If Walls Could Talk

Twenty-Five

Calum pauses on his way to the basement, seeing Skye laid out on the patio looking up at the night sky. Her phone is resting on her stomach as she laughs at something. He doesn't want to interrupt, knowing how special calls with Jordan are to her now, knowing she takes each so seriously, and considers them so important. But he can't help but watch her for a while, she always lays out on the concrete on a blanket, never on the sofa he has on the patio, or even on the grass. Always the one place in the middle of the patio. Maybe the stars look better from there? Or maybe it's meaning is deeper than that.

Just as he's about to turn away he catches something she says, seeing her face light up and fall in a millisecond. "I wish I could be there." He focuses suddenly, trying to hear what is coming from the speaker on her chest.

"Grandpa only turns eighty once, Skye, you should be here."

"I will be in spirit, but I don't have money to come home, and is it even safe to come home right now?"

"It's not so bad here, mom says work is extremely boring because they closed the hospitals to anything but an emergency, and not even the COVID units are full. So she has nothing to do."

"It doesn't really matter though, it's not like I could afford a ticket home. Plus, I'd have to beg for the days off."

"My dad is driving to Moab to pick your mom and brothers up and bring them. Since they can't really afford the trip up to Salt Lake either."

"The party is Saturday afternoon?" Skye sighs, and Calum can hear the pain behind it. She wants to be there, and it almost hurts him that she feels she can't be.

"Ya. I'll FaceTime you so you can feel like part of the party."

"Thanks, Jordan. I really appreciate that."

Slowly backing into the kitchen to stay unnoticed in his eavesdropping, Calum hurries to the basement to get on with Ashton. He wanted to run through some of their songs together at least a little bit, worried they'd need a whole lot of time to relearn everything when they finally get out of quarantine.

"We said ten. It's ten after ten. What up?" Ashton calls him out the second the video connects.

"Sorry, Skye was talking to her cousin and I sort of got stuck overhearing part of the conversation." Calum sighs.

"She still adamant about not dating you?" Calum's face scrunches with confusion until he realizes the boys hadn't actually had a good talk in a few weeks. The album release, billboard, and Nika drama had taken over their whole lives and conversations.

"Dude, no. I got her a couple week back." He laughs, "like Wildflower release, Nika's unexplained photo couple week. Shit, I hadn't even realized you guys didn't know about that."

"What the fuck, Calum!? Weeks!"

"Ya." He laughs, "There was a nightmare, and a story, and then a kiss that didn't stay a kiss, and it sort of just barrel rolled after that."

"Wow. I mean, I know you're a private guy, Cal, but you didn't even tell us?"

"It's been a couple weeks from hell, Ash. We've had priorities beyond my love life to deal with."

"I mean, ya. But this is important too, Cal!"

"Sorry." He chuckles.

"Anyway..." Ashton sighs over dramatically, "Why were you eavesdropping?"

"The subject of a family event came up. She hasn't seen her family in like a year, and she was talking to him about how she can't afford to go, and how it probably isn't safe to travel. It hurt me a little bit to hear. She sounded so defeated, like she will never be able to see her family or something." He sighs.