The Redemption of Callie & Kayden

accept. Part of me wants to be cut off from my dad. As I think this, a hint of rage and agony surfaces inside me and I quickly choke it down because I’m not capable of dealing with it without a sharp object to transfer the tearing inside of me to the outside of me.
    “Are we going to get into trouble?” I ask, fidgeting with the bandage on my wrist, peeling the tape away and then pressing it back down.
    “Nah,” he says and inches up to the brink of the water. “He hardly ever comes here. And if he does, he won’t be pissed. He’d probably be happy.”
    I end the conversation there because I know it’s bothering him. Setting the few bags of clothes on the ground, I lower myself down to sit in the sand and I bend my knees up and rest my arms on top of them. Luke plops down too and we just sit there, letting the silence wash away the pain like the water does to the sand.
    I’d probably have stayed that way if my phone didn’t start beeping. I move my arms off my knees and take my phone out of my pocket.
    Callie: Where r u?
    Me: We r at the beach. Where r u guys?
    Callie: At the shopping center looking for you guys.
    Me: Go to the end of the street and head toward the beach. We r right there on the first opening.
    Callie: OK
    I put my phone away and rest back on my hands. “They’re headed over here.”
    Luke bobs his head up and down as he stares off at the horizon. “What are we going to do tonight? I don’t want to just sit around and do nothing. I came here to do… something.”
    “I think I’ll just stay in.” I stretch out my legs. “I don’t feel like going out.”
    He mulls over what I said with his brown eyes squinty against the light. “Look,” he says. “I know you’ve been through a lot, but… but I think the last thing you need is to sit around and think about it.”
    “We don’t have to go out.” Callie’s voice floats over my shoulder and my body immediately goes as rigid as a board as emotions rush through me.
    I turn my head and look at her. The sun is shining in her big blue eyes that are shielded by her long lashes. Her hair is pulled up and her skin glistens from the heat. She has a bag in her hand and a skeptical look on her face. Seth’s next to her, carrying an extensive amount of brown paper bags with a purple flower logo on them. He’s staring at the ocean with a puzzled look on his face.
    I stand to my feet. “What did you get?” I nod toward the bag and force a smile to my lips. “Anything good?”
    Her brow puckers as she glances down at the bag in her hand and then back at me. “I don’t know.”
    The way she says it, with such perplexity, makes me wonder what’s in the bag. I start to reach for it to tease her. “Can I see?”
    She shakes her head quickly and moves her hand around to her back, her cheeks turning a little pink. “No way.”
    Okay, now I’m even more curious. I look at Seth for an explanation but he just shrugs nonchalantly. “Callie’s just being Callie.”
    I’m not sure what that means because Callie being Callie means her being sweet and adorable, but she’s acting offish and twitchy. “Okay… do you guys want to go get something to eat?”
    Callie nods and I can’t help but think about how she told me she makes herself throw up. I’m not sure what to do with this or if there’s anything I
can
do. I understand bad habits and how they own you.
    Luke grumbles something as he pushes up to his feet and brushes the sand off his jeans. “No sushi or crab or anything seafood related.”
    A smile forms at my lips. “I think we established the first time the four of us went out that none of us like seafood.”
    Seth raises his hand above his head and then points a finger down at himself. “Um, hello. I’m pretty sure I said that I love sushi.”
    “You did,” Callie tells him and then peeks through her eyelashes at me. “It was Kayden and me who said we didn’t.”
    “It seems like forever ago,” I mumble as my mind travels back through time, back to when I was first met her, back when everything was nothing. God, she’s incredibly gorgeous in more ways than most people will ever know. As stupid and as cheesy as it may sound, she’ll perpetually own my fucking soul—or the pieces of it that are left, anyway.
    I don’t know how she does it. How I can be feeling so shitty one minute, and then she smiles and for a second the pain is gone.
    I can’t take this anymore. I need her like I had her before. I need her right