Chapter Text
Wille POV
His head is pounding and it’s much too bright, he can tell without even opening his eyes. Those are the two truths of the world that Wilhelm knows right now. The pounding seems to be a lot louder than in his head and he can’t seem to make sense of where it’s coming from. He’d have to open his eyes to do that. He knows sooner or later he’ll have to face the pain of waking up and all the consequences of the previous night. He hadn't even drank that much, though the events that followed the drinking might be the reason for the majority of the pain. Right now, however, he can remain blissfully unaware of what lies ahead of him… well maybe not blissfully, but at least he can avoid the conversation coming with his mother. The thought of his mother sobers him up more than he’d like to be at this time on whatever day it is today. He finally allows his eyes to open, blinking the sleep from them.
As his brain wakes up, he realizes the pounding that he thought was in his head, is actually on his door. As his head starts to sort through the events of the previous night he takes stock of where he is. He looks around and breathes a sigh of relief that he made it back into his own room. The plants around his room, posters and polaroids on the walls, and stars stuck to the ceiling bring him enough comfort to finally open his mouth.
“Who is it?” The crack in his voice makes him wince. He should find some water very soon.
“It’s just me, I have some water that you might want” Felice’s voice sounds through his door. He didn’t even realize she’d stayed last night after everything. He should’ve known though. She’s never left him alone when he needed her. It’s where his unwavering loyalty to her comes from.
“Just give me a second” He responds.
He finally sits up in his bed and stretches his arms above his head, hearing a few cracks as he does so. The problem with starting to actually wake up though, is he’s now starting to register the pain in his face. He’s glad his mirror is not in immediate eyesight as he’s not too eager to get a look at himself today. If he’s honest with himself, he’s not too eager to look at himself any day but he’s been working on that. He swings his legs around to hit the floor and scans it with his eyes for, at least, a shirt he can put on before he allows Felice to see the mess that he is, after last night’s events. He spots one draped over the desk chair next to the door so he grabs that and slips it on before finally opening up for his friend.
To her credit, Felice does a pretty good job of not reacting to his face when the door is finally opened but he can still tell she’s holding back a wince. That’s what comes with knowing someone since you were running around outside making “potions” out of dirt and leaves. Before your parents started making comments about you making “such a cute couple” before you even hit middle school. Or before your brother started joking about your “little crush” before you even understood what a crush was. Before you started to realize maybe crushes weren’t as simple as “boy likes girl” for you. Felice was probably the only one that could get a smile, albeit a small one, on his face after the previous night.
“Hi Wille.'' Felice greets,the wince already gone from her face, covered up by a sympathetic smile. She’s holding a bag of something in one hand, grease clear on the outside, and a coffee in the other.
“You’re a lifesaver Felice, I owe all my happiness to you” Wilhelm reaches for the bag and coffee then opens the door wider for her to step into the room with him. He sips the coffee almost immediately and can feel the effects just about right away. A relieved sigh leaves his mouth as the final bits of sleep and sluggishness finally leave him. He walks back over to the bed with the coffee and breakfast. Felice watches him with an amused smile on her face before it slowly transforms into concern. He pats the bed beside him so she slowly walks over and sinks down on the bed next to him. They angle their bodies toward each other and Felice finally asks the question that he knows she came over to ask.
“Have you checked your phone yet today?” He can tell she’s trying to keep from upsetting him too much. Just thinking about what awaits him on his phone is enough to bring a bit of the headache back. At this point he’s not sure if it’s from the drinking or from the punch. He shakes his head with a sigh.
“I just woke up when you were knocking on my door.” He responds. He pauses before cautiously asking
“How bad is it?”. He really doesn’t want to think about what’s being spread about him right now nor does he want to deal with all the inevitable calls from his mother and Erik. Erik’s out of concern, his mother’s out of disappointment. He knows, as much as Felice will want to look out for him, she’ll be honest.
