Calum.

77

"It's our mom" Mali had tears in her eyes. She had every right to be upset. She had put so much work into making this place a home for her and Calum. Especially after everything they had already been through with her, this was absolutely insane. "Mali I'm calling the police." I immediately started dialing while Mali pulled herself together. I didn't dare call Calum and tell him the news.

After calling the police, I began taking pictures. I'm sure it would be useful for court and insurance purposes. "Mali, what happened?" I asked her while my camera clicked. "I don't really know, I-" Mali sniffled and had to contain herself. "I walked in, the door was kicked open, and she was pulling down the curtains by then. Everything else was already destroyed!" Mali had to shout over the banging and screaming that her mom was doing behind the locked door. I'm positive walls were being destroyed at this point. After all, it was only a supply closet, but it was big enough.

"She was screaming about how she doesn't have a family anymore, and all she has is the drugs." I pulled Mali in for a hug. "She came at me, and all I could do was shove her in there and lock the door." Mali was really going through it seeing her mom like this, and her home. The police arrived about fifteen minutes later, and they arrested her. Handcuffed, and thrown in the back of the police car, and off to jail she went. "I wonder if I should call Calum now and tell him?" Mali didn't know what to do, but she knew she couldn't hide this kind of thing from her brother who also lived here.

"Let's clean up some, and wait until he gets back. I don't think he should know right now..." Mali agreed with me, and we began cleaning up. A lot of stuff had to be thrown out. Dishes, gone. TV, gone. Microwave, gone. Coffee table, gone too. Shelves, photo frames, lights, so much was not fixable and had to go in the trash. Mali was devastated, and I knew Calum would be too. Thankfully she didn't make it upstairs to any of the bedrooms.

We did what we could, and waited outside and got some fresh air. My phone started ringing, and Calum's cute face appeared on my screen. "Hey, how's practice?" I said while partially sniffling. I was cold, tired, and hungry, but my appetite was no longer with us. "It went great as usual, is everything alright? You sound like you've been crying..." Calum was concerned, but I didn't want him to be. "Yeah, uhm just come home when you can, yeah?" Calum promised he was on his way, and he was because he came back quicker than normal. We stayed outside until he walked up the driveway.

"Why are you two outside? What's going on?" Calum's eyebrows crinkled together, and he was making his way towards the house. "Calum wait." Mali stopped him. "There's something you should know before you go in there..." Calum stopped and turned to face us. "Mom came back." Mali started. "She came, and trashed everything. The police just took her not too long ago." Calum looked shocked. I couldn't say anything besides just be there to support them. "And that's not all, she's using drugs now."

I couldn't imagine what was going through their minds. Calum, I knew was not in a good place with his mom, and Mali - she was trying to rebuild what was broken. She must've felt worse. Calum turned around and went inside. I waited outside for a few minutes before I said or did anything "I should go check on him". I went inside, and Calum was leant up against a wall, taking the whole scene in. "Calum I'm sorry this happened..."