What is Love?

~ Chapter 2 ~

~ Ten years earlier ~

To really understand my hatred and coldness towards Calum, I really have to travel back a few years. It was the summer of twenty-twelve. My parent's divorce was just finalized and my mother was in the middle of a custody battle over me with my father. I was too young to really understand my father's reasons behind wanting custody over me when he was just as bad a parent toward me as my mother. I still don't think I understand his reasons ten years later. Was it just to fulfill his spite against my mother? Or did some part of his twisted heart actually love me?

We pulled up in our red Hyundai car. Instead of buying me new school shoes or books with the money, she earned from work or her divorce, my mother treated herself to a brand new car. How sweet. I remember how beautiful I found the little neighborhood. There were a few houses around the street. All victorian-style houses. I really felt like one of them little spoilt rich kids in the movies.

Most of the houses were really bright colors. As if each neighbor was trying to make their house stand out from the rest. The only house that really stood out to me was the one directly across from the new home I have to live in. If only I knew how looking at my brand new house would make me feel in ten years' time.

The house across from my prison was painted in a mix of blue and teal. It was obviously darker than the other houses but was brightened up by the white frames around the home. The obvious white picket fence surrounding the house made it look like a really overall happy home. The house was everything I could want, with a porch swing and everything.

When we drove by the blue house there was a little boy standing in the front with a football in his arms and his hand up over his forehead to shield his eyes from the beaming sun. He stares at our car as we turn the corner into our driveway. I step out of the car and look over at the boy.

He didn't look much older than me. I was only eleven at the time and was starting sixth grade. He was still looking over at my mother and me getting out of our car. The sun made his hair look really blonde, but I could tell from the shaded part of his hair covered by his hand that it was a sandy blonde color. He was squinting his eyes trying to get a better look at us. I smiled and waved a shy hand over to him. He dropped his football and ran up the steps of his blue house and disappeared through the front door.

My mother made me help her take in the few boxes of clothes, kitchen stuff, and toys from the car. The moving van was supposed to be at our house before us but it seemed to be running late. The van didn't have much seeing as my mother bought all out furniture brand new. The van mainly had all my mother's freshly dry-cleaned clothes on racks covered in plastic bags to avoid them being creased.

I put the boxes of toys and clothes on the floor at the foot of the bed. I got the smallest room in the house. It was downstairs at the back of the house. It was small but liveable. I had a small bathroom to the left of the bedroom with my bed taking up the most room over to the right against the window. A small dresser of drawers and a mirror on the same wall as the door. There was a little wardrobe beside the bathroom door. I didn't need a big wardrobe seeing as my mother rarely bought me clothes unless I really need them.

There were plain white bed sheets and pillows on my bed already and the curtains were an extremely pale pink. It was obvious they were bought in the reduced section. I was still grateful that I had something rather than nothing.

The backyard was pretty basic. Just a plain garden with green grass. There was a small seating area which I knew I wouldn't be allowed near, in case I ''destroy something so expensive''. I go to get the last of my boxes from the trunk of the car when I see the little boy from earlier walking over to me. He doesn't have the football in his arms like he did when I first saw him.

He's wearing a grey T-shirt, with some quotes about being a footballer written in blue on it, and a pair of black shorts that go down past his knees. He's way taller than me so I sort of find myself looking up at him. He gives me this ridiculous half-smirk. He extends a hand out in front of me. ''Hi, I'm Calum.'' He speaks so confidently when he introduces himself. I give him a sort of confused smile in return and accept his handshake. ''I'm Phoenix.'' His eyes widen as if he's taken back by my response.

''Isn't a Phoenix a bird? Is Phoenix like your nickname or something?'' I can see him trying not to laugh but he isn't making much of an effort. ''Nope, not a nickname.'' I release my hand from his grip and lift the last box out of the trunk and place it on the driveway so I can close the trunk.

''I'm going to call you Nix. It sounds better than Phoenix.'' I lift the box off the ground and cradle it in my arms. I raise my eyebrow at him and then my mother walks out. ''Em, Phoenix who is this boy in my driveway?'' She looks him up and down in a disapproving manner. Calum puts on his half-smirk again and extends his hand to my mother. ''I'm Calum. I live across the street.'' He nods his head in the direction of his house.

My mother makes some sort of mhm noise and takes the box off me. ''Phoenix come inside. You need to unpack your things.'' I wave goodbye at Calum and run into the house. My mother took one more glance at Calum still standing in our driveway and then closes our front door.

My mother never gave me any dinner that night. So when she went to bed I snuck into the kitchen to grab something small to snack on. As I pass the mirror in the hall it stops me in my tracks. I stare at the girl standing in front of me. I run a hand through my dark brown hair that had become a bit messy from twisting and turning in my bed. I look into my bright green eyes. They look empty.

I quickly run into the kitchen and rummage through the cupboards. There's barely anything in the cupboards besides cereal. So I climb onto the countertop and get a bowl from the upper cupboards. I jump back down and pour a small bowl of lucky charms. There isn't any milk in the fridge so I just eat them plain.

I hear a tapping on the back door beside the kitchen. I run quickly to see what it is before it wakes my mother. I pull the door open and stand outside in my bare little feet looking around to see what made the noise. I find Calum standing at the corner of the house. He comes around the corner once he sees it's me and sighs a sigh of relief. ''I didn't know if it was you or your mother going to answer.''

It's freezing out so I hold the door open and usher him inside. ''It's cold, come inside.'' He walks by me and into my kitchen. He has a small bag in his hand and takes a seat in the middle of the floor in the kitchen. I stare down at him confusingly. He's no longer in the grey T-shirt and shorts anymore, he's wearing PJs with little footballs in different shades of blue and grey.

He pats the ground beside him. ''Sit down.'' He says it as if he's commanding me to sit down. So I do. I sit down on the ground as he pulls out Monopoly from his bag. It's a small version of it. ''I brought us a game to play. My sister doesn't like to play with me so I want you to.'' He starts setting the game up and looks over at me with his half-smirk again.

''How old are you?'' I manage to speak. Something about this boy makes it hard for me to speak around him. I feel nervous? Scared that I'm on the floor playing Monopoly with a boy I don't know? ''I'm fourteen. What age are you?'' He asks me as he looks down sorting out the amount of money we both get.

''I'm eleven.'' He hands me my money and his fingers brush against mine. I know we were young but he just made me feel, different I guess. He smiles up at me before he speaks again. ''You're the same age as my sister Naomi, we should all be friends!'' He's so innocent and cute.

We played monopoly until it got too late that I was forcing my eyes to stay open. Calum packed up his game and left the same door he came in. That was the first night I and Calum ever talked, and it wasn't the last.