“It’s… not great. The general narrative going around is that… you were getting drunk because you’re jealous of your brother landing that new role and that you couldn’t handle the attention being only on him.” Felice pauses as if to give Wilhelm a moment to process. He can already feel the rage and anxiety boiling in his chest. He can tell there is more though, so he pushes his feelings down until he’s heard all of it.
“Just tell me the rest.” The sigh he lets out is so tired Felice just barely holds in a flinch. The sympathy shines bright in her eyes. She’s known him too long to show him pity, but she also knew the toll all this took on him.
“They’re saying you started the fight because you had overheard the guy talking about Erik’s new show and didn’t want them talking about it around you because you didn’t get the part… or some other bullshit like that” Felice finishes.
Wilhelm closes his eyes for a moment in frustration. He will never get over how little these people seem to understand him. Ever since he’d shown less interest in being in the spotlight than the rest of his family, they’d done everything in their power to prove that wasn’t the case. It was like the more he tried to disappear, the more they waited for him to mess up. He’d tried to meet all of their expectations in the beginning, but when he started to realize this was pretty much impossible, he instead tried to retreat more and more from public view. At least, retreat as much as possible when his entire family are some of the biggest names in movie and television currently. He wanted to live somewhat of a normal life. He knew that some people would kill to be in his position, his mom often saying “Our opportunities are a privilege not a punishment” when he would try to express his anxieties to her, but that did not stop him from wanting a more normal life for himself.
The fact of the matter is he’s never been interested in acting or fame like the rest of his family. His parents had met on a movie set when they were in their twenties and the story had somehow kept them relevant even after they’d both stopped acting. After Erik showed quite the affinity for it as well, their mother was sure he would take to it too. She had pushed in the beginning. She dragged him to a few auditions when he was a kid, before he was too old to disagree with her. She then watched as, each time, he would be overcome with the discomfort of all the eyes on him and instead start to cry or stutter. He never did book any of those auditions. His mother soon became too embarrassed by the behavior of her youngest to continue trying. Instead she focused all her energy on making sure his image was picture perfect and made sure he knew that everything he did would reflect back on the family. The expectations placed upon him, not only by his mother but also the media and the fans, caused him to develop anxiety well before he should have. He also learned far too young how brutal people could be. He never could wrap his head around the fact that the people who called themselves fans of his brother would then also comment on how Wille was “the spare” or “the less good looking one”. He never would forget the first time he came across a comment about how the reason Wille wasn’t interested in acting was because, after seeing Erik’s face, no one would cast him with a face like his. To say his confidence took a nosedive once he was old enough to use social media was an understatement.
At least he’s had Erik. Erik is the one person who has always supported his decision to keep his life more private. He would stand up for Wille against their mother and always spoke in interviews about how supportive Wille was as a brother. He was there for Wille’s first panic attack after a reporter ambushed him when he wasn’t expecting it. He knew the best way to cheer Wille up after a rough day was to sit down and watch his comfort show with him (he’d tell people it’s the Office when in reality it’s New Girl). Erik was the first person, after Felice, who Wille felt like he could talk about his sexuality with, and he was the only one in the family who knew Wille was queer. Wille will never be able to thank Erik enough for all that he’s done for him. He is pissed about all these papers trying to pit them against each other. Wille is one hundred percent supportive of Erik, and vice versa. When they first started coming out he was worried that it would affect their relationship. Luckily, as always, Erik made sure Wille understood that he would always come first, before any of the other noise surrounding this bizarre situation. When he finally allowed himself to turn on his phone after this conversation with Felice, Erik was the first person he would check in with.
He is frustrated that he’s taken attention away from a night that was meant to be for Erik. He is mad that no one seemed to care what the true reason for the fight was. He is anxious about how his mother is going to react to all this. He also knew hiding away from the world and putting it off would only delay the inevitable. He knew the second a sniff of the story had reached his parents that his mother was already finding a way to make this all disappear.
