Almost Forgot - Calum Hood

XXIII - Tie

Chapter 23 – Tie

"I'm home!" came a voice as soon as the front door closed.

"Nii-chan! Welcome back!" Airee's response came, immediately leaving Calum alone in the entertainment room to greet his brother by the front door.

"Nii-chan?" Calum asked to no one in particular.

"Come on, I want you to meet someone!" He heard Airee's muffled voice from outside and a couple of footsteps nearing the room he was in. Before he knew it, Airee appeared by the door with an older guy.

"Calum! Come here!" Airee said and he was quick to put down the game controller and walked in towards the two. "Calum, this is my big brother, Keith. Nii-chan, this is Calum. He's the friend I told you about."

Calum looked at the tall guy in front of him. By the looks of it, he's way more older than the both of them. He has seen pictures of him somewhere in the house, but he looks totally different in the flesh and he vaguely remembers Airee mentioning about an older brother who's away because of school.

"Hey." Keith smiled down at him, holding a hand out for him to shake and with no hesitation, he did and smiled back.

"Nice to finally meet you, Keith."

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=--=-

"Why do you call him Nii-chan?" Calum asked, as the three of them sat around the dining table, waiting for the pizza to heat up. It was the weekend and both their parents are out to some fancy dinner for adults with Mali, since she's already legal, and that's why they're all left at home and the two invited Calum over.

"Oh, you know that our mum's Japanese, right? Well, big brother is nii-chan in Japanese." Airee explained while Keith listened and Calum nodded in understanding, his mouth forming an 'o'.

A small ding from the oven caught their attention and Keith was quick to stand up from his seat and slipped his hand into the mitten before pulling out the heated pizza and placing it in front of the two.

"Dinner is ready!"

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

"Had fun?" Airee asked once her brother entered the front door.

"Yeah, I did. That Calum...he's good." Keith replied.

Airee let out a laugh. "I told you so! You completely underestimated him!" She replied after she calmed down, a smug smile painted on her lips.

"Shut up." Keith glared and threw a small pillow that rested on one of the couches straight to her face but she caught it before it could hit her.

"So, what happened? Who won?" she asked, despite knowing that Calum's team won.

"Shut up, Airee."

Ever since Keith knew that Calum played soccer, it has been a traditon for them to play soccer with a couple of kids around their age from their neighborhood. They would rent this soccer field and would play to their hearts content and the losing team will have to treat the winning team some drinks from a nearby convenience store. It made Airee really happy that Calum found a place within her brother's group because she knew how much he loved to play soccer but couldn't find someone to play it with. But it also annoyed her that her brother has been stealing Calum from her countless of times to play with him and he barely has any time to spend with her anymore. Just remembering it caused a frown to break out from her face.