A Walk In The Park

17 - Big Sister

It's just about time for my meal break when they enter the store. I'm waiting on a customer, so I'm not exactly paying close attention to who's coming and going. But the sound of a familiar laugh grabs my attention. I look toward the entrance and see Calum giving Mali a piggyback ride. The sight revs up my nausea again. I decide to ignore them and turn my attention back to my customer. Maybe they'll leave without noticing me.

"Hey, MJ!" Mali nearly yells across the store. She's waving from atop Calum's back, but then hops down, keeping her arm around his waist.

I don't want to be completely rude, so I wave back. Calum smiles and nods, so I do the same. Then I hand the customer their receipt. Unfortunately for me, there's no one else in line to distract me, so I'm just standing here, watching Mali and the man of my dreams flirt with each other from one end of the store to the other.

They're too far away for me to hear their conversation, but I see Mali pick up a princess crown and put it on Calum's head. Calum twirls around, pretending to be a princess. I laugh to myself, until Mali pulls him close to whisper into his ear. Can she not? Calum looks down and shakes his head. He looks embarrassed and playfully pushes Mali away. Then he looks at me, and now I'm the embarrassed one. I need to quit staring.

"Earth to MJ."

I'm startled by my coworker.

"Oh. Yeah, what?"

"Are you going on your break or what?"

I look at the time and see that I've already missed three minutes of my 30 minute dinner break. "Shoot. Yeah, thanks."

I'm torn between trying to leave unnoticed and approaching Calum. But in the end, Mali sees that I'm no longer behind the counter and runs up to me, pulling Calum by the hand. I love his hands. I'm so jealous.

"MJ, Calum told me you worked here and I told him we should stop by and see you!"

"Oh. Well, hi."

"When do you get off work? Now?" she asks.

"Not till 10:00 tonight, at closing. But I'm taking my dinner break right now; what's left of it." I've probably lost at least five or six minutes at this point.

Mali claps her hands and nearly squeals in delight. "Really?! So you can grab a bite to eat with Calum? I mean, us?"

I'm pretty sure I just saw Calum roll his eyes. He obviously isn't thrilled with the idea. And he hasn't said a word. Cool, Calum. I get it.

"Um, thanks, but I don't have a lot of time."

Mali frowns and looks at Calum. Calum finally clears his throat and speaks up. "You heard him. He doesn't have time. And we're holding him up."

"Are you sure? Can we at least walk to the food court together?" She bats her eyes at me, and folds her hands under her chin, begging. I'm afraid Calum is getting aggravated with her. Why can't she see that he doesn't like the idea of me tagging along?

But to my surprise, he says, "Yeah, I mean, if you were going that way..."

I have no excuse to turn her down now, so I reluctantly agree, even though something feels weird. But after that, conversation is smooth and normal. I don't know what happened before. Anyway...

We all end up getting something from Subway, and I hardly have time to inhale it before I have to get back to work. They walk back with me, and Mali hugs me. I'm taken by surprise because she hardly knows me. I kind of hate it because I'm jealous as fuck of her. But it's hard to not like her. So I hug her back, and look at Calum as I do so. He looks kind of sad, but I could be mistaken. He's probably just ready to get rid of me and have his girlfriend's undivided attention again.

Whatever the case, I have to go. "Bye, guys. Thanks for hanging out with me. Sorry I had to rush."

"That's okay. We'll have to get together another time. I mean, if you don't mind me being a third wheel." Mali suggests, looking back and forth between Calum and me with that huge smile of hers.

Calum puts his hands on her shoulders and turns her away from us and says, "Okay, big sister! We better go. Bye, MJ."

"Yes, sir, little brother," she says with a salute to Calum, and they're on their way.

I'm having a bit of a dejá vu moment when the meaning of their words hits me. How did I not know?! Am I really that unobservant? Jesus, I feel dumb. Holy shit, Calum isn't with Mali. They're siblings! Siblings who obviously love each other a lot. But. They're. Not. A. Couple. I feel so bad for getting pissed at Calum for doing whatever he was doing with Brooke behind Mali's back. But I also feel relieved. Not that this revelation increases my odds any, but I no longer feel like I have competition. And that's just what I needed to make it through the rest of the day without a care in the world.