"you ready to go?"
calum looked up from his hands to see mali standing at his bedroom door with tucker behind her. he sighed before standing up and walking towards them.
"yeah i guess so."
"why are you acting so reluctant about this?" mali asked. "we're only going to the beach."
calum shrugged, "i dunno."
"do you want me to see if michael wants to come?"
"no." calum mumbled. "he's gonna wanna bring luke and ashton cause he's trying to mend whatever happened and i really don't wanna see them right now."
"you and luke really should talk." mali suggested as calum picked up tucker.
"well i really don't want to talk to him mal."
"daddy why don't you want to talk to luke?" tucker asked softly resting his head on calum's shoulder.
"because we got into a fight bud. i just don't wanna see him right now."
"okay." tucker sighed. "where are we going?"
"the beach." calum replied walking down the stairs with mali following close behind. "me and mali are gonna show you the ocean."
"it's gonna be really fun tucker." mali exclaimed. "just a little cold so we gotta bundle up."
"do you like the beach daddy?"
"i love the beach tuck. it's a good place to go and think."
"think about what?" tucker chirped.
"anything you want." calum said softly. "let's get you all bundled up."
calum gently placed the five year old on the floor and helped him get his coat and boots on before putting on his own and lacing his hand with the little boy.
"you guys ready?" mali asked opening the front door.
calum nodded. "yeah, let's go."
***
the beach was deserted as expected. it was the middle of march in the northeast, no one wanted to be there. except calum. he was loving the cold, barren beach. and so was tucker.
"i wanna touch the water!" tucker squealed when he saw the calm, small waves lapping the shore.
"it's really cold bud." calum sighed rubbing his hands together to create warmth. "and i don't want you to get sick."
"but it's so pretty!"
"maybe when it get's warmer out i'll teach you how to swim okay?"
"okay i guess so." tucker mumbled.
"you know what we can do though?" calum said poking tucker's cheek playfully.
"what?"
"we can play a game." the twenty five year old suggested.
"what kind of game?" tucker asked softly looking up at calum.
"well what we do is get as close to the water as possible without touching it and then when the wave comes towards us we run away so we don't get wet." calum explained. "does that make sense?"
tucker nodded.
"let's do it then