He was a Boy, She was a Girl

Aidens POV

“you just slip out the back jack

make a new plan stan

you don’t need to be coy roy

just get yourself free

hop on the bus gus

you don’t need to discuss much

just drop off the key lee

and get yourself free”

I start to sing along to the chorus of Paul Simon’s “50 ways to leave your lover”. After the song faded into “a beautiful morning” I toss on a pair of jeans and “the who” t-shirt before heading downstairs for breakfast. I sit down at the table just as my mom finishes the pancakes.

“so aiden, since your car won’t be year for at least another month.” My dad says, “we’ve worked it out with the morgans that callie will be giving you a ride until it shows up.”

“okay.” I reply, finishing up my plate of pancakes. “anything else?”

“have fun at school, DON’T get in trouble. And please, try to like it here.” My mom practically begs.

“got it.” I say, grabbing up my bag.

“have a nice day!” “love you!” they both shout after me.

“love ya guys too!” I shout back at them before leaving the house and walking over to callie’s.

her dad opens the door. “hello mr.morgan, I’m Aiden Baker-“ he cuts me off.

“ah, yes, calvina will be down any moment now.”

Just as he says this, callie jogs down the stairs, stopping once she spots me.

“what are you doing here?” she asks, quite rudely if you ask me. But I just shrug it off, she’s probably not a morning person.

“calvina! You will be polite to him!” mr. morgan screams at her. She shoots me a glare as I giggled a little. I shut my mouth as her father leaves the room.

“I’m not ready yet, so you’re going to have to wait.” She starts toward the kitchen.

“I know.” I state, still standing at the doorway.

She turns around and eyes me, “you know what?”

“that you’re not ready. You’re alarm only went off twenty minutes ago and girls can’t get ready in that amount of time. Plus, I mean, look at what you’re wearing. Were you really going to leave the house like that?”

“very funny.” She replies, not believing me. And okay, I’ve probably pulled that trick on people many times. But I was being honest this time. Her shirt was inside out. Even worse it said ‘touch my tummy, I’m pregnant.’

“what? I’m not joking callie. Calvina.” I emphasis her real name, “I’m surprised your dad didn’t notice.”

“are you going to tell me what’s wrong with my outfit, or just let me humiliate myself?” she asks, very impatiently.

“well, even though I would love to watch you get humiliated, I think that this is…too big for even me to mess with. Especially since I’ll be showing up at school with you.” I pause and wave my hand toward her shirt, “your shirt, is, first of all, inside out. And second of all, says ‘I’m pregnant, rub my belly.’ I’m not positive, but pretty sure, that you’re not pregnant. I’ve been around pregnant girls and it ain’t a pretty picture”

callie blushes and runs to her room.

I laugh and walk into the kitchen. That’s something that is a little creepy about this area, all the houses are practically identical, inside and out. So I know my way around without entering the house before

“just so you know” I look up at the sound of callies voice, and see her entering the kitchen, “I wasn’t finished cause I had to eat breakfast, most days that doesn’t happen.”

“you eat breakfast? Well good for you.” I say, in a fake-shocked voice.

But I guess she didn’t quite catch that I was mocking her. “yes, I’m one of few American teenage girls who eats a full breakfast.” She quickly mixes a smoothie together and grabs some toast. Ha! Full breakfast my - -, but at least she eats something.

“okay, lets go” she says, walking out the door quickly. I had to actually jog to catch up with her.

She opens the car and reveals what looks like a 1960 something mustang convertible.

“nice car.” I comment, sitting down in the passengers seat.

“thanks” she pauses for a second as she turns off of our street. “so, why aren’t you just buying a new car here? Why waste the time to get your shipped from back home.”

I just about laughed. My car was priceless. Totally, 100% personalized Italian sports car. No way in hell was I going to just give that up.

“it’s a personalized Italian sports car that I purchased two months before we moved. And then we decided to move, or my parents decided to move, so we had to stop the shipping and give them this address. It’ll be another month of two until it comes.” I reply.

“a-a personalized Italian sports car???” she looked and sounded very shocked. That look actually fit her pretty nicely.

I laugh, for real this time, “yes, you know, a sports car from italy.”

“I know what it is! I just didn’t think you guys were that rich.”

Now what do you say to that? There really isn’t a book that tells you how to respond when someone finds out you’re more than rich.

