He was a Boy, She was a Girl

Aidens POV

After the day I left my mom and Callie to talk, it’s been really quiet around the house. My parents talk to each other, sure. And yes, I do talk them too. But nothing to how it used to be. Callie certainly won’t say a word to me.

Reilly has started to talk and walk and run and…it’s getting crazy. She’s not a baby anymore, she’s an actual toddler able to do anything and everything she puts her mind to. To my dismay, Callie probably talked the most to her.

“daddy.” Reilly calls from the floor, reaching her arms up for me to pick her up. I do so and set her on my lap, going back to some math homework.

“Ca-ie.” She wasn’t able to say ‘Callie’ yet, and left out the ‘l’ sound. Though we all still knew who she was talking about.

“she’s not here sweetie.”

“want Ca-ie.”

“Callie is upstairs doing her homework Reilly. We’re not going to bother her.”

Her face changed to her angry face and I waited for the scream. Three, two, on-“CA-IE!” sigh.

I stand up and carry Reilly up to our room, setting her in front of Callies door. I knock and then leave. It was a routine that was set up ages ago. Since she wouldn’t talk to me, or even look my way, this seemed to work.

Just as I make my way back downstairs, Joey wakes up and starts crying. Remind me again why we have not one, but two, kids? I go to the kids room and pick him up from his crib, making my way back down to the kitchen to get him a bottle of milk.

I set Joey on the sofa next to me, sitting up, and keep an eye on him while I do my homework.

