days are gone

@willxdavis

would knocking on the door a second time be overkill? he swapped hands, moving the plate of brownies to his right hand and checking the time on the watch on his left hand. his parents raised him to always be punctual; however, the last thing will wanted to think about was his parents, specifically his dad, when he was standing in front of the potts’ front door. using his left hand, he tapped his fingers on the porch railing pondering to himself if it was too late to back out. he could always approach the subject with cam later at the house right? 

“And he scared me coming all out of nowhere like that!” Crossing her arms, she pouted as Will disregarded her. “Um, the storm last night scare m e too!” Natalie dramatized, playing the damsel in distress. She bat her eyelashes so fast she must have looked like she was having a stroke. “Aren’t you going to comfort me!?” 

“You’re lucky that he didn’t bite you. Dogs are very particular about their boundaries,” he explained,  respecting the dog’s space and waiting for Walker to approach him. Recognizing Will, Walker climbed into his lap and Will reached around and calmly stroked Walker’s neck and back. “The storm happened last night...you seem fine now? I would suggest cutting down on caffeine though because it seems like your eyelid muscles are overstimulated.  Also, could you please lower your voice, Natalie? You’re making Walker uncomfortable,” Will stated matter of factly. 

“I’msorryIdidn’tknow,” Essie jumped away from the dog with her hands in the air. “Just wanted to say hi. I just wanted to say hi.”

“It’s fine. Just remember next time that dogs don’t like the feeling of being watched so it’s better to sidle up to them which imitates animal behavior and helps them feel safer with you. Also, don’t move your hand towards them or hover over them because they might take it as an attack,” he explained before he picked up Walker and cradled him in his arms. 

Her eyebrows lowered, partially as a natural reflex to thought, but also in some theatrical hyperbole towards Will. She took a moment, a beat, before riposting. “Unlike your stellar explanation skills, I’m quite a straight-forward girl,” Jill said, her self-description a play on words. She didn’t think of her dismissive comment about him as a deliberate insult, then again, the sarcastic ill-meaning words just left her. It wasn’t like Will was aggravating, especially as a person. All she had wanted to do was to finish her overdue essay, yet it bored her. His confusion struck her, ruined her rhythm as that tiny drop of pity leaked into her head. It felt like talking to a child, a genius child – yet Jill had no right to think that considering her own abysmal maturity level. “You’re right,” Jill admitted. “People who don’t like pasta are really fake.” It hit her. The thought, the remark, a phrase – her instant evaluation deemed it inoffensive enough to voice. “Those people are impastas, aren’t they.” 

“Alright then.” He blinked, feeling a little lost on what exactly Jill wanted from him.  A thought crossed his mind, a reminder from a previous conversation he had with the others. ‘Should her form of honestly overweigh her sense of right and wrong though?’ Will wanted to ask her.  Will bit his tongue to stop himself from blurting out his question and thoughts on the matter. It was too risky. All in all, Will wasn’t a fan of Jill’s jokes, they took longer for him to process and lacked a certain quality that Myra had. However, even he had to admit the pun was amusing.  Will snorted before replying, “ That’s one way of putting it.” From experience, he noticed that most people scoffed at puns especially when he was the one telling them, but puns were fun and a drastic improvement over dry jokes and sarcasm. They were harmless; an innocent joke that more people in Salvation really should appreciate. “I’m glad to see you’re not against exploring the pastabilities of pasta puns.”

“I do. I know it probably doesn’t seem like it, but I like you, Bill. You seem nice. And as I said, I don’t think you deserve all the teasing.” She could tell that the boy was nervous. But Lizzy wasn’t really sure on what to do, since well, when was he not nervous? “Not a big math fan, to be honest. And I actually find it to be rather time consuming. But I totally get what you mean.” She finished her sentence, flashing her best smile. “Do you enjoy any other subjects?”

"Thank you?” If you liked me, then you would know my name, he wanted to say to her but it wasn’t his place to correct Lizzy and he had a feeling that it wouldn’t matter in the grand scheme of things. Choosing to ignore his suspicion, Will decided it was best for him to go along with the conversation and hoped she would grow bored of him or find someone more worthy to talk to. “I like everything to be honest; I like learning in general. Um-bible studies is very interesting. It feels like there’s still so much more to learn about Jesus even now as a high school senior.” From years of exchanging small talk with his parents and their friends, talking about school came easy to him. Almost as if he had his lines scripted. 

The library was unusually empty that day after school. The large room was eerily quiet, as it was normally filled with students whispering, passing notes, and throwing crumpled up pieces of paper at each other. Peter sat in one of the corners of the room by a window. He stared blankly out, his math book and homework still sprawled out in front of him. Something about the warm but not hot weather that day had him in a dream-like state. He caught himself daydreaming a handful of times before he even left the house for class that morning. Out of the corner of his eye he saw movement near the library entrance. Will sauntered in and Peter held up his hand to signal him over. If he wasn’t getting any work done in the first place some company wouldn’t hurt. 

