Hai. I know its been nearly eons since I've last updated. Sorry. I just didn't feel like writing, but yay maybe I got over that. I'm going to try and not take forever anymore
Thanky very much to those who reviewed. Ye are apprieciated Glomps
Elizabeth closed her phone as soon as she saw the familiar headlights rounding the corner. It was Will's car - nearly a half-hour later then he told Elizabeth he would pick her up. In the time she had been sitting on the bench outside the main entrance to the school, the evening light had waned. The lights attached to the building bathed Elizabeth in their gentle glow. Will rolled down the window on the passenger side.
"I'm so sorry Elizabeth. Practice took much longer than I expected. See Jack and I were trying to teach the little ones a few last minute moves for their competition tomorrow. It was a grand old time and I guess we just lost track of time."
"Will, stop trying to justify your actions. I really could care less if you came on time or not. It is okay."
"No, it's not. I don't like making my friends-"
"Will, just forget about it."
"I called you a few times so you wouldn't get worried...but it of course was busy."
"I was talking to James. See I had something to occupy myself. And I wasn't worried."
"Well, I would have been." Will grumbled as he reached over the seat to open the door for her. Elizabeth yanked on the handle, threw her belongings into the backseat and plopped herself into the seat.
"So where to?" Will asked before leaving the school parking lot so he did not go the wrong way.
"Uhhh….can we go to my house there is some stuff I have to do. Then if you want, we can go to your house to work on the project."
"Fine with me. I'll take you wherever you need to go." Will smiled. He turned in the direction of Elizabeth's home. Elizabeth stared out her window in silence.
"So how was your afternoon?" Will asked to break the quiet as they waited at a red light.
"Um fine…" Elizabeth raised an eyebrow as if he had asked her something completely absurd. She was still looking out the window. Will's eyes wandered to Elizabeth. He frowned at the back of her head.
"The light is green." Elizabeth said the slightest bit of frustration evident in her voice. Will returned his focus to driving. He would have more success driving through a brick wall than getting Elizabeth to speak to him.
"You can stay here if you want. I won't be too long…" Elizabeth said as Will pulled into her driveway.
"Oh no, I'll go with you unless of course you don't want me to."
"Do whatever you want." Elizabeth reached behind her to pick up her things, but Will stopped her.
"I'll get them." Elizabeth shrugged. Will grimaced as she shut the car door hard enough to shake the entire vehicle. He hung a few paces behind Elizabeth. She unlocked the door and slipped inside. The door slammed shut behind her. Will had to set the bags down so his hand would be free to grab the handle. He made sure to take his shoes in the foyer. In his own home, he never did but he was sure Elizabeth had some expensive carpet and she'd kill him if he got even the tiniest speck of dirt on. Elizabeth quickly turned on a light. She took her bags from Will.
"Watch television or something." Elizabeth threw him the remote she had taken from the end table. Will obeyed- doubting that Elizabeth would be ready as fast as she claimed. Elizabeth ran up the stairs. She dumped her bag on the floor of her room- sorting the mess into two piles: clothes that needed washing and various other things. The clothes she deposited atop her laundry bin and she swept everything else back into her bag. Elizabeth levered the door open with her back and heaved her laundry basket into her arms. It was heavy- if she didn't find asking for help to be as great a sin as she did, she would have called Will right up for assistance. She lugged the basket down the stairs. As she passed Will, he looked up from the television.
"So how many channels do you….whoa…Liz let me help you or you'll kill your back." Will rose from the leather sofa to aid Elizabeth, but she pulled away.
"Don't worry about me Will. I'm just going to throw these in the washer than we can go." Will put his hands up and backed away. He went back to flipping through Elizabeth's plethora of television channels.
Elizabeth made sure the basement light was on before starting down the stairs. It was hard enough walking with her load; the dark would make it near deadly. She walked straight to the washer- not wanting to spend any more time in the basement than she had to. The basement was too quiet for her liking. Elizabeth tended to avoid it even if it meant skipping doing her laundry some weeks. The only time she wasn't completely freaked stepping past the first step was when there was another in the home. Mostly Elizabeth and her father used the room as storage for things neither of them needed anymore but didn't want to throw away. When she first moved here, Elizabeth recalled depositing much of her old belongings down there. Of course, she couldn't prove this as she swore never to search through any of the piles of boxes. After the machine was properly loaded and started, Elizabeth treaded back upstairs turning the light off after she shut the door. Her imagination ran wild in the dark…
Elizabeth inspected her house for anything else that desperately needed cleaning. The kitchen was nearly spotless- not a single dirty dish, but then again she rarely used it. Will turned off the television.
"We waiting for that to dry?"
"Nah, no need. I'll just put it in the dryer when I get home. No need to make you stick around any longer…" She didn't much like that idea, but she would never admit that to him.
"We could work here." Will suggested.
"No, it's fine. You haven't been home all day and sure your mom doesn't appreciate that."
Will stood up. "Speaking of parents, does your father get home really late?"
Elizabeth froze- her arm in the process of getting her sweater from the hooks on the wall. "Uh yeah. Pretty late. It depends though." In truth, she had not seen her father for almost two weeks. She figured an urgent business trip had come up and he had been too busy to inform her of this.
"You need to leave a note. You don't want him to worry about you…"
Elizabeth pulled the sweater over her head. "He doesn't care…" She mumbled. Will stuck his foot into his shoe refusing to waste the time untying them. As they left, Elizabeth turned on the porch light. Light gave the illusion of life.
It was a cloudy night- the sky had a yellowish glow and the air was muggy. Elizabeth sighed. The humidity always ruined her hair. She climbed back into Will's car.
"Good things its Friday." Will said.
"Huh?" Elizabeth looked up. He pointed to the clock. It was half past eight. They had tried to meet to work on the project all week, but Elizabeth wasn't free until late and Will's mother disliked him out past nine on school nights. Will put the radio on- he didn't feel like sitting through another silent car ride.
A light rain had started as Will and Elizabeth were driving. Elizabeth pulled her hood over her head to block the rain from wetting her hair. The front door was unlocked so they walked d right in. Mrs. Turner looked up from the book she was reading.
"There you are. I was hoping you'd get here before it started raining. Hello there, Elizabeth. How are you, dear?" The woman smiled warmly.
"I'm okay. Kinda tired but otherwise fine." Elizabeth responded.
"I'm going to get a snack. You want something?" Will asked walking into the kitchen. As always, Elizabeth shook her head. She leaned against the sofa's armrest while waiting for Will to come out of the kitchen.
"I hope you two aren't waiting to the last minute to work. You know you may think it's all well so long as it gets done but think about the pressure you're putting on yourself…"
"Actually we're not. I never procrastinate. We have until a week from today, but one of us is always busy so it is best if we just do it now."
"Will busy… don't make me laugh. I wish some of your promptness would rub off on him."
"Hey what'd ye say about Will?" Will asked as he reentered the room. He was crunching on an apple. His mother chuckled.
"You must be hearing things honey." Mrs. Turner flipped the page ignoring the look her son was giving her. "Go on don't keep Elizabeth waiting."
"Uh yeah…right this way Liz." Will winked at Elizabeth and threw the apple core in the trash behind him.
"Will." Elizabeth said, sound much less amused than his mother.
"Yes?" He swallowed. "Oh." He wiped a few stray drops of juice from the apple off his chin. A wide grin formed on his face. Elizabeth shook her head. Will's face went serious again.
"I take the hint." Will tilted his head toward his room. "Come on." Elizabeth rose from the armrest and followed Will into his room in the back of the house. She sat on his bed pushing aside his tangled sheets. Will rummaged through a pile of papers on his desk until he pulled out the sheet he was looking for. Elizabeth dropped her notebook on the paper he held out to her.
"I've done most of the research already…"
Will suppressed the urge to laugh. He had been sure Elizabeth would get antsy waiting for them to meet up before she started. "That works. I'll just look it over and see if I have anything to add."
"Do you even know what our topic is?" Elizabeth snapped. Will looked taken aback. He was tired of Elizabeth accusing him of one thing or another- in this case not caring about schoolwork or his responsibility to pull his weight in the project- , but he wanted to avoid an open conflict with her so he simply nodded. Will pressed the switch to power up his computer, as they might need it for research. Elizabeth read over her notes- occasionally scratching out a wrong calculation. The computer loaded. Will glanced from his desktop to Elizabeth. She lifted her head a few moments later when she realized she had been watching the whole time.
"Look at this." Elizabeth handed him a sheet with a various web links. "Those are where I did the research. Tell me what you think."
"Yeah….sure…" It seemed pointless to Will to reread the information she had already gathered but as he assumed she was smarter than he was he didn't argue. Halfway through typing a wed address into his browser, an instant- messenger box popped up ruining the string of numbers he had been copying.
