Hollow

eight.

UNEDITED - To be fixed at a later date.

*

It was like the first day they set eyes on each other; Willow was sat on the steps of her house eating an orange and Roman got into a fight with his parents.

In this particular dejá Vu moment, Roman's argument was behind closed doors and instead of an orange, Willow is eating an apple. And instead of an unspoken conversation, words flew between the two like they had known each other longer than a week.

"How's life treatin' ya?" Roman asked as he walked closer, the fence still separating them.

"Peachy." She replied between bites.

He seemed different from the night before. A lot of awkward silence filled the truck after the encounter with Kennedy. Willow wanted to ask him about her but he didn't seem all that talkative.

"I want to take you somewhere." A red flag went up in her mind and her breathing hitched.

It was like she was taken back to the beginning of the end. She was fourteen all over again.

"I want to take you somewhere." She smiled at the spontaneous notion.

"Can I have a hint?" 

She loved the undivided attention he gave her. He was five years older, yet he treated her like she wasn't a child and she loved the idea of that. 

 "That would ruin the surprise."

"Willow?" Roman's deep voice penetrated her flashback and she was abruptly pushed back into the present. 

 "Sorry. Where?" 

 Her voice wavered as Luca took a hold of her confidence and smashed her into submission. It was as if Luca was standing over her just waiting to pounce but it wasn't real. Roman noticed she looked paler than a second ago and the shaken tone of her voice suggested something was off but he chose not to say anything. 

 "It's a place where I go to think. You look like you need to get away." He offered a small smile while pulling out a cigarette. 

  Roman had been nothing but nice to her and with that in mind she pushed all the bad out. 

 "Okay." 

*

The green trees appeared to be moving, there a second and gone the next. Willow kept her eyes out the window, just watching new scenes come and go like the changing wind. It was relaxing. The crack in the glass left enough air to let a nice breeze blow through without tangling the long strands of her hair and it felt nice on her feverish skin.

The trees soon dispersed and the rows of soybean and corn seemed to go on for an eternity. Tractors would soon come and wreak havoc on the peace, destroying every bit of crop for consumption. It was a beautiful cycle, Willow thought, almost like the one she was currently in. They soon passed the barley fields and the flashback hit her all at once.

 "Thanks." She spoke with such softness he almost didn't hear her.

  They were laying in the secluded part of a barley field just watching the clouds float by with the sun high in the sky. 

 "What for?" Luca looked over at her with coffee-colored eyes of adornment. 

 "For taking me here. For everything." Her doe-eyes stared back with a similar look.