16 Days {c.h.}

-seven-

Day 7

“I don’t know, Cal,” I sigh through the phone. “It just feels like nobody understands.”

“I wish I could help with that,” A tinge of sadness crept into his tone.

“Its fine, I’m just glad you’re not bullshitting me with all that ‘I know exactly what you’re going through’ stuff.”

“I wouldn’t even come close to getting away with it. I’ll be in front of your house in a minute, okay?”

“Yeah, I’ll be right out.” I slightly smile as we exchange our goodbyes.

“Bye Gabe!” I call out to the blob on the couch that is my brother.

“Hmm? Bye Belly.” He mumbled, sleep clogging his voice.

I quietly shut the door, not wanting to disturb my brother more than I already had, jumping when I turned around to find Calum extremely close.

“Damn it, Calum! You almost made me shit myself!” I jokingly place my hands on his chest, shoving him lightly before turning left to make my way to the school.

“Good thing I didn’t, I’m not sure I could be around someone who smells bad.” He stuck his tongue out at me.

“Says the one who basically bathes in cologne.” I tease, rolling my eyes as he scoffs.

“I’ll have you know this is my natural scent!” He cried out, jokingly raising his armpit to his nose as I wrinkled my nose at his actions.

“There’s someone I need you to talk to today.” He informs me as the school comes into sight, making me shiver at the sight of the mismatched brown-and-red bricks that made it seem dirty even though the principle demanded it be power washed at least once a week.

“Oh really?” I raised my left eyebrow, silently cheering as my right stayed down.

“Yes really, but you’ve met her before. You met her when I introduced you to my extremely strange group of friends, remember?”

“I don’t know which one it is yet.” I rolled my eyes, typical Calum, leaving out some of the most important information.

“Well Aubrey was the only girl there.” He teases me, laughing as I playfully slap his shoulder.

“Yeah, but you told me about your sister, Mali? How she moved back to Australia since she graduated and all. And Luke’s cousin, Amy or whatever her name was, remember?”

“Oh, wow, yeah.” He awkwardly laughed, scratching the top of his head. “Well, it’s Aubrey. And if you don’t want to keep talking just text me and I’ll come and get you, promise.” He smiled, holding out his pinkie before intertwining it with my own.

As we walked into school I realized our pinkies were still clasped together but did nothing to stop after looking down at them, not missing Calum’s grin when I didn’t remove my small, stubby finger from his surprisingly long and lanky one.

“When am I going to be talking to Aubrey?” I ask as we stand outside the door to my first block class once again. “At lunch?”

He quickly shook his head, making me laugh at his small pout.

“No, because that’s Bella and Calum time,” He explained. “And I’m not good when it comes to sharing.”

“Are you a junior in High School or clothing sizes?” I laugh, my laugh becoming louder at the look of panic on his face as the warning bell rang.

“See you at lunch, Bella!” He called over his shoulder, already half way down the vast hallway.

“Bye Calum,” I silently grin to myself as my laughs subside before taking my normal seat in the middle of the class as Mrs. Arnold begins to drone on about the quadratic formula as if we hadn’t heard her slowly explain it to us for the entire class period on Friday.