Chapter 27

Curtain Falls

As autumn began to give way to winter, Willow moved in from the garage to her room with her art, newspaper lining the floor as she sat on the ground, painting. The radio was playing softly with the windows open because she had learnt from the multiple times, she had accidentally gotten high off paint fumes when awareness pushed on her – Jasper's little thing he'd started to do to let her know when he was there – and she looked up just as he slipped in the roof window like some Spiderman wannabe. But the few seconds he hung by his hands had her watching him.

The tip of a pencil was in her mouth. 'That was hot.'

And it was. His sweater was up to his elbows and the muscles had been straining and Willow kinda wanted to see what that would do to his shoulders? Without the layers.

As that plot bunny went scampering away, Willow blinked back to see him crouching down on the edges of the newspaper, resting those forearms on his thighs – stop, focus. Don't objectify him. But Pretty Cowboy Man in tight jeans… And probably going by the smirk on his damn face, Jasper knew what he was doing. Deliberately putting the drawing utensils down, Willow decided to let the ground just swallow her whole, falling onto her back and covering her face with her hands. 'Let me die.'

His laughter was warm and soft, his gift caressing her as Jasper crawled up her body – because that was an image Willow didn't know she needed until then – and began to mouth kisses on the free patches of skin her shirt hadn't covered. 'Your appreciation for my shoulders and forearms hasn't gone unnoticed,' Jasper breathed, nudging her jaw up as Willow subconsciously grasped onto him as her head was an anvil on her neck, 'just like you and confidence really does it for me.'

Her fingers grasped onto the collar of his sweater and into his hair as breathing became so much harder, nerve endings singing under skin too tight. Jasper slid to nestle against her hips and one of her legs hiked up over his jean-clad hip as his hand roamed over her thigh. 'Cruel…you're cruel.'

He laughed against her throat, mouthing along the delicate veins, pressing a lingering wet kiss to the hinge of her jaw, behind her ear as her fingers tightened and a whine caught in her throat. 'You're the one sitting on the floor in pyjama shorts and my t-shirt.'

'Because…fuck…jeans.' Willow's voice broke as the feel of him moving back down to her collarbones leisurely had goosebumps blooming everywhere. Frustrated now, she grabbed his face and brought him up for a kiss, savouring the humour-filled laugh he breathed into her mouth.

In a second, she was straddling his lap on the bed, against the headboard, the feel of his cold hands against her back a startling contrast to the heat that coiled beneath her skin. Jasper's hand tilting her head a certain way away from him had her blinking. 'We have time. Easy, gorgeous.'

That was a new one. He hadn't called her that. She liked that.

And with the fact that Richard was on nightshift for the next two days, Willow felt that frantic need of adolescent hormones settled, the want of skin on her own soothed. 'Cheater.'

Jasper pulled back, easy grin on his face, eyes dark, 'Nah, that's all you, darlin'

Willow nibbled on his lip in retaliation, pressing against him. 'You sure?'

Jasper cocked his head, hand spanning her hip, 'Yes. Are you?'

'Yeah.'

It felt different, Willow mused as clothes were removed and skin explored, different compared to her previous boyfriend, Tom Carpenter, who'd been her first. Jasper was right in the fact that they had time and there was no need to rush and the fact that her boyfriend was an empath was great. Meant that she didn't even have to tell him what she liked or what to do and that everyone was left satisfied.

Oh, the joys of the supernatural.

With Richard being at work for most of the next week, Willow had to wait till Saturday for them to get the tree up. Jasper had offered to get it out of the attic, but she had declined, wanting to spend as much time with her Dad as she could, what with the idea of graduating a daunting handful of months away.

Humming to a carol playing on the CD player, she wove the lights around the tree as Richard tucked them in neatly after her. There was a thin line the two of them danced along with ease – between cute and tacky. They liked tinsel and they liked funny decorations. The two also got new decorations every year -which reminded her, Willow needed to get hers for that year.

It felt like she had a million things to be doing, what with spending the evenings for the past few weeks up in Port Angeles doing stuff for the winter musical they had going on – She Loves Me – and finishing with sets for the school musical – Annie – with little Sophie Forrester bagging the lead role. Willow didn't know how to feel, this was the second to last musical she would be doing for Forks High before graduating and her stomach fought with butterflies and nerves.