All the emotions running through him are too much for this time of the morning and Felice is still standing in his room watching him. She’s taking stock of his emotions so she knows how to be there for him. She’s been taking care of him since before he was even able to appreciate it and he would always be grateful for her role in his life. He also knows that part of her feels slightly guilty since the fight last night had been about something that shit bag had said about her. He knows he should want to take back the fight after all of the drama it caused, but he knows he wouldn’t if it meant keeping Felice safe and supporting her just as she’s always supported him.
“I can see the guilt on your face Fee and you know I’d do the whole thing all again if it meant those assholes wouldn’t talk about you like that again” Wille wants her to understand that his actions last night were his alone and she shouldn’t feel responsible for how everything went down. Felice smiles then, though there is still a sad edge to it. He’s finished the food and coffee so he balls up the bag and puts it in the cup before he places it on his side table, right next to his phone, which is still turned off.
“I just know how your mother is Wille, and all those nasty reporters. How is it that they were able to make up this whole fake story about you fighting someone over jealousy but no one happened to overhear what the actual cause of the fight was.” Felice sounds like she’s gearing up for another rant about the mistreatment that Wille continues to face in that presence of the media. He’s heard enough of them to see that this is where it’s going. Suddenly his frustration has left him and all he wants to do is comfort his best friend.
“Fee it’s okay. I promise. I will deal with the consequences like the big boy I am. I appreciate you feeling protective of me but we’ll figure it out, ok?” Wille assures his friend.
“I know you’ll figure it out, I just hate that you have to go through all this bullshit first.” She lays her head on his shoulder as she says this and he puts his arm around her. He realizes very quickly how much he needed this physical reassurance. He feels some of the tension leave him and finally reaches out to unplug then grab his phone and turn it on for the first time today.
“Will you stay?” He knows he doesn’t really have to ask but he does so anyway.
“Of course” She reassures him.
He turns the phone on and watches as it almost immediately starts to fill with notifications. Too many notifications. He sees that he has 5 calls from Erik, plus a series of texts, and double that from his mother, plus a voicemail from each of them. He opens Erik’s first.
Wille I just saw the news. Are you ok?
Will you tell me what happened?
Call me when you get these.
I just want to know you’re ok.
He knows he should probably actually call Erik after all of this but he also knows that that would just delay the inevitable conversation that’s coming with his mother.
hi erik. sorry i just woke up this is all such a mess
sorry for ruining your night
He knows that Erik won’t actually care about that part of this but he still wants to say it because, despite not feeling regret, he does feel guilty that this took away from, what was supposed to be, a special night for Erik. His phone lights up from a call almost immediately. He debates whether he should answer or not before letting it ring and then sending him one more message.
gonna talk to our mother first. i need
to face her sooner rather than later.
I understand.
You don’t have anything to
apologize for.
Call me when you can.
With the easy conversation out of the way Wille goes to his contacts and hovers over the call button.
“You know you don’t have to talk to her right away, right? You can take some time to process everything if you need it.” Felice says. Wille shakes his head at her suggestion.
“I need to get this over with. The longer I make her wait the more angry and disappointed she’s going to be.” He responds.
With that he presses the call button. It rings for only 1 ½ tones before it’s picked up.
“Wilhelm what were you thinking?” Kristina starts. Not even a hello, are you okay? He knows not to expect much from her at this point though.
“I’m sorry mama, I didn’t mean for this all to happen.” He manages to at least sound slightly sorry, for Erik if not anything else.
“That’s your problem sometimes Wilhelm, you don’t think” The worst part is she’s not even yelling. Her voice almost sounds resigned. Like she’d been sitting around waiting for him to mess up. “I’d like you to come to the house to discuss our next move.” She continues. It’s just as he suspects. She’s already come up with a plan for damage control.
“Ok mother, I’ll be over in an hour. We can talk then.” He knows there’s no reason to fight this at this point. He’s tried in the past but right now he really doesn’t have the energy.
