To Build A Home || c.h

Chapter 27

Calum's POV:

"Honey, I'm home!" I hear my mother almost sing from the door before we laugh simultaneously. What are we, a couple in an old, black and white movie? She chuckles and walks into the living room.

"How was your day?" she asks me while she puts down the bags that she's holding.

"Good," I mutter with a small smile and a nod.

"You look happy," my mother smiles, slightly confused. "Has anything happened?"

"Jake's parents came over," I smile and look down at the plectrum that I'm still holding. I'm almost scared to put it down, as if it'll disappear the second I'm not in contact with it anymore. "And we talked and stuff. It was nice."

"That's great!" she says with a wide smile. "Is that Jake's plectrum?"

"Yeah, they gave it to me," I chuckle lightly. "They found it inside one of his shirts."

"How on earth did it get there?" she laughs questioningly, furrowing her eyebrows slightly.

"I honestly have no idea," I laugh, shaking my head. "I'm just glad it's back."

"That's amazing, honey," she smiles warmly. "Are you hungry?"

"I was actually thinking that I could make dinner today," I smile. I see the surprised expression on her face even though she tries to hide it, but I can't blame her. I can barely believe it myself, but the whole visit lightened my mood so much that I don't even care.

"You don't need to do that," she smiles softly, but I can tell that she wants me to. She's probably tired.

"No, mom, really. I want to," I smile and stand up. "You can just get some rest and I'll make the dinner." I kiss her forehead gently before I go into the kitchen. I find all the things I need and start making dinner. Since I'm not a very good chef, I only make pasta carbonara, but it's still better than anything I've done for the past few months, so it's okay. I know she'll be happy, even if I f.uck it up completely.

During dinner, my mom is overly excited about the fact that I made the food, and I get that she's happy since I actually did something for once, but she's over exaggerating. She keeps telling me how good the food is, even though we both know it isn't. It's not exactly bad tasting, but it's not very good either, yet my mom keeps on insisting that it is.

When we're finished I even clean up and do the dishes, and I'm pretty sure my mother is going to faint out of happiness, if that's even possible. I know that her happiness isn't because of the fact that she doesn't have to do the dirty dishes, but because this shows progress for me. For once, I'm actually feeling really good, and my mother can tell. I mean, if I wasn't feeling happy I wouldn't have done all of this, so of course she can tell. It's pretty obvious.

"Any plans for today?" she smiles, looking at me.

"Not really, I thought that maybe we could do something," I chuckle, putting a little pressure on 'we'. She laughs along and nods, the wide smile never leaving her face.

"Anything special you want to do?" she asks.

"Not really," I say and shrug lightly. I just want to take advantage of this good mood.

"We could go to the movies?" she suggests.

"I don't know, there are a lot of people there..." I mutter. What if I meet someone I know? What if I meet one of my old friends? I really don't think I'll be able to handle that, and I don't want this day to end badly. I've been feeling like s.hit for so long, and for once I'm not feeling like s.hit, so I want to keep it like this for as long as possible.

"I understand. How about we stay home and do something nice?" she smiles gently, and a smile appears on my face once again as I nod.

We discuss what we want to do, but we use a little bit longer than intended due to our constant disagreement. We keep turning down each other's suggestions and coming with new ones, and in the end, we decide to bake a cake (mom's suggestion) and have a Castle marathon (my suggestion) to please the both of us.

"Can you get the flour, honey?" my mother asks as she starts taking out milk and eggs from the fridge. I nod and walk over to where I know (or at least think) we have the flour. As far as I remember, it's usually in the top cabinet at the right end of the kitchen, and I soon find out that I'm right.

I stretch out for it, but clumsiness gets the best of me and I end up dropping it to the floor. The next couple of seconds almost feel like they pass by in slow motion. The paper bag bursts open and the flour splatters everywhere, including on my legs. The whole splattering scene almost looks gracious, and if it was a movie I would honestly love to rewind and see it again. The floor gets covered with the white, powdery substance, and it almost looks like snow where it's laying. I look down at it and a long string of curse words repeat themselves in my mind.

"F.uck," I mutter under my breath. Why can't you do anything right, Calum? When are you going to stop f.ucking everything up?!

"Language," my mother says sternly.

"I'm sorry," I apologize, both for swearing and for making the huge mess.

"It's okay, just go clean yourself up and I'll get this." Much to my surprise, she doesn't seem mad (just a little bit, probably because we can't make the cake she wanted us to now). I nod and push my hair out of my face as I make my way out of the kitchen.

I was scared she would yell at me for being so incompetent (because let's face it, I am), but I should have known that she wouldn't. She sees me as a fragile little creature, ready to break at any second, and I even though I hate to admit it, that is exactly what I am.

She's always careful around me unless I've really pushed her buttons, and honestly it annoys the s.hit out of me most of the time. I don't want her to treat me differently just because of what happened, but at the same time I know that I need it. It's enough dealing with the constant self-hatred, I don't need her yelling at me every time I f.uck up as well. I get yelled at enough in my own head as it is.

I walk up the stairs and make a mental note to clean up all the flour that falls from my pants down on the floor on the way. I feel bad if I just leave it until my mom cleans it. I might be an a.sshole, but I do own decency after all. A little bit, at least.

I enter 'my' room and quickly remove my pants. I find my grey pair of sweatpants and pull them on before I sit down on my bed. I pick up Jake's plectrum once again and twirl it around between my fingers while looking at it. I hold it still after a couple of seconds and stare at it with one question playing in my mind.

"I know that your parents have forgiven me Jake, but have you? I know you're not here anymore, but I guess I like to believe you're in a better place now and that you still can forgive me..." I mutter quietly, not averting my gaze from the plectrum for a little while. I sigh in the end and put it down before I get up and head downstairs, determined not to ruin the rest of the evening. My mother deserves a nice day, and I'm going to give it to her no matter what happens.

A/N: this is such a filler I'm so sorry but I got stuck and didn't know what to write, and I wanted Cal to have a somewhat nice day but I didn't have ideas and ugh okay I'm sorry

I want to once again thank all of you guys for actually reading this story, because it honestly means the world to me and I feel like I can never say it enough, so thank you <3

ily guys