Burning Willow

Chapter 5

What happened out there? He just got all angry and crazy possessive when he knew I talked to Faith. It actually kinda scared me but I didn’t let him get to me. I don’t let people walk all over me anymore.

I’m not even sure what lesson I was in. I just sat quietly and waited for the bell to ring so I could get out and go to the music room.

When the bell finally went I basically ran out of the room…and straight into someone.

“You’ve got to stop running into me!” Will laughed. As if it was a reflex my cheeks started warming up.

“Shut up!” I exclaimed slapping his chest.

“Aw, shorty,” he said ruffling my hair

“I am not short!” I protested, trying to fix my hair.

“Of course your not!” he said sarcastically.

“You’re turning more and more like Olly everyday,” I muttered.

“Really?” he beamed.

“That’s not really a good thing…” his face fell. “But you’d make a much better Olly than he does!” I said quickly.

“Um…thank you?” he said, but it sounded more like a question than a statement. I laughed at his confused expression. “Where were you in a rush to go anyway?”

“Music room.” He had a genuine smile on his face.

“Haven’t changed at all have you?”

“Nope,” I said popping the p.

“Mind if I join you?”

“To the music room?! I thought you always hated it in there?”

“I…matured!” he exclaimed.  I rolled my eyes; he was still the kid I had to leave when I went.

“Come on then,” I said walking towards the music room.

When we got there, he just stood there expectantly and raised an eyebrow.

“Are you not going to play anything?”

“Oh!” I realised I’d just been stood there. I sat at the piano and stared at it.

“You don’t have to do this you know,” Will said softly, from behind me.

“No,” I breathed. “I want to.” As I placed my fingers on the key I thought about the past. Will had always been someone I could talk to about anything; I could ring him at 3 in the morning and he would listen to me complain or cry on the phone, and I seriously owed him for that.

My fingers sped up on the keys, getting louder and louder. My heart pounded fast at being able to hear music like this again. Reality came back and hit me like a ton of bricks, causing me to release the keys quickly. I inhaled sharply and sat there with my eyes closed, fighting back the tears, but one leaked from my eyelid anyway.

“Hey, hey. It’s alright.” I felt myself being enveloped in Will’s arms in a bear hug and sobbed into his shirt. He stood there rubbing soothing circles on my back the whole time. I pulled back and wiped my eyes with the backs of my hands. “You good now?” he asked.

“Yeah,” my voice was raspy from crying and I bet I looked like hell. “I’m sorry about your shirt though.” I gave him a watery smile. He shrugged.

“As long as you’re alright it’s fine.” I nodded.

His phone went off and he pulled it out of his pocket.

“I’ve gotta go,” he said. “You going to be alright?”

“Yeah.”

“I don’t have to-,”

“Go.” I pushed him lightly towards the door. He nodded, waved and left. I sighed loudly.

“You’re amazing at playing the piano,” Fraser said, stepping out of the adjoining room. I almost screamed, he startled me so much.

“Thank you,” I said when my heart stopped thrashing around.

“Welcome. I…have a question to ask if it’s alright.” I nodded. “Why were you crying?”

“It doesn’t matter.” He moved closer to me, looking me in the eye.

“It does.”

“Maybe I’ll tell you one day.”