Save Your Tears | Chad Meeks-Martin

8

could it be worse?

"Thanks for letting me stay... again," Anna mumbled as she sat her backpack on the floor of Willa's bedroom.

"No worries," Willa simply said, "You don't mind that Ollie's coming over later, do you?"

"Your house, your rules." Anna smiled at her friend. She lay flat on Willa's bed, staring at the ceiling. "Damn, those things are still there?"

Willa looked to see what Anna was looking at, her eyes landing on the dull green glow-in-the-dark stars above her bed. She and Chad put them up what felt like ages ago, and she'd yet to remove them despite how much she'd changed since then.

Feelings of nostalgia filled Willa's body, almost enough to where she could feel tears forming in her eyes. She just shook her head, looking back down at her homework. "Meant to take those down," She said.

"Hey," Anna said, catching the blonde's attention. Willa hesitantly looked over due to the fear of their conversation heading toward Chad, but a sense of relief quickly filled her as Anna said something entirely different. "I know you've got that... thing going on with Marcus and all, but is there something going on between you and this Oliver kid?"

Willa's face scrunched, her cheeks turning a pink color. "I can be someone's friend without anything going on. He's quite lovely."

"I mean, I know you think he's adorable." Anna smiled as she rolled onto her stomach, "Don't think I forgot the conversation from the first day."

"I'm with Marcus, and Oliver is my friend. It's not like that, and it won't be." Willa firmly told the girl.

"I know, I know." Anna gave in with a sigh, "Just messing. He single though?"

"Aren't you into my brother?" Willa deadpanned. One eyebrow rose, and Anna covered her face.

"Jesus Will!"

Before the conversation was able to continue any further, the sound of knocking at Willa's bedroom door was heard. She sent Anna a knowing glance before getting up to check it, a smile covering her face as Oliver stood on the other side.

He waved as he entered, similarly greeting Anna. Anna waved back, continuing to hide her pink cheeks.

It wasn't long before the three were hanging out, sharing a bag of gummy worms as Anna and Oliver got to know each other more.

"What's Wes doing?" Anna asked.

Willa bit the top of the gummy worm in her hands, tugging at it until it tore into two pieces. She glanced over to see both Anna and Oliver waiting for her response, and she finally shrugged.

"I don't know."

"What do you mean you don't know?" Anna jokingly threw a gummy worm at Willa. "He's your twin, don't you have like that telekinetic shit or something?"

Willa scoffed, throwing the gummy worm back at her. "That's not real. And I'm glad it's not because I don't need to know that much about Wes' personal life."

Anna shrugged, "Just curious."

Oliver stayed silent during this interaction, as it wasn't any of his business. He hadn't been around Anna much - but he was quick to catch onto her crush on Willa's brother. He supported it, even though he didn't know much about her.

"We should do something," Anna then changed the subject. "This is so boring."

Willa shrugged, "Not much to do on a Sunday night."