Perfect Storm

7.

{Calum}

××Monday 11:23 p.m.××

"This is taking too long" I groaned looking out of the window as we drove farther and farther away from our memories. Wednesday was supposed to be our last day in Minnesota, but Joy managed to get us out today and with everything that happened, I wasn't even close to feeling sad about it anymore. I took back everything I said to Joy about not wanting to leave with the exception of my dad. I didn't want to be reminded of Minnesota at all. No matter how hard it might be.

"We're going to stop again in about thirty minutes" Mali sighed. None of us have ever driven this long or far and with David driving the moving truck, Joy driving her car, Mali driving hers, and me driving my own, it wasn't like we could all just rest any time we wanted. We all played an important part on this trip. Every minute of these thirty hours.

"You know we have to talk about last night..." She said to me.

Here we go

"We really don't" I disagreed. I hate when she does. She always wanted to recapture the events of before to fully understand how I felt. But that's the thing, I felt nothing.

"If we don't talk about it now-" but I interrupted her before she could go on.

"If we don't talk about it, I won't have to think about it. You're not a shrink, Mali. It's not your job to try and figure this stuff out so just quit, alright?!" I shouted. 

"Calum, you're never going to get over this if you don't come to terms with it! And what about mom huh? You can't just say that stuff to her" she started to yell. I didn't need healing, I just needed her to stop talking. I sucked on the inside of my cheek and let out a breath. I don't have time for another argument. I hung up tossing the phone onto the passenger seat and a few seconds later my phone rang. I grumbled frustratedly before I answered.

"I don't need to talk about it alright?! I'm fine and mom will be too!" I barked at her.

"Try again" another voice said. I exhaled slightly turning red.

"My bad, hey Z" I apologized. Just the voice I wanted to hear.

"I just called to check up on you" she started. I sighed. Great.

"You knew didn't you?" I asked. She paused a moment before answering.

"It would've been better if she told you instead of us" was all she said. I didn't respond. I couldn't be mad at her. Or anyone to be honest. It didn't matter anymore.

"Lila posted everywhere on Facebook she's single...." She told me carefully. My throat burned.

"It's all over Facebook now?" I asked her. Of course she would, next step was to come up with a fake story of how we broke up that would make her look good.

"Yeah..." She admitted. All at once I felt mixture of rage and sadness. But then all of a sudden, everything went blank. And I was back to feeling nothing.

"...I asked Joy and she told me too" she added. I tried to let out a breath but I couldn't. The knot in my throat refused to let me.

"I knew I shouldn't have told her" I growled shaking my head. I could feel the anger building up inside of me trading out the blank, dead, feeling for the angry one. Hey at least I was feeling.

"Cal..." She tried but I went on.

"If you wanted to know what was going on you should've come to me about it, instead of going to my mother. And she should've kept her mouth shut anyway" I said sharply. I didn't know why I was so mad all of a sudden, I knew that Zzumi was just concerned about me but I couldn't help it. I was just...so, angry.

"Calum, I know it hurts but-" I interrupted once more.

"I'm fine!" I yelled she was quiet and I felt hot tears fall. And then there was a feeling of saddness. Why must this switch have the feelings that I wanted to let go of?

"Slow breaths, Cal" she advised softly. I slowly started to breathe in and out feeling myself calm down. I expected Zzumi to hang up by now but instead she quietly waited for me to finish.

"Why do I care? She's just a girl!" I whispered. It didn't make sense.

"Because she was your girl, and you loved her...and it hurts. Bad" she said.

"I'm done caring about people's feelings, I'm done caring period" I decided after clearing my throat.

"You can't just stop caring, Calum" she sighed. Poor Zzumi, she must be tired of keeping me from making dumb choices.

"That's what got me in this mess in the first place. Caring about people who couldn't care less about me" I said angrily.

"Calum this happens to people everyday, but not everyone decides to change their whole lives because of it" she implied but I wasn't listening. This wasn't the first time I'd been hurt like this, and as of today it'll be my last.

"But then there's the people that do" I reminded her.

"Look, I cant choose your life for you, all I can say is don't try and do anything stupid, okay?" She said.

"Yeah" I answered not paying much attention anymore. 

"I love you, never lose your smile" she told me. I couldn't help but smirk a little. Another thing that I loved about Zzumi is that she could cheer anyone up no matter the situation, even if hers wasn't the best either. She is a whole new version of amazing

"I love you too" I told her. And I  hung up before I said anything else and gripped the wheel.