“An hour then” She responds. She hangs up before he can say anything else. Short and to the point. It probably could have gone worse, Wille admits to himself. Though he hasn’t heard her plan yet. He lets his hand fall away from his ear and rests it on the bed. He looks over at Felice who has been watching his face over the course of the call, still watching how he’s feeling. He attempts a small smile.
“Could’ve been worse, she could have yelled at me.” He tries to joke. She sees right through him as she usually does but she lets him get away with it anyway. She lets him get away with too much honestly. He probably doesn’t deserve her but he’s been working on changing that mentality.
“I should probably get ready to go. But thank you for coming over this morning.” Wille begins to rise from the bed and Felice rises as well before turning to face him.
“You know I’d do anything for you. Besides it’s just coffee and breakfast” She teases. He gives her a look. She knows it’s more than just the drink and the food. He lets her get away with that though. She stands on her toes and wraps her arms around him in a hug which he quickly reciprocates. He lets out a final sigh before letting her go and stepping back. She sets her hands on his shoulders and squeezes before also stepping back.
“Call me later to report back.” She requests.
“Of course,” He promises. And then she’s heading out the door and he’s alone in his room again. He heads over to his closet knowing his mother will expect him to show up looking more presentable than he does now. On his way over he finally catches sight of himself in the mirror. He stops to get a better look at his face. He sees the image of himself in the mirror lift his hand up to the space around his darkened eye. There’s a cut right next to his eye as well that looks like it might last longer. He also notices with his hand on his face that his knuckles are slightly bruised as well. He can’t look at himself for too much longer without the feeling of inadequacy slithering up his spine and covering him in chills so he looks away, finally walking into his closet. He puts together an outfit that he feels comfortable in that will also not make his mother roll her eyes at him. She’ll probably still make a comment about it, as he’s not wearing a suit and tie, but it’ll do for this impromptu meeting.
He brings the whole outfit into the bathroom so he can shower off the night before. Once he finishes his, probably too long for the time frame he has, shower, he brushes his teeth, and gets dressed. He heads back into his room to put on his shoes and grab his phone before he goes into the living room. He walks to his front door and grabs his keys from the bowl next to it, as well as his sunglasses on the table. The weather is nice enough that it doesn’t warrant putting on a jacket so he opens the door and heads out to his car. As he makes the thirty or so minute drive to his parents’ place he listens to some music, badly singing along because no one is around to stop him.
He pulls up to the gate of his parents house and greets the guard on duty.
“Hey Malin, how are you today?” He greets. She’s one of the only security guards that makes him feel like a person and doesn’t treat him like he needs a babysitter even though he’s twenty already. She’s also Erik’s personal security guard to all his special events so Wille has seen her at those events as well. They’ve come to an understanding about each other that they only want what’s best for Erik.
“Sure know how to throw a punch there Wilhelm. I don’t think I taught you how to do that.” Malin jokes, although she only allows for a slight twitch of her lips to go along with it. Wille lets out the first laugh he’s had all day.
“You always know how to make my day, don’t you Malin.” He says back.
“Just doing my job. I’m making sure that if you get into trouble you can get yourself out of it.” She jokes again. He smiles at that and looks to the gate.
“Gonna let me in yet? Got a meeting with the queen,” He states. His smile is now smaller and more pained. “The Queen” is a nickname Wille and Erik made up for Kristina when they started to realize she treated them like they were her subjects instead of her children. Malin is the only guard they’ve ever used the nickname in front of. Malin nods, her mouth back to a straight line as well. The gate opens and he slowly drives through, saluting Malin as he passes her. He parks the car and walks up to the front door. He rings the bell and waits. Sometimes he feels more like a guest when he comes here than a person who once lived here. When the door opens he’s greeted by a familiar face.
“Maddie, hi!” He smiles at who’s in the entrance and wraps his arms around her in greeting. He should’ve known neither of his parents would get their own door and he should’ve known she would be here after the disaster of last night.