I personally didn’t like our money, well, besides my car. Money is so powerful yet so worthless, I really hate it. A cough similar to the one that escaped my mouth yesterday, came out again today. I didn’t realize until last night that that was my signature ‘awkward’ cough. Didn’t need it until I moved here. “well, we are.” I quickly change the subject after that, “so, uh, why do you have that shirt?” I ask.

Callie smiles like she’s remembering something, “jokE. Family get together. I did it to freak everybody out. Best. Family. Reunion. EVER.”

“I bet it was” we drove the rest of the way to the school in silence

“well, here we are.” Callie says, parking the car and unbuckling. I stay seated for a moment, “nervous?” she asks, practically reading my mind.

“hell yeah. You guys are like…” I pause, looking for an un-offensive word.

She puts her hands on her hips, offended already, “like what?”

“like…not what I’m used to.” I totally just saved my ass, but hey, it wasn’t a total lie either.

Not everyone is as mean as me.” She says with an evil smile. I roll my eyes at her and unbuckle.

“I’ll keep that in mind”

“come on” she grabs my arm and inside I did a little dance. Wait! Stop right there! Did i- did I really just do that. a little dance inside?!!! Fu-oh god, what is happening to me? “I’ll show you-“ callie started, but then this really annoying scream came from behind us.

“Aiden?!!!” callie and I both turn to the sound and callie looked, well, pissed, worse than yesterday when we were fighting. She really hated this girl I guess. But the real question was, how in the world did this girl know me? “oh. My. God. It really is you! I haven’t seen you in ages!!!” she pulls me away from callie and into a tight hug. I look over at callie, terrified, her eyes were staring at the girl with pure hatred. Although she got the message, straightened herself out, and put on a huge fake smile.

“hi mollie!” she says in that overly sweet voice like my mother uses. So mollie was it? Still not remembering…at least I know a name now though. Oh, and that hatred, well, it’s mutual

“was I speaking to you bitch?” mollie replies and I stare back and forth between them in shock.

“actually.” Callie says “I was subtly giving aiden here your name. thought it’d be less embarrassing for both of you. Guess you just had to backfire it though.” I contained myself and didn’t laugh, she was right though.

Mollie takes a step closer to callie, just like I did yesterday, “who do you think y ou are callie?” I take a slow step back, and then another, trying to get out of any fight that might begin between the two of them.

I spot callie smirking and rolling her eyes, “mollie, we’ve been over this, we’ve even had the school vote on it. Everyone knows I could beat you at a fight, so why even try?”

“cause I like proving people wrong.” Mollie replies.

“whatever. I’ve gotta go.” Callie turns toward me and smiles an angry smile. Is there such a thing as an angry smile? Well, she just did one whether it’s real or not. “have fun catching up.” She says to me sarcastically and walks into the school.

I looked at mollie for a second, slightly disgusted, and then ran after callie, “who is she?” I ask, just as I make it to her side.

“you honestly don’t remember?”

I shake my head frantically, trying to get answers, not questions.

“her name is mollie rinefield. She moved here in seventh grade…I think. We were great friends for the first two years of her being here. But once high school started…” callie trails off, lowering her voice to a whisper, “things change.” I just nod understandably.

“anyways!” she speaks up in a very cheerful voice that sort of surprised me, “we’ll check your old yearbooks. She obviously remembers you.”

I smile at her spontaneous out burst like that, “which is fairly scary.” We both laugh as we walk up to the front desk. I ask the secretary for my file and she hands it to me without saying a word. I thank her and turn back to Callie.

“okay, lets see your schedule,” callie says, grabbing it from me before I even get a chance to glance at it. She scans it and then hands it back to me, “not too shabby. We’ve got art, English, science, and study hall together. Your math class has a lot of the skaters in it, so you’ll be able to make friends there. And then your French class…well, I know Jamie and logan. You wouldn’t get along with logan,” she says all of this semi fast and then slows down some at the last part. I wonder if I wouldn’t get along with him because of who he is, or because she doesn’t want me to become his friend. Either way, I guess I just won’t befriend him, “but jamies pretty nice. Oh, and if I recall correctly, samantha’s in that class.” I slightly feel her shiver at that next to me.

I had heard the whispers as we walked through the school, I knew logan was her ex, the one who broke up with her yesterday. But she didn’t know that I knew, so I decided to ask her, “is logan-“

“yes.” She cuts me off quickly

“oh”

“jamie’s alright. I think a seat is open next to him, so if I were you I’d take it. He’ll be nice to you even if logan isn’t.”