'Where's your head at?'

Jolting, Willow jumped over the extension cord as she came back to where she was, 'Sorry, just thinking about the mile-long list of things I have to do.'

'Well,' Richard tapped the first thing of tinsel he found against her, 'put that on the back burner and let's tack up this tree.'

'Again,' Willow laughed, tossing one around his shoulders, 'we walk the line extremely well. Now, the gold one, where do we want it?'

They shared a look and she shrugged, chucking it towards the tree to see where it landed. Unlike in New Hampshire where Mother had a vision that they had to abide by, the two of them just put decorations wherever the fuck they wanted. It would probably drive Alice nuts but the two enjoyed it and didn't really see that idea being chucked away any time soon. If it worked, why try to fix it?

'Do you know where the sticky things are for the window things?'

'Eh…' there was the sound of rusting things and then a successful noise from behind her as Willow tried to decide on where she wanted to put the dangling Santa. 'Here. I'll get you a wet cloth, I wouldn't stick them on your tongue right about now.'

'I wasn't planning on doing that, I'm not gonna lie.' Willow laughed, knowing that the suckers had been in the box since the previous year and she nearly felt her tongue curl up in her mouth at the thought. Didn't sound appealing at all.

'Where are – doesn't matter, found them.'

Glancing over her shoulder from where she now stood by the fireplace with a thing of garland – there were pinecones dusted with fake snow and lights woven through the fake fir – Willow spotted Richard by the stairs with the other two longer ones and the zip ties. They found it kept the heavyweight up without damaging the wood of the posts.

The two had just sat down in front of the tv after a good few hours of decorating when the doorbell rang. Shoving her, Willow gave Richard a look as she heaved herself back up again from the sofa. 'What? You're my child.'

'Yeah, but age before beauty.'

Her laugh ducked around the corner as he pitched a pillow at her and was still filtering through the house as she opened the door to reveal Scott, blacks on and looking like he'd rather be anywhere but getting ready to go for a rehearsal at school.

'Shit!'

Bolting up the stairs, Scott rolled his eyes as he stepped in, closing it behind them. 'You're good, we've got forty-five minutes!'

'Sorry!'

Scrambling into the shower, Willow swore as her shin clanged against the lip of the bath, yelping at the ice-cold water but not bothering to try and wait for it to heat up, scrubbing the sweat and dust off her body, luckily having done her hair the night before.

Not even ten minutes later, she nearly fucking brained herself on the floor because she was rushing, and her blue bathmat had slipped in her rush to get into the shower. Willow bit back a yelp when a cold hand grasped her waist and pulled her into his body. 'You forgot you had rehearsals today?'

'We were decorating downstairs.' She hissed to Jasper, kissing him quickly and ducking under his arm, into her room, pulling on underwear and then her black jeans under the towel. A sports bra and long-sleeved shirt were yanked on and then as she was looking for a jumper to chuck on top, Jasper had her arms up and Willow found herself enveloped by his scent – the black hoodie reaching the middle of her thighs.

He chucked her a pair of fuzzy socks from where he had moved over to the drawers and as Willow looked up from putting her glasses back on, her necklace and her watch, Jasper had her bag in hand, something she had already made up the night before. Stopping for a second, Willow stepped towards him and, with a hand around the back of his neck, she stretched up to kiss him properly.

He huffed a laugh against her mouth, hand sliding around her waist to pull her in tighter. 'You can kiss me later, you're gonna be late otherwise.'

'I love you.'

'I know. Go.'

Pecking his lips again once more, Willow took her bag from his fingers and darted down the stairs where Richard had her steel toes and outerwear in his hand. He rammed the hat on Willow's head with a grin, pulling it over her eyes causing her glasses to land by her mouth, and then the scarf like a boa around her neck. 'Dad. Not helpful, right now.'

'Scott has your food. He went to put it in the car and get the leading lady herself.'

Slamming her heel into her boots, jamming it in with the help of gravity, the laces would have to be redone in the car but she was put together enough so she didn't look like she had forgotten the second to last rehearsal till opening night that Wednesday.

