Maven // Calum Hood

two - awkwardness and double l's

My mind was torn in two as I stood in front of the pink door. Should I knock or nah?

I lifted my right hand and balled it into a fist before putting it back down again with a sigh. There will be people. Strangers. I can't handle the stress.

I realized I probably looked like a weirdo, just standing on the porch, unmoving as I fought with myself on knocking or not. So I turned my back but then, the pink wood swooshed open and a pre-pubescent boy's voice greeted me.

"Hello?" he said, which made me freeze on my spot. "Do you need anything?"

I turned around and faced the black-haired, lanky boy about ten centimeters taller than me. "Hi," I blushed. WHY DID I JUST BLUSH?!?!

"Yeah, hi. So may I help you with anything?" he said it so casually but shyly at the same time, I don't even know how person can do that.

I played with my fingers behind my back. "Uh, is Toby here?"

"Who might you be?"

"I'm his cousin." I rolled my eyes.

He grunted. "Come in," he said, reluctantly moving aside. "He's in the doorway on the left, down the hall. They've been drawing."

I just nodded and awkwardly walked forward, following his direction. My eyes travelled to the pictures lining-wait no, scratch that, I meant filling up the walls. I kid you not, the floral wallpaper is almost unrecognizable because of the photographs hanging on them. I wondered what the situation of this wall will be in five years or less-I think they might want to add new walls, or possibly dedicate a whole room for pictures... the possibilities are endless on this one. I couldn't help but smirk at my own thoughts.

"I know. I'm so handsome, right?" the boy suddenly said, startling me.

Realizing it was in fact his portrait I was gazing at, I jumped back.

"I was just wondering where your handsomeness went... Maybe down the dumps?" I wanted to say that. But my goody-two-shoes mouth replied lamely, "I'll go inside the living room now."

He slightly shook his head and went to another room. I swear I saw a faint smirk tug at the corner of his lips.

Looking back, I wanted to kick myself repeatedly for being an awkward piece of shit. Not stopping until a few more hits after I have died. But at the same time, I was in a room with two children so I couldn't really indulge in self-abuse right now.

"Toby! I thought you were lost!" I kneeled beside his position on the floor, ruffling his wavy hair.

"Ate! You're ruining my drawing! Stop it!" Toby swatted my hand away and then went back to coloring in his snowman.

"Hey, isn't this our snow-woman?" I asked, leaning back into an Indian style sitting position, trying so hard to forget the awkwardness earlier.

Toby nodded before scooting closer to the little girl, who I presumed was Drea.

"Hello," the little girl looked up to me through round brown eyes. "I'm Drea."

My throat wanted to speak but my mouth was glued shut.

Why am I so awkward?!

"Don't you speak?" She went up to me and held my cheek.

"I-I..." I sighed. "I'm Ate Zharah."

Drea's eyes widened before cheering, "She can speak! She can speak!"

"Ha-ha, yeah I can..." You know that tone when someone wants to be casual but they can't help but still be awkward? Yes, that's what I sounded like.

"We should play barbie!"

Toby whined. "But what about me?"

Drea turned to him. "You can play cars with Cal. Or something boys like to do. Cal needs to play anyway."

My little cousin then trudged out of the room, probably looking for this Cal guy.

"Hey, Drea, do you need anything?" The-boy-from-earlier's head popped out from the doorway.

"Callum!" Drea chided him. "Introduce yourself to Ate Zharah!"

"Hi," Callum said, obviously faking enthusiasm. "I'm Callum. You must be Ate Zharah."

I laughed. "How old are you?"

"Fifteen-well, almost. Why?" He said, confused.

"I'm fourteen. I should be calling you Kuya Callum." I tried to explain to him.

"What? Why?" His questioning eyes narrowed even more.

"Ate is Tagalog for older sister. Kuya is for the older brother," I said, to which he let out the the longest 'Oohhh..." in history.

"I have another question," he stated. I nodded for him to continue. "How do you spell your name?"

I obliged. Then question him too. "How do you spell your name?"

"And here I thought you'd have better name-spelling guesses since your name is spelled out weird." He chuckled.

"Well, I'm sorry to inform you that doesn't work that way."

He was still chuckling but managed to pause for a bit to say, "It's C-A-L-U-M."

The feeling of wanting to beat myself up from earlier was back and stronger than before so I slapped myself, hard.

"Hey, hey! What's wrong? Are you secretly schizophrenic?"

I hung my head low, ashamed. "No, I thought it was spelled with two L's. See, I told you it doesn't work that way."

I've always hated whenever someone spells or pronounces my name incorrectly. And here I am, doing exactly that.

Leaning in a bit to me, CALUM quietly whispered near my ear. I could feel his breath on my neck.

"You hypocritical bitch."

*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

ate means older sister and kuya means older brother and ate is pronounced as "A-teh" not 8

i purposely spelled Calum's name wrong the first few times, sorry if you're a fammember and had to go through that hell

hello! what's up dudes (i hope some one is actually there)

anywayyy(sssss), i finished this at about 12:54 am on a sunday and i have multiple regrets including not doing my homework.

i know this is annoying but if you've read until this part, you should click the star-shaped icon. but if you don't, at least leave a comment or two about how you feel about this story, it motivates me to write and affects my confidence of being a writer.

reverse rainbows and snrocinu,
-mae

vote if you got that last joke