The Other Girl

Chapter II

The day Calum and I met—in the acquaintance sense of the word rather than the gala meet-and-greet one—could have been finer, but I suppose the unrefined rawness and utter comicality of the scenario was the reason for our continued acquaintance and later friendship since the other aspects of the experience were lost on our eight-year-old selves.

Calum was the son of Samuel Gabriel Remington, the head of Remington & Royce, a billion-dollar marketing establishment known for its efficiency and the massive consumer markets it builds. Sam's father had started the company with my great-uncle who had died shortly after due to a stroke. My mother's family decided to sell the company to Calum's family at a fair price and the families have been close friends ever since. Calum's dad deeply admired my mother, often saying things like "back in the day" this or "I remember when" that, so Calum and I were not strangers to each other.

The incident—we refer to it as such since we now understand the implications— was actually a product of Quinn's lack of filter, something she grew out of soon after. Like all dramatic, desperate-to-prove-themself third grade girls, the female portion of class A2 was having a heated discussion about boys at the lunch table.

It was a dramatic sit-down in which all the girls would lay claim to a guy— or that's what we hoped at the time. I tried to be one of the nonchalant "cool" girls who simply pursed her lips and shrugged, but Quinn announced that such was boring and everyone decidedly paired me with— of course— Calum.

I don't remember the specifics but it ended with me sitting next to Calum in the back row of the bus on the next field trip, which was to the aquarium. Embarrassing didn't begin to cover it, and halfway through the trip Quinn broke out into the infamous 'sitting-in-a-tree' line featuring yours truly.

I didn't know what to say after that— I was mortified and still would have been if I liked the guy, but Calum just laughed it off. Of course I vehemently denied all participating feelings, but that just inspired cries of "denial," further convincing everyone of my supposed "hots" for Calum.

What happened next and how it happened I don't remember, but soon enough Calum had everyone laughing, telling them that he believed me when I said that I didn't like him and asking me whether we could be friends. I agreed immediately and thus the commotion was resolved.

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    "Hey Stells," Calum said while staring at the ceiling of his dorm. His roommate, Tim, was out, and Calum took that chance to sneak me in during the after hours. We would lie in the dark after all was done, enjoying each other's presence until we fell asleep.

    "Cal?" I murmured, yawning. "What's on your mind?"

    "I was just thinking... What am I supposed to do after I graduate?" he said. I laughed lightly.

    "Oh Cal, aren't you forgetting that you have an entire company in your family's name? Just dabble in that and you'll be fine," I told him. We were similar in that fashion— two wealthy, popular, perfect kids that had everything they needed to do laid out before they were even born. It was no longer a question of what to do— it was a question of when you were willing to do it.

    "I know that Stells. I just—" he sighed, the sound reverberating throughout his body. I shifted slightly as he drew his arm up to his face to cover his eyes. It was something that he did when he was tired and confused, an action that made it seem like he wanted to stay there and hide forever rather than go out and face the world.

    "Cal, what's wrong?" I asked, sitting up to face him properly.

"Stells, I just... I don't know if I want to join the company," he said. He kept his face covered as he spoke, almost like he was ashamed to say what he did.