Hazel groaned indistinctly before becoming capable of producing words. "How long have you been awake?"
"A few hours. How are you feeling?" Will asked.
"Like one of the undead. But I'll get used to the time change eventually. Once I do, I need to get things sorted with the nearest community college."
"Good idea. We can take care of getting your parents graves too."
Will already knew why Hazel brought her parents' ashes. But that was all he knew about them. Not how or when they had died. She wasn't ready to talk about it and didn't think she ever would be.
"Thank you. Really."
It meant a lot to her to be able to do that. They had deserved proper graves all along. She wanted to get them a joint headstone and bury their ashes. They shouldn't have been cremated against their wishes.
"Of course," Will said like it was nothing.
It probably was to him, since he could afford a house like this. He must have won a lot with that lottery ticket.
He ended up ordering takeout for dinner. She still wanted to go grocery shopping to have snacks and easy breakfast food in her kitchen downstairs but maybe not today. She was pretty out of it from the time change.
Hazel didn't fully adjust for another two days. Then she wanted to run a bunch of errands at once to feel productive. Taking care of her enrollment at Roxbury Community College, ordering that joint headstone, and going grocery shopping.
There was an extra errand she didn't anticipate. Will buying her a car so she could get around more easily on her own.
She had a driver's license but almost never used it. This was way too much!
Then again, she knew arguing would be futile. He seemed to actually be having fun dropping way too much money on her. Since it was making him happy, she felt like she couldn't say anything about it.
The funny thing was that Hazel's new car was the same shade of red as her hair. Will said that was why he picked it. He was totally messing with her!
"You think you're real funny, don't you?" she asked dryly.
He grinned at her. "Yes. Yes, I do."
"I guess you're allowed to laugh at my expense, since you bought me a whole car."
"I'm not laughing at you, I'm laughing with you."
"It sure feels like you're laughing at me."
Will shrugged. "I'm sorry you can't see my intentions. You're just too cute—sorry, I mean beautiful."
Hazel gave him a look and he laughed harder. He was definitely having too much fun with this. She would let him though. He had far too little fun in his life as far as she could tell.
That was partly going off what she had seen in the mental hospital and partly guessing after hearing he had been in foster care. She had heard some terrible stories about it online. She could only imagine what he had been through.
Her uncle was terrible, but at least he offered her a form of stability. She didn't have to move all over the place like she had heard kids had to in foster care.
Will deserved better. At least he had it now. The universe had finally showed him a bit of kindness by letting him buy a winning lottery ticket. No one deserved that more than he did.
"You're ridiculous, you know that?" Hazel asked in annoyance.
"Only when it comes to you."
Hmm. She didn't know enough about his life to dispute that. She would have to see more to know whether or not he was still messing with her.
"And why is that?"
"You're the only person I've ever liked," Will said, his tone perfectly serious.
Hazel wasn't terribly surprised to hear that. He was the only person she had liked since losing her parents. It sounded like his were bad to begin with, rather than lost tragically. It was depressing, but why would he like them in that situation? They made him have a hard time.
She wasn't surprised but was still sad. She felt like she had to hug him after hearing that. He soaked it up, squeezing her tightly, but not to the point that it hurt. He had always been very careful with her.
Will kissed the top of her head again. "Come on. Let's go home. We have sightseeing to do tomorrow."
They did. They checked out as many of the oldest parts of Boston as they could in one day, planning to hit more in the days that followed.
He handed her a nice camera at the beginning of the day and told her to be their photographer, saying she would do a better job than he would because of her artist's eye. She had taken a photography class in high school, so he probably wasn't wrong.
Hazel had fun taking pictures. She wanted to document every place they ever went from here on out. She was sure to get Will in some of the shots too, wanting to remember how they went to these places together.
Once she put the camera away, he took her hand without warning and she raised an eyebrow at him. "What are you doing?"
"Making sure you don't get lost," he replied with a mischievous sparkle in his eyes.
Will was totally full of it. Hazel wasn't about to get lost! On the off chance that she did, she could just call him to tell him where she was.
"…you just want to hold my hand, don't you?"
"Possibly."
Hazel wished she could get a straight answer out of Will. If she could, she would have a better idea of what he actually felt for her. He had been giving off some strange signals.
If this was coming from anyone else, she would say he was flirting with her for sure. But since it was coming from him, she didn't get it. He knew how messed up she was better than anyone. What was there to like?
It was possible that his feelings had grown while they were apart like hers did. Though it did raise the question of exactly how much she meant to him and why.