Movies
The rest of the day was mostly silence. Mariana just sat in her bed reading or on her phone replying to text messages about how sorry they felt for her and what not. She would read out the strange and overly dramatic ones to Callie and they would both share a little laugh or smile, even though Callie's mind was somewhere else. She couldn't stop thinking about the day. She couldn't scrub the vision of her mothers shocked faces after she told them from her mind. She couldn't stop thinking about the dark red liquid pooling from the girl in the hall, the way Brandon looked at her as he grabbed her hand as all hope slipped away.
"God listen to this" Mariana said suddenly, cutting Callie back into reality. "'I'm so so so sorry about Nick. Hope you're ok. So glad I wasn't at school today.' Smiley face, heart emoji."
"Just turn your phone off." Callie insisted.
Mariana looked to her and frowned. "Yeah." She said as she turned her phone off then placed it on her bed side table.
"Hey, girls" Lena said as she stuck her head into the room.
The two girls looked to her in interest.
"Moms gonna put on a movie, you guys wanna come down stairs?"
Mariana shrugged in her blankets. "Do we have to?"
"We would like you to."
"Fine."
Mariana pulled back her blankets then placed her feet on the ground.
Callie followed.
Lena looked at the two girls then gave a small smile then turned and walked back down the stairs.
Callie followed Mariana out of the bedroom and down the stairs. It's like she wanted to hide behind her. Hide from everyone.
Once they walked into the lounge room Mariana sat down on the floor next to Jude. Callie stood there for a while just staring down at everyone looking all comfortable and like a family. She didn't feel like she was part of the family anymore.
Stef gazed up to Callie as Callie stepped down the steps and into the room.
She looked over to the couch where Brandon sat relaxed.
Swallowing hard thinking about if what she was doing was the right thing, she sat down on the other side of the couch from Brandon leaving a safe one and a half cushions in between the pair.
Stef and Lena both watched her move almost as if they could figure it out.
They hadn't even discussed talking to Brandon and Callie yet. They were going to. They just wanted the tensions and heat of the day to settle before they resurrected past tempers and touchy subjects.
Brandon looked to her then looked away suddenly.
Callie felt so out of place and scared. It was her home, her house, her family and she felt out of place? It was strange.
The movie wasn't that good. Some stupid comedy about this man who hated his neighbours. Jude wanted to watch Batman but Stef and Lena both agreed it was a little sensitive for the time being.
Callie couldn't even concentrate on the movie. Her mind screamed at her saying the same words 'it's true', 'because it's true' , 'it's true'. It just kept repeating itself over and over in her mind.
She breathed in slowly as she felt her throat tighten and less and less air getting to her lungs.
She breathed in quicker and deeper trying to at least get a decent breath in.
Brandon looked over to her sensing that something was wrong. He looked at her worriedly as he could hear her breath bellow from her.
Callie closed her eyes trying to slow and relax herself. She began to breath steadier but she felt this overpowering numbness consume her thoughts. All of a sudden she could feel her heart beating and then another beating. She felt as if she could hear everyone's heart beating. All seven hearts echoed in her head. It would of driven anyone insane.
"Hey?" Whispered a familiar voice.
Callie's eyes shot open and then the beating noise stopped.
She looked over to see Brandon leaning in slightly to her watching her with concern.
"You ok?" He continued in a silent whisper.
Callie swallowed then stood up from the couch then stormed into the kitchen.
Everyones eyes watched her leave in confusion.
Brandon followed her until she was out of view. His bottom lip trembled slightly as the thought of her hurting because of him sunk in.
He pushed himself off of the couch then began to walk into the kitchen after her.
Stef and Lena watched him go and they knew in that moment that he still loved her. It was frustrating and strange to see but they understood that he was there for her no matter what.
Callie stood at the sink with a glass of water in her hand. She breathed in slowly as the cool nightly air from the open window kissed her skin.
"Callie?" Brandon said softly as he saw her standing at the sink.
Callie paused for a moment then she turned to him in sadness as her eyes became teary and her bottom lip quaked as she held back a cry.
Brandon's eyes widened and his eyebrows raised as he saw the level of pain she was in.
"Hey, what's wrong?" He said walking closer towards her.
Callie looked away and shook her head slightly.
Brandon wanted to hug her but he couldn't. The sick reality of it all was that they weren't even allowed to touch, to love. They had to look at each other a certain way, introduce each other as brother or sister, they couldn't talk about each other to other people, they couldn't even fight for each other. Every good, romantic, beautiful memory had to be packaged and sent away.
He just wanted to give her a hug and say that every thing was gonna be ok even though he knew it wasn't. But he couldn't.
Stef walked into the room expecting to see more than she did, which was just two kids standing around in the silence of their kitchen with shimmering eyes.
Lena walked in after her.
"You two ok?" Lena asked gently.
Callie sucked on the inside of her bottoms lip softly then turned away from the three and began to walk quickly out of the kitchen and back upstairs.
Brandon looked down as he rubbed his fingers together almost as if he was made at his mothers.
"What was that about?" Stef asked a little confused by what just happened.
Brandon breathed out heavily as he clenched his jaw.
"Who knows right?" Brandon shrugged then walk away as well.
"Brandon?" Stef called after him but he continued walking.
"Brandon-"
"Stef, settle down." Lena interrupted.
"Settle down? How is his my fault?"
"Can't you see what this secret has done to them?" Lena said strongly. "Can't you see that it's ruining our children?"
Stef breathed in deeply then closed her eyes for a second. "What are we suppose to do, Lena?...what can we do?"
Lena looked at her for a moment then spoke calmly. "We can listen and we can understand why they did what they did."
Stef looked at her hesitantly.
"It's all we can do."