Moving on

Goodbye

It had been a few days since Callie had been adopted. And for the first time in quite some time everyone was just simply happy. Maybe Jude was a little down because Connor had to leave, but that wasn't till a couple weeks.
They all sat at the kitchen table. Finished dinner plates and food places on the table. They all laughed and talked and Mariana gave a few sarcastic comments and what not.
Callie sat across from Brandon and for the first time since her adoption she really looked at him.
He just sat there carving his mash potato with his fork, with his sleeves over his hands and his dark curls over his face looking down.
He looked at her gazing and gave a little smile then looked over to his mothers who were jabbering on about something.
Callie noticed how his smile wasn't bright and how his eyes didn't sparkle. He wasn't like he use to be. He seemed darker.
After dinner when the dishes were done and when everyone had scattered about to their rooms.
Callie was walking to her room when she saw the oddest of sights.
She walked over and leant against Brandon's door frame looking down on him laying on his bedroom floor just staring at the ceiling.
"You ok?" She asked as she crossed her arms with a little grin.
He sat and looked at her.
"Yeah. I'm just..."
"Just laying?" She replied with another little smile.
He stood up and peeled off his blue flannelette shirt and threw it on his bed. Now he just wore a plain black shirt.
"Do you need something?" He asked looking back over at her.
"Can we, can we talk?" She said stepping into the room.
"Yeah, what's up?" He replied sitting down on the seat next to his keyboard.
Her mouth slightly opened as if she was about to speak when she closed the door behind her and stepped closer into the room.
Brandon's face grew anxious and confused.
"Callie?"
"I think we need to make a truce."
He looked up at her. "A truce? I didn't know we were playing capture the flag." He said then added a little laugh.
She smiled back then looked down.
"I mean about us." She looked up again. "I think we need to, to make a promise I guess that we'll never, you know, do anything again."
He stared at her like he did when she told him she wasn't getting adopted. Like he couldn't keep what he was feeling in.
"We're....brother and sister now, and it would be wrong for us too."
He stood up and walked over to her in the middle of his bed room.
He was no more than a metre away but you could feel the tension building up.
Callie almost looked scared, as if she thought he was about to kiss her or something.
He stepped in closer and her heart began to pound.
"Brandon." She said softly as if telling him 'no'.
He leant in and kissed her on the cheek gently.
She glared at him, she still loved him. You could see it everywhere. The way her eyes never left his and how she got nervous and excited every time she saw him.
"Goodbye Callie Jacob." He said calmly. "Goodbye to the girl who made me jealous, who drove me insane....To the girl I fell in love with."
He smiled gently and swallowed his tears.
Callie didn't do anything. She just looked up at him and his shaded face. Just standing quietly in the middle of his room.
"Now I should probably say Callie Adams-Foster, right?" He laughed quietly.
"Yeah. What do you have to say about her?"
Their voices were both hushed whispers.
"I don't know. We just met." He smiled gently. "I guess...my sister, my...."
"Friend?" She added in.
His eyes stung with tears but he tried desperately to hold them back. Instead he just blinked and swallowed the mass of pain building up inside.
"Can't we be friends?" She asked with a worried and confused grin.
He didn't say anything. He just smiled and swallowed, smiled and swallowed.
"Yeah...Sure." He whispered back.
There was a moment of silence where all you could hear was the sound of wind in the trees and the soft breathing of one another.
"Well...good night then." She said as she turned around slowly and stuck her hands in her back pockets.
"Night." He said, but she was already out the door and had shut it behind her for her to hear.
Once Callie had left it was like Brandon could finally breathe. Once she had left everything just hit him in the face. Tears fell down his cheeks slowly and his swallowing was now just impossible.
He breathed in deeply as if he hadn't breathed in days.
Feeling weak he made his way to his bed and just sat on it holding his head with his hands.
He hadn't felt such pain. Not like that anyway.
The girl he loved and most loved, he had to give her away for her to happy. By then the only thing keeping him sane was the way she smiled and laughed and called her family her family. Her happiness kept him alive.
And yet the boy who hadn't felt such love had given it up for the happiness of another. He didn't know if it was romantic or pathetic.
He lay on his bed with his headphones on, blasting some indie pop band of sort; when he remembered something Dani had said. He tried to forget about Dani as much as possible but one thing stuck with him. One sentence. And the one sentence that was the loudest and the one he listened to most.
You can't give up on her.