Seconds || Calum Hood [on hold indefinitely]

three

everything in italics is a flashback btw (◡‿◡✿)

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*Carter's POV*

My feet slammed against the hot sand as I ran, the burning sensation on my soles distracting me from the empty feeling in my lungs. Caden ran by my side, the shaggy black and white fur of the border collie still clinging to his body from his dip in the ocean.

I was dressed in a pair of shorts and a blue sports bra, more revealing than I would have liked to wear for my morning run, but it's all I could find with all of my stuff already packed into boxes, one of the many inconveniences of moving.

Once again, my mom got tired of where we're living, so, with only two days notice, she told me to pack up my stuff, because we're leaving town. We're moving in a week, but I can't say I'm excited, it's kinda my routine now, I wake up every morning not sure if my mom's going to want to move towns, move countries, move continents.

Sure, it's exciting at times, I'm constantly seeing new places, though the adventure wears off when you can't make any friends or get too attached to anyone, because there's a good chance that in a few months I'll be only a memory.

That's how it always is. I always end up as just a memory.

At least this time she promised we would stay the year, so I can start and finish my junior year at one high school. Thank god, maybe I can actually make some real friends this time.

"Caden, wait up boy!" I call to my dog, watching as he runs ahead, something in the distance catching his eye.

I'm surprised that he's leaving my side. Morning runs are a daily thing for us, and even though this is a different beach, closer to my new town so I could scout it out, he normally sticks straight by me while I jog.

"Caden!" I shout, but he's already gone, disappeared into the stretch of beach.

Sprinting to catch up, the salty spray from the ocean stings my face, and I feel the soreness in my legs that I crave. I love running. I always have, always will. It's the only thing that I can actually call mine, something that hasn't been invaded by my mother's spontaneous tendencies.

I round the bend of the beach only to see Caden barrel into some poor beach dweller, knocking him flat to the ground.

Pushing myself faster, I can see my dog attacking the boy that was pinned underneath him, ferociously licking ice cream off his face.

"Caden! Caden, down boy... down..." I drag him off, allowing the boy to stand up and for me to get a good look at him.

His dark, fluffy hair was littered with sand, and so was his naked torso, his fingers brushing off his abs, and shaking out his hair. Splotches of pink ice cream were layered across his nose, right underneath his deep brown eyes that made me swoon when they looked into mine. His tan cheeks were slightly flushed from embarrassment, but honestly, I was more embarrassed, standing there in my sports bra, trying to restrain a crazy dog, and all sweaty from my run.

"Oh my god, I'm so sorry..." I apologize, glancing down at the ice cream cone lying in the sand. Caden's calmed down a little now, and I let him roam to the spilled desert, watching with caution as he laps it up.

"No, no it's fine..." The boy shrugs it off, wiping across his nose to get rid of the ice cream.

"No, it's not, I'm so sorry, I didn't realize he would, and he just-" I start to ramble when a smile peeks out of the boys lips.