It was fine, Willow nodded, shoving her glasses up as Sophie climbed into the back of the Suzuki, hair did, Lucy having taken her under her wing and doing her makeup for her. 'Alright, Miss Forrester?'

'Yep.' Sophie had been bouncing with glee ever since she'd tried out and got the part of Annie, Sandy being the golden retriever stuffy she had for years. That was now two of her toys that were famous. 'C'mon Scott, or we'll be late.'

'Oh no.' he droned, rolling his eyes towards Willow as he reversed out the driveway as she did her laces quickly. 'Nice hoodie, when did you steal that?'

'I can't remember. Got your stuff?'

'In the boot, along with the gremlin's.'

'Didn't Alice say she was helping out this time?'

'I hate you.'

'No, you don't. You'd've gone out of your mind years ago without me. Still good for Saturday?'

Saturday was the start of the dress rehearsal week for She Loves Me and with how well she and Scott gelled with each other, Willow had coaxed him into doing backstage stuff with her saying that it would be good for his community service resume. 'Yup, what time do we have to be there for?'

'Ten till eight.'

Groaning, Scott rested his head back with a thump, as he drove into the car park. 'Why's it gotta go so late?'

'Individual numbers, then groups, then separate scenes, lightings got to be on cue, you know how it works. It's a proper little production, besides, Andy tries not to keep us back for too long Hell Week.'

'Maybe Ms P should take notes?'

Sophie's voice piped up from the back, 'About what?'

'Stage directions, that's all. C'mon, I see Lu.'

Scott grabbed the back of Sophie's hoodie before she darted across the lot, 'Wait for us first, Jesus.'

'My name is Sophie.'

Willow had to take a second to collect herself as the siblings bickered to the boot of the car. There were just sometimes where Sophie Forrester would come out with just spectacular comebacks and that was one of them. Snickering to herself, Willow grabbed her own stuff, leaving the food in the car for break time, and followed the two into the gym where it had been transformed into Walmart's version of a proscenium arched stage. It was basically the graduation stage with curtains of red on either side. Slightly better than the canary yellow and shiny sapphire that the Spartans embodied come getting the fuck out of the school.

It made her eyes burn.

Georgie and Rosalie had both bitched about the colours with their hair.

'Out of all the colours on the spectrum they had to go with those?' Rosalie sneered, tossing her corn Hollywood waves over her blush pink jumper, 'They do not go well with my hair, at all.'

'Babe,' Emmett grinned, 'You'll still look hot.'

Jasper's nose scrunched up as he ruffled his own curls, Willow getting momentarily distracted by the veins in his forearm under that black Henley of his. Scott nudged her and she scowled at him, ignoring the grin on his face. 'Seriously, you'd think she'd look good in a bin bag.'

'He's not wrong.'

Georgie was pulling her hair into a ponytail as she came out of student services where they had had to go for their gown fitting, face flushed. 'It clashes so badly. Why did they have to go with blue and gold with gold being the dominant one and not the other way around?'

Willow looked over her shoulder because the strawberry blonde was drilling her with a stare. 'What are you looking at me for? I'm not gonna complain to the Board about their lack of taste. Leave that to you two and Lucy, thanks. I don't know why; you are dragging up the same damn argument that Eve had a decade ago so I'm away to class because I'm not dealing with that again. Goodbye, I will see you at lunch.'

Maybe it was from repetition, but it felt like Fork's Middle and High School's production of Annie went by in a flash, Sophie not forgetting or stumbling over a line or a lyric, beaming the entire time regardless of the crowd size.

'I have converted her.' Lucy grinned as she bounced on her heels as Miss Hannigan because as per fucking usual, Jenny got Grace. 'That is one of you three plebs that I have managed to sink my claws into and drag into the realm of theatre.'

Willow rolled her eyes, focusing on the clipboard in her hands, having been trusted as lead Stage-Hand this time around, 'Without us plebs, you wouldn't have a running show, Miss Starlet. Right, you, Harriet and Luke are on for bows in three, two, one…'

Shoving the board under her elbow, Willow's hand hurt with how hard she was clapping, even more so as their little leading lady skipped on with a nudge from Scott who, for all his muttering and sighs, was beaming with pride as the place roared with approval.

