Colliding Worlds

The Heart

In some ways, Willow was grateful that Drake had been her teacher today instead of Isaiah because otherwise she never would have found out about Rudy, but on the other hand, she felt she still lacked a lot of knowledge about Isaiah's sect. It was important to her that she gets this right. Did his sect have a lot of people who resented the sect leaders for taking over? Were there factions of people who wanted the anarchy back? She had heard of other sects having that issue, and she didn't want to accidently stir the pot and say something she shouldn't when they are out in public. What made this even worse was that she knew she needed to ask him to be her teacher again, and boy was that a hit to her pride. 

"You okay, Willow?" Drake asked from the corner of her room. 

"Oh, yeah. Just nervous for this talk I need to have." And that wasn't untrue, but she didn't want to tell him the full truth that he sucked as a teacher and now she needed to ask her fiance for help. 

"I saw how sorry he was. It shouldn't be too bad." he said pushing himself off from his spot against the wall to sit next to her on her bed. "He is as stubborn as they come, but he's a good guy Willow." 

"I know." she said nodding her head and giving him a small smile. She just hoped that she was stubborn enough to win him over eventually. She was about to ask how she should start the conversation when a knock on her door made her heart stop. She wanted nothing more than to keep staring at Drake and not look Isaiah's way, but slowly she turned her head in his direction and stood up. 

Isaiah gave her a sheepish smile and Drake said, "Well, I guess that's my que to stand outside the door and wait." The last thing she wanted was to be alone with Isaiah, but she also knew this conversation needed to be held in private between the two of them. 

As soon as the door closed behind Drake, Isaiah sighed and said, "You have no idea how foolish and dumb I feel right now Willow. I haven't known you long, but I do know that you aren't the kind of girl to be with my best friend." 

"Then why did you say all of that? Why did you get so angry?" she asked feeling the hurt rise back up inside of her, coursing through her veins. 

He sighed, running a hand down his face as he sat on her bed. "Because no one has stuck around Willow; everyone leaves." he said looking up at her in complete vulnerability. "I was so good as keeping people an arms length away, but then you came in promising you would stick around, begging me to fight with you for whatever this might be, and for split seconds I would have hope." he hung his head, avoiding eye contact and said, "I was expecting you to be a snob like the other girls usually are, and I thought that would make it easy to stay away, but you're completely different. I started to think that maybe you would be the first person who wouldn't leave me, and then I saw you talking with Drake like you never do with me, and I did what I always do to anyone who might hurt me; I pushed you away. I saw it as a way to shield myself from any further hurt, and I'm sorry I hurt you in the process." 

She wanted to punch him and comfort him at the same time. She would love to joke with him like she did with Drake, but he made that nearly impossible! All of this was his own fault, but she couldn't deny the pain behind his eyes that caused him to act the way he did. "So what does this mean? Does it mean you're giving me a chance? Giving us a chance? Because I'm really not leaving." She just wanted to stop being so confused. All he did was give her mixed signals, and it was starting to drive her crazy. 

"I don't know Willow. I've been this way a long time; held this mentality a long time. I can't change overnight." She resisted the urge to groan at his response, and had to remind herself that she was a future Rex's wife, and groaning in irritation like a child would probably be inappropriate.