Dust and Shades of Grey

“Rhianne? What happened?” Chris asked as we stumbled through the door. I opened my mouth, but realized it probably would be better if I didn’t tell Chris I’d been assaulted by a vampire. Great. I was left without an excuse.
“She fell on the school steps,” wiL lied smoothly.
“Why didn’t the school call me?” Chris asked suspiciously.
“It was after school, wiL took me to his place and patched…his mom patched me up,” I wasn’t as good a liar as wiL.
“Oh. Well, tell your mom I said thanks, wiL.”
“Will do,” he smiled at my brother. He then turned to me. “Where do you want to be? Your room?” He pointed to my door. Wow, I was surprised he remembered.
“Ha. Not unless you want to be mauled by Nana,” Chris laughed from the couch.
"I still can't believe you named your dog after a Peter Pan character..." He sighed.
"So?"
"You're obsessed," he laughed.
"I am not!" I protested, laughing too. I shook my head as wiL helped me to my room.

Once inside, wiL laughed again, after being pounced on my Nana.
“What?” I asked as I scrambled over to my bed, using everything in reach for support.
“I see you’re just as unorganised as you always have been.”
“What? You think I’m going to change a lifelong habit just because I lose you as a friend? C’mon wiL, you know me better than that.”
“True, true,” he said, kneeling down and ruffling my dog’s fur. “Hello again, Nana, you poor thing,” he said to her. She looked at him as if she understood. I rolled my eyes.
“Aw, don’t be like that, Tinkerbell,” wiL teased as he moved to sit on the end of my bed. Nana followed.
“Shut up, wiL,” I whined, throwing my pillow at him. He dodged it.
“Nuhuh. Remember Halloween uh…” He paused as he counted on his fingers. “Wow, nine years ago? My mom made you that Tinkerbell costume.”
I smiled as I remembered. “And we had that party at your house and I got lost.”
“Mm-hm,” he laughed as I pulled a little black box onto my lap from under my bed. I opened it, while wiL watched curiously, and pulled out an old photo. It was an eight year old version of us. I looked confused, as usual, and had tearstains on my face; I’d panicked when I’d got lost. I passed it to wiL and he smiled at it.
“Why did you keep this?” He asked.
“To remember the wiL that I liked. The one that wasn’t always high or drunk. The one I –“
“The one you what?” He asked. I looked at my hands. “Rhianne?”
“The one I…loved.” I looked at him. He stared back, shock and surprise crossing his face, and another emotion that I couldn’t quite name.

“Oh,” he said awkwardly. And then silence. I was too embarrassed to break it, and it seemed like wiL didn’t want to break it either. I fiddled with a necklace that had fallen out of the box when I’d picked up the photo.
“What? Is that just a little box of wiL or something?” He finally said, jokingly.
“Huh?” I frowned.
“I got you that necklace for your twelfth birthday,” he nodded to the chain in my hand.
“Oh, yeah,” I said. Again, I was surprised that he remembered so much.
“You got my birth certificate in there as well?” He teased.
“Haha,” I said sarcastically, “no, but I do have my own.” I pulled out a piece of old paper. He took it from me and read it out loud.

“Rhianne Tinkerbell Collins,” he winked at me.
“It’s Isabella, moron,” I laughed.
“Fine, Tinkerbella,” he looked at me, a huge dorky grin on his face.
I groaned. “Why did I spend that Halloween with you?”
“Because you love me,” he said offhandedly. I blushed. “Oh!” He realized what he’d said, “I didn’t mean…never mind.” I laughed at him.
“I suppose it’s going to change things between us now, isn’t it?”
“How so?” WiL frowned as he looked at me.
“It’ll be awkward,” I sighed, looking down at my hands again.
He moved closer to me, so that he was facing me, and put his hands over my own. “It’ll only be awkward if you let it be.”
I looked up at him, surprised. “What?”
“I better go. Chris won’t be too happy if I end up staying the night,” he winked at me again and stood up. Nana was at his feet instantly.
“Goodbye, Nana,” he said, ruffling her fur once more. He strode over to the door and put his hand on the door handle. “Goodbye, Tink,” he flashed that dorky grin again and left.