"Bad timing much, Jack?" Will thought aloud. Elizabeth frowned at him thinking he was talking to himself. "Uh…Jack IMed and screwed what I was typing to hell." She pushed her notebook away and walked over to where Will was sitting.
"Reading over my shoulder?" Will asked Elizabeth who was leaning against his back wall reading every word he typed.
"Yeah. I want to see what he has to say. It must be interesting if it is more important than our project." Will swiveled his chair around to face her. "What? He took your boat out after it got dark. Cuz that's safe…"
"We go sailing at night all the time…" Will's focus returned to the computer screen where Jack was retelling his whole evening in typo-infested run on sentences.
The Immortal Captain Jack Sparrow: ……I had just gotten her off the dock which was quite a task you tyed that not really good. The water was really choppy….I thought I was imagining things but then the wind picked up…Seemed wasteful after all the work to take her out but I went back…damn weather…Bet Lizzie is freaky out on who ever she is with or under…unless of course she is too drunk to…
"No! That's him. Idiot, let me kill him." Elizabeth growled digging her nails into Will's back. Will slapped his hand to his face- trying to control his laughter.
"Feel free." He handed the keyboard to his infuriated friend. Elizabeth banged her fingers on the keys. Will winced though he was glad she chose to take her rage out on his computer equipment rather than his body.
SwashbucklerWill: JACK! I THINK YOU ARE GETTING US CONFUSED. JUST BECAUSE YOU HAVE NO SENSE OF SELF-RESPECT DOESN'T MEAN WE ALL DO!
The Immortal Captain Jack Sparrow: XD Shoulda known she'd be with ye mate. But how'd ye manage to pry her away from that boyfriend of hers?
SwashbucklerWill: Excuse me, but that is none of your business. So go jump off a cliff or something…
The Immortal Captain Jack Sparrow: Yeah….that's definitely Lizzie. Heh, I think I just heard a blast of thunder. Aren't ye going to go hide under yer bed or sumthing?
Will pulled the keyboard back in front of him before Elizabeth could respond.
SwashbucklerWill: Jack. We're working on schoolwork. I'll talk to you later.
The Immortal Captain Jack Sparrow: Sure…I'll leave ye two alone…Hey I'll just see ye tomorrow then. Later mate and good luck.
Will exited out of the instant messaging program so no one else could distract him. He turned his head to the sound of his curtains rustling. Elizabeth peered out his window into the night. The night was still- not a soothing still but one that seemed to hide a much greater force. Will touched Elizabeth's shoulder.
"Ahhh. It's spring, Liz. I'd be more scared if it didn't storm."
"What? I was just curious. Must be some weather if Jack passed up a chance to go sailing."
"Yeah really…Wanna get back to work?"
"Uh sorry." Elizabeth took a final look out the window then shut the curtains so she could see nothing out of them. She pushed past Will and picked her notebook up again. The concentration was gone and her eyes wandered to the window.
"No need to be sorry. I'm not too fond of nasty weather myself."
"I didn't say I was scared Will. Do you think I'm really weak or something?"
Will sighed. He simply did not want her to be afraid. "No Elizabeth."
"Forget it; it is not worth arguing with either of you…" Elizabeth pressed her pencil down so hard the tip broke off. She cursed it- the urge to whip the across the room took form in her mind.
"Jack is just teasing you. He knows your response will be priceless…"
Elizabeth took out her textbook and leaned against the wall. Within seconds, she was once again engrossed in her studies. Will grinned ever so slightly at her. His fingers raced over the keys as he hunted down any information relevant to their project. Occasionally he printed a page or scribbled a note into his notebook. Time flew past as the pair worked in silence.
A clap of thunder rang out shaking the whole house. Elizabeth's head shot up from the complex chemical equation she had been working on. Will peeked through the side of the curtains. Gusts of wind bent the tree branches. Elizabeth eye Will her hand shaking.
"It's nothing. Just some thunder." Will bit his tongue. For a split second, a flash of lightening gave the illusion of morning. The thunder's boom followed immediately. He refused to look at Elizabeth. Her face was pale and she gripped a pillow tightly in her fist. A knock on the door caused her to jump dropping her book into a heap on the ground.
"Will, Liz. You two okay in there?" Mrs. Turner walked into the room.
"Yeah." Will replied. Elizabeth had tried to answer but her mouth hung open stuck in the process.
"That's good. Well it's getting late. I don't know how much longer you two wanted to work.
"Huh?" Elizabeth fumbled through her purse to find her phone to see the time. It was nearly eleven-thirty. Will yawned.
