Warning: This chapter contains discussion that some may find offensive.

Chapter Fifteen - Mixed

"I…you imprinted…on…me?" I barely managed to gasp. I was having trouble breathing as I spoke the words. I couldn't believe it. All of this was getting to be a bit too much to sink in.

Seth smiled and brought my hand, which still had his wrapped around it, to my cheek. "Yes, I did."

I choked on my spit. "Oh, my…God…" I stuttered. "So…you…you're in love with me?"

Seth smiled even wider, pleased that I understood. "From the moment I met you, Willow. You are so beautiful." He took my hand from my face and kissed it.

"But…wait…" He was starting to get ahead of me. Or maybe I was just being slow, as usual. Okay, Willow, I thought, don't get overwhelmed. Try to think it out.

First things first: Seth loved me. And would for the rest of his life. Only me, never anyone else.

But what about how I felt about him? I couldn't answer this, myself. Sure, I cared about him a lot, and technically he was the first friend I'd ever had, and he'd been there through tears and arguments with Ciara, and God this was complicated, since he wanted to stay with me forever and I still didn't know where I stood even though I may or may not have loved him, but it was too early for that, I'd only known him about five months, but still--

I remembered then that Seth was still awaiting my response, so I said, "Well, I don't know. I mean…I do care about you, but…I…" God, why was it so difficult to say this?

Seth replied, "It's okay. I can understand if you feel like that."

"But--" A thought had just occurred to me. "Seth, I mean…since imprinting is, you know, forever…does that mean you want me to, well, marry you?"

"If you want me to."

Hoo, boy. I didn't know how to respond to this at all, so I said, "Well…I'm only sixteen."

"I know. I meant to say that we can do it whenever you want. If you want to," he added quickly. "Don't feel like I'm pressuring you into this or anything, because I'm not. You can do whatever you want with your life. If you wanted to go off with some other dude or whatever, I wouldn't ever try to stop you."

"But then I'd end up hurting you," I pointed out.

He shrugged, like he didn't care. "So? Like I said, don't let me hold you back." But I could sense something sticky in the atmosphere, so I quickly changed the subject.

"Imprinting, huh?" I asked, leaning against him. I noticed, not for the first time, that he felt about two hundred degrees. Now, though, I knew it wasn't because of a possible fever, but instead just something werewolves did. Or whatever. "It sounds like it should be on a soap opera."

Seth laughed and slung his heavy arm over my back. "Yeah, it should."

We sat in silence for a little while. I thought of what Seth had said about marriage. It was crazy that we were talking about this at this age and time, but at the same time, not. After all, Seth was madly in love with me, and would be for the rest of his life. I just had to catch up with him.

If I wanted to, as he'd said.

I wasn't sure what I was going or wanted to do at this point. I did like Seth. A lot. But marriage could be as distant as the horizon or as close as my own hands in front of me, and I could spend any time I wanted to making my decision. It was all a matter of time, and what I liked about Seth was that he let me be independent. It was all up to me, and I had years until I the time for choices came.

I buried my face in Seth's shoulder with a contented sigh.

Usually when I came home from a day with Seth, Heather was sitting on the couch in the living room either reading, ranting, watching TV, or taking care of CJ. This time, she was sitting at the kitchen table and biting her nails. I took a seat next to her because I felt like she was about to say something important.

I was right.

"Willow, I need to talk to you," she said in a nervous, high-pitched voice.

"Okay," I replied, confused. What on Earth was going on now?

"Well…it's about you and Seth. And your relationship."

Oh, God. Please don't tell me she was about to say what I thought she was. Please.

"Now, I know this will embarrass you or make you hate me forever…but…I wanted to…well, warn you, I guess I should say…about how far you might go in the future. Or might have already, I don't know." She cleared her throat.

Oh. My. God. I sank down in my seat, feeling mortified. This could not be happening. My cheeks were burning, already a furious shade of scarlet.

"Heather, please. I really don't want to talk about this."

"I understand that I'm embarrassing you, but just listen to me. It'll only take a second."

I said nothing, but kept my ears open.

"I'll take that as a 'Yes,' then. Well, concerning what happened to me, I've been a bit paranoid of guys. Now, I'm not going to suggest that Seth would ever, ever do anything like that, but I just wanted to tell you the risks of…er…sleeping with someone."

God, kill me now. I put my hands over my head and tried to block out her voice.

"When I was raped," Heather said softly, and now I looked at her, surprised she was bringing it up, "it was awful. But it wasn't my first time."

"Being raped?" I asked, shocked.

Heather shook her head. "No, I mean it wasn't my first time sleeping with someone. It was my second. And the first time, he left me the day after." I noticed that she kept touching her stomach while she said this. Weird. "That was one of the worst times of my life and--"

"Well, what are you trying to say?" I demanded, standing up. I suddenly had a feeling that I knew what she was getting at. "That if I sleep with Seth, he'll leave me?"

"No, I'm not," she protested. "Willow, sit down and stop being ridiculous."

"You stop being ridiculous," I snapped.

"Willow. Sit down already," she said. And touched her stomach again.

"God, why do you keep doing that?" I added. "Are you pregnant or something?"

Heather's eyes flashed. "No. I'm not pregnant. It's just that my stomach hurts."

"You are," I continued, ignoring her. "You're pregnant. Why didn't you tell me?"

"Willow, shut up and sit down," she barked, standing up and contradicting herself.

"No! Just because you got raped or got your heart broken or whatever doesn't mean Seth will do the same thing to me. God, learn to not judge people all the time."

"I am not judging anybody here," Heather snarled back. "I'm just trying to keep you safe."

"Safe? You're trying to keep me safe. Tell me what you mean by 'safe' - oh, yeah, I forgot. Safe means, for you, staying away from everyone in the male population."

"Willow," Heather breathed, shocked. I could see that she was hurt, and a mean, horrible part of me was glad.

"I'm not going to listen to this," I replied, turning around and storming up the stairs so loudly people in Forks could probably hear me. Heather was hot on my heels.

"Please, listen to me! I'm not saying anything about Seth. I was just attempting to--"

I marched into my room and slammed the door in her face, locking it behind me with enough force for her to hear. I then flicked off the light and threw myself onto my bed, not even bothering to take my shoes off.

"Fine, then!" Heather shouted from the other side of the door. "Be a bitch like that! It's not as if I care! And when you end up getting hurt, don't come crying to me!" She stalked away.

And so I lay there, seething in the darkness.

Author's Notes: Ooh, what's Willow's problem? And Heather's? (Even though I'm sure you all hate Willow right now because she was being a meanie, Heather does have issues, too. Issues that will later be revealed.) And is Heather expecting a child?
Well, you'll have to wait until the next chapter to know! Reviews appreciated very much! (: