Sweet Charlotte

「 twenty-six: strung days 」

Willow had been lying in bed for hours, drifting in and out of sleep. In reality, she wasn't tired. She didn't feel it, anyway. More so, she was dozing in and out to not think.

It had been hours since her mother had released her and Willow — still sobbing — went up to her room and sealed her door. Her parents hadn't made an effort to come check on her, and Willow wanted to assume it was because her lecture had actually made a dent on them.

A ding jolted her to life. She immediately snatched her phone off the mattress. She made sure to turn her cell volume on so she could be jolted from sleep whenever Seth texted her. That day, the texts were more frequent than ever.

'Is it too much to ask for you to come over?'

She just about fell apart. He seemed so fragile and weak — anything but the assertive, cocky Seth she'd come to admire. Realistically though, she hadn't expect any different of him.

While Willow was in the thick of grief, she couldn't imagine how Seth was handling the news. Not only was it his sister — the girl they had gone out of their way to bring into their home — but he was also sitting in the house with her grief-stricken, wailing parents.

Worst of all, the things he'd seen were stuck with him, haunting him. He wasn't able to talk to his parents to get it off his chest, he needed to sit with it. He needed to dwell with his trauma because nobody else could listen.

That was, except for her.

'Not at all. Gimme a few.' She'd tell him in the car that she wanted to ask but didn't want to overwhelm him.

She didn't make a sound when she stood — no grunts, or groans, or sighs. Silently, she slid toward her dresser to change. Sweatpants, a big grey knit sweater, and fuzzy socks. More than anything, she just wanted to get out of her dress — the dirty one that held so many memories that she'd probably never wear it again.

Her phone sounded from across the room. Willow snapped a hair tie around her wrist and checks it. 'I'll come by to pick you up when you're ready' it says.

Immediately, Willow frowns. 'I don't want you to come all the way over here just for me' she sent back. She meant it.

Without having a plan, she grabbed her purse, tossed her jean jacket over her arm, and started down the stairs. She had no idea how she was getting there, she just needed to. Her feet were carrying her toward the door without a plan, but she didn't care. Seth needed her and she needed Seth. Nothing else mattered.

"Where are you going?"

She hit the bottom of the stairs and snapped her phone to silent, ignoring her father's question. She grabbed a pair of sandals — the only pair of shoes that wasn't covered in dirt or mud — and slid them on. "To Seth's." She finally said.

"Seth's?"

Willow looked up, adjusting her bag and jacket. Only then did she realize how little they actually knew. They didn't know that she knew Charlotte, so they definitely wouldn't know that she'd been buddying up with Charlotte's brother to track her down. It felt like a blow to the gut watching the way her parents — on separate sides of the couch — looked at her like she was a stranger. "Charlotte's brother." She said. "And my friend."

"The guy with the truck?"

Willow wanted her eyebrow to twitch but didn't have the energy to let it. "Yes." Silence hung overhead. Realizing nothing was going to be elaborated, Willow reached for the doorknob.

"I'll drive you."

Willow froze, reversing and pulling the door closed again. "What?"

Her father stood from the couch, swiping his keys off the coffee table. Her mother didn't drop staring at her. "I'll drive you. I just need an address."