All the Beautiful Things

XIII

LATER THAT NIGHT, Everest drove Calum back home after the sun had fallen to it's nightly resting place, hidden behind the stars. The sound of ocean waves, playing softly through the blonde boy's car speakers, filled the atmosphere with a calm air that relaxed both boys in the vehicle.

Calum, as usual, constantly shifted in his seat and lightly drummed his fingertips over his thigh. This was not out of awkwardness, but out of the sheer need to move, as staying still was a challenge he had yet to overcome.

The two drove in a peaceful silence for seven minutes, until Calum's need to run his mouth overran his desire to stay calm and quiet. "Did you know Casper's in Argentina? His family lives there and he usually visits them for a month every year! I got to go with him once, we had a lot of fun. Argentina is a fun place, you know? Such lovely scenery and everyone is fluent in Spanish. I took amazing pictures there, but they're all in Polaroids because I didn't want to go through the trouble of processing them when I got home, so I just did it the easy way. But the Spanish was nice! I know some of it, Cas taught me. Como estas is how you say 'how are you?' Did you know that?" Calum asked, jerking around in his car seat as he spoke.

Everest did not remove his eyes from the road, as he did not want he and his friend to wind up the victims of an accident, but he could already sense that Calum had that glint in his golden-brown eyes, the same glint he always possessed whenever he rambled endlessly. But he did nod slowly. He did not mention that, being half Latin-American, he was fluent in Spanish as well, courtesy of Estéban Tanner.

Instead, he simply said "yo habla en Español con mi padre frecuentemente."

The smaller boy smiled at this. "I didn't know that..." He answered quietly, unsure of what, exactly, his blonde companion had said, but he assumed it had something to do with Spanish, as that was the language he chose to say it in. Laughing lightly, the blue-eyed boy blinked in amusement.

"I said, 'I speak in Spanish with my father frequently.'"

Calum nodded slowly, sucking in a deep breath. A smile graced his lips and he looked over at Everest fondly. He love learning new information about the blonde, as he ha always been so mysterious and foreign to him that each new fact was like opening a wrapped present.

They continued to drive, cruising down the smooth pavement until the car came to an easy stop in front of Roland's secluded house on top of the hill. Calum, though quite sure his uncle would have it in for him, continued to linger in the light of his good mood.

With Everest, every location felt safe.

-

Calum's bony spine rattled and threatened to splinter as Ronan roughly struck the wood with a broken bottle of champagne, the glass pieces breaking off further with each hit.

The brass knob on the brunette's door was locked, of course, but in his drunken state, the angry man out in the corridor paid it no mind. All he desired was the terror in his weak nephew's golden-brown irises when he was being punished.

He fed off of it, like it was his oxygen. In a way, it was. The man had never amounted to much, always being shown up by his sister, Leighton, and never feeling like his life had worth. So, when he overpowered his scholarly sister's pathetic excuse for a son, he finally felt like he was less of a mistake and on Earth for a reason.

It was an addiction, the abuse to his nephew.

The panicked squeaks Calum never failed to give off fueled Ronan's desire for power and purpose, and the glint in the young boy's eyes made him look like prey, whilst Ronan being the unstoppable hunter. He loved everything about the hunt, even if it meant he spent his afternoon's bloodying his fists over the brunette's worn bedroom door. It was worth the struggle.