“Wille the black eye will make you look like a badass, believe me,” Is what she greets him with. Maddie is his mother’s personal assistant. How she’s put up with Kristina all these years he’ll never know. Kristina hired her when Maddie was in high school, at the same time Wille and Felice were. They all started spending free time together when his mother wasn’t demanding something from Maddie. Kristina originally was thrilled when Wille was spending more time with both girls thinking it meant he was finally showing interest in either one of them (as if she hadn’t clearly been pushing him and Felice together since the day they met). She kept trying to push Wille to show interest in either one of them. This was before she realized Wille wouldn’t do anything she asked of him in regards to his dating life and decided the fights weren’t worth it.
Maddie is the third person who Wille came out to. Being pansexual herself she accepted this new fact of life just as easily as blinking and the next day had gotten him a pride pin that still sits on his desk. When Maddie first started working for his mother she was skeptical of Wille. Probably thinking that he was going to have the attitude his mother did. She quickly came to realize how drastically different Wille was from the rest of his family. When Felice first came over after Maddie had been hired, they all ended up hiding away in Wille’s room complaining about Kristina until she called Maddie and forced her to come back to work. From then on they’d all solidified a bond of trust and shit-talking that he wouldn’t change for the world.
“Well she’s waiting for you,” Maddie says, rolling her eyes as she does. Wille takes a final second to compose himself before he’s following Maddie into his childhood home. He knows the way to the room they’re heading to like the back of his hand and he can feel some anxiety start to rise in his chest. He brings his hand up to rub at it briefly but before he knows it they’re at the door to his mother’s office. Maddie knocks before entering.
“Ms. Gyllenhielm, I have Wille here with me,” Even after working for his mother for four years, Maddie still has not been given the right to call her Kristina. A fact that makes a recurring appearance at their bitch-sessions.
“Let him in then,” He hears his mother’s voice a lot clearer than over the phone and his anxiety spikes. He shoves it down to avoid an incident before he’s even come in contact with her though. Maddie holds the door open for him and he enters her office coming face to face with his mother for the first time in a month. She’s sitting behind her desk with her laptop open in front of her and her phone on the desk next to it, obviously having been used to handle this situation. She looks just as put together as always and her first action is to scan him from head to toe before making a vague noise of approval at his appearance.
“It’ll do,” She comments. Wille has to truly restrain himself from rolling his eyes. He grabs one of the chairs across from her while she makes eye contact with Maddie behind him.
“I’ll need you here as well since this was your idea in the first place,” She demands. Maddie takes the other chair right next to Wille and he makes brief, and slightly confused, eye contact with her before looking back at Kristina. He doesn’t know what she means by this being Maddie’s idea, but the thought alone lessens his anxiety. Maddie would never suggest something that would make him uncomfortable. His mother eyes him over the desk before opening her mouth and explaining how he’s going to fix this whole mess.
“So obviously last night should not have happened. I don’t know the details and I do not care about the details. The fact of the matter is you look bad. You’ve made us look bad, you’ve made Erik look bad, and you’ve made yourself look bad so I hope you’re happy there.” with each of those words, Wille can’t help but shrink into himself slightly. She continues on like she hadn’t said anything of consequence.
