WRONG NUMBER / CH

chptr 7

from: leia!!
hey

Hey.

from: leia!!
i aced my trig test!!!!

That's great! I know you studied hard for it.

from: leia!!
im so freaking happy

Me too.

from: leia!!
i feel gr8 today

I'm glad.

On the one-month mark, he found himself replying to all her messages.

Mentally, of course.

Throughout the weeks he had become completely wrapped up around Leia's life. He was even talking about it sometimes to his friends ("Wow, she plays League? Hot," Michael commented the other day). Somehow her messages became a source of comfort for him, instead of the other way around. Because even if he was having a shitty day, she always managed to cheer him up.

God, if only he knew her personally.

So here he was, an eighteen-year old boy completely whipped on a girl he knew nothing about, save for some details she let out.
1) She was seventeen.
2) She had brown, wavy hair (he saw it in a picture, but her back was turned).
3) She was poor in Math.
4) She had a puppy named Cerby (cute cute cute cute).
5) She hated her father and;
6) Her parents were getting divorced.

The last two facts were gathered on Dark Days, as Calum called them. She's had a few of them over the past month. Her parents' fights often led to screaming and crying and at one sickening point, hitting. Calum hated her dad more than anything else, and wished they would just leave the lousy bastard.

She still loves him, Leia once texted. But Calum didn't understand why.

Two days ago, her mom told her she was divorcing her dad. Leia was relieved, of course, but at the same time, extremely sad. It meant she was now from a broken family. The way she texted made Calum's heart break over and over.

But today she was happy and bright, having passed her Trigonometry test. And because of that, Calum was in a cheerful mood as well.

"You seem disgustingly happy," Michael commented during lunch.

"It's almost as if your mood is directly proportionate to Leia's," Ashton added, cracking a smile at the pale boy beside him.

Calum was in too much of a good mood to be angry at them, so he laughed. "I guess," he said.

Luke was chewing his pizza thoughtfully. After he swallowed, he asked, "Have you ever thought of like, looking for her? Like on Facebook or something?"

"Don't know her last name," Calum replied without hesitation. Of course the thought had come across him countless times.

They resumed their lunch without another word of Leia, but Calum was delighted to see that she had sent him a picture of what she was having for lunch.

from: leia!!
very good day indeed

It was a picture of a monster slice of pizza, and Calum felt a huge wave of affection for her. He was grinning like an idiot.

"What? Did she send you nudes?" Ashton peered across the table to peek at Calum's phone.

"Why the fuck would she send nudes to her sister?" he snapped, putting his phone away and rolling his eyes at Ashton. But because of that comment he was painfully reminded that all this was just a lie. He wasn't sending those to him. She thought she was sending them to Anna.

Calum shrugged the thought off. What she didn't know wouldn't hurt her.

But deep inside he was aware of what was really bothering him. It wasn't her. It was himself.

Because he knew. And he was beginning to realize that he was the one getting hurt by all this.

He knew he was starting to fall for her.