A Pair Of Pears (Completed)

Explanations

I wait a bit longer than half an hour I want to be sure everyone has gone. I’m not quite ready to face Lily yet, although I know I’ll have to later. I know we are both on the same side of this situation, but I have no idea what to say to her. I stay on the rocks until the tide starts to slowly come in, then I make my way back across the beach. The shop is still open, but it isn’t Willow at the counter. 
‘Charlie!’ cries Jackson's mum. 
I try my best to put on a fake smile, but I’m not sure if it works.
‘Oh, I am glad you came back to talk to Willow, dreads look fab on you by the way. She’s upstairs.’ Jackson’s mum nods her head towards the bohemian rag curtain covering the doorway that leads upstairs. I proceed upstairs, dragging my feet as slow as I possibly can, I have no idea what to expect, I have so many questions swimming around in my head that needed answering. Does Dad know? Is this why Mum has so much hate towards Willow? I reach the top of the stairs and the door is open a jar. I can hear a food blender on the go as I walk through into the kitchen. Willow’s back is towards me and there are several dandelion stalks with the heads removed on the sideboard. The blender stops and Willow spin's around, her reaction suggesting she hasn’t heard me come in. 
‘Charlie!’ She throws both of her arms up; the hand blender is still in her right hand and splatters of the dandelion mixture hit the wall behind her. Willow clears her throat 
‘Go and sit down.’ she says quietly. 
‘I’ll make us some drinks.’ 
I sit down on one of the big floor cushions. Willow comes through after a short while carrying two huge mugs of hot chocolate, cream, and chocolate flakes included. She places one down on the coffee table in front of me, and the other in front of where she’s stood. 
‘I don’t normally make these sorts of drinks.’ She says, now rocking backwards and forwards with her hands in the pockets on her tie-dyed baggy trousers. I smile weakly. 
‘I hear they are good for this sort of thing, though. Well, Lily says that anyway. 
‘They are soy milk, and the chocolate is Fairtrade, so I’ve made an exception.’ 
The sound of Lily’s name has made my stomach tighten as I remember why I’m here. Willow sits down next to me on the same cushion, she pulls me into a hug, today she smells like lavender. ‘First off’ she begins, taking in a deep breath.  
‘I wanted you to know from the start.’
‘So why didn’t you tell me?’ I ask, shifting over on the cushion to bring some distance back between us. Willow looks down at her fuzzy slipper socks, they are pink bunny socks with floppy ears attached and rainbow buttons for eyes.  
‘Your mum.’ she replies, still looking down at her feet. This time she wriggles her toes so that the ears on her socks moves. She seems amused by the moving ears. 
‘She didn’t want your grandparents to find out, or others to find out. She didn’t want people thinking that she wasn’t enough for your dad, even back then, that he fathered another child while she was pregnant with you.’ She lets out a big sigh as if she’s been wanting to say that for a long time, and then starts to awkwardly look around the room. 
‘She knew my dream was to have a shop.’ Willow looks back down at her socks and mutters. ‘She paid for this place.’
I stood up so quickly that I gave myself a head rush. ‘YOU LET HER BRIBE YOU!’ I shout. ‘All because she’s worried about what people would think of her!’ 
‘Sit down Charlie!’ Willow says, slightly raising her voice at me.
I sit back down, not next to Willow, on the other side of the room. 
‘There’s more to it than that.’ She begins. ‘I didn’t know you at the time, I thought you were going to be another Laura. There’s a lot of things between your Mum and I that you and Lily don’t know, nor do you need to know right now. It’s adult stuff.’ Willow looks back down at her socks as if she’s the naughty child and I’m an adult.  
‘I’m fifteen!’ I say. ‘I’m not a little kid!’ 
‘Exactly!’ says Willow. She lowers her voice and looks directly into my eyes, ‘You shouldn’t have to deal with everything that you are, not just at fifteen, at all. Including this.’ 
I swallow my tears. Does she know more than she’s letting on? How could she? I’m being silly, I think to myself. There is no way Willow could know. It then clicks that she’s probably referring to my Mums drinking, I feel a wave of relief wash over me. 
‘So, my mum drinks a lot, lots of people do it.’ 
Willow stands up and shakes her head. She pulls me into a tight hug and whispers into my hair. ‘We both know that’s not what I’m referring to Charlie.’ I can’t hold it back anymore. The tears start rolling down my cheek. Willow takes in a deep breath and tells me to sit back down, so, I do, tears now streaming down my face.
She clears her throat. ‘It was one of those one-time things, there was drink involved, possibly hard drugs, the night itself, I don’t remember. Your father and I were friends. We used to go out drinking way before he started seeing Laura.’ 
I look up at Willow, who was now stood facing the wall and unable to make eye contact with me. Something didn’t add up. ‘But, Mum and Dad always said they met while he was on a business trip down here.’ 
‘They did, your dad was from Cornwall originally, that’s how I knew him. He moved away, often had to come back for work. Your dad was good to me as a friend, but once I saw how he treated your mum behind closed doors, I washed my hands of him. I didn’t want him near Lily. I’ve always been honest with Lily about the way her dad is. I just never mentioned you or your mum.’ 
I sat biting my thumb and then stood up abruptly. ‘YOU KNEW HOW HE TREATED HER AND STILL DIDN’T DO ANYTHING.’ My face was now up close to Willow’s, she took a step back as if she was scared I might hit her. 
‘Charlie!!’ She pleads. ‘I thought Laura would come to her senses, I never believed for one moment that they would still be together years later, I also didn’t know she was pregnant until she came to bribe me a few months ago. After your mum left, I got on with my life focused on Lily. I never spoke to your gran or grandad, so I didn’t know the situation.’ 
I raised my voice again ‘BUT YOU STILL EXCEPTED THE BRIBE WHEN YOU DID FIND OUT.’ 
This time, Willow shouted back at me. ‘I WAS LIVING IN A CAMPER WITH MY FIFTEEN-YEAR-OLD DAUGHTER, WHAT ELSE WAS I SUPPOSED TO DO?!’ 
I had no answer this time, Willow was right, she was doing what she thought was best at the time she had no idea how things would turn out either. Willow wraps her arms around me again, it isn’t just me crying this time, it's both of us.