“The public is not on your side about this, and even if the fight was for some noble reason, the others do not think so. We need to find a way to get your image back to the way it was. We need to remind people why they should look up to us and to you. Being the only one not going down our path you already stick out so we need to find a way to work that into your favor. We’re looking to reform your image to the bad boy reformed” as she spoke, Wille couldn’t help but wonder if his mother knew him at all or if she also believed some of the things the media wrote about him. She couldn’t believe all of it, as she’d seen Wille and Erik interact and knew all the whole “jealous brother” narrative was false. However Wille also knew that his mother had always resented him for not following in the footsteps of the rest of the family. She’d never made an effort to help shield him from the constant onslaught of negativity that Wille often faced. Kristina continued on
“Maddie came up with an idea of how you might be able to reform the public’s opinion of you. She has a friend who has a connection to a local animal shelter and you’re to start volunteering there three days a week as a way to make the public see that you’re on a new path and are not looking to cause trouble.” as the idea leaves his mother’s lips, Wille can’t help but think to himself that’s it? . He waits for the second part of the plan to leave her mouth, the part that actually seems like a punishment, but she seems to be winding down. This whole idea doesn’t actually sound too bad to him. He likes animals, has kind of always wanted a pet for him and Erik but known never to ask for one. He’s never really worked before, despite various attempts at being allowed to, because his parents always felt like it was a bad idea. He figures it shouldn’t be too hard to pick it up. He doesn’t really know how Maddie convinced his mother that this was all that was needed but he was going to thank her once they were done with this meeting. In reality, this didn’t feel like a punishment but he knew it was meant to be one. He wasn’t sure why his mother would think this was something that he wouldn’t like but he decides not to think too much longer about how little it seems she knows him. This whole solution could have been a lot worse and now that he’s thinking about it, he’s kind of excited. He tries no to show on his face how he’s feeling as she might not go through with it if she thinks he’ll enjoy the experience.
He realizes it’s his turn to speak. He has a feeling that she is expecting him to fight back on this, mainly because he often fights back more than the fact that she’d think he wouldn’t want to do this, but he knows in this case he won’t.
“Ok, I understand.” He responds. He notices his mother’s eyebrows raise slightly as if she’s waiting for the other shoe to drop. It won’t come. “Is there anything else? Or is that all for now?” Her eye’s narrow slightly at that but when she can’t find anything in his expression she just nods.
“Maddie will give you the information on your way out, please try to stay out of trouble.” She says. He nods
“Ok Mama. See you soon.”He rises from his chair and sees Maddie do the same. He now notices the manila folder she has with her as well. They make their way out the door and down the hallway toward the front door. As they’re walking Wille turns to look at her
“Thank you,” He tells her. “I’m not sure how you convinced her that this is all I’d need, but thank you,” She smiles big and wide at him in response.
“It’s no big deal. My friend Sarah’s brother works in a shelter and I know you’ve mentioned liking animals before and wanting a pet so I figured it might work out.” Maddie answers.
“I’m serious Maddie, this is great.” Wille continues to praise her. As they’re walking she hands him the manila folder she’s been holding.
“You’ll be volunteering Monday, Wednesday, Friday. It works around your classes, I made sure of that. You’ll be reporting to Simon Eriksson, that’s my friend’s brother, and he’ll be training you and working with you while you’re there. There’s no time frame for how long you’re meant to work there aside from the fact you have to work there past one month. Anything after that is up to you, though I imagine you might want to stay, for various reasons. That’s all the important stuff I can think of right now but if there’s anything else I’ll just text you.” Maddie gives all the information to Wille in a bit of a whirlwind but he manages to catch it all, it’s what comes from knowing someone for four years. He does catch her “for various reasons” comment but chooses to not call her out for it. They’ve made it back to the front door at this point so Wille gives her a hug, thanks her again, and heads back out to his car.
As he’s driving home Wille wonders what it will be like to work at this shelter. He hopes Simon is a nice guy and not someone who will fawn over him because of who his family is. On the other hand he really hopes Simon won’t believe all the rumors and thinks he’s the type of guy to get into fights out of jealousy. He realizes he’s already starting to feel anxious so he drowns out those thoughts by turning up his music and letting the sounds wash over him.
Once he gets back home he realizes he should probably call Erik back and tell him what happened last night. He walks over to his couch and clicks the call button, listening to it ring for a few seconds before Erik picks up on the other side.
“Wille! Are you okay? I’ve been waiting for you to call. What did mother say?” He can tell that Erik has been really worrying about him all morning and can’t help but feel guilty that he put this call off till now.
“Hi Erik. I’m okay. My face is a little bruised but it’ll heal. And yes I did speak to mama. Maddie came up with the idea that for me to ‘reform my image’ I should start working at the local shelter to make the media think I’ve seen the error of my ways and am on a new path of selflessness. Somehow that was enough for our mother and so I start volunteering at the shelter on Monday.” Wille explains all this in a rush.
