It took several days for Calum to finally get around to showing Luke the book he had discovered. Well, Luke actually showed himself.
"Hey, Cal?" Luke glanced up from his computer screen, where he was noisily typing away.
"Yeah?" Calum was stirring a pot of macaroni and cheese at the kitchen counter, his favorite food, and one of the only things he knew how to make.
"Can I borrow a pair of your socks?" Luke's typing stopped, and he looked up hopefully.
This request was not a surprise to Calum. Along with having an almost manic disposition at times, Luke was also very absentminded, and regularly forgot to do his laundry. He sometimes lost his clothes too, which was unfortunate, because the clothes he was wearing were usually Calum's.
"Yeah, sure." Calum nodded, barely giving the request a second thought.
"Thanks," Luke smiled. "You're the best."
Calum didn't even bother thanking Like for the complement, as Luke only said things like that to either get what he wanted, or to thank Calum for giving him what he wanted.
Luke shut the lid of his laptop and disappeared into Calum's bedroom.
Moments later, Luke's voice was audible from the bedroom.
"Hey, Calum, are you reading the Secret Garden?" Luke's head, wearing a teasing grin, poked out of Calum's bedroom door, along with a hand holding the book.
"No," Calum grinned. "I've been meaning to show you that. Do you remember that day in senior year when you dragged me to that bookstore?"
"Cal, I practically lived my entire childhood in bookstores," Luke rolled his eyes, reemerging into the kitchen with a pair of Calum's socks on his feet. "Do you think I'm going to remember a specific visit my senior year of high school?" Luke sighed, reclaiming his seat at the kitchen counter. "I was so nerdy back then."
"It was that secondhand bookstore next to that cafe where you met Chelsea." Chelsea had been one of Luke's rare girlfriends in high school.
"Oh yeah, I remember that store," Luke smiled. "That Chelsea girl was a bitch, though."
"I bought the Secret Garden because you made me buy a book." Calum continued, feeling like he and Luke were having two separate conversations.
"Holy shit, you remember everything." Luke's eyes rolled again.
"Do you remember?" Calum inquired.
Luke thought for a moment. "Vaguely." He concluded.
"You said only girls read it," Calum reminded. "You made fun of me."
"I remember that," Luke grinned. "God, you were such an easy target."
"It was in that box that my mom dropped off," Calum gestured to the book. "I never even opened it."
Luke examined the book, flipping through it's well-worn pages. "This thing is a piece of shit. Look. It has writing in it," Luke displayed one of the pages, it's thin paper graffitied with red ink. "How much did you you pay for this?"
"I don't know, like two bucks," Calum shrugged. "I was never going to read it. I just bought it to make you happy."
Luke shrugged, placing the book down on the counter and flipping open his laptop. Calum poured the macaroni into two bowls, not giving the book another thought. His mind was completely consumed by Candace. Should he call her? He'd waited almost a week? Was that long enough? Or, he wondered, regret ebbing through him. Did I wait too long?
He slowly ate his dinner, his phone glaring up at him from where it sat on the counter, the clacking of Luke's keys drilling into his brain like a sledgehammer.
Finally, when he had completely finished his meal, he turned to Luke. "Hey, Luke?"
"Yeah?" Luke's typing slowed down only slightly.
"Remember that girl that I told you about?" Calum picked up his phone, spinning it in his fingers. "That one I met at work?"
"Yeah." Luke's typing slowed to a staccato pattering, like rain.
"I'm wondering if I should call her."
To Calum's immense relief, Luke's typing ceased. "You haven't called her yet?"
"Obviously I haven't. I tell you everything. I would have told you if I had."
"Just call her." Luke shrugged.
Calum felt an unexpected burst of envy. Why couldn't everything be as easy for him as it was for Luke?
"I can't 'just call her'," Calum rolled his eyes. "What if...?"
"Don't think about 'what if?'," Luke insisted. "Just do it."
Calum ran a hand through his hair. "But..."
"No buts," Luke shook his head. "Would it make it easier if I dialed for you?"
Calum thought about it for a moment and then nodded.
"Okay," Luke took Calum's phone from his hands, clicking the power button. "What's her name again?"
"Candace." Calum answered, before rattling off her number completely from memory.
"You memorized her number?" Luke raised an eyebrow.
"I didn't mean to," Calum argued. "I just...sort of...did."
Luke shrugged before asking Calum to repeat the number so he could dial the phone.
Like thrust the device into Calum's hands, and Calum's mind immediately went blank. Where was he supposed to put it again?
The dialing sound ceased, and a voice was audible from the speaker. "Hello?"
Calum's mouth went dry.
"Hello?" Candace repeated.
Luke urgently mimed putting the phone to his ear, and Calum did so, swallowing.
"Hello?" Candace said for a third time.