“okay then…” I didn’t really know what to say.

“and, well, this is a very weird coincidence. But in art, English, and science, you’ll be sitting next to me, it’s the only seat left in the classes. Study hall most kids are either in the cafeteria or the library.”

Callie gave me a quick tour of the school and then we went back to the art classroom. The teacher handed me a list of subjects I could study and I instantly chose photography. He checked out a camera to me and then we all went outside to work on our individual projects.

After taking some pictures of kids roaming the campus, I spot callie sitting under a maple tree, away from everybody else. I walk over to her, taking pictures here and there on the way. I finally reach her and sit on a bench nearby, taking pictures of her, the school, and kids far off by the tables. It was about ten minutes later that she looked up and noticed me.

“aiden!” she scolds me.”

“what?!” I ask innocently, standing up and walking over to her.

“ugh. Take a picture of someone else. Please. I’m trying to focus.”

I laugh, “you’re the one who started talking to me callie. Pretend I’m not here, you’ve been doing that for the past ten minutes anyways.” Her eyes bugged out at the time which made me smile even more.

“go take a picture of emily. She’s already all over you, she’d love it.” Callie waves a hand in emilys direction. She was right, Emily was all over me. And it was sickening. She told me that my hair looked hot like the instant I walked in. That was a turnoff.

“hence the reason I’m not taking a picture of her.” I turn around and take a picture of some climbing roses that were behind me.

“what? She’s your type. Perfect little rebel punk girl. You guys were like, made for each other.” There was a hint of sarcasm in her voice, but I could tell she was mostly being serious.

“did you ever think that maybe I don’t want someone who’s exactly like me?” I ask. It came out a little harsher than intended and I turned around to apologize but she spoke up before I got the chance.

“so you don’t date punk girls?”

“I did.” I answer, thinking back to all my exes. They all ended badly. “but it never worked out. They try to be too much like me. As in, like all the same bands, wear all the same clothes. Punk girls are really clingy it turns out.”

Callie rolls her eyes at the last statement and scoffs, “like all others aren’t.”

I look her straight in the eyes, “I wouldn’t know.” She was staring at me and I could tell she was trying to look away, but something wouldn’t let her. I pick up the camera and snap a picture of one of the school signs. “so, your name’s calvina?” I ask, slightly jealous and impressed.

“shh!” she says loudly, “no one knows that.” I was surprised by this. Since to me, it was 100% honestly the most beautiful name I’d ever heard.

“why not? It’s like the most unique, beautiful name ever.” I tried to sound as least impressed as possible. I didn’t want her thinking I liked her or anything. Even if those feelings were starting to grow inside me.

“ew. No it’s not.” She fights back.

“yeah callie, it is.”

“it’s really not. Do you want to know who I was named after?” she asks, like that would actually make a difference. Plus, I was already pretty sure I knew, when her dad walked into his office, I saw a signed Calvin and Hobbes cartoon on his wall.

“Calvin. From calvin and hobbes?” I guess, pretty sure I was correct.

She looks at me for a second, shocked I got right, and then shakes her head and looks away, “yeah.”

“which makes it that much more awesome.” I tell her.

“calvina is NOT an awesome name.” I knew she wasn’t going to give in, but it was just fun to mess with her.

“aiden is not an awesome name. Too…” I pause, searching for the right adjective, “preppy. Ick. Calvina though, sounds like a princess name. Princess Calvina. See? It works.”

I looked over at her and saw tears forming in her eyes. God, I’ve seen this girl cry more in two days than all the girls of my past put together. Guess I just met her at the wrong time in her life. I sit down next to her. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to-“

I start, not knowing exactly what I was apologizing for, but she cuts me off, “no. no, it’s not your fault. That just brings back memories.” She wipes her tears away with the back of her hands. Part of me wanted to be the one to make her tears disappear, cliché or not.

“good or bad?” I ask softly.

She pauses before giving her answer, “both” callie whispers.

“well, it’s still a beautiful name.” I whisper back to her.

“no, it’s not.” She weakly fights back.