After about half an hour he’s pushing the bottle toward me and then wanting me to hold him. This kid is seriously loved too much if you ask me. I set him in my left arm and do my homework with my left. Joey fell asleep soon after and I wasn’t far behind him. What can I say? I was tired.

~~~~

“you look like shit Aiden.” Emily comments at lunch. Yes, that’s right, Emily, the punk girl that was obsessed with me a year ago. Well, now she’s dating Luke, so it’s all good.

“come over and take care of the kids and then I dare you to say that.” I reply, eating some weird food Callie had made for dinner last night. I love my parents, but it’s always tough when they go on business trips. Melanie babysits them during since I can’t drive them and Callie doesn’t feel safe enough to.

“I still can’t believe she won’t talk to you.” Jason says.

“guys, can we please not talk about Callie for once?” I ask.

“fine. What subject did you get for that history project?”

“ugh. Stupid Hitler. I mean come on! How cliché can you get? I really want Women Suffrage, so I’m going to go talk to him after school.”

“women suffrage? That’s the topic you want?” Christies eyes bug out.

“uh, yeah. What’s wrong with that?”

“I know we weren’t talking about her. But think about who is in your class for a second. She’s going to be fighting for that subject too.” Right. Why didn’t I think about that before?

Mr. Tretcher looks up from his papers when I enter the room, “what can I do for you Aiden?” he asks.

“I was wondering if I could switch topics. I really wanted to study the Women Suffrage movement.” He eyes me for a moment, probably shocked that I would be interested in that.

“well, I’m sorry, but that’s already taken. You cannot switch.”

Just as I was about to reply, the door opens and I turn to see Callie walking in.

“What can I do for you Callie?” Mr. Tretcher asks her.

“I was wondering if I could switch with whoever had the Womens Suffrage movement. I really wanted to study that.” Wow, my words exactly.

“what is it with women getting the right to vote? It’s not that interesting of a topic.”

“well-“ I start at the same time as Callie.

“it was a very important part in women history.” I continue since Callie stopped talking. “they stood out there protesting through a war. No one goes against the government during a war.” I could feel Callie stare at me and smirked.

Mr. Tretcher turns his attention to Callie, waiting for explanation. She says basically what I did, but adding in that she was a feminist.

“well, you both have good reasons to want to do the subject, so I’ll have Kayla switch with-“ he pauses, “Callie.” Whatever. I’ll get an A anyways. I start to leave when his voice stops me. “you two can do Women Suffrage together.”

Mr. Tretcher say WHAT!?

‘um, sir, I don’t think that would work out too well.” I comment.

“I agree with him.” What a shocker. “we’re the last two peope you want working together.” Well, I wouldn’t say last. I mean in all honesty I really want to talk to her. Maybe this would force her to do so.

“I don’t see any problem. You do live together, that makes it way easier to actually do the project.” Has he not noticed how we’ve totally ignored each other for two months?

“but-“ Callie starts to protest but fails.

“do you want the switch or not?”

Callie glances to me and I give her a small nod. “yes.” She answers for both of us.

“great then, on you go. I have papers to grade.” We leave the room and go our separate ways. I knew she was going to Logans. She was there everyday after school. Sure, that seriously annoyed me, but what was I supposed to do? She wouldn’t hear a thing I said to her. The only problem was that it left me and the kids home alone. Well, that is when my parents weren’t home, which they were today. But a lot of the time they aren’t.

Since it was Friday, I invited Jamie and the gang to come over. We had ordered some pizza and were sitting around the living room with “I love the 70’s” on VH1 turned on.

My mom had taken the kids to the park, so we were allowed to be loud…for once.

The group included Jamie, Jason, Matt, Luke, and me. Usually we just watched movies or played video games. You know, usual guy stuff. Today we were talking though.

“Aiden, I’m supposed to tell you something.” Jason says. When he says that, it means Christie has told him to tell me something.

“and that would be?”

“well,” he paused “Tristan has been at their house recently.”

Tristan has been where? Fuck. I should have known something was going on! “please tell me you’re joking.”

“not even close.”

“okay, I’m just going to hope he doesn’t stop by when Callie is there. Then there is nothing to worry about, right?”

the guys look at me like they know I wasn’t telling the truth. What was I supposed to do? Be totally fine with it?

Suddenly the front door slams open and Callie walks straight up the stairs. Not even glancing our way. That was unusual. Very unusual.

“bet he stopped by when Callie was there.” Jason mutters.

Minutes passed and the only sound was the T.V. blaring music. There was a knock on the door and then Logan appeared. He saw the group and his face showed fear.

Logan gulps, his voice talking fast, “um, she left this.” He says and drops Callies bag on the floor before leaving the house and closing the door behind him.

“well, that just proves it.”

I stand up and grab her bag, taking it upstairs. “Callie?” I knock softly on her door. It was the first time in months I had used her name to actually address her, and it felt weird. “Calvina?” there was still no answer.

I slowly open the door and find her sitting on her bed, practically frozen. I set her bag down by her desk and then leave.

How the hell was I supposed to fix this?

After dinner, my mom came downstairs with a worried face. I had told her what happened earlier.

“she’s barely moving.” She whispers.

“she’s still in shock mom, give it some time.” I say.

And time we gave. Hours turned to days. Days turned to weeks. I would give her homework and she’d leave it in front of her door. I’d bring food up to her in the morning and night and practically force feed her. And when I noticed she hadn’t changed clothes, I had helped her change into some pajamas. It was as if her body was there, but she wasn’t.

After about two weeks my mom makes me talk to her. Though that doesn’t mean I didn’t put up a fight. I did. I was the last person Callie wanted to talk to. Once she had to face me, she had to face that I was right. And if she had just believed me months ago, our relationship status may not be how it is at the moment.

But my mom won the fight and that’s why I’m sitting on her bed at the moment. Back when we were together, I had planned a whole day outing for us for today, October 9th. It was a year ago that I met Callie and thought it would be nice to do something for it. But now that she’s not moving, I don’t know if anything will happen.

I wrap my arms around her and pull her close to me.