"Um, hi," Calum stuttered. "Sorry...I think we had a...weak connection."
"The only thing that has a weak connection is your brain." Luke muttered, rolling his eyes.
"Yeah...so," Candace sounded slightly confused. "Who is this?"
"Oh!" Calum's eyes widened. "It's Calum."
"Oh!" She gasped. "It's you! I was hoping you'd call!"
Calum silently pumped his fist in the air, mouthing the word "yes!" as she spoke those last words.
"So," Candace said. "Want to...get together soon?"
"Yes!" Calum cried, a little to enthusiastically. "I mean...um...sure."
Candace giggled. "So...what do you like to do?"
"Anything," Calum answered. "Anything you like, really. I'm easy. I mean - shit."
"It's okay," Candace laughed. "I know what you meant."
"Okay..." Calum shot daggers at Luke, who was practically suffocating himself with laughter. "How about I surprise you?"
"Sounds good." She agreed.
"Are you free on Saturday? It's the only day I don't have school or work. We could do it on Wednesday, but it would have to either be early in the morning or late at night after I get off work. Or -"
"Saturday is great." Candace interrupted his rambling.
"Okay....how about," Calum bit his lip. "Around four?"
"Perfect," she replied. "Where should we meet?"
"I can meet you at your house." Calum suggested.
"Sure," Candace agreed, before quickly rattling off her address.
Calum's jaw dropped. No, he must have heard her wrong. "I'm sorry, I didn't quite catch that."
Candace repeated the address, and this time, there was no mistaking it. "No way!" Calum grinned. "You live in my building!"
"Really?" Candace gasped. "That's so crazy! It's so weird that we've never run into each other!"
"Yeah, that is weird." Calum shrugged, even though he knew she couldn't see him.
"So..." Calum could practically hear her biting her cherry red lip. "I'll see you at my apartment on Saturday at four."
"See you." Calum smiled.
"Bye."
As soon as the phone was more than an inch away from his face, Calum was bombarded with questions from Luke.
"What did she say? Are you two going out? When? What's 'so weird'?"
Calum held up a hand to silence Luke, before quickly describing the conversation almost word for word.
Luke's eyes widened when Calum got to the part about Candace living in their building. "That's strange," he remarked. "I don't think I've ever seen her either. If she's as hot as you described, I probably would have noticed her."
"She probably just stays out a lot." Calum suggested, annoyed by Luke's interruption. He finished the story, and Luke smiled before giving him a high five.
Calum spent the rest of the night working on the papers that he had ignored, but his mind was consumed by Candace. Her smiling face was imprinted on the back of his eyelids as it had been since he'd met her, and every times he blinked, his heart was filled with the contagious sound of her laughter. At around eleven, he gave up, slamming his laptop's lid shut and retiring to his bedroom. He sprawled out on his bed, placing a hand on his face, pushing his dark hair away from his forehead.
Suddenly, something occurred to him.
Had Luke said there was writing in the Secret Garden?
He got up, curiosity suddenly coursing through him. He walked into the kitchen, where he had left the book, grabbing it and nodding at Luke when he received a curious look from the blonde boy.
Calum returned to his bedroom, sitting on the edge of his bed and flipping through the book. Just as Luke had said, the book was filled with writing, every spare space jammed with a twisty, soft script in a red pen.
Calum flipped to the beginning of the book, to the first page, the title page. Every white spot was covered with the same loopy script.
Calum glanced at some of the words, and his eyes widened at what he read.
Sometimes I look out
And wonder why I'm here
Why am I person?
With legs and eyes and ears
Ropy veins lace through me
Like stitching in a doll
And my heart beats slow and steady
Like a songbirds call
Muscles and skin
Blood and bones
And a heart that breaks like glass
Eyes and ears
Fingers and toes
And a brain that whispers the past
Each organ in my body
my kidneys and my lungs
Each part, like arms and curling hair
A mouth that speaks in tongues
They hold me to this earth
In a most mysterious way
But sometimes I still feel
Like I might just float away
Muscles and skin
Blood and bones
And a heart that breaks like glass
Eyes and ears
Fingers and toes
And a brain that whispers the past
Each word stung Calum's heart like a shard of glass, injecting itself into his bloodstream, making him want to tear himself apart. It was the most beautiful thing he had ever read. There was more like it, too, the entire book filled with poetry and songs that made him want to cry.
Who did this? His mind screamed. How is this possible?
The most amazing thing was that the person who had sculpted these words like the most perfect clay was out there somewhere in the big, wide world. Whether their decaying skeleton was buried beneath the earth, or they were a walking, talking, living person, he would probably a never find out who they were. Whether they were a boy or a girl, and old man or a freshmen in high school.
He would never know them.
Oops I actually suck at poetry, but just go with it.
Loser_Luke