I put my hand over hers, that was lying on the ground between us, and look her straight in the eyes, “callie, when a guy compliments you, just take it.” I whisper to her, and then stand up and walk away towards Emily. I didn’t want to leave her, that was actually the last thing I ever wanted to do right now. But the instant my hand touched hers, my body started tingling and my heart started racing. If I didn’t leave, I probably would’ve done something I’d regret, like kiss her. I guess I can’t really fight it any longer, the feelings are obviously there, something I’ll just have to accept. I like Calvina Morgan

I started taking pictures of Emily and she instantly noticed. She started posing and smiling and becoming all giggly. I really when girls did that around guys, giggling really wasn’t that cute. I notice callie watching me, us, and I swear I saw a hint of jealousy in her facial expression. But I’m not quite sure.

The bell rings and I walk off to French, Emily tries to follow but I just push her aside, trying to get through the crowds. I walk into the classroom a minute late, which for me was fine. It was after all my first day.

“bonjour” the teacher says as the door closes behind me.

“bonjour monsieur, je suis le nouvel étudiant” I had taken my fair share of French classes over the years.

“Ah! Oui!” then he turns to the class, “Class, this is Aiden Baker.” I laugh at the switch of languages, “ils ne peuvent pas comprendre un mot que je dis” he whispers back to me and I nod smiling. “Vous pouvez prendre un siège à côté de Jamie.” Then he looks at the class again, “Jamie! Raise your hand!”

a guy in the back corner raised his hand a little and I walked back to sit next to him. The teacher handed out worksheets for us to do the whole class period. It was just some simple verb practice that I was done with in about 5 minutes. Jamie turned when he noticed I was finished, “are you a genius or something?” he asked, all serious looking. I wanted to laugh but didn’t.

“no, I just have had a lot of French classes before.”

“oh.” He turns back to his worksheet and finishes it minutes later, I had my earbuds in and he pulled one out.

“yes?”

“I’m having a party on Friday.”

I shrug, “okay…”

“well, you and callie should come.”

“me and callie?”

“yeah, you guys are dating right?” Jamie asks.

Wow, I feel like I’m about to get my ass kicked. The guy sitting in front of us turns around once Jamie mentions this and I have a very strong feeling that it’s logan. The girl next to him, who I assume to be Samantha, freaks out at the mention of us dating, “oh my god! You’re dating callie morgan?” she turns to logan and slaps him on the arm, “see baby? I told you she’d be fine after you guys broke up.”

“Callie Morgan and I are not dating and never will be.” I state sternly and she looks back at me confused.

“dude, we saw you guys walk into school together.” Logan says, slightly rudely.

“dude,” I say, mocking him, “my car doesn’t come for another two months, she’s giving me a ride.”

“why don’t you just buy a new one here?” Jamie asks, interested now.

“it’s getting shipped from italy, not exactly replacable if you know what I mean.”

“that is so cool.” Jamie says and then gets back onto topic, “okay, so you guys aren’t dating, but you should still come.” The bell rings and we head out to the hallway.

“I have to check my schedule, but I should be able to make.”

“ooh, he has to check his schedule, might be too busy for us Jamie.” Logan says.

“what’s your problem?” I ask him.

“you know.” Actually, no, I don’t know. I was about to point this out to him but I spotted callie in the crowds and didn’t want her to see me fight her ex.

“whatever, see ya.” I say and walk over to her. “hey!” I say cheerfully as I reach her. I spot Jamie out of the corner of my eye scolding logan and smirked. Serves him right.

“someone had fun in French class.” She says in a very bored tone. Ha! If only she knew!

“someone didn’t have fun in Spanish class.” I reply.

“no one has fun in my class.”

“okay. You win.” We start toward the English classroom.

“so, what were you and Jamie talking about?” she asks

“he invited us to his party Friday night.”

“us?” she asks, in the same voice I used asking Jamie.

“you and me.” I smile inside at that thought.

“I know what you meant by us. I just didn’t know he knew I knew you.”

I roll my eyes, “you drove me to school today callie, a lot of people saw us.” And made a lot of assumptions. But I didn’t tell her that part.

“oh. So, um, why didn’t he just ask me himself? I mean, we’re not strangers or anything, far from it actually.”

I didn’t know what to say, since I didn’t actually ask Jamie this, but I had a pretty good idea. “he didn’t know if you guys were still friends after what logan did to you…” I trail off at the end, hoping not to have offended her again.

“I’ll talk to him about it later. Right now though, we better hurry if we want to make it to class on time.”

“why?” I ask, “I’m new ere, so you have the excuse of ‘running into me and helping me find the way to the classroom’ deal” I tell her, slowing down my steps a little.