As the curtain finished falling for the final time for this production, Lucy had Sophie bursting into giggles as she spun her around in a hug. 'We will have you a Tony yet, my dear.'

'Again. I want to do it again.'

Scott put his hand on her head and began to steer her to the dressing rooms, the little girl running out in her street clothes were, at the stage door, Elisabeth and Daniel were ready to scoop the little girl up for congratulations. Sharing a look with Scott, Willow left them to it and shimmied past people to the dressing rooms that were the locker rooms and began to collect the costumes on a rack. They would be taking everything down within the next few days but the less they had to worry about the better.

Willow had made a sign with every cast member's name on it for them to tick off after they had returned their costumes in their entirety and had even made a small checklist for them on each costume, trying to make it as easy as she could for the little ones who were the orphans. Slipping an earphone in, she tidied the racks up before beginning the process of carting the costumes over to the drama department.

'Oi,' over her shoulder, Scott came jogging up, taking the guys' rack, 'you didn't have to do that, you know. I have watched her for the past several weeks.'

'I know, but the faster we get the little things away the quicker we get to go home and sleep. I'm not up for the Diner.'

'To do this all again with She Loves Me.'

Instead of speaking, Willow just nodded and moved the rack into the costume room. Taking a second, she took her glasses off and stretched, her neck and back popping in several places. She was sweaty from the heat of backstage, tired and couldn't wait to get into bed, or even sit down. Fuck, Willow nearly wanted to weep at the idea of food and her bed.

Speaking of.

'Is that Subway?'

Alice skipped up to Scott who seemingly couldn't help but grin and handed him the sandwich and a whistle caught her attention. Willow had to take a second because she was about to cry.

Just when she thinks she couldn't love Jasper Whitlock anymore; he brings her food.

'You've been released.'

Then he says that.

Alice walked up to her, 'Are you about to cry?'

Her eyes were a little cloudy. 'I'm so tired and I've been brought food. And my bed is so close.'

'She also hasn't sat down,' Scott said through a full mouth of bread. 'since like 4.'

If looks could kill.

And then with one done, it felt like She Loves Me was over and done within a day but it was in fact the week.

Andy and his production skills meant that the true adults - the ones that were out of school - did a majority of the heavy lifting, set building and sourcing of materials as they got paid to do that. Willow had basically been shadowing Marcus Jones, a man in his early forties, who had been a carpenter and woodworker for around two decades, and his wife, Marie, who was set designer for the show. She had been doing so for the past few years since she started with Andy back in her sophomore year. And they had given her such good tips too.

With adults leading the charge, it meant that Willow could go about doing her job without having much else to worry about - mainly if prop A was in its spot in the wings; if the lights were on the right cue; if the necessary miscellaneous items for a scene were where they needed to be for the interiors. It was nice, still hectic, mind, but all productions had a vague headless-chicken vibe backstage even during the shows.

Even amateur productions like the Port Angeles Theatre Company.

The two didn't even bother to head back home between matinees and the evening shows which happened twice a week, rather catching a few hours of shut-eye in the Suzuki or backstage under a blanket each between getting last-minute assignments done. Again, because the two weren't assholes, and treated everyone with respect and politeness, the adults took them under their wing and had even brought them some dinner on the Sunday - Marie had brought Scott and her a fresh plate of cookies too, Willow near cried.

From stress or happiness, at that point in the semester, she couldn't quite tell anymore.

It all just sort of blurred now.

After every evening show, darkness had swept across Port Angeles like a blanket, aided with plummeting temperatures and the very frequent sneaky puddles of ice.

The number of bruises that Willow had on her ass...unreal.

Because of this, it changed the usual hour and a bit drive from Port Angeles to a near three-hour trek because both her and Scott were not reckless drivers and with it being so dark, even with the roads being gritted, black ice still could surprise even the most prepared.

Unlike Georgie and Lucy, Scott and she were content with the radio on, Willow watching the lights pass by the window as she texted back and forth with Jasper. She couldn't wait to get home, have a shower and just collapse into bed, too tired to eat whatever Richard had cooked for dinner that night.

They were just passing through the light on Main Street, Flying without Wings on the late-night radio, nearing home, when everything went to shit.

heheheheheeheheheheheheehe

Enjoy,

K x