“A shelter? That’s not too bad, you’ve always wanted a pet,” Erik responds. There’s silence for a moment, it feels slightly weighted.
“What was the fight about?” Wille knows Erik has probably been wondering this since the articles came out. He knows that Wille would never get into a fight, especially not when the attention was supposed to be on Erik, without probable cause. Since the articles were all making up fake reasons for the fight he knew Erik would want to know the real reason for it.
“He was making shitty comments about Felice and he took it too far. I know she can handle herself but I also know that in that environment she never would’ve done something about it,” Wille admits.
“What was he saying?” Erik asks, wanting to get the full picture, but also knowing that when it comes to Felice there’s little that Wille wouldn’t do for her.
“It doesn’t matter anymore what he said and I don’t really feel like repeating them. Just trust that it was bad enough for me to get violent over,” He explains. He wants Erik to drop the issue, now feeling how tired he is from the events of the night before and everything he’s been juggling today as well.
“Maybe your dream of getting a pet is finally going to come true,” Erik teases, understanding that Wille is done talking about the fight for now.
“I definitely owe Maddie one for making this happen.” Wille admits. He can tell that now that Erik has heard his voice and knows that he is okay, his brother’s worry has started to dissipate.
“That’s for sure. How did she even think of this shelter as a solution in the first place?” Erik asks.
“She said she has a friend whose brother works at the shelter and she thought that I’d like it ‘for various reasons’,” Wille explains.
“‘Various reasons’ sounds suspicious.” Erik is quiet for a second. “Maybe there’s someone there she thinks you’ll like. Maybe you’ll meet someone there,” He lightly teases.
“Haha Erik, yeah right. You know I haven’t been interested in anyone since high school,” Wille allows the teasing.
Their conversation wraps up pretty quickly after that and once they’ve hung up Wille realizes how hungry he’s gotten. He quickly makes himself some food before settling on the couch and opening up Netflix. He ponders what to watch before realizing he’s just going to do what he always does, clicking over to New Girl before hitting play on “Cooler”. He hopes watching Nick and Jess kiss for the first time will help him take his mind off the fact that even if he’s talked to the important people today, he hasn’t allowed himself to even look at his social media accounts. Once he’s picked the episode, he quickly grabs his phone to text Felice about everything before turning his attention back to the screen.
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Wille wakes up on Monday before his alarm for the first time in weeks. He doesn’t really know why he’s so excited to be working at this shelter but he’s not going to fight it. He has to get through classes first, but at three o’clock he’ll be heading over to the shelter to meet with Simon. He’s not sure what Simon has been told about him but he hopes he can make a good first impression on him, especially with all the time they’re going to be spending together. As excited as he is to be working with the animals, he is also feeling anxious for the human interactions that he’s going to have to have to get to those animals. He quickly gets dressed in one of his comfort outfits, knowing that he might need it for what’s to come. Putting on his green slacks, with a black shirt, and orange over shirt. He also grabs his round glasses. He hopes by trying to cover up his black eye with the glasses, Simon won’t immediately have a bad impression of him.
Once he’s finished getting ready for the day he heads over to the university. It’s luckily a nice day, and the university is within walking distance, so he uses that time to prepare for what’s to come. He has a hard time focusing on his two classes for the day. He can hear people whispering about him whenever he enters the room. He can feel their eyes on him constantly and it’s making him feel itchy. He made the decision to sit in the front, to the side because he knows he won’t be able to wear his glasses in the classroom and his bruises will just gain him more unwanted attention. Once he’s done with his classes for the day he heads to the dining hall, where he usually meets up with Felice.
Felice hugs him when she sees him and they decide to take the food they get to go before finding a quiet place on the quad to talk.
“So you told me things went alright with “The Queen” but never told me more details. What did she say? What’s her damage control method?” Felice asks, once they’ve settled outside.