"You need to go home Elizabeth?"
"Kinda. I mean. Yeah….probably…"
Will rose from his seat. The sound of rain clattering on the roof now echoed through the room. Elizabeth gathered her fallen belongings and shoved them back in her bag. The lights flickered. Elizabeth gasped- her heart having skipped a beat.
"You're more than welcome to stay Elizabeth. If your father won't mind that is."
"Uh he…I don't know if he is even home…"
"Yeah Liz. I don't mind driving you but do you really want to be alone in a storm?"
Elizabeth knew the answer to that question. Storms topped her list of dislikes. Her father wouldn't know if she didn't come home and it wasn't like she actually slept so it didn't really matter where she was. She was sure it would cause Will much less worry as well to have her over.
"I should probably go…"
"You sure?" Will asked.
"Yeah…I have stuff to do."
"Liz?"
"Will I can take care of myself." Elizabeth slung her bag over her back and marched through the door. Will followed reluctantly.
"You're going?" Mrs. Turner frowned.
"It's better that way…"
Will took his keys from the table and opened the front door. The window flung the screen door open spraying the entrance with water. "You really want to go home?"
Elizabeth nodded. Truthfully, she wanted to go home less than Will wanted to drive through the storm. A bolt of lightening hit nearby- the resulting thunder was deafening- and the lights went out. Will forced the door shut and dropped his keys.
"You're not going anywhere. You'd be blown right away."
Mrs. Turner laughed. "I feel better with you not driving." Relief was very much noticeable in her voice.
"I'll get a flashlight." Will went rummaging through a drawer in the kitchen. Making a huge mess that he couldn't see. Elizabeth sat down on the sofa. She didn't dare imagine the heart attack she'd be having if Will and his mother weren't with her. A beam of light shone from the kitchen.
"Just use those to get ready for bed. Unless you really want to there is no point in staying up…" Mrs. Turner used the walls to guide her out of the room. "Will, you make sure Liz is comfortable."
"Night Mom." Will tossed the light to Elizabeth. "She's right and I'm tired. Come on you can sleep on my bed. I don't mind the floor." Elizabeth lead the way back to Will's room.
"You want something more comfortable to sleep in? Will dug blindly in his drawer for his own nightclothes.
"I'm good." She stepped outside while he changed. Even though it was pitch black, it felt less awkward that way. She stumbled over the pillow Will had put on the floor on her way back in. Elizabeth pulled herself unto the bed. She heard Will's further movement but was unable to discern his actions. Finally, the movement stopped and the only sound was the heavy rain and the thunder.
"You okay?"
"Yes thanks. Goodnight Will." Elizabeth stared into the pillow. She couldn't even pretend to be tired and this much darkness was completely foreign to her. She covered herself with the blanket and tried to shut her eyes. The thunder haunted her. She sat up and looked out the window. The storm raged on outside. She watched the tree branches dance around in the wind. Will had fallen asleep. Elizabeth rolled back onto her stomach. It would be a tortuously long night.
"Elizabeth?" She swore she heard her name spoken. Watching the darkness swirl around her for what seemed like many years had given Elizabeth a terrible headache. She could easily believe she was hearing things.
"Liz?" The voice asked again. A hand tugged at the sheets. "I know you're not sleeping."
"Does it matter?"
"Aren't you tired? How can you not sleep?"
"You're not sleeping either if you're asking me…."
"I'm worried about you."
"Why?"
"Because you don't sleep."
"Says you. What do you watch me constantly?"
"You must be exhausted…"
"Will, you don't get it. Forget about it."
"No! Elizabeth tell me. How long did you sleep last night…the night before…?"
"….."
"I didn't think so."
"You weren't worried. You just wanted to lecture me."
"If that's what you want to believe than go for it."
"Just go back to sleep Will…Don't stay up cuz of me…"
"Elizabeth?"
"You can't make me fall asleep. I wish you could…but I can't. Don't think I haven't slept in days on my own free will. But you can only watch the same patch of ceiling for so long."
"Do you-"
"Yes Will. I have insomnia. And don't say you understand. You don't- you can't. So there just stop thinking about it." Elizabeth rubbed her eyes. She hadn't realized she had such pent up anger. Had she been in denial? Hoping she may fall asleep the next night….each and every night. Elizabeth gulped. She wasn't cry…she wouldn't cry. Will's hand pulled her own away from her face. He was sitting beside her- holding her. She squeezed her eyes shut. They lay in the darkness. No one would ever have to know she wasn't as strong as she hoped…
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