𝘿𝙀𝘾𝙀𝙋𝙏𝙄𝙊𝙉 • 𝙇𝙍𝙃

30. i trust you

I TRUST YOU

"You're smoking."

"You're observant." Calum says, taking one final drag from his cigarette before dropping it on the patio and stepping on it.

Lila scowls and picks up the cigarette butt. She goes back in through the sliding glass door, tosses it in the trash, and comes back out. "Is something wrong? You don't smoke often. Or litter. I'm not sure which is worse."

The boy chuckles dryly before running a quick hand through his hair. "I'm stressed. I hate seeing him that way."

Lila nods in understanding. "I didn't know he had a soft side. He was nice to me when he was drunk, but knowing he was hurting under all the alcohol made me feel sad for him."

"Look at that, your heart is almost as big as your head."

"Ha. Don't think I forgot about you calling me eggplant last night." She kicks the back of Calum's knee.

He retaliates by flicking her arm. "Not a fan of that one? How about grape jelly? Grape for short, of course. Or just jelly? Maybe jam? You better stop me because I can go on and on."

"You talk a lot when you're stressed." Lila can't help but laugh.

"The more I talk the less I worry about him."

"Can I ask you some questions then? Get to know you better?" If he's willing to talk, she is willing to listen. Calum and Lila know a lot of surface level things about each other, nothing too deep. And maybe she can manage to learn a few things about Luke too...

"Knock yourself out. Literally, if you're really feeling it."

She scoffs and chooses to ignore that last part. "How did you and Luke meet?"

His eyes widened a bit. "Straight shooter, huh? I like it." He clears his throat before continuing. "I had just run away from my last foster home. I was starving and ended up shop lifting a few snacks from a grocery store. The manager would've tased my ass if it wasn't for some ugly blond kid." Calum laughs at the memory.

"Luke pulled out a gun. Imagine a skinny little white kid waving around a fucking firearm. The manager was scared shitless, but I wanted to be his new best friend. I told him I had nowhere to go and he took me back to his place. The rest is history."

Lila can't help but wonder what Luke was like as a child. "Has he always been so grumpy?"

"Grumpy? That's putting it nicely. He's always been an asshole, yeah, but he has his reasons. Sometimes you have to be a dick to get people to take you seriously. When Luke got his dad sent to prison, he had to take over the gang and–"

"Wait," Lila puts her hands up, stopping the boy in his tracks. "He didn't tell me about that." As curious as she is, it wouldn't be right to hear this from Calum.

"Oh? You two talked for a while last night. I just assumed he told you about everything." Calum shrugs at the innocent mistake.

"He didn't tell you what we talked about?"

"No, and I wasn't going to ask." He hasn't seen Luke since last night. It was still early, only nine, and he figured Luke would be sleeping most of the day and wouldn't want to be bothered.

Lila messes with the hem of her shirt, growing nervous. "I sort of told him I was thinking of tracking down my birth parents. Have you ever tried to find yours?"

"A handful of times, yeah. I hit a dead end every time, almost like someone doesn't want me to find them." It's been a few years since he's actively looked for his parents. It was extremely discouraging digging through hours of records and notes only to come up empty handed. The farthest he got was an address, which wasn't much considering the house had burned down years ago. He was going to dig deeper but Luke convinced him it was a waste of time.