Sweet Charlotte

「 twenty-eight: confused ramblings 」

"Have fun at lunch today," Willow said, pulling her locker open.

Seth, propping himself on the locker beside her — as he normally did — smirked. "It's only lunch with the team."

"It'll still be fun," she said, setting her lock down. Truthfully, she was glad he was getting out again. She was worried he was going to continue to lock himself away since Charlotte was found. Knowing he was making an effort to stay connected, to doing the things he loved, that mattered to Willow.

She needed him. These days, he was all she had. She needed him to take care of himself.

"It would be more fun if you could be there."

Willow smirked, playfully flipping her hair. "Of course it would."

Seth smirked, jostling her shoulder. It was the first chuckle Willow had heard in days. It felt like a reward for her for pushing through; hearing her favourite sound.

"See you tonight?"

"Of course," she said, smiling, a hum buzzing in her chest.

Then, Seth smiled, cheeks warm with life before he started away.

After smiling to herself, feeling a buzz of hope for the first time in days, Willow turned back into her locker. Finally, they'd established that they weren't giving up on Charlotte — for her, they were going to get answers — and the motivation of that brought Willow enough hope to continue. She no longer needed to sit around aimlessly, drowning in questions, waiting for the police to catch up to where they'd been for weeks.

Now, again, the two of them had the motivation, and determination, and spark that had been extinguished the moment they'd found her dead. It was reignited by the need to bring their girl peace of mind; knowing whoever did that to her would be caught.

"Willow?"

Just as she was stuffing a muffin into her bag — one Seth's mother had made — she turned. Down the hall, scurrying wildly and in a panic, was Carter. Willow froze. Around her there were no signs of Mara or Sunni — no surprise seeing as they'd been missing school since Charlotte had been discovered — but it made his presence all the more confusing. "Carter?"

"I need your help," he forced out, exhausted and out of breath.

The death grip Willow had on her locker grew tighter. She'd never seen Carter like this, not even during his confession to her months ago. Something about it set her on edge. "Oh?" She managed.

Sliding her phone out of her back pocket — without looking — Willow snapped it open. Her phone was still open to her texts with Seth asking if they were meeting at her locker. All she did was send him a letter, a random jumble from her keyboard, before hitting send. He'd know what it meant. He always knew what she meant.

"I'm worried about Mara." Carter fumbled out. "I mean — I'm sorry — I'm worried about all of you, I'm just closest with Mara."

"I get it, it's okay." Willow said, sliding her phone away. Using both hands, she gestured to calm him. "What's going on? What's happening?" Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a figure lean up against a locker down the hall. Her heart calmed feeling their gaze on her face.

To say she was suspicious of everyone felt like an understatement, but Carter was a special case. After all, their case was no longer investigating who could've caused Charlotte to run away, instead it morphed into who had enough against Charlotte to kill her. Carter — the very man who had confessed to Willow weeks earlier that he'd willingly thrown Charlotte under the bus to appease his girlfriend and Charlotte's ex-best friend didn't sit well with her.