Blanca Like Snow

Chapter 18 - Similar

     Will is a weirdo, but he's also—oh God, why is it so hard to say this word?—adorable when he's with the animals. More than when he's with the kids.

I was on my way back, trying to shake off what had happened with him but I turned back one more time just to see him smiling widely, doing his utmost best not to let Heidi trip him as she bounced around him, bleating.

Without intending it, I stay watching him while hiding behind a tree. I don't even know why I'm hiding nor why I can't take my eyes off of the scene.

I have noticed Will has different sides. Well, I guess everyone does, but he seems to have them very marked. Like he can be childish and mean to me, and doesn't hesitate to voice his opinions about me and my people. He has strong opinions and acts on them.

When he's with the kids, he's protective, caring and like that figure they can lean on, someone to look up to and who will always have their back. The kids adore them, and my own opinions aside, I've seen him acting like a father for most kids, or a big brother. And the adoration in the kids' eyes can't be denied.

With Clarisse he goes back to a kid, he always listens to her and lowers his head when she scolds him—mostly when he gets in a fight with me and we're caught. She's like his mother and he respects her as such, I think.

With the animals, though, I see adoration in his eyes. The way he smiles is different, wearing his heart on his sleeve. There's so much love in the way he treats them, when he talks to them. I know he's studying to become a vet, and when I see him around the goats, patting them but surely at the same time checking on them, with big smile on his lips and eyes that sparkle with love, I can bet on my life he'll be the kind of vet who'll fight until the end to save an animal's life.

It's hard for me to accept someone who gives me horrid headaches and hates me so much can be actually a good person. I want to believe he's rotten, there's nothing good about him and everyone else is being deceived, they can't see the real William behind the facade, but I can't do that.

He's just a guy, with traits I absolutely hate but also with parts that I can only respect.

Why can't it be just white and black? Or better, why do I have to see the differences in the spec of his persona?

My attention gets caught again by the goats, this time one of the old ones head bumps him on the hip, and as he is distracted trying to make Heidi calm down, he loses his balance and ends up on the floor, and Heidi uses that chance to jump on him and start licking his face.

I insist, she believes she's a dog.

Will laughs as her tongue tickles him, especially when the other goats approach and start nuzzling him as if looking for food he's carrying, and he laughs even harder. My own smile is automatic when I see that unfolding, finding it too cute for words, but then I realise what I'm doing and thinking and press my lips together, tightly, but the corners of my mouth still tug upwards.

"Ugh," I mutter to myself, shaking my head as if like that I can break the spell. Not that Will threw a spell at me or I'm prisoner of one or anything like that, okay?

I turn around, this time definitely going back inside the house and look for Nora, she surely is free by now, right? Instead, I run into Clarisse.

"Hey there, Blanca dear," she greets and I smile at her, but it's tense as I'm still trying to fight my thoughts from watching Will and the goats. "Did anything happen? You look... constipated."

I laugh out loud at the word she's used and somehow I find it very accurate to describe it.

"Nothing big," I reply, the chuckles fading away. "I ran into Will. He's so weird." My mouth twists in a displeased grimace, as if I tasted something bad that leaves a horrid lingering taste in my tongue.