“but we already-“

I cut her off, “but they don’t know that.” she slows down to my pace and we continue down the almost empty hallways. “so…what was the good/bad memory?” I ask, regretting it the instant it came out. She opens her mouth to answer but I interrupt her, “you don’t have-“

“no. no, I want to” she says, trying to sound a little confident, it was quite convincible though. “my family wasn’t always this dysfunctional. We used to be close. Talk about our day, have dinner together, go on trips. We were living what people would say was ‘the American dream’. In october of 1996, my dad got a promotion. That’s when things started going down hill. He was never home, which just made our family disperse. I went my way, my parents went their way. He used to call me Princess Calvina, but that day, October 9th, when he came home with the good news, was the last day he’s ever ccalled me that. it was the last day anyone has ever called me that. so for you-for you to jest show up here, not knowing me for even a day, and to randomly think of that,” she pauses, “it just brought back memories. That’s all”

I fall silent as we approach the English classroom.

“you must be mr. baker.” The teacher, mrs. Blument says.

I nod.

“well, callie can show you to your seat.” She says, and then callie steps in front of me and I follow her to the back of the room, taking the seat next to her.

The class went by quickly and we had a short essay due the next day. Before I could talk to her, callie was up and out of her seat, headed for the math hall. Since she was gone, I decided to trudge along slowly, taking my time.

I finally reach mr.baxters math class and enter. The door made a loud squeaky sound which was slightly embarrassing.

“hello aiden.” Mr.baxter says.

“hi.”

“you may take a seat wherever.” I nod and look around the room.

Callie was right about there being a group of skaters, and there was a seat open next to them. But did I really want to get involved in that type of group again? I look at the other choices. Which to my dismay was worse, it was the skaters, Emily, or Mollie. None of which I really wanted to sit next to. I took a seat by the skaters, hoping it’d be worth it.

“nice hair,” one of the girls said after the assignment was passed out. What was it with girls and my hair today? I just ignore her and start the hwk problems. “I said-“ she starts talking again.

“I know what you said.”

“well sorry, just trying to be nice.” She scoffs at me.

I sigh, “I’m sorry actually. It’s just, everybody here has been complimenting me about my hair, it’s nothing freaking special.”

“it was just well done, you don’t see streaks or highlights of that quality around here.” She says, “I’m amy.”

“aiden.” I smile at her.

“so, you skate?”

“yeah.”

“well, we’re having ‘tryouts’ this Friday, you should give it a shot.” She air quotes tryouts.

“tryouts?” I ask.

“people show us their five best tricks, and we choose the five best skaters who get to hang out with us.”

“sure, I might just do that.” I say, and then turn back to my work. She must’ve got the message because she didn’t talk to me for the rest of the period.

Tryouts? Really? Who the hell would try out to be in a group? It defiantly wasn’t something I’d be doing. I’ll just find some other kids to hang out with. I walk into the over crowded cafeteria and get in line. There was no way to hear anyone in particular unless you really focused on them.

I looked around the room and spotted callie sitting a few tables away from where I was. She was across from logan and Jamie and I spotted Samantha get up and move over to sit next to her. It didn’t take anyone smart to know that wasn’t good news. I didn’t hear what Samantha said the first time. But callie tossed her stuff into her bag and stood up. She was staring at logan as she the words, “no, no he didn’t.” left her mouth. Logan’s eyes a tiny bit sad. Like he felt bad for what just happened. For what happened over all.

And then Samantha went above and beyond, “you mean you and logan never did it? Maybe that’s why he always came to me.” Callie had already started to walk away by then and didn’t turn around. The rest of the room though froze, watching them. I wanted to follow callie, but I knew if I followed right now, everyone would see, and even worse rumors would be told. So I just waited until everyone went back to their own business to start searching for her.

It didn’t take me long to find her slumped against a wall in the hallway. You could tell she was crying. I slowly walk up to her and sit down next to her. She didn’t notice me at all. So I put an arm around her, “callie.” I say softly. She looks up at the sound of my voice and instantly falls into my arms. After about fifteen minutes she pulls away and once again dries her eyes, “you okay?” I ask.

“what does it look like?” her voice was full of sarcasm an I started laughing, she joined in moments later.

My phone suddenly starts vibrating in my pocket and I check the caller i.d.. It was my mother. I answer it, “hey mom.”

“hey sweetie, I can’t get ahold of the Morgans, so could you ask Callie if she and her family would like to join us for dinner tonight?”

“mhmm. I can do that.”

“thanks”

“okay, so that’s it?”