“Well I think I owe my life to Maddie,” Before he gets too far into his explanation Felice cuts in,
“I thought you owed ME your life, at least that’s what you said yesterday,” Felice jokes. Wille laughs at that.
“I owe you both my life honestly. Anyways she has a connection to someone who works at the local animal shelter and she convinced my mom that working there would turn my image around,” He continues his explanation. “I’m going to be volunteering there three days a week for at least a month,”
“Does your mother know how little of a punishment this is going to be for you?” Felice wonders.
“Absolutely not. You know if she did, I would never be able to go through with this.” He admits. Felice nods as if she was expecting this answer.
“Well hopefully you don’t embarrass yourself. You’ve never had a job a day in your life so this should be entertaining,” She teases. Wille swats her arm at her teasing.
“Heeyy. I’m sure it’ll be fine. How hard can it be?” Wille knows he sounds far too confident but the alternative is letting the anxiety in so he lets himself sound optimistic. Felice laughs at that but doesn’t argue with him more than to comment
“Oh you just wait and see Wille. Just wait and see,”
After they’ve finished eating they bid each other goodbye, Felice on her way to another class and Wille on his way back home. When he’d looked at the file of information yesterday he saw that the shelter was about a fifteen minute drive from his apartment so he’d have to head back to get his car. When he gets back to his apartment he sees that it’s already 2:30 and figures it couldn’t hurt to get to the shelter a little early on his first day. He makes sure he has everything he needs before slipping into his car and heading for the shelter.
He pulls up outside Paws of Love at 2:50 and steps out of the car. The place looks really cute from the outside. The sign is a giant dog paw and the front of the shelter is a nice pastel pink color. There are two big windows that let you see inside where there’s a waiting area and a desk. He can see some plants hanging from the corners of the room and he just knows when he steps inside he’s going to feel comfortable. He can’t see anyone behind the desk right now but he figures they’ll hear him come in. He opens the door, hearing the bell ring to signify his entrance, but even when he’s fully inside and the door has closed no one comes out to greet him. He was right about feeling comfortable though. He can hear the sounds of animals from all sides so he figures maybe they just aren’t really able to hear the door.
“Hello?” He calls out. Still there’s nothing. He decides to walk around a little. As he gets closer to the hallway he hears a voice coming from one of the rooms, above the sounds of the animals. It sounds like they’re singing but he can’t be sure from this distance. He walks closer to the sound and gets to the open doorway of the room supposedly housing the dogs, as there’s a sign on the door that says “Dogs”. As he peaks inside the room he’s greeted by the most gorgeous voice he’s ever heard. A guy, who looks to be his age, is angled away from him with chocolate curls and tan skin. Just from his profile Wille can tell he’s going to take his breath away when they make eye contact. Wille stands transfixed in the doorway without announcing himself, listening to this guy sing to his heart’s content, seemingly without a care in the world. The guy sings to the dogs as he sweeps the room. It truly sounds like an angel has somehow snuck into this shelter and is now singing to the dogs. Is this Simon? Wille thinks to himself. I don’t know if I’ll survive if this is Simon.
Wille must shift just enough because all of a sudden the guy is turning to him. He lets out a startled gasp, reasonably, and puts his hand up to his heart. Wille is faced with the full effect of deep brown eyes on him and, as he suspected, his voice is stolen from him with this guy’s attention now on him. He might be the most beautiful person he’s ever seen.
“Dude you scared me!” His speaking voice is somehow just as beautiful as the rest of him. Wille realizes he should probably apologize.
“Sorry sorry! I didn’t mean to startle you,” He responds. The guy lets out a breath before opening his mouth again
“No it’s okay I just didn’t…” He trails off as he gets a better look at Wille. Wille feels his heart stop. He watches as the guy’s face transforms into that of annoyance.
“You have GOT to be kidding me,” Is what comes out.
Well there goes his first impression, Wille thinks miserably to himself.