All the Beautiful Things

-- Introduction

THIS IS A CHAPTER OF THE BOOK! DO NOT SKIP.

EVEREST TANNER was a mystery. From the very day he entered the world, people were curious as to why the boy was so... Dull. When he was born on the eighteenth of January, at the devilish hour of two in the morning, he did not cry. There was nothing wrong with the child, necessarily, but he did not cry. His cobalt blue eyes were wide open, and they stared around, but his thin pink lips remained sealed, like an unopened package, freshly delivered on one's doorstep.

Hours of various medical procedures tried to solve the question that lingered in the air like smoke after a fire. Why didn't the baby cry? Babies are supposed to cry when born, it is simply how life works. But no amount of needles and tests could provide a proper answer. He was a strange one from the start. Now, not only did the baby not cry, but he made the hospital staff uncomfortable. His large eyes never closed, they wandered the surrounding area, but there was nothing there. His eyes held none of the intense emotion that humans possess. This had bothered everyone assigned to his case.

The boy's parents, of course, thought there was nothing wrong. "He's just unique," they would say, but after a while, even they began to sound unsure.

They named him Everest Harold Tanner. The name "Everest" was decided by his mother, Everleigh Tanner, who combined her name with her husband's name, Estèban. The name was unique, much like the boy branded with it. "Harold" was chosen just to add simplicity.

For the entirety of Everest's childhood, his emotionless and blank stares lead to some rather unfortunate outcomes. Extended family tended to avoid the boy, as his eyes seemed to burn holes in their skin. He was a rather attractive child, with his naturally tanned skin and his thick blonde hair. But looks did nothing for the way he effected people on the inside.

By the time the boy was two years old, his parents learned that their son simply felt no emotion at all. He never cried or laughed, never angry or embarrassed. No one understood why he was born without such a vital part of human nature. No developmental delays were detected during Everleigh's pregnancy or the boy's time as an infant.

The biggest shock, however, came when Everest was four years old and his parents were making the attempt at teaching him simple knowledge, such as color names and the alphabet. He excelled at letters and numbers, and he could speak at a very advanced level, but he could not understand colors. For months, his parents tried to teach him colors, but the only ones he could get right were black, white, and gray. One trip to the pediatrician told the Tanner family that Everest was blind to color. He could not see red, green, blue, or any color of the rainbow.

It was truly a mystery, and the boy was completely full of surprises.

By the time Everest came of age to be enrolled in high school, he was the most intriguing boy anyone had known. He never did learn how to see color, he never developed emotions, but on top of this, he refused to use contractions. Instead of "don't" he said "do not" and "it is" in place of "it's." To complete the ensemble of mysterious traits, the boy had no filter when speaking. He spoke the truth, and a little too brutally.

Not many people could stand Everest Tanner. He had few friends, and many people were afraid of him, for whatever reason. He was fine with this, as he felt no emotion. He was blank, missing out on some necessary human qualities.

For seventeen years, he lived this way, and it was fine. He was complete, and did not need emotion or colors to live a normal lifestyle. But fate would change this, as it tends to do.

Calum Marcus Campbell was Everest's polar opposite. Though the boy shared a birthdate with Everest Tanner, that was where the resemblance stopped.

Calum was the youngest child of a family filled with six older sisters. He was the baby of the family, and treated like royalty. This resulted in the boy growing up to be quite clingy. He loved human contact, no matter what form it was in.

He was incredibly hyper, as if he had an entire pot of coffee for breakfast each morning. Never did he stop moving. The boy's energy allowed him to find humor in everything, and he never stopped laughing.

If people were asked to describe Calum, the most common words used were "adorable," "funny," "hyper," "clingy," and "bright." His hair was a curly mess of brown, accompanied by natural streaks of gold. His golden-brown eyes were warm and could make even the saddest person feel a sense of peace.

But he did have his own struggles, as well.

At the age of sixteen, Calum's mother and father were arrested for thievery of one million dollars. They had gone broke and wanted to provide for their family, no matter how badly it affected them. Their intentions were good and their hearts in the right place, but they lacked common sense and that alone cost them their freedom.

So Calum was sent to live with his closest relative, his mother's unmarried brother named Ronan. The man was a savage, but he provided Calum with a home and food, so who was the teenager to complain?

But Ronan had a tendency to get drunk, and when he would drown his sorrows in alcohol, he lost control and tended to hurt Calum, taking his pent up rage out on the only person who associated with him. He would hit and kick his nephew for long periods of time before drowsiness would take over and he would go to sleep, leaving Calum in pain on the wood floors.

The boy knew this was wrong, but he had no other family to go to. His sisters all had husbands, while one had a wife, and lived in completely different states. If Ronan were arrested, Calum would be sent into foster care, and who wanted to adopt a hyperactive teenager boy? No one.

So he pit up with it, knowing he was free as soon as he turned eighteen.

Everest and Calum were far from each other's radar, being so different in personality, but they would end up connected eventually, it was only a matter of time until the stars aligned and they were to cross paths, the energetic and the emotionless.

See, Everest was to be Calum's escape from reality, and Calum, Everest's savior. Neither knew they needed each other, but they didn't need to. Because life had a way of making things happen.

All it took was one little push, sent by the force of life itself.

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Another book by me!

Word Count: 1189

I'm so excited to share this book with you! I love it already, and it's so different from what I usually write, so here we go :)

-Ri