Weightless

14) Passing Time

20th of February 2017 (8 days later)

Ethan's busy measuring how many grams of peanuts he's going to allow himself for dinner tonight when Cal rings.

"What?"

"That's mean," Cal says from the other line. "You're meant to start with 'hello', that's what's called being polite."

Ethan smiles to himself. For this particular and briefly snatched moment, he's not got that irritating madness against Cal - presently, he seems to actually like him. It's odd, but probably because he slept a little today. Though he's hated Cal for quite a bit recently. Honestly, he's not sure why.

"Did you call for a reason, or just to teach me a lesson on being polite?"

"Yeah, actually," Cal says. "Just wanted to ring and let you know that I'm... working late tonight."

Ethan pauses, obsessively checking he's not given himself over his limit of peanuts by mistake, before responding to Cal. "You can tell me you're out with Mollie, you know. I won't get jealous."

Cal sighs from miles away. "Alright, I am going out with Mollie. Probably for a while. But I'll be back before morning, promise."

"Cal, it's fine, I'll be alright on my own," Ethan says. He empties his couple hundred grams of peanuts into a bowl and begins cutting an apple in half, phone pressed between his shoulder to his ear. "I am a grown-up, you know. Also, you could've texted."

"You never reply!"

"I get busy," Ethan says. "Plus my phone has been playing up, recently."

He's a liar. It's only because most days he despises Cal, so he ignores any message he's given. Perhaps that's because he takes care of him, and Ethan really doesn't want him to. The same as what he says to Mollie, often times. Or maybe it's just a brother thing - or a 'him' thing - and he's over-thinking it. Yeah. That's probably it.

"Alright, alright," Cal says. Then his teasing tone takes control. "Aw, are you stroppy because I disrupted your tea?"

Ethan looks down at his few peanuts and chopped apple. He shakes his head to thin air. "No, you didn't. It's still cooking."

"What are you having?"

Fighting back his now bubbling annoyance against Cal, he sighs. It's always the mention of food that makes an inner spark light up inside Ethan. "Curry. I've actually got to cook the rice now, so go away."

"You're such a loving brother. Anyway, I'd better go, actually. Night, Ethan."

"Night, Cal," Ethan says. Before he hangs up, he quickly adds: "Drive safe, okay?" He's an asshole, but Ethan still doesn't wish ill fortune on him. That's siblings for you.

Then he's left alone as Cal says goodbye after hanging up, and the glaring feeling of loneliness as he's left alone says hello.

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25th of February 2017 (5 days later)

Another 5 pounds. Brilliant.

Ethan looks down at the scales. His hard work is beginning to pay off. Though it's not hard work, really - it'd be harder work to gain the weight. But he still feels accomplished and motivated. Not as much as he used to, though. The voice in his head is being very demanding, recently.

From his starting weight, he's lost over 20 pounds. That's about 9 kilograms. It seems fast, but he remembers vaguely that he didn't ever feel in the 'mood' to eat even back in 2016, which he supposes must've helped. Lucky.