Contrary to popular belief, Will didn’t live in the library as many suspected. Sure, he made daily visits to the library to do his homework but it was only for a couple of hours to complete his homework. His stay used to be longer till he diagnosed himself and now the only books Will read were his textbooks and books assigned to him from class.  "I did. I normally come to the library at this time to do my homework assignments because not as many people come in, so I don’t have to worry about noise and Mrs. Carpenter isn’t working at this time either,” he answered, taking a seat opposite of Peter. It was a pity that he was spending one of more pleasant days inside finishing up his paper for Bible Study. 

“… Fine.” She could tolerate Will, most definitely. He wasn’t a threat. She brought her knees up to her chin, gazing into the scenery in front of them both. “… Was the festival a lot to handle?”

“It’s nothing new. The festival is just too loud you know? ” he explained, pulling up stands of grass from the ground. “....And I don’t like how some people treat the animals.”

"That was a joke, Will.” There was an eye-roll somewhere in the middle of Will’s science lesson, but Freddy managed to follow it up with a smile. It might’ve been a little forced, but at least he was trying. He’d have to tell Danny about it later. “You’ve really gotta get better at the social cues.”

"Oh... sorry for rambling about pros and cons of cannibalism,” He blushed, rubbing the back of his neck. Growing up, Will had always assumed people meant well. The people of Salvation had to be good, since the sinners were wiped out by natural disasters. His teachers taught him that as long as he remained faithful to God then he was safe. Except they were wrong about him. Will was a monster, a freak who belonged in Hell with the other sinners. “It’s hard to tell with some people,” he admitted, “Some people are really subtle with their sarcasm.”

“great,” she said, shooting him a smile. “come over any time, just to set up a schedule. you’re welcome to stay for dinner, too.” maybe she was laying it on a bit thick, but she knew how most people on will’s side of things saw her. if she was going to pull him over– if she was going to create a good impression on him (and, maybe his father by extension) she would have to go the extra mile. “do you like spaghetti?”

“alright, that sounds good,” he replied, returning her smile. now, will knew it was wrong to judge people based on who they chose to be friends with, but faith was the girlfriend of the person who always ruined his day and he had also heard what she said to his friends. however, for cam’s sake, will chose to ignore his doubt. “yes, spaghetti is fine.”

Freddy jumped at the sound of Will’s voice. He’d almost forgotten where he was– as if the muttering to himself and barely-hidden flask of whiskey weren’t already an indicator of that. He scanned the diner, his eyes darting around a practically empty restaurant. He let out a small, humorless laugh.

"Okay. Aside from social stigma, another reason you shouldn’t eat human flesh is because it’s actually unhealthy-actually it’s deadly for the consumer. The human brain is contaminated with diseases so you would literally be poisoning yourself if you ate human flesh. Common symptoms are brain deterioration, loss of coordination, and uncontrollable trembling. Victims will end up either suffocating or starving to death due to their internal organs being paralyzed,” Will replied, taking a seat across from Freddy.  The scent of the whiskey in the air mixed with his breath forced Will to keep his guard up around Freddy, however alcohol was a depressant so Will suspected Freddy would soon calm down like he observed with the others. Hopefully. “So how was your day?” he asked out of obligation. 

Anna laughed at the idea of a math pun. She truly hated math, but the idea of anything that could possibly make it better sounded like a God send. “hat’s amazing. I suppose anyone who could make math fun had to have been a good teacher, she considered, thinking aloud more than anything. “Well, that’s good that you get to have scrap paper, I guess. I couldn’t imagine having to do it in such a short amount of time, though. I think I would panic if I had a lot of questions and not a lot of time to do them. Although, I suppose if I was in that situation with a Bible studies test I’d be fine. It probably just has to do with the subject and who’s taking the test.”

He realized it was too late for him, once the pun came up in his head. "Most people think math puns are the first sine of madness, but I think they are the first sine of greatness,” he joked. A part of him couldn’t believe he said that, but another part of Will was glad that he did. “By this point of the semseter, I’m used to the testing style,” he explained to her, "I mean it also reflect badly on a teacher if the majority of the class didn’t finish the exam in the allotted time.” Will closed his textbook, deciding to allow himself a break from studying. After all, ideally one should study for 25-30 minutes and then take a 5 minute break in between. “So would you be interested in me tutoring you in math? I’m also helping out Cam and we could form a study group.” 

Having Will Davis lecture him on talking in the library and look at him with such seriousness, was a startling experience. The only people who had ever sought to reprimand Matthew for his behaviour ( well etiquette, more like ) were his parents. Other people had never bothered to and when they did, his displeasure was evident. But, with Will, he wasn’t even annoyed. Sitting next to him in the library, talking to him, being in the same vicinity as him - it just didn’t feel natural.

"My family is fine. It’s been quiet lately since all of us have been out of the house,” Will answered lazily as if he was reading off of a script. His dad was always been busy with his job, his mom was always looking for another project to accomplish, and he was always prone to wandering. “Oh. I think my mom mentioned something about coming over to your place over dinner earlier this week,” he lied, rubbing the back of his neck. Spending time with Matthew and his mom was tolerable; he was used to the routine exchange of small talk over baked goods by now, but the real issue was the cakes and other pastries served every time they met. Sugar often left Will feeling ill no matter how little of it he ate. He always tried to limit his intake when he was over at the Walsh household because Will knew what his parents expected from him. “Will your dad be joining us?” he asked.