Page 42 of Back to Willow

Liam

Inthebeginning,thatwas all I had hoped for: a phone call from her explaining everything, apologising to me, and telling me where she was so I could meet her. But as time went by, the flame that kept hope awake weakened.

For years, I had thought that this one phone call would be the solution to my broken heart, but after all of this time, all it does is stab at my chest with her sickly-sweet voice as the blade that pierces right through my heart.

And that is all it takes, just the sound of her voice, to bring unwarranted memories.

It was spring, but it seemed like one of those dark and cold winter days.

I guess the weather was mirroring exactly how I was feeling that day. The clouds were low and dark, threatening with one of those strong rainfalls. The wind was strong, bringing the storm closer and closer to me as if it had a magnet to my state of mind.

Which was a mess, for that matter.

I had undergone all the emotional states one can go through for four weeks by then. We were close to May, and two of my favourite people were missing from my life.

Since that night Mason had broken in, we never heard from him again, and I was fearing the worst. My parents tried their best to seem unaffected, but I wasn’t falling for it. Their social events had reduced significantly, and my parent’s marriage—which already was imperfect—was slowly crumbling to the ground.

Where could he be? Had he gotten himself into trouble? The fact that he stole so much from us meant that it was a high possibility. The worry and concern were leaving me restless. If only he had come to me for money, I would have fucking given it to him.

And as if that wasn’t enough, there was Willow, too.

The morning after I met Jake at their house, she sent me a text saying she had Mononucleosis and had to endure at least a one-month quarantine until the doctor could see her again. The next morning, school confirmed it, and my parents even forced me to go to the hospital, too, even though I had no symptoms.

I’m not stupid, and since I wanted to be a doctor, I had a pretty good idea of several different conditions, illnesses, and viruses. Mono is the latter. Also known as the kissing disease because it’s mostly spread through saliva.

And there is where it sounded suspicious to me.

If she had it, I had to have it, too, because exchanging saliva was something we had been doing a lot back then.

And no one else did, besides her and her family. Apparently.

The fact she was quarantining was not what was bothering me, though. What bothered me was the fact that it took her forty-eight hours to tell me herself, and despite my incessant calls and texts and “Get Well Soon” baskets, her answers were all scarce and curt.

It was pissing me off, feeling like talking to me was a chore, when all I wanted to know was how she was feeling, if she had a lot of fever or headaches…When I was justworriedabout her. It got worse when a week after she started her “quarantine”, she stopped answering at all. Not only her but everyone in their house, too.

All of that was breaking me from the inside out.

The only comfort I had in my seemingly lavish life was blowing me off big time, with no apparent reason why. It didn’t make sense at all, but mostly, it was shady. The math wasn’t mathing.

With a knot in my stomach, a racing heartbeat and shaky hands, I drove that afternoon from school to her house. It was the supposed last day of quarantine, so there was no way she could avoid me any longer.

From what I had gathered, they were all in quarantine—which may have made sense, I guess—since I’d once seen a guy delivering groceries when I was “driving by” in hopes of catching a glimpse of her from the window.

And that day, knowing she was supposed to be finally free from that so-called quarantine, no one was going to stop me from finally seeing her. Different thoughts were racing through my mind as I drove there, mostly all of the different scenarios that could happen.

Would she open the door looking healthy and apologise for all of the radio-silent time?

Would she still be feeling ill, showing me why she hadn’t answered? I knew the quarantine time for mono could be extended if the meds weren’t helping fast enough. I just hoped that wasn’t the case.

Would her parents not let me see her? Or even Jake? Too bad that it would force me to camp in front of their house because, this time around, I wouldn’t leave their house until they let me see her, anyway.

Everything felt like it was dragging back then, school, the entire days…and that drive was no different.

What was different was the ruckus I saw in front of Willow’s house when I turned onto her street. I couldn’t detect what was going on, but there were two huge trucks in front of it, with a lot of furniture and boxes on the front lawn.

Dread settled right over my lungs, like a heavy weight depriving me of the oxygen it needed so much. Those moments before my feet hit the green grass of their property were a distant fog in my mind as it screamed at me to get there as fast I could.

What the hell was happening?

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