“yeah, that’s all. See you this afternoon. Love you.”

“yeah, see ya later. Love you too.” I tell her and then close my phone.

“what was that about?” callie asks. Her voice was now back to normal and you could barely tell she had been crying her eyes out.

“she wanted to know if you and your family would like to come over for dinner tonight. She couldn’t get ahold of either of your parents.” I tell her.

“that’s because my dad is on a business trip and my om tags along on them.”

“why would she tag along?”

“so that, ya know, she can keep him in line…” that started another round of laughter, “you didn’t tell me, did you make any friends yet?”

I sigh. Sure, friends that I have to tryout for. Seriously, what group does that? “yeah. A few, but I have to show them my ‘tricks’ before I’ll be allowed to hang out with them. So, I dunno.”

“your tricks?” callie asks, laughing.

“you perv.” I playfully nudge her, “skating tricks.”

“well, I can tell them right now you can jump over vw bug.” I smile remembering what happened just yesterday.

“which reminds me, why do you have two cars?”

“one of them is for when my parents want me to be seen, like when I’m shopping and all that. the other is the tru me.”

“yeah…cause that makes sense.” I reply, “So, are you coming to dinner tonight or not, I’m supposed to text my mom the answer.”

“Sure I’ll be there. Nothing better to do.”

“Wow, you sound so excited,” I add a hint of sarcasm to my voice.

And then callie does the same, “Oh my god! I would like LOVE to have dinner with you guys tonight!” I burst out laughing and start typing that into the message.

“much better.” I say, finishing up the text, “okay, how does this sound, ‘her parents are gone on a business trip, but she say, “oh my god! I would like LOVE to have dinner with you guys tonight.’”

“sounds perfect,” callie says and hit send. She stares at me shocked, “I, was, uh, joking aiden.” She says. Truth is, I only typed that her parents were out of town but that’d she’d come over.

“well, you should’ve told me that before I hit send.” The bell rings and I stand up, holding out my hand to help callie. She takes it and stands up next to me.

We both have study hall fifth, so I ask where she wants to be.

“library.” She answers and so we walk through the double doors next to us and into the fairly big library. I didn’t let go of her hand until we got to our seats, and she didn’t seem to notice. It was actually me who didn’t notice though. Her hand fit so perfectly in mine that I just didn’t realize it was still there. The same feelings as earlier flushed through my body.

The instant we sat down, her phone vibrated. I look over her should and see ‘mom’ flashed on the screen. Callie sets the phone on the table, clicking speaker.

“hello?” she asks

“Hey sweetie!” callie and I eye each other as her mom sounded like mine. All too happy.

“mom?” callie asks, making sure it’s not just some random stranger.

“yeah. Who else would it be?”

“I don’t know. Some random stranger would make more sense than you.” Ouch, that’s gotta hurt. I mean seriously, she’s talking to her mom for goodness sakes.

Although mrs. Morgan doesn’t seem to notice at all, “well, I have some news for you. I’m pregnant.”

Callie and my eyes bug out at her words, “you’re-you’re-you’re pregnant?” callie stutters out.

“yes. Isn’t that exciting?!” again with the overly happy voice.

“um, yeah, exciting.” Callie responds in the most dull voice ever.

“you don’t sound too excited Calvina.” Her mom sounded somewhat angry now.

“that’s because I’m not in the mood to be excited. I’m in the mood of logan cheating on me.” She replies sarcastically.

And then her mom said that worst thing possible to say at the time, “who’s logan?”

You could see the tears start to well up in callies eyes, “no one mom. No one. I’m going to get back homework. I’ll talk to dad and you when you get back.”

“okay, bye!” there was no sadness in her voice, there was no ‘I love you’. Her mom just believed a huge lie and hung up like nothing happened.

It was about five minutes before either of us said anything. I finally, though, decided to break the ice, “that was-“ I start to say, searching for the words to describe the conversation.

Callie finishes the sentence, “the first conversation with my mother when there weren’t guests at the door or some fancy dinner.” I stare at her, shocked, “yes aiden, a family can be that screwed up.”

“I didn’t say that.”

“but that’s what you were thinking.” She says and I decided not to tell her I wasn’t thinking that. I actually felt bad for her, and for the baby that would be coming into that kind of family.

There was another pause before callie spoke up again.

“my mom is pregnant.” She states. And I knew then that the words were just starting to sink in. That she too realized that her family was in no condition to raise a baby