. I slowly popped my head up from behind the bed. Willow was still asleep.
I took the chair from her desk and rolled it over near her bed, I then sat down.
I looked at her for awhile. Just sitting, and thinking. She looked so peaceful, even if her mascara was smudged underneath her eyes. She looked calmer.
It was 4:00am by now and I decided I might as well just go downstairs and watch tv. It wasn't a school night anyways.
I got up and rolled the chair back to her desk again and took one last second to look at Willow. I looked at her, and regretted everything I had done to her. I had hurt her so bad this time. I screwed up.
I began to turn around to walk downstairs but was suddenly being pulled back by my jacket.
I turned around and looked at a now fully awake Willow staring at me with wide blue eyes. I couldn't tell what emotion was in them, but they were still the same big blue eyes I had always known, and loved.
We kind of just stared at each other for a little while. Both with no identifiable emotion showing.
Willow finally lifted her hand back up from the bed and grabbed my hand. I sat down on her bed next to her and let out a painful sigh.
I mouthed the words 'I'm sorry' as I couldn't find my voice willing to come out of my throat. Willow just smiled.
Willow began to sit up and I helped her half the way up by supporting her back with my hand and just sort of kept my hand there.
"I overreacted..." Willow said, a tear falling down her cheek as she said the words.
"Stop it Willow. You did not overreact whatsoever. I lied to you and it's not okay for best friends to lie to each other. I messed up and I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."
I then wiped the tears from her cheeks with my sleeve. After I did so, Willow leaned into my chest, and gave me a tight hug. I wrapped my arms around her and sighed. I could actually feel her tears seeping into my shirt, and that was the worst feeling. To have her cry.
Willow pulled back and was still holding on to my shirt by my waist. Willow looked at the spot where she had cried.
"Oh your shirt! I ruined your shirt with my leftover mascara. Just another thing I ruined..." Willow said in misery.
"You haven't ruined anything. Stop putting yourself down. I have plenty other shirts Willow." I told her, reassuringly.
Willow just nodded and wiped her tears from her eyes.
"I'm sorry about earlier Charlie. I just need to trust you like I always have. I just get worried about you sometimes..." Willow confessed.
"I know. And you have every reason to worry when I act like that. I'm just caught up on a lot of things, but I think I'm over all of it now. I think I'll be better now." I told her with a smile to back up my statement.
Willow then let out an incredibly cute giggle. "Good. Hey, do you wanna watch some Criminal Minds? I must catch up with the show, and especially Dr. Reid." Willow announced and wiggled her eyebrows at the last statement.
I let out a chuckle.
"You and your obsession with that man is sometimes worrying." I told her jokingly.
"I can't help it if he was born extremely attractive. Some people are just naturally born models." Willow explained to me in a matter-of-fact tone.
I let out another chuckle and we both walked downstairs talking about Willow's unhealthy obsession over fictional characters and actors.
Halfway into the show, I decided to take a leap of faith.
"So Willow, I've come to just realize we've never really discussed very deeply into our love lives. What do you look for in a guy?"
