Callie and Brandon: A Love Above Family

Chapter 5: Callie

'AJ, move your ass. It's donut and milkshake day at the centre and I am NOT missing the jelly ones just because you overslept!'

Callie shouted behind her as she ran along the street with AJ snapping at her heels. It was Saturday morning, Callie and AJ were volunteering at the youth centre and she hadn't felt this happy in a long time. Giving back to the foster community helped Callie feel more balanced, she'd been through a lot, so many foster homes and so many disappointments. She knew what these kids lived and breathed and it was mostly abandonment and fear. Her app was doing surprisingly well and she'd seen more than one set of siblings re-unite through it. Though she was keeping her eye out for any untoward behaviour. She seen enough abuse within the legal system, Liam would probably haunt her forever.

It was fun to hang out with AJ, he was beginning to feel more like a friend than anything and she needed that. Brandon was her boyfriend and AJ her friend. Callie hoped it would remain that simple.

'Well I would have got to sleep earlier if Brandon hadn't been grilling me about you all evening', he shouted back as he jogged into eye view.

'What do you mean?' Grilling you about me? What did he say?'

Callie's curiosity got the better of her as she digged into his story.

'He was just wondered how I felt about you after everything, the kiss etc'.

'Oh and you said?' she casually replied hoping to get an answer without inciting any other kind of feelings.

AJ looked thoughtful for a moment and replied:

'I told him and I want to tell you too that I like you, I really do but I want to focus on sorting things with my brother and Mike. I think you understand me completely and I can't end up in another home'.

There was nothing Callie understood more than the feeling of needing stability and needing a family.

'Don't worry AJ. I totally understand. To be honest I've been through too much lately and I just want to enjoy life. I want to be free. SO if you don't mind I'm off to steal a free milkshake and shove a jelly down! You in?'

Callie laughed loudly, slightly pushed AJ aside and ran for the door. She wasn't a very good loser, then again neither was AJ. As she heard him running at her heels once again, it was good to be young and free.

****

'Hey, where are you'

Callies phones bleeped at her, a message from Brandon. She hadn't seen much of him this week and she'd missed him. The hardest part about being around him all the time and not being with him, was that she found herself missing him. Missing their little in jokes, missing his support not from a brotherly perspective but from a love one. She was looking forward to spending more time alone. Today had been great with AJ, they'd talked about his brother and he's mentioned they were using her app to keep in touch, which was amazing. Callie had told about how it felt to be adopted and how things were going with her dad and sister. She still couldn't believe that she went from having just her brother to having multiple members of her family.

Callie typed back quickly - Just at the centre, tidying up and then I'm free. Do you want to hang out?'.

The reply came in fast - yes, yes, yes - meet me on the corner by the record store in 15 minutes.

She text back in less than 10 seconds see you soon x, only a bit keen Callie thought. She wasn't sure how personal they should be on their messages since their big discussion, but she'd taken a couple of precautions anyway such as his name in her phone was 'Outlaw' and she'd put a passcode on it, so no sneaky siblings could try and use her phone. It was risky but then again wasn't everything in her life to do with Brandon risky.