Ever Arnolds; how my life got completely flipped upside down.

Callan showed some true colors?!

I got the call a week and two days later. I had been in class and my phone went off. Usually I would have hit ignore but I saw that it was my mom. The teacher said I could answer it. He was strict about it though, so I had to do it in front of the whole class.

"Mom?" I asked weakly.

"He is gone," I could vaguely recognize the words through her sobs. My eyes burned. I could see Callan staring at me.

"What happened?" I asked, my voice cracked and I heard a few giggles.

"The nurses called and said that he flatlined about twenty minutes ago. No symptoms, he was doing perfectly fine, well for his situation, and then he was gone," he breathed heavily to calm herself.

"He is gone," I said breathlessly. That's when the realization hit that my brother would never say another word to me again. I would never see his smiling eyes, with the wrinkles in the corners from smiling too much. Or the way his shaggy hair still looked perfect despite it never being brushed. And the way he would embrace me when I was crying over a boyfriend, or getting in a fight with a friend. My brother was gone for good.

I let out a sob and ran from the classroom. I texted Maura that I needed a ride home and five minutes later she emerged from a corner. She hugged me tightly.

"At least you got to say your goodbyes," she comforted.

"Maura I don't think you get it. I feel like a piece of my soul was ripped out. It's like a tearing pain through my chest. I will never see him again. Maura I don't think I will be able to do it," I sobbed into her shoulder.

"Ever, you have to do it. How do you think it would make you feel if you couldn't make it because he couldn't he wouldn't wish that on you. You will get through it, I am here for you okay?" She asked. I nodded.

"Okay let's go," I said.

Needless to say, I spent the rest of the afternoon, in sweats, sobbing into my pillow, trying to watch funny shows and reading articles on how to cope with death.

None of it helped.

I don't think I was able to focus on anything else until I heard a thud by my window. I spun around and saw Callan, standing by my window.

"What are you doing here?" I asked.

"What happened today?" He asked, his skin scrunching around his eyebrow piercing.

"It was nothing," I said, leaning on my pillow.

"Bullshit. Spill it."

"I don't owe you anything." I said. He walked over, and sat on me, one leg on either side of my waist. He said it again.

"What happened? Or I will tickle you."

"Then tickle me, I'm not ticklish," I lied. He jabbed one finger into my side and I made the mistake of flinching. He full on tickled me until I surrendered.

"Fine!" I shouted, "fine! I went to Sydney last week, to say goodbye to my brother who had cancer. And I got the call today."

"The death call?" He said, as though it were relatable. Tears streamed from my eyes again.

"Yes, and everyone keeps trying to make me feel better, but no one understands. He was twenty two! He was my brother, my best friend for most of my life. And now I won't ever see him again."

"What was his name?"

"Phoenix." I said. Then Callan did something weird. He grabbed his black long sleeved shirt at the hem, and slowly peeled it off his body. "Wait what are you doing?" I tried to stop him. But he didn't stop. He held out his left arm for me to see. The Aida tattoo shone at me.

"My sister, Aida, committed suicide when she was sixteen. She was a year younger than me. I don't know what caused it. I was the protective older brother. I blame myself for not keeping harm away from her. I don't think she would want me to, but deep down I still feel as though it's my fault." I always thought Aida was said like Aid-a, but he said eye-ee-duh. It was a pretty name.

"I am so sorry," I started.

"Don't, I hate when people say sorry for shit that they couldn't have done crap about. I mean, what, are you going to build a time portal and save her? Plus, she was a selfish bitch. She thought her problems were too much, so she saved herself and left all of us to be destroyed. She is the reason I sleep around, to keep myself from a real relationship. I don't want to get close to people when they could do what she did. I won't deal with that again," he said angrily. His blue eyes had darkened.

All his sitting on me, and tickling me, had made my shirt ride, dangerously high. I was going to pull it down, but he held my arms down.

"My advice to you, is remember the good times you had with him, and when you start to feel like the world is caving in on you, remember that he wouldn't have wanted you to cease because of him. Dying won't bring you any closer to him. Trust me, I tried." I stared up at him. His face was dangerously close.

Now, I feel like I had been possessed or something, but when it happened, i felt that it was right.

I closed the space between us and kissed him on the mouth quickly, even though I had no physical attraction to him. I just felt like crap, and thought maybe a nice night would take me away from this. I pulled away quickly, though, and started to say sorry, when he cut me off by pinning me down and kissing me harder.

It was everything a kiss should be. I have kissed boys who don't know fuck all about kissing, but this one did.

Our tongues touched and it made me all tingly on the inside, and before I knew it, I was the one on him, with my legs around him.

In fact, we probably would have made it all away, if somehow we hadn't swapped self control levels.

"Stop," he said.

"No, no, I want to!" I said, breathily.

"Ever, stop. As much as I would love it, you aren't in a good state of mind right now, and it wouldn't be right." He rolled over and hopped off my bed. "Call me if you need anything," he said. And then he was gone.