Cry
Brandon had left early that morning. He figured it would be easier to leave than have to ask permission to go. Which would obviously be refused by all of his three parents.
As the sun kissed the windows and melted the morning dew, Brandon was already out the door sitting in the coldness of his car and driving to his new house.
He had finalised that this is what he wanted and needed. He was eighteen, an adult, he could live on his own, get a job, finish school, it was barely two months away anyway. He could do it. He could start a life for himself. A new life.
Callie laid in her bed facing the wall pacing Brandon's steps in her mind. She was awake for the opening of his door and the slowly and quietly stepping down the steps. He heard the front door click open and the hushed sound of his car starting. Once the sound faded away she didn't know how she felt. Brandon was gone, but he always was there. He would always be there. She betted in her mind that he would barely last a week living alone.
As minutes past and the family began to wake Callie grew more anxious that she would have to tell Stef and Lena what happened. She figured that he wouldn't of told. It's Brandon goddam foster, although he was unusually honest when it came to him he just wouldn't tell a word.
Callie sat next to Mariana at the kitchen table. Mariana had woken up to go see Lexi. She had called Mariana asking her to come over, the fright and fear of the shooting still clung to the minds of those involved. So, Mariana has woken up and was eating breakfast next to Callie, who had woken up early for no reason other than the fact that she was obliged to be honest.
"Lexi's not ok?" Callie mumbled with a mouth full of cornflakes.
Mariana shrugged. "I don't know, she's just...she knew one of the girls that died, Lucy Gerton."
"Oh." Callie replied sounding sorry.
"Too bad to, she was actually kinda nice."
Callie looked at Mariana more concerned.
"Sorry, I didn't know you knew her."
"I didn't. Not really anyway. But Lexi did."
Mariana looked across to Callie and smiled sympathetically.
Callie gave the same smile back then a set of footsteps entered the room.
"Hey, Huns. Why you up so early?." Stef said as she tugged at her police belt. "And you call yourselves teenagers."
"Hey, mom." Mariana said sadly.
Callie looked down into her cereal feeling her gut begin to knot.
"You two ok?" Stef turned on the tap and began to fill up the kettle.
"Yeah I, uh, lexis waiting." Mariana got up from her seat and began to walk out the room. "I'll be home later."
"Wait Mariana." Stef called after her but she was already out the door. Stef sighed then looked over to Callie.
"Is she alright?"
Callie nodded as she chewed her cereal.
Stef frowned then turned back to the sink. "Huh"
Callie swallowed then began to speak. "Um, did you talk to Brandon this morning?"
Callie could see her figure tense up at his name. "Uh no. Why?"
"It's just, um" she choked up at her words. "Uh, I think, I think he moved out."
Stef turned to her and stared her directly in the eyes like she was taunting her to continue.
"He what?"
Callie tensed as the scary look on Stefs face made her feel uncomfortable and nervous.
"He told me last night that, the he was leaving."
She explained.
Stef bit into her bottom lip and looked away slightly. "You were with him last night?"
Callie's mouth opened slightly practically slapping herself in her mind for saying such a stupid and misleading thing.
"No, I,..he seemed upset about something. I just asked him if he was ok."
"And was he?" She raised her eyebrows. "Upset?"
"Um, yeah. A little." Callie looked down and tried to smile gently. Her attempt failed and it left Stef questioning her more.
"Why would he be upset?" She moved closer to her and leant her arms down on the kitchen table shadowing Callie like it was some police interrogation. The cop uniform didn't make it any better.
"Courtney broke up with him." She answered sternly. "She's gone."
Stef nodded gently almost as if it was funny. "Uh ha."
Callie frowned. "What?"
"So that's why you talked to him." She said as she leant off of the table and walk over to the stove.
Callie frowned again and she felt this crippling inside like the tables had finally turned and what they said to Brandon was being reflected to her.
"I didn't know he had broken up with her, that's why I talked to him. He just didn't seem okay."
Stef nodded again like she wasn't believing a word that Callie was saying.
"It's just" Stef began. "Now that Courtney's out of the picture..."
Callie tilted her head in confusion as she felt more anger than nerve.
"Look, if this is about what Lena said in not choosing Brandon, okay-"
This time Stef frowned.
"Wha- what did Lena say?"
Stef stood at the opposite side of the table and beamed her eyes at her in shock.
"What did I say?" Lena said casually as she walked into the room adjusting the button on the cuffs of her shirt.
Stef looked to Lena.
"Did you give Callie a choice?" She snapped. "Of us or Brandon?"
Lena stared at her in shock as her mouth fell open slightly. "I,i"
"Oh my god." Stef replied turning away from the two girls.
Callie still sat nervously panning her eyes from mother to mother.
"Look, Stef, I was gonna talk to you about this I just-"
"You what? How can we talk about this? And how can you suggest such a stupid idea?" Stef snapped back in anger.
Lena ran her tongue against her bottom lip in guilt and frustration.
"How could you even give her that choice? She's seventeen years olds."
"And Brandon is eighteen."
Stefs mouth remained slightly open as Lena spoke. She was so confused and angered by it all that she was stunned to a point of stillness.
Lena walked closer to Stef acknowledging Callie was right there. She lowered her voice and spoke to Stef more calmly.
"They're old enough to make their own decisions, Stef."
Stef shook her head and turned away. "No. No they're not."
Callie felt guilt and pain consume her. "I already made my choice anyway. It doesn't matter. I wanna be here. With you."
Stef and Lena both turned to Callie and looked down on her sitting helplessly at the kitchen table.
Stef sniffed at her nose then cleared her throat quietly. "What about Brandon?"
"What about Brandon?" Just the sound of his name made Callie nervous.
"You just gonna let him go?" Stef hissed as she shrugged.
"I already have." Callie replied more loudly and angered then before. "Ages ago."
"And yet here we are." Stef crossed her arms then looked at her the same way a bully would look at a victim.
Callie's mouth fell open and the words she had planned in her mind just faded away. How could Stef say that? How could her mother say that?
Callie looked down and blinked furiously trying to prevent the tears swelling in her eyes from being visible. "I'll go then." She concluded sternly. In one quick movement she pushed herself up from the chair and began to walk to the front door.
"Callie!" Lena shouted after her. "Hey Callie come on."
"Callie." Stef added but the door had already closed and Callie was already making her way to her car as tears flooded down her cheeks as she whimpered softly.
She flung the door to her car open and climbed inside. She wiped away the tears with her hand as she stuck the keys in the ignition and the motor began.
Maybe that's how it was suppose to be. Maybe she was meant to get a family and be loved endlessly but not live with them. It was the same thought with Brandon. Maybe they were meant to fall in love with each other...but not be together. Maybe it just wasn't meant to be. None of it.
She drove in her car for almost any hour. It was mostly just around some blocks as tears kept falling down her face uncontrollably. She tried to plan what she would say when she went back to the house, but everything just seemed fake and dishonest. She thought about home so much that she ended up in the driveway of Brandon's house.
She shut the door still wiping away the tears that burned her eyes.
She walked to the front door quicker then she had ever walked before. She knocked on the wood harder then she ever had. And when the door opened and his brown eyes met with hers, she had loved him more than she ever had before.