siren » cth
summary:
calum's in a dark place. it's nothing new. ever since his dad died and his mom went insane, nothing's gone right. his best friend left him. his grades plummeted. his life is slowly but surely falling apart.
and then ava morgan moves to trenton high school.
and calum can't keep his eyes off of her.
-
calum has always been weirdly into greek mythology.
blame it on his father. his father was obsessed with greek mythology. he studied everything from the process of athena's birth to the strings of the fates to the minotaur in daedalus's labyrinth. calum inherited his mother's features, but otherwise he was his dad through and through.
he wasn't sure if that was a blessing or a curse when his dad died when he was sixteen.
his life fell apart after that. his mom, crazy with grief, saw therapist after therapist, eventually falling into a nasty habit of drinking that came with unexpected outbursts of rage. his sister, mali-koa, was lucky enough to be away at college. calum was given the blows that were meant for her.
he stopped studying because he spent more time trying to stay sane and trying to stay whole and just trying to stay alive. he couldn't breathe. he didn't eat. he hardly slept, and when he did, he had nightmares. he had no friends. he didn't do anything with his life. he spent most of his time sitting and silently wrestling with his demons, losing more and more battles as the days wore on.
and then one day, she moved to trenton high school.
she was beautiful, even though nobody else thought so. she had big, bushy brown hair and pale blue eyes that were framed with huge, thick glasses and earrings that were most definitely water bottle caps dangling from a wire. Her necklace was a piece of twine with a water bottle cap threaded on. She had multiple bangles made of caps strung together.
"i'm ava," she said, fiddling with one of her bracelets as her eyes scanned the class. they fixed on calum's, and they stared at each other for a moment before she continued, "i'm new."
"no shit!" the asshole of the class yelled.
"shut it, clifford," a blonde kid beside him said, elbowing him.
ava ignored him and came to sit beside calum. "you don't mind, do you?"
"nah."
ava unpacked her bag, her brackets clinking lightly. "so, what's your name?"
"calum."
"good name," she commented, nodding to herself. "why are you so troubled?"
"huh?"
"you're so troubled. i can see it in your eyes. in your face. it's not new to me."
calum shrugged. "i have more demons than i have energy to face."
"gotcha. well, at any rate, you've got nice eyes."
he tried to smile. he failed. "thanks."
"yeah, sure."
he didn't know what it was about her, but he was really starting to like her.
-
SHOULD I CONTINUE?
-h
