london boy | wroetoshaw

sixteen

Callum Airey had known Mia her whole life, and even a little bit more considering he was there when her mum was pregnant with her. He was there the day she was born, the day she came home from the hospital, and every day after that. 

Maybe it was because she was practically family to him, or maybe it was because he loved her like a sister, but he always felt the need to protect her. There wasn't anything he would do for his own sister that he wouldn't do for Mia. There wasn't anything he wouldn't do for Mia, full stop. 

When she was 4 and he was 7, Mia started crying because a boy in her class pushed her over at the park. The boy who had pushed her over only did it because he had a crush on her, but Cal didn't care. Cal tackled the boy and told him to never go near her again, and it wasn't the last time he did that for Mia either. 

Cal had been there for her every time she needed him, whether she knew she needed him or not. While he wasn't the most traditional in his forms of comfort, usually resorting to poking fun at her until she was laughing so hard she forgot why she was upset in the first place, he was still there for her.

He knew when she was hurting, better than she knew it herself most times. So when 3 years ago he heard from her older brother that she was planning on bringing her 'wonderful new boyfriend' to dinner over the weekend, he booked the first flight back to Scotland to meet the donny himself. He didn't even know she was seeing someone, let alone that she had been dating this guy for nearly 7 months. 

Within 5 minutes of meeting Matthew Denton, Cal had no doubt in his mind that he would break Mia's heart. He was arrogant, demanding, and a right prick to her. To make it worse, Matthew had plastered on this fake good guy persona that Cal saw right through. But Matt wasn't the only one he saw through, he could tell Mia was different. That this guy had changed her. 

It was impossible for him to be there for her every time Matt upset her, because the truth was she never went crying to Cal about it. She knew that eventually her and Matt would make up, just like they always did, and she didn't want Cal's impression of her boyfriend to get worse and worse with every passing day. He though of him poorly enough as it was. But sometimes he still figured it out, and he would still be there for her. 

So when Callum Airey got a phone call from his flatmate in the middle of his stream saying that there was something wrong with Mia, he dropped everything and went right over. He had a key, one that her parents had given him back when there was a tenant living there. So he gave her a text that he was coming and not to get scared when the door opened. 

He unlocked the door quietly and once he shut it behind him, he took in the mess that had taken over the apartment. She wasn't in the kitchen or the living room, the places that she usually was when he would stop by. He furrowed his eyebrows as he slowly walked through the flat, popping his head into her office before realizing she wasn't there. 

But that was when he saw her, and his face fell. She was curled up on her side, on top of her bed with an expression that would break anyones heart. Her eyes were swollen from crying, her arm was hanging off the bed, and she had this blank look on her face. A look so blank and dead, that Cal's heart almost stopped. 

She knew he was there, she heard him walk in and could sense him standing there. But she couldn't bring herself to move, not her eyes or her body. She just focused on the shopping bags she had dropped on the floor earlier, her eyes going in and out of focus as she laid there- practically lifeless. 

"Hey Mia," He cooed, sitting himself down on the edge of her bed, "heard you've been feeling a bit down."

She didn't even move, not even a flinch. Her breathing was eerily smooth, and eerily quiet.