The Quaranteens: Stuck

• 10 ~ Calum •

April 13, 2020 -Miami, Florida
Cara POV

4 hours... I've been on the phone with this man for 4 hours. It took me less than an hour to figure out how to do the chemistry, but for some reason Keanu refused to focus on the Calculus homework. This man...

"Ugh, finally! We started at 4 and it's now 8. I've never done homework for that long ever."

"Sorry babygirl, I get distracted easily."

"You stopped for 12 snack breaks 15 bathroom breaks and 5 conversation breaks. Even after I told you like 20 times that we had to finish this because I didn't want to spend four freaking hours on it."

"Sorry, sorry."

"Who even needs 15 bathroom breaks in the time span of four hours?"

"You know I wasn't actually using the bathroom during that time?"

"You weren't? What were you doing?"

"Cara, I figured out the homework after the second hour. At that point I was just teasing you cause I wanted to talk longer."

"Seriously? There's this thing called asking you know? You could've asked me to talk longer. That was so stressful for no reason."

"Okay, okay next time I'll ask. Sorry for stressing you out." He laughed a little.

I was sorta mad, but I will admit that it was nice having someone go out of their way just to talk to me. Hopefully he doesn't have any ulterior motives because that would suck. I really enjoy his company, so having to stop all communication with him because he can't keep it in his pants would be the worst.

"Hey Keanu?"

"Yeah?"

"Please don't randomly turn into the guy I initially thought you were."

"Where's this coming from?"

"I'm just saying... I've had a lot of guys use me and ask me for things and then call me certain names because of it. I just want to tell you right now that if you want anything from me other than friendship then it's not gonna happen. That's not how I do things."

He didn't say anything for a while, but I could hear his breathing on the other end of the phone. It was slow and steady at first, and then it sounded like he wasn't breathing at all. Finally, he let out a deep breath and started talking.

"Is that what you meant when you said my sister helped you through a bad breakup in sophomore year?"

"Yeah..."

"Cara, babygirl, listen to me when I say that I would never do anything inappropriate to you and I would never purposely say something disrespectful or hurtful to you. I'm not going to do to you what other guys have done."

The little speech was sweet, but it felt like it was missing something. Like there was something he wanted to say but wasn't. I wasn't sure what it was, and it didn't sound like he was lying, just withholding something. It doesn't matter, it's not like I'm not keeping things from him.

"Can you tell me about what happened with your ex? Maybe it could be our next topic? Ex's, I mean."

I sucked in a breath. "Sure. Just give me a second."

I needed a little time to gather all the memories. I had buried all the hurt and feelings deep in me because I didn't want to think about it, but this was one of those things that I wanted Keanu to know about for some unknown reason.

"Over the summer going into Freshman year was when I met him. His name was Calum."

"Calum Wentworth? That Calum?" Keanu interrupted.

"Yes, Calum Wentworth."

"He was one of Ace and I's friends until he tried to lie to us about Ace's at the time girlfriend cheating on him."

"Sounds like Calum. Anyway, I was so excited to start my first year of high school, so I went to this over the summer AP camp for our school. We hung out a bunch during the 2 months and on the second week of school he asked me out. I was really into him. For me, it takes a lot to get me to love someone and I almost loved him. I didn't get to that point, but I almost did." I paused for a second to gather my bearings, then continued.

"We would hang out all the time, I had no reason to suspect he had other motives with me. Well, as a naive freshman I didn't, but whenever I think over it now I realize how he used to flirt with girls in front of me and would always try to grope me. I never let him really touch me until one day he got really aggressive. He tried to..." I trailed off, knowing he'd understand but not wanting to actually say it.

"...with me in his room towards the end of the summer going into sophomore year. I didn't let him and told him that I wasn't ready. He started screaming at me. Calling me names and talking about how I thought I was too good for him. Obviously I didn't, I had spent a whole year with that boy, why would I spend a year with someone who I thought I was too good for? I quickly rushed out of his room and called a cab to come pick me up. I thought he would cool down eventually, but he never did. He called me the next day and told me in excruciating detail what he actually thought of me." I got choked up on my words and a single tear slipped down my face.

"You don't have to continue... if you don't want to Cara."

"It's not even about the fact that he said those things, it's about how much they affected me. He told me that when he first saw me all he saw was a sex toy. His exact words. He didn't think it'd be that difficult to... get with me, but since he realized that I wasn't going to give it to him he couldn't keep up with the facade. He didn't care enough to keep dating me and sneaking around with women who would give him what he wanted, that was too much work. What was even worse was that almost all my friends knew about it. They all knew what was happening and no one even thought to tell me. All of them except for Lucía, of course. Everyone knew she would tell me. It's kind of the reason I don't have many friends now." I sighed, glad that I got the worst of it over with.

"At the time I was extremely insecure and didn't want to bother Lucía with my incessant complaining about how sad I was, so I didn't. Your sister was my saving grace. She realized how sad I was and was there for me. I don't blame Lucía in any way. She knew I was sad, she just thought I didn't want to talk about it because I never did."

Keanu didn't say anything for a long while. Just like that first day he called me not too long ago I stared at the numbers ticking away on my screen.

It took 3 minutes and 27 seconds for Keanu to finally talk again.

"How..." He made an odd sound. It was a sound of frustration. Like he wanted to hit something and cry all at the same time. "Fuck Calum man. How are you okay?"

You don't know the half of it...

"Just wait until I tell you about Caralily..." I said it so quietly that I didn't think he'd hear me, but alas, he did.

"Please, whenever you tell me that story make sure I'm in a good mood. Or at least have some good news to come after."

I giggled at this, "I'll try my absolute best. But what about you? Got any awful ex stories you wanna talk about?"

"I do indeed, but I don't feel like digging up those memories right now. I'll tell you about her tomorrow. How about... snapchat games. Those are actually a lot more fun than I thought they were."

"Sure Keanu, we can play snapchat games." I laughed at how goofy he could be sometimes, it was adorable.

"Yes!"

Even after reliving one of the saddest moments of my life, he managed to make me laugh. I seriously have to make sure I don't mess this whole thing up.

•~•~•

A/N

Hey guys!

Ugh, I love Keanu with my whole heart! I think his reactions to Cara's problems are the cutest. 

Hey, so I completely forgot to say this in the last A/N, but Cara's racism story is based on something I went through in either kindergarten or pre-k I can't remember, anyways the point is it happened. It actually did and I thought this would be a good place to share it so... yeah haha 

Anyway don't forget to comment and vote on the story! 

Later babes <3

S y d.