Author's Note:
Drabbles about Alicia recounting some of her favourite memories of Will. I am still a really new writer and this was not beta-ed, so any comments/corrections are welcome. Thanks for reading! I might continue on the story with more drabbles from S3 onwards.
Title is from Bastille's Pompeii:
But if you close your eyes,
Does it almost feel like
Nothing changed at all?
Her favourite memories of him:
At the pool party, the music was loud, so loud and she was beginning to wonder why she had bothered at all. She had told herself law school was a new beginning and she should come out of shell, make new friends, spend less time in her room. But right then, surrounded by future lawyers that somehow still acted like they were at their first freshman party, she wasn't too sure. 5 guys had already chatted her up that night and then backed off as fast as they walked up when she lied she had a boyfriend. It was not a good start to law school.
That was when he sauntered up to her, 2 beers in hand.
'Will. Will Gardner.' He leaned in and drops of water from his hair fell on her top. He had been doing cannonballs into the pool. She wanted to lie once more and walk away, like she had done so many times that night. She was fully intenting to, but even back then, she could already feel him falling effortlessly in place beside her.
She took a deep breath and grabbed the bottle of beer off him. 'Alicia. I'm a first year. Someone has been doing cannonballs I see.' She smiled and he grinned back (that rueful grin that would come to define 1L).
She didn't remember much but she remembers that they spent the rest of the night chatting in an alcohol induced daze. She laughed a lot that night.
Her first finals week, she was convinced going to fail. Well, not fail but do below average and Alicia never does below average.
She paced up and down her tiny apartment, religiously repeating the details of the case to herself. Will sat half naked on the couch staring at her. Their books were strewn all over the coffee table and empty cups of coffee littered the floor. Finals week was finals week and it was driving Alicia crazy.
Finally, Will stood up and grabbed her shoulders.
'Alicia. Alicia- hey! Hey! Stop it. Stop. Freaking. Out. You have memorised everything there is to be memorised. You will do great. You always do- you're a natural.'
She stopped in her tracks. People have called her many things before- smart, hardworking, intelligent, sharp but she always thought of her results as the accumulated efforts of years of hard work. But he was telling her she was a natural- the first time anyone has ever told her that. Her ego called out to her to restrain herself but she couldn't help but crack a silly, satisfied smile.
'A natural?' She challenged him. Somehow, that one word felt better than all the other times she was called pretty.
He grinned back at her. 'Well, not as much as me, but yeah, you could be said to be one.'
And they stood there, too close to each other, arguing who was the more natural lawyer, finals already forgotten.
Her first case after she came back, he had called her.
She wasn't expecting much. After all, they had barely spoken in those 13 years but still, she was hoping he would. Back in Georgetown, they used to call each other after mock trials to talk through their cases and just find an excuse to talk to each other.
'Hey, Leesh.' A pause, like he was just as unsure of this as her. 'How did the case go?'
She couldn't help but smile. It had been 13 years but the sound of her Georgetown nickname coming from Will's mouth still made her feel like she was 23 and with that curly, unruly mane of a hair again.
The night they finally acted on 16 years of stolen glances across the room, she drifted off to that foggy place in between sleep and wake. It had been good but she was tired. Not just tired but so tired in so many ways that reminded her she was no longer 23 and that if this night had happened then, things might have turned out very differently. She kind of hated herself for being guilty about this thing, this whatever-they-are-having thing, as soon as it began.
Will though- Will was not tired, neither was he guilty. He snuggled up to her. 'Leesh, earth to Leesh.'
She smiled. 'Let me sleep. We can go for round 2 in a bit. For now, just let me sleep.'
'Hmm, okay. Whatever you want.' She could feel him relaxing into her and pulling her closer, acceding to her request, like he always did, no matter if it was picking Thai for dinner or even like then, giving her time and space. Peter never did that.
Will was Will and he, and this thing were not mistakes.