Sweet Charlotte

「 seven: fuelled outbursts 」

By some odd stroke of luck, one Seth didn't quite understand, he'd made it to Hazel's Cup first. When Willow walked in a few minutes later, hair sprinkled with water, Seth knew why.

"Did you walk?" The scrunch of his nose said everything he didn't need to.

She, unlike him, had stopped at the table to apologize for being late before fetching her drink. She set her bag on the floor, brow scrunching as she wiggled her wallet out of her pocket. "Yes."

Seth said nothing and watched blankly as she went to the counter to order her coffee, then waited by the bar for it to be done.

A few minutes later, so lost in blankly staring at her that he'd lost track of time, Willow approached their table, brows raised, clearing her throat. "So, your assignment," she breathed, folding her fingers in front of her mug. "It went well?"

He looked at her and rolled his eyes, playfully for the first time ever. "You know how it went." He said, deciding to not comment on the fact he'd been staring.

Willow smirked, deciding to not comment either. "Yeah, I do. I was just hoping I could hear you talk about it."

Seth smirked, but said nothing. Strangely enough, Willow could sense his playful nature, although she couldn't tell if she was imagining it. He seemed chipper. Not exactly happy, she wouldn't have gone that far, but nowhere near as bitter as he was the last time they met.

Willow cleared her throat, cracking her fingers and tapping the table. "So, what are we working on today? What do we have left to do?"

Seth shrugged. "I'm making up a math test tomorrow, so I should study for that a little." He hummed, tapping at his chin. "But I don't want to work on it a lot."

Willow hesitated, brows drawn together. She couldn't tell if he was joking, if it was something she was supposed to dispute and push him toward, or if he was being serious and had a double motive for why he'd called her there.

"I want to talk about Charlotte."

Willow, while deep down had been expecting the statement, still felt herself tense. It felt too soon, in a way. Too soon to discuss a topic that felt so raw to them both.

Seth's brows furrowed given her quiet reaction. "I still don't understand how you and her are connected."

Willow snapped into attention, almost in defence, at what she perceived as a challenge.

"I thought you wanted to talk about her."

Willow puffed out her cheeks. It was faint and unintentional, and maybe if Seth wasn't irritated he would've seen it as cute, but right then it showed her defiance to answering his question. "I do." She said, plainly. "It's just," she hesitated, catching her tongue before the words came out. She breathed in deeply through her nose, squeezed her fingers, and continued. "Now that we're actually here talking about her, it feels like a lot."

He didn't give any physical indication that he understood, he did. He'd keep that confession to himself, however. "We need to put the pressure on people." He said, dismissing her statement. He intended to put the pressure on her in specific. He knew Willow would cave and discuss Charlotte eventually, that's really why they were both there. Neither of them actually cared about his math grades, and they both knew it. "Pressuring people will give us answers."

"We shouldn't do that." Willow commented, arms crossed over her chest. Fairly quickly, to his surprise, she'd kicked the difficulty of talking about Charlotte and dived head-first into rational thinking.

Seth scoffed, stunned that that was her first contribution to their discussion. "How else are we gonna get people to talk?" Willow tightened her grip on her crossed arms, squinting in stressed confusion. "You said it yourself," he began again. "The police don't walk these halls. Hell, they aren't even looking into this anymore." His arms flailed as he spoke, flinging to either side of his paper cup on the table.