aeipathy | one shot collection

hysterics pt. two

*Aubree's POV*

I wake up on the couch next to Willow, my damp clothes still sticking to my body from last night's... events. Stretching slightly to try to extinguish some of the dull aches throughout my body, I shift my eyes toward Willow to see if she's awake. She must sense my movement, because her eyes open and find mine as soon as I turn to look at her. I almost flinch from that small action and that scares me.

"Good morning," Willow whispers, giving me a small smile.

I stay silent and just look at her. Does she not remember or does she not care about what happened?

Suddenly, she groans and her face contorts in pain. Her fingers lace through her matted hair and she presses her face into her pillow.

"Hangover?" I quip, sitting up and letting the blanket slide off my back. I stand up and walk towards the kitchen, pouring water into the coffee pot and putting a filter in the holder.

While the coffee brews, I find that it is almost seven in the morning. This is the first time I've been awake this early during the weekend in a while. Thank wet clothes, cramped couches, and stressful, anxious fear from your girlfriend for that.

I sigh as I pick up a ceramic coffee cup and fill it up with black coffee, stirring in sugar and creamer. Lots of it. 

A part of me is telling me to get the fuck over what happened because this is another day and what happened is in the past. She was also drunk, which can be an excuse in itself to some. But, I was completely sober and she hurt me and didn't think about herself or me when she picked up that whiskey bottle and kept drinking out of it. Is she selfish or reckless? I don't know... I'm just mad.

"Can I have some coffee?" I hear Willow ask from behind me. I don't turn around or say anything; I just bring the cup to my lips and wordlessly slide out of the way. I see her eyeing me from my peripheral vision so I casually walk out of the kitchen into our bedroom. I really need to change my clothes.

I put on a thin, gray t-shirt with a bear in the corner that is way too big for me and black stretchy shorts. I might as well be angry and comfortable, too.

I decide to stay in the bedroom because I realize I'm still exhausted. I place my coffee cup on the wooden bedside table, crawling on my side of the bed and burrowing under the covers. Staring at the white ceiling for so long my vision blurs, my eyelids start to sting and grow tired. Surprisingly, my body lets me close them and keep them closed. The next thing I know, I'm drifting off into a dreamless sleep.

---

My eyes open to an empty bedroom with blinding sunshine intruding through the curtains. I take a deep breath through my nose and turn on my side, unlocking my phone and looking at Instagram. The first picture in my feed is from Willow's Instagram. A picture of her and Marie (which looks recent) is posted above the caption "Feeling like shit. Head hurts like a  motherfucker and someone is pissed at me but this little girl can always make me smile".

I start to feel sad for various reasons because I feel selfish for wanting her to apologize and make everything better again but I feel like she's selfish for what she did and leaving me alone this morning.

I force myself out of bed and find myself walking down the stairs. I see Marie doing a puzzle with Willow, whose hand is pressed to her temple. Marie hears me and whips around.

"Mommy! You're awake! Mama said you weren't feeling very good so you went back to beddy-bye." She runs up to me and wraps her little arms around my waist. My eyes shift up to Willow; she's looking at us with an expression that's in between emotionless and sad.

"Oh yeah? I feel a little better, honey." Willow pinches the bridge of her nose and scrunches her face up. I tilt my head. "Doesn't look like Mama is feeling too good either. Wanna explain that?"

Willow squints her eyes at me before standing up.

"Marie, wanna work on the puzzle for me? I gotta talk to your mother for a minute."

"Okay, Mama!" she says happily, obliviously. Willow walks ahead of me and waves me toward her. I hesitantly follow her through the front door. When I close it behind me she stops and turns around.

"You gonna tell me what is going on?" Willow asks, crossing her arms. I resist the urge to roll my eyes.

"Not really anything new from last night. Still pretty mad about that, if I'm being honest." 

Willow looks down at her shoeless feet. "You're still mad about that? I said I was sorry -"

"Yeah, well 'sorry' doesn't always cut it. You know you can talk to me when something is going on. Getting up in the middle of the night, getting drunk from whiskey, and smashing glass on the floor with an eight-year-old kid asleep in her room and a very fucking scared girlfriend upstairs is not the way to handle a situation."

"I... I know. I don't know what happened. You know how I get when I drink whiskey -"

"Which is why you shouldn't drink it!"

"Stop interrupting me!" Willow yells. I shut my mouth. "I made a big mistake and I'll never do it again because of how much it hurt both of us. I was drunk but I'm not now. I'm hungover and in pain and sitting in guilt because you left last night and ignored me all morning. I feel like shit about it, okay?"

I cross my arms. "Why did you decide to drink yourself into hysterics?" (roll credits)

Willow sighs and leans back against her car. "Just... everything. The damn nightmares are getting so bad again to the point I'm scared to sleep. A lot of stress is being put on me at work and Marie is already growing up so damn fast and you're always tired and it all makes me so... so sad. That was the only way I knew how to cope at two in the morning. I wasn't going to bother you."

I look down and my brain starts to blur with guilt once again. A couple minutes go by before I say anything.

"You wouldn't have bothered me. I want you to wake me up if something is wrong. I want you to tell me what you're thinking about. I want you to," I murmur, tears finally starting to push themselves out of my tear ducts. "I'm sorry. I'm a selfish prick and I'm just sorry."

My feet start to push me forward until I'm in Willow's arms and we're both crying. Our lives have been so busy and hectic we haven't had time to discuss anything about ourselves with each other. We aren't selfish; it may just be the opposite.

"I'm sorry," I mutter again against her hair. She says the same thing back to me.

I pull away, looking into her red eyes as she looks into mine. My fingers find their way to her jaw, pulling her face gently to mine. I hesitantly let my lips linger on her skin before she closes the space between us, salty tears slipping into our mouths. 

"I love you and I want you to talk to me if you're sad," I murmur, softly resting my forehead against hers.

"I want you to, too."