Willa McElrie (Dylan O'Brien fanfic)

nine

It had been a couple weeks since Willa had visited her parents with her friends, and she still cringed at the memory of that night. Not only did she feel insanely stupid about the argument with her mother, due to the fact that Tobias had actually made it sound half appealing, but she also felt bad about the look on Dylan's face when he'd picked her up at Tobias'.

He had looked almost betrayed. Willa wasn't exactly sure what to place that particular emotion as, but he was hurt, and that's all she could tell. Willa had never been a very touchy feely person either, so she had no idea what she would've said to him if she had even tried to console him.

Vanessa and Willa had left their vacation early and went back to Yale, where they'd spent the rest of their time watching episodes of Friends and playing cards with Plaid, Kitty and Tommy before they went back to their classes.

It was all the same at before. Classes were hard, the guys were annoying, Kitty was messy - all's fair in love and war.

And with that, Willa had gone back to her regular work schedule, which was just super.

She walks into the doctors office, where she is employed as a desk worker. She still had to wear scrubs and keep her hair up, which doesn't make much sense to her, but it's the rules and she's making money, so she keeps her hair in a bun.

She walks behind the desk after clocking in, letting one of her coworkers off the hook for the rest of the day.

For some reason, Willa is extremely distracted today. Her thoughts keep bouncing back and forth from the Physical test she has to take tomorrow, to Dylan, to that night at Tobias', just watching movies and enjoying herself, to hamsters.

She organizes some files that she knows she'll be needing later, and looks out at the fairly empty waiting area. She expects that it'll be just a regular, boring Thursday afternoon, but after sitting at the desk sort of getting some work done, her desk phone rings.

She let's it ring once, but hopes that upon answering, she'll find some source of entertainment. That'll teach her what to wish for-

She answers in a chipper tone, "Hello, Willa speaking."

A thick voice on the other end responds, "Is that how you answer the phone at a respectable establishment?"

Oh, crud. Willa thinks, wincing.

"Mom?" She says, surprised.

"You really ought to learn how to do your job if you're going to have one." She says.

Willa smiles, sarcastically, "Mom, hi. Sorry, let me try again-" she speaks in a fake happy voice, "Hello, Major Disappointment speaking!"

Karen clicks her tounge, "You're impossible."

Willa says, impatiently, "Well, I learned from the best."

As Willa talks, she deals with patients who magically decided to come in at the same time.

Karen continues, "I just wanted to let you know, that your father and I were thinking about coming to visit you and your sister at school."

In the middle of Willa sighing her name on a form, she freezes, "What?"

"Maybe sometime this next month....." She muses.

Willa blinks, the wheels turning in her head, "What? Ha! You don't want to come to Yale! We have.....termites in our.....floors. You know, they can cause so much structural damage, the entire building could collapse and then - SQUISH! Flattened! It could be grusome. If I were you, I wouldn't risk it. And I just couldn't live with myself if you were."