BRUISED :: CAKE

three • how to forget

trigger warning // physical abuse
this chapter takes place when calum was a lil 14 year old, to clear up any confusion.

Sydney, Australia.
Age 14
How to Forget: A Short Story by Calum Hood

After the breakup, call your mom. Tell her you're coming home early. When she asks, "Why? It's not Christmas yet," ignore her and tell her you miss her. Avoid crying at the family party. You don't have to take people's comfort - do it on your own. Cut him out of your life completely. Hold in all of your emotions. All of the tears, the screaming, even the laughing. Laughing at your old memories together will just remind you of him more. Remember, you're supposed to forget him. There will be something inside of you, dying to let out all of your feelings. Fight it. Hold back. I know it hurts like hell right now but you don't need him. You never needed him. You never needed anyone. Become a secondary character in your own novel. Sit in the back of the classroom - skip class, in fact. Become Pluto, but accept your own invalidity. People won't bother fighting over you anyways. Let yourself fade out into dust. Nothing. You are nothing.
You can do this by not thinking of him. Don't plant roses - that was his favorite flower. Don't read Shakespeare - he quoted Romeo and Juliet all the time. Pack up your bags. Throw away everything you kept of his - his sweaters, his books, his records.
Pick up a new hobby. You decide to take up photography and spend the money you were going to spend on a Valentine's day gift on a new, shiny camera instead. Your guys'- I mean, your home has always been dark, so you turn the flash on the camera. Take a picture of your eye, force yourself to look at yourself rather than him - a shade of blue, with specks of green and slight flickers of cerulean. You can't take a picture of your other one - it's all bruised and sore. Say you ran into a pole while texting a friend and walking. It'll heal. Maybe your memories won't, but the scars will fade and you can cover them up with bandages.
Calum stopped typing. His delicate hand reached up to touch his right eye - the one that was hurt - soon to flinch it away with a whimper. It wasn't healing fast enough, and he had school tomorrow. He figured he would just cover it up with concealer, but his mom said he should just leave it alone until it's fully healed. Calum dreaded explaining the eye to his best friend, Ashton. Ashton was sure to push him and ask what happened to his eye and what happened to Zach and why they broke up. Calum decided to just stick to his main story he was telling everyone else - hit by a pole.
Calum had always been a pretty friendly guy. Always smiling, willing to help anyone out who asked for it. He had a loving family too - his mum and older sister, Mali. He's always been so thankful for both of them, and even though his dad was gone, he was thankful for his boyfriend, Zach.
Zach was an older guy, having a 3 year difference on Calum. Calum was 14 while Zach was on his last year of high school, 17. Their relationship had began beautifully, and Calum slowly fell more and more in love each day. If only Zach felt the same. Calum couldn't help but notice that Zach was becoming more and more dark towards him as the months passed by. Their honeymoon stage was over and they'd been together for about 2 months, so Calum just assumed that everything was fine. Nothing could be all sunshine and rainbows forever, right? But he had no idea the sunshine would turn into his own personal hell after.
The first time Zach hit Calum was in the mid 3rd month, after Calum's football game. Zach didn't stay for all of the game - he stood up and left for the last 15 minutes of it. Calum's position was quarterback that year and he gave his team a great advantage with his playing. Their team won, which Calum was extremely proud of, but he still wondered where Zach went off to. He pouted slightly that his boyfriend wasn't there to congratulate him on his achievement.
After taking off his uniform, Calum changed into an oversized dark green sweater and wandered to the back of the school in search for Zach. He almost ran away when he saw what was in front of him. Zach. Kissing Calum's best friend, Aubrey.
"Zach..." Calum whispered, his throat tight as he just couldn't seem to be able to say any more.
Aubrey giggled, clearly buzzed, either high or drunk - Calum couldn't tell which one, maybe both. Zach had the same stark, serious look on his face he always had. No emotion. Zach didn't feel any pity or regret for his boyfriend in the slightest. That just broke Calum's heart more.
Calum didn't know how long it had been - it seemed like a millennia, because Calum's mind just couldn't wrap around the fact that he just caught his boyfriend cheating. Zach, the boy who Calum was hopelessly in love with. Unrequited love... was the absolute worst fucking feeling.
"How... How long has this been going on?" Calum asked in a small voice.
Zach shrugged nonchalantly, "'Dunno. A month?"
"We've only been together for 3 months..."
Calum's bottom lip quivered. He felt like breaking down and crying right there, on the spot. So he did. An endless stream of tears just ran down his face, sobs escaping his mouth as his shoulders shook. His heart just... shattered into pieces. Just like that. In an instant.
"You don't have to whine about it," Zach rolled his eyes with his arms crossed, an annoyed sigh casted out.
Calum cried more. And more. And more. They seemed to never stop, the cool tears sliding down his cheeks, all at once. That's when he heard Zach's voice mumble, "shut up" before he felt a rough fist on his cheek, the man's knuckles hitting against Calum's soft skin aggressively.
By month five, the abusive was just a normal thing. Calum didn't think of telling anyone about what was happening, or even getting out of the relationship. Calum thought Zach was home. And sometimes home isn't perfect, he told himself. Besides, the bruises usually disappeared within a week or so.
And then it just happened. Zach dropped him out of nowhere. Calum's eye was all swollen and dark red - he was going to ask Zach to take a quick trip to the drugstore for some antibiotics. He caught him outside of school with a cigarette between his lips and his arm around the small waist of a girl he never knew.
"I'm breaking up with you, by the way. You're just a burden," Zach said simply to Calum.
"I hate you," Calum whispered. That's when he felt the cold punch of Zach's hand on his eye.
And you know what Calum did? He didn't cry. He was numb, and that was all thanks to Zach. He took a step in front of Zach and grabbed the cigarette he was smoking out of his lips and into his own. He walked away.
All of the happiness inside Calum just went away. There was nothing left in him. Just aggression and lust. When Mali and Joy began asking why Zach hasn't been around, Calum said they broke up. Zach broke Calum, too. Mali said she never liked him anyway. Calum kept his mouth shut.