smoke • calum hood

un .

before you read! this story is going to be told in a mix of flashbacks and present tense, which will be indicated in the title and povs! also pls ignore the fetus writing in the first few chapters it gets so much better i promise lol

one: august - where it all started

it was sunday night before junior year started, and i was reviewing my summer work because i was sure that my teachers would have a pop quiz or two. and i constantly felt as if i was gonna crumble from the pressure my parents put on me to be absolutely perfect.

but i was tired of studying, i'd been at it for four hours straight and the sun was beginning to set. tossing my highlighter to the side, i decided to go out for some fresh air by climbing out of my window onto the roof and jumping down. i didn't know why i did this, why i couldn't just tell my parents i was going for a walk and leave from the front door. probably because on the rare occasions they were actually home, i was interrogated every time i left the house. i think that sometimes i wanted to pretend i was someone else. someone free, someone who could take risks and not worry about the consequences.

i think that's how i first knew you were different. after all, when we first met you always told me to live a little and stop playing it so safe. you were good at that, bringing people out of their shells and making them feel safe somehow.

i walked for a good ten minutes until i finally left my neighborhood that i always dreamed of escaping. it wasn't like i lived in a bad area, it just never felt like home. it was too perfect. i began to truly hate it after you left, though. there were bits and pieces of you everywhere. in my front yard, where we would scream at each other until we were blue in the face only to make up just as quickly. the house next door, where you got soaked from running through the yard because you were sneaking out of my house at seven in the morning so my parents wouldn't see. you were everywhere.

i stopped at a park just outside the gate. i loved this park when i was younger, because my dad would always push me on the swings until it got too high and i wanted to get off and play on the monkey bars instead. but then my father got his first promotion and we didn't go to the park much after that.

i sat on the swings, breathing in the fresh air that always calmed me down, until my peace was rudely interrupted by the smell of cigarette smoke. i wasn't complaining, the smell of smoke never really bothered me, but i couldn't help but wonder why someone would ever want to damage their body like that. then a figure appeared from the bushes, pausing my thoughts.

i took the earbuds out of my ears as you sat down on the swing next to me. now, i was kind of scared because a boy who was dressed in all black and had a cigarette between his lips sat next to me, but i thought you looked to be about my age, so how bad could you really be?

"adeline hemmings," you said before taking a drag of your cigarette. "fancy seeing you here."

"adelin." i corrected, not finding it that weird you he knew my full name. my family is very well known around our small town, we made the local news several
times. not only did each of my parents come from a decent amount of money, my dad is the top orthopaedic surgeon in the state, and my mom is a prominent real estate who has pioneered several charities and fundraising events. on paper, they were perfect.

and their children luke and adelin hemmings, their twin boy and girl, were no exception to the perfect standards their parents held themselves to.

"well, adeline, what are you doing out here by yourself? it's dangerous, you know?" you talked down to me. i've always hated when people did that. "oh wait, you probably have a personal bodyguard to take you everywhere. i don't have any weapons, by the way." you spat sarcastically, your words taking a jab at me.