bandages || calum hood

eight

"I still have no idea what you are-"

"But Calum," Belle exaggerated my name by dragging it off. "It was where you could swipe your hand across it and it would stay hard, but if you kept your hand still, your hand would sink."

"The Dr. Seuss thing from Kindergarten?" My only recollection of a substance as Belle has described was the green thing my Kindergarten teacher handed us to distract our minds with.

"If you want to say it in a childish way, then yes." Belle rolled her eyes and handed me the cubed mints. I popped one into my mouth and played around with the unique substance in my mouth.

"This is weird." I swallowed the dissolving remnants of the mint and faced her exuberant expression.

"I know right? It tastes like the weirdest thing ever." Belle munched on to three mints in her mouth. A repetitive shocking of my phone interrupted us yet again. Agitated by Michael's constant calls, I answered while clenching my jaw.

"Michael what on Earth do you need?" I've had enough of the drunk Michael; the normal Michael was not even there anymore. With the whole situation with Alice involved, I felt as if things were becoming too dramatic for all of us.

"Calum," Michael's voice cracked as shuffling was causing a static sound in the speaker, "it's our moms. They're here."

~*~*~*

Despising a certain person always left a bitter taste in my mouth despite the horrible things they've done to me or another. After the hell and torture Michael and I have gone through, you would expect us to kick them out of our apartment and threaten to call the police on them.

But we couldn't.

Sitting in front of us in dark brown leather chairs were the women that gave birth to us and taught us how strong a mother's love was. The rectangular shaped table set a distance between us and the sobbing mothers.

"Michael." Michael's mother croaked while dabbing her eyes with a light pink handkerchief she always brought along. She was gotten skinnier since the last time we met her which was a few years ago. Her blonde hair fell down to her chest over the raven black parka that covered her every winter.

"What do you want?" Michael slouched in his chair with pure dislike dripping from his voice. His vibrant pink hair contrasted heavily with his all black attire that he became fond of ever since we moved.

"May I hug you?" No. Mothers aren't supposed to ask if they can embrace the child they've been carrying in their womb for nine months. I couldn't even make eye contact with my own mother who was staring at me the entire time. This just proved that it was too late for our mothers to act like true mothers to us.

"No." Michael downed a swig of Jack Daniels in three consecutive shots. Michael's mother rolled in her lips to prevent her from crying again as she saw her son slowly get drunk. Michael looked at me with his light green eyes rimming with red. I knew the reason his eyes were red wasn't because of the drinks he used to cover them up. Michael, just like me, was trying so hard not to run into his mother's arms to regain the protection she gave.

"What do you want?" I repeated Michael's question to avoid any stalling around with the two women who we lost respect for.

"We want you to move ba-"

"Oh can you be stupider than you already are? Jeez woman. We don't want anything to do with the both of you. Just please leave already." The two mothers widened their eyes in awe at Michael's harsh comeback. I held back in my not so surprised expression. by seeing Michael playing his signature game of not listening to others.

"We are your guardians. We can easily tell the police." Michael's mother was already clenching her fists and by the way she was holding her head up, I could tell she was trying so hard not to do so.

"What would you want to do with us anyways? I am nineteen, mother. I can take custody over Calum." I don't know if things actually worked that way, but Michael would surely win a case over our mothers.

"That is not possible." My mother finally spoke against Michael. It was already itching me to defend Michael.

"Yes it-"

"Tell the police and we will show them our scars." I gained the courage to talk not only to them, but to Michael. The scar that opened on my back by my mother's boyfriend was inked by a moon tattoo to keep in covered.

From that point, they all shut their mouths. They were all guilty of what had happened to us in the past, and they couldn't change a thing about that. All the violent arguments, the spilled bottles of vodka, the glass shards decorating the cluttered floor. It was all them and their stupid boyfriends. However, all the tears shed this day, right after we kicked out our own mothers from our apartment, it was all us.

~*~*~*

"You look really cute today." The obnoxious blonde flirted with Belle. His fluorescent green glasses added to more of the reasons why I would gladly punch his face.

"Oh thanks Luke." Belle smiled at him with a light tint of pink forming on her cheeks. It was bad enough that Luke was also a nursing aid at the office, yet he decided to flirt with Belle every chance he had. He was the typical average kid who studied a lot, but if you take away his blue jeans and black sweater, he would look like a badass with a lip piercing.

"So do you guys want to go watch a movie after this?" Danielle poked her salad with the plastic fork in between her tan fingers. After those three weeks of her making bitter comments about me, she finally accepted my cockiness. Belle wouldn't be able to make it. Her parents barely let her out of her house on the weekdays.

"Oh I can't. My parents won't let me." Belle bit into the cream puffs she always stuffed in her small purple lunchbox.

Called it.

"Probably next time, yeah? What about you Calum?" Daniella faced me knowing that Luke was always available no matter what situation it was.

"No. I need to join my friend with meeting his girlfriend's family." Michael finally dropped the bomb to me last night that he was back with Alice, and that he needed me to prevent him from fucking up.

"Michael?" Belle had a bit of cream still on her lip causing me to look away before anything bad happens.

"Yeah." To be honest, I really didn't mind meeting Alice's family since they would most likely provide first class food.

"Tell me if that all works out well." Belle laughed with the knowledge that Michael was never one to dress up formally.

"Trust me, I will." Luke stepped on his foot again -a usual habit of his- and quietly made a small conversation with Daniella.

"Belle, have you talked to Mandrid yet? Is she okay?" Daniella applied lip gloss to her lips before smacking them together.

"Yes. She's still recovering though. Must've been very hard for her." Belle shook her head with sympathy.

"Who's Mandrid?" Luke beat me to asking about the mysterious girl.

"She doesn't go to this school. She's a junior in fact. She just went through a bad breakup." Belle crumbled up her juice box and adjusted her lace shirt. I dropped the candy bar in my hand in realization.

Mandrid is Ashton's girl.

~

I am in a car right now, and I am tired of hearing my cousins sing.

-kat hoodings biatch