Walk the Line

one

~Because you're mine, I walk the line~

It's been three weeks since her adoption and all she can think about is how much she misses him. She thought she would've been okay by now, that she could've gotten to a place even remotely near to moving on. But something happened that night in the cabin, something deep and emotional, and now she feels stupid for not seeing this coming.

And they hardly talk anymore because it's just too hard and it's just too weird. They both wish it wasn't and they both wish it was easier, but nothing is ever easy when it comes to them.

And one night, Callie lies wide awake, her heart aching for him, for his touch, for his kiss, for his embrace and she needs to see him. Now.

She lightly tiptoes out of her room, careful to not wake Mariana. She hovers her hand over Brandon's door knob and prays he's asleep. She opens the door softly and sighs out in relief when she sees him deep in sleep.

She kneels down by the edge of his bed and smiles. He looks so young and innocent when he's asleep and her heart brims over with something she can't really describe.

Or admit.

"Hi," she whispers so quietly, it's barely audible to herself. "I miss you." Her mouth twitches as tears start to well in her eyes.

She hesitantly lifts her hand up and runs her fingertips across his cheek. He doesn't stir.

"I love you, Brandon." The tears spill over. "Gosh, I love you so much." She pauses. "I made a mistake. I shouldn't have let you go. But it's too late now, right?"

She stops as more tears wet her cheeks. "I wish it wasn't. I don't want it to be. I just want you."

He finally starts to stir and she quickly stands herself up and slips out of the room. She can't let him see her here.

All Brandon sees his is door shut and he's left groggy and confused.

----

"Hey, mom?" Brandon calls Stef's attention over breakfast the next morning. "Were you in my room last night?"

She looks at him confused. "No, I wasn't."

He looks to Lena as if to ask the same question, but he receives the same response. He grows confused. He knows he saw his door shut last night. But if not by his moms, then who?

His eyes catch Callie's and then he just knows. She's telling him everything by her look whether she knows it or not.

"Maybe you were just dreaming, B," Stef tries, pulling Brandon away from his gaze with Callie.

"Yeah, I must've been," he agrees, turning his head back to look at Callie. Because he always looks back, even when he shouldn't.

----

She wanders her way to his room later that day because she misses him. She just misses him.

When he looks up at her from his keyboard, her heart rises in her chest. And she hates herself for how she reacts to him just merely looking at her, but at the same time, she never wants to stop feeling this way.

"Hey," she says, smiling at him. And he wants her to just wipe that stupid smile off her face because they cannot afford another mess up.

So he tells her, "Hey," then pulls his gaze away. Can't she just leave already?

"So, um, we haven't really talked in awhile," she replies. And if her smile isn't enough to kill him, the awkwardness right now will definitely finish him off.

He knows he should say something about how she came into his room last night (because he definitely knows why she did) and bluntly tell her to leave him alone because it hurts too much but he can't do that because he can't hurt her. He can tell she's already in enough pain.

So he just says, "I know how badly this is hurting you." Her smile fades. "It's hurting me, too. But we have to move on. We'll be okay."

And this is when she knows that he knows it was her in his room last night and from what he just said, he knows why, too.

So she nods lightly, realizing that this how things are going to be now; distanced and awkward.

"I guess you're right," she finally replies, masking her crushed heart perfectly with a half-smile. "We have to do what we've always done."

He smiles at her sadly, indicating that she's right. They have to finally truly move on. And as strong as she's being right now, she's not sure how much longer she can be, so she briefly returns the smile and leaves, a few teardrops escaping her brown orbs.

And Brandon hopes that did the trick, that she will stop whatever she was starting and do what they both have needed to do for a long time; fall out of love.

And he was right that she would stop coming into his room at late hours (at least he's never woken up from her doing so) and that she would stop trying to force awkward conversations. But he was wrong about her stopping everything altogether because she still just won't stop looking at him. And it's not just any look; no, they're the looks she's always given him, full of adoration and longing. Nothing he does, no amount of ignoring, no amount of questioning looks, gets her to stop. He gets to the point where he can't handle it anymore, he can't handle being around her without feeling his heart rip out of his chest.

So he asks his moms if he can leave, if he can live with his dad. He tells them that he hardly sees him anymore because he's so busy with AJ and that this will help him reconnect with him, which is partially true. And after a lot of reluctance on their part and a lot of convincing on his, they say yes.

As he turns to go up the stairs afterwards, he finds Callie sitting at the top of the stairs, nearly in tears. She stands up to face him as he reaches the top.

"You're leaving?" She asks and he can hear the heartbreak in her voice and it resonates within him so strongly because he doesn't want to leave, he doesn't want to turn his back on her. He just needs to. So he can't show in any way that he cares and that he hurts because she will use that to bring him back to her, to make him stay.

So, all he says, absent of any emotion, is, "Yes," and goes into his room as a single tear slides down her cheek and drops to the floor.

----

A/N: Okay, so this is actually something I've been working on for weeks now and it's been sooooo hard to keep it a secret!! But I wanted to surprise everyone so I did! The whole story is actually done but I'm not gonna post it all at once because y'all need a little torture ;) This story goes to some crazy places and deals with some crazy stuff but I think y'all are gonna love it! And I got the title from the song "I Walk the Line" by Halsey and it's amazing and her album is amazing and she's amazing so give her a listen if you haven't already! I promise you won't regret it! Anyways, please vote and comment! I love you all and thanks for reading!!

~Kennedy