room // malum au [in progress]

may 18th, 2021

feedback aka comments pls

"are you sure you want to do this?" joy asked, concern lacing her voice. "you don't have to. we'll find a way to pay off the rest of the bills. it's not your responsibility."

"yes it is!" calum snapped. "the lawyer was for me. i need to help you guys pay the bills and this is the only way i'm capable of doing so right now."

"we don't need you to help. we'll figure it out."

"the bills have been piling up since the trial mom!" calum retorted. "they need to get paid and you and dad obviously can't do it without some help. i need to do this."

"calum." joy sighed. "please don't force yourself to do this."

"can you please leave?" calum huffed. "the interview crew is going to be here shortly and i still have to shower."

"alright. should i send michael up when he gets here?"

calum shrugged. "doesn't really matter. he's coming to stay with tucker while i do the interview. he isn't here for me."

"ok. i'll leave you be then." joy said, giving up. she got up from the desk chair and made her way out of the room, leaving calum to himself.

calum let out a sigh before forcing himself to get up to go get ready. he grabbed a pair of random boxers from his dresser before locking himself away in the bathroom and turning the water on to the highest heat.

***

"ok calum i just want to run you through what the plan is for this interview before it starts." calum turned his attention from the makeup artist touching up his face to see a guy standing in front of him with a clipboard in his hands and headset on his head.

"um ok. who are you?" calum asked.

"sorry, my name is isaac jones. i'm the floor director." the pale red head said, introducing himself. "i'm here to make sure everything goes smoothly."

"right." calum replied curtly. "so what exactly are we going to be doing?"

"we're basically going to be doing two interviews. one will be a more casual setting where we're going to have you walking around your backyard with ms. moore and then the more formal interview where you two will be sitting inside in the living room." isaac explained. "does that make sense?"

calum nodded, "when do we start?"

"right now if you're ready." isaac chirped. "ms. moore is waiting outside for you."

"let's get this over with." calum said, standing up from his chair and following the director outside to the meet the reporter.

"mr. hood! it's so nice to meet you!" the overly cheerful women exclaimed as calum walked out the backdoor. "i'm so glad you agreed to do this interview!"

"nice to meet you too." calum mumbled. "you can just call me calum.

"okay calum. so i just wanted to let you know that you're in complete control of this interview." she stated. "if you're comfortable with the question i ask then go ahead and answer it. if not, just say you aren't comfortable and we'll move on. does that sound alright to you?"

"yeah." calum answered softly.

"are you nervous?" she asked. "there's no reason to be nervous."

"not really nervous." calum replied. "just want to get this over with."

"then let's get started." she responded. "he's quite adorable."

"huh?" calum questioned.

"tucker." she said gesturing towards the window. "he's a very cute kid."