voodoo doll // c.hood

25; someone to lean on

A M I T Y

What if they don't like me?

I pace back and forth in front of Calum's place. She might even call me a prostitute again. Is this dress too short? Paranoid thoughts race through my mind as it ticks closer and closer to 6:30. My steps getting quicker and quicker as I try to calm my self down, not doing a very convincing job.

I see a curtain open slightly then quickly shut again.

Oh god, what if they see me out here, racing back and forth? They must think I'm insane.

The door creaks open enough for someone's head to fit through. Such as Calum's head, which has popped through the crack and has what seems to be like a puzzled expression on his face. He marches out the door at a quick pace, coming face to face with me in no time.

"What are you doing out here? My mum thought she saw some crazy person lingering around the front if our house."

"I uh..." I don't even know what I was doing. "I guess I'm just nervous." I shrug, looking down at my feet.

"Why are you nervous?" He says, seeming surprised that I would be nervous about one of the most important events that will happen in our relationship and could possible end us if it was to all go to shit.

"Are you serious!? This is the first time I'll meet your parents- officially! If they don't like me, you could practically say goodbye to me and this relationship forever." I wave my hands around frantically as I speak.

Calum reaches for my hands, holding them tightly in his as he says, "I won't be saying goodbye to you for a while Amity. If my parents don't like you, then they don't like you." He shrugs. "It makes no difference to how I feel about you." And he swiftly kisses my cheek. "Now do you want to come inside with me?"

I nod, only letting go of one of his hands and squeezing the other tightly between my fingers.

We walk to the door and he leads me inside to where his father was waiting. He had a wide grin on his face and rocked back and forth on his heels.

His mother appeared out from the kitchen, sweetly smiling directly at me.

I hold my hand out to Calum's father to shake and begin to introduce myself.

"It's lovely to meet you, Mr Hood."

He understands my gesture and wraps both of his hands around mine, shaking so hard my arm almost went numb.

"Please, call me Rob. It's very nice to meet you. My boy has been talking about you all day." He drops my hand to pat Calum on the back and let out a hearty laugh.

"And it's great to officially meet you Mrs-"

"Oh darling, just Stephanie is fine. And that incident is practically forgotten." She straightens out her dress, creating an awkward silence amongst us which is soon broken by the sous of her voice again. "Please, come sit down. We are having my infamous spaghetti for dinner." She leads to the direction of the dining table.

"Sounds delicious!" I enthuse.

The table had been set with fine silver and decorative china. Calum pulled out a seat for me in which I accept. The parents coo, expressing how cute we are and how much of a gentlemen Calum is. Calum takes a seat next to me and the father was at the head of the table.

"So Amity, how's school going for you?" Rob begins to make small talk.

"Uh- it's good!" I answer a little to quickly "Or more okay I guess." I murmur.

"Do you know what you want to do when you leave school?"

"Uh-"

"Dinner's ready!" His mum chimes, bearing a pot of spaghetti in her arms. "I'm just going to grab the salad and garlic bread, won't be a tick."

And she was back in what seemed like less than a second.

"Alright, everyone dig in." She takes a seat across from me and begins to serve herself some salad. Everyone fills up there plates and Calum was right, this is the best spaghetti I have ever eaten.

As we eat, Calum's parents- mainly his mother- continue to talk.

"So, time for a little gossip! Amity, don't mind me. The boys know that I always like to share my little gossip that I hear from other Mums in the area, I hope you don't mind!" Stephanie  laughed, causing me to push every bad feeling down that I was feeling and laugh back.

"Dinner tradition?! Go ahead." I smiled back, receiving a thankful look from Calum.

"So I was at the local shops, doing the weekly food shopping for these food monsters, when Colton Stewart's Mother saw me and ran up to me in a rush! She started complaining about how her botox hadn't worked the way she wanted, and I wanted to agree with her because it looked extremely horrible and..." 

"As much as I'm sure we are all enjoying this Steph, I think you should get to the point if there is one." Robert lightly spoke, sending a wink my way. 

"Of course there is a point! I wouldn't waste everyone's precious time if there wasn't. So anyway. she told me that she heard that Lisa Green- you know that drunk and messed up woman whose husband left her. Well apparently she works at some silly cafe, serving drinks and food, and Colton went in there with his friend. She messed his whole order up and ended up throwing the drinks all over him and his friend! What a stupid woman! I haven't heard from her poor kid in a while, her name was Amy or something like that. What a messed up child she would be, if she's still alive." 

I felt sick, as if my stomach was filled with butterflies that were pounding against my insides. My hands were clammy and my head was pounding like an alarm. I should have known that the gossip would have been surrounding my family, this town will never get over us. 

Calum grabbed my hand, his lips slightly parted as he tried to say something, but failed. I couldn't blame him, and for his sake I knew I should just excuse myself and not say a word. But this woman had no right talking about my family like that, even if what she said was true.

"My last name is Green. It's Amity, not Amy. I don't know why people keep getting that wrong. It's Amity, Amity Green." I sternly spoke at last, pushing my chair out and standing up. "That drunk and messed up woman you're talking about, well that would be my Mother. And I guess that makes me the messed up, maybe not alive daughter. I'm sorry, but I don't know what gives you the right to judge my family when you don't even know the full story. To be honest, it's immoral and disgusting."

"I think that's enough Amity-" Rob tried to cut me off, but was interrupted by Calum.

"Let her speak Dad, she has the right to do it after what Mum just said!" Calum yelled, standing up alongside me.

Stephanie froze in place, regaining herself before wiping her hands on a napkin and speaking. "It's not my fault your Mother is a drunk Amity, and I would like if you wouldn't speak to me like that in my own house."

"Well I would like if you didn't talk about my family with such disgust. Yes, my Father left me when I was only young and said to my face that he didn't want me. My Mother has always been open about expressing the idea that I was a mistake and that I was the reason she stared drinking. So yeah, I'm more than a little messed up, but can you blame me? Getting told by your own parents that they have no use for you, and having hardly any friends to help me out!" I yelled, slamming my hand on the table.

"And then I finally meet someone who actually cares about me, and who wants to take time out of their life to be with me. So then I think, things are going too good, something has to go wrong. So then I end up losing my best friend, and my own boyfriend's parents don't think I'm good enough for their child who is fucking 17 years old! Next time you open your arms to someone and want to give them a chance, read a book or something because this is the complete opposite way to do it."

With that, I grabbed my bag off the chair and stormed out of the house, not before hearing Calum speak to his parents.

"I genuinely care about this girl, and amidst all the rumours and gossip I found out that she is one of the most beautiful, caring and strong people I know. The amount of shit she has gone through is unbelievable, but she deals with it. I was so caught up on getting your approval and society's approval, but now I realize. I don't need your approval, it means nothing to me after tonight."

Through the tears rushing down my face, a smile was able to appear. He had stood up for me and made me feel like I finally had someone to lean on. That's all that I ever wanted and I was so glad to have Calum.

He appeared next to me once I was standing on his front verge wiping my tears away in anger. He had a bag in one hand and car keys in the other, and he wrapped his hands around my waist and pulled me in close. He placed a kiss on the top of my forehead as I sobbed quietly into his chest, his comforting traced circles on my back making me feel safe.

He led me to the car, opening the door for me whilst I slipped in and curled into a ball. He got in the driver's seat, giving me a small smile before reaching over and kissing me softly on my lips and doing my seat belt up. 

Once he started the ignition and put his own seat belt on, he looked over at me, the moonlight illuminating his skin whilst he spoke.

"Let's go to the hideout and we can complain and cry about our shitty parents together."

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