“Hey Callie.” I whisper. She doesn’t even move. “do you want to talk about it?” Callie shakes her head no against my chest. At least that’s a response. I could easily communicated with yes and no. “that’s what I thought. Can I take a guess?” she nods a yes. “well, I’m thinking that you caught Tristan at Logans house.” I say. Callie stays still and I know that means I’m right. “want to talk about it now?” she shakes her head and I sigh. “okay. How about we talk about this amazingly competitive girl who I love.” Callie says no again. “well we’re going to anyways. You see, I really hated her the first day we met, even though I took her out for a day of fun. And then we plated board games all afternoon and you know what? She’s not only competitive, but she’s also super-smart.” I comment, there was still no response. “she wouldn’t’ give up on the games, and had this need to win each of them. I swear she lived life like a game, always needing to be on top and would do almost anything she could to get there. Now tough, it’s like she’s given up on life. And instead of competing for the top, she’s just accepting that she has hit rock bottom.”

Callie shakes her head no at my short story. “no?” I laugh, “I think I’m right this time Callie.” She says no again, “how about this?” I start to offer, “I don’t’ need you to say I’m right. Or talk about what happened. Or any of that. All I need is one word. Something to reassure me that you’re still inside there somewhere.” After I ask that of her she turns around in my arms and I stare into her eyes searching for something, anything. “Callie. Please? Something, anything.” She presses her lips to mine and even though every ounce of my body wanted to kiss back I had to resist.

“Callie, I need you to talk to me.” Since I refused the kiss she turns away from me. I stand up and pace around her room, which wasn’t very big. Her head was tucked against one of the pillows and it looked like she was almost crying.

“thought…punks.” I hear part of what she says. Her words make me freeze and look over at her, “what?” Callie doesn’t respond now. “all I heard was punk.” I say, hoping that would make her repeat herself. It doesn’t. “Callie? What about punks?” I take a seat on the end of the bed and watch her every move. “are you talking about Emily?” her head moves slightly and I couldn’t help but laugh. “do you think I’m dating Emily?” when she doesn’t respond I know she does. “Callie, Emily and Luke are dating, that’s why I’m always around her.” I explain. “were you jealous?” I ask, amused.

That got her to respond, “of course not!” she yells at me.

I hold my hands up in surrender, “whoa. Okay, I get it. You weren’t jealous.”

Callie doesn’t say anything in response, going back to her silent self. I lean in to whisper into her ear, “I still love you, so how could I be dating anyone else?” I ask honestly.

“you shouldn’t” Callie mutters into her pillow. If I wasn’t leaning over her, I wouldn’t have heard her.

“I shouldn’t what?” I ask, knowing perfectly well what I shouldn’t be.

“love me” Callie answers

I didn’t know what to say next but needed her to continue talking, “and why not?” I ask her to explain.

“because you deserve someone who treats you right.”

“I deserve nothing more than you.” I tell her, “I love you Callie. And I know you still love me.”

“no you don’t.”

“yes I do.”

“there is no way you could.”

“you ignore me, never even glance my way, and not once have you asked Christina or Jamie how I’m doing.” I list, “if you didn’t love me, you wouldn’t have to work so hard to push me away.”

when she doesn’t respond I know I’m right. I decide then that even if she was depressed, we were still going to celebrate our one year anniversary the way it should be celebrated. “come on, get dressed.” I say while pulling the covers off of her.

“no.” she complains. I go to her closet and pull out the same clothes she wore a year ago and toss them on the bed next to her.

“come on. Will you please get dressed? Just this one thing, for today. I promise I won’t ask again.” I say, knowing that after today that promise wouldn’t mean anything. I leave the room to let her get herself together and wait in the main part of our bedroom.

A few minutes later she comes out in the clothes I handed her. “Ready?” I ask. Callie nods and we head out to the car. My parents had taken the kids out after I was told to go talk to her. They knew what today was and wanted to give me as much alone time with her as they could. I guess I should thank them at some point.

The CD that matt forced me to record started playing when I turned on the engine. My voice filled the car as we drove out to the cabin. Callie was dead-silent in the back seat, most likely sleeping.

I pull into the driveway and open up Callies door, holding my hand out to help her up. She looks at it like I’m crazy. “come on, if I was going to kill you I would have already.” I crack a joke. She smiles a little and takes my hand.

Once we’re at the field, I let go of her hand and point toward the rope swing, “ladies first.” I say, pulling out my camera.

We spent the next couple of hours replaying what we did a year ago; swimming, board games…

When the night had finally come I grab the basket I had set in the cabin and then we go back out to the grassy field. It was a clear night for October, filling the sky with stars of all shapes and sizes.

I lay out the blanket and help Callie sit down before taking my own seat. She instantly goes for the food in the basket and looks confused when she sees what there was. Lets just say my mom packed most of the basket, not me. I fill the two champagne glasses with the sparkling cider and hand one of them to Callie. “to one year.” I say, clanking my glass with hers.

Melanie was right that it’s really romantic to feed each other, which is what we did for the next hour or so. It started to get cold then and I pull out another blanket, wrapping it around her.

I kept my face inches from hers. “whether you’re my enemy, friend, or girlfriend; you’ve been the best thing to happen to me this past year.” I whisper. “I really hope that someday you can forgive me because it’s really killing me without you in my life.” I say honestly. I lean in and kiss her slowly. In the midst of it I slip the ring that I got her out of my pocket and onto her right hand. That’s when she pulls back and looks down at her hand. The ring was a simple turquoise heart on a silver band. Callie looks up at me, waiting for me to answer the silent question.

“It’s a promise ring…in a way.” I explain. Now that I’m in the moment, this whole idea seemed really stupid. “since we’ve been off and on, I didn’t want to do something too serious. It’s more a promise ring that promises I’ll always be there for you no matter-“ she leans back in and covers my mouth with hers, stopping me mid-sentence. Not that I really care though, it just made it so that I didn’t have to explain something that now sounded like the dumbest idea ever. guess it wasn’t to her though.

She pulls back to breathe and leans her forehead against mine. “I love you Callie.” I whisper, “I always will.”

Callie stares at me for a moment, searching for something within me I guess. Finally she opens her mouth to speak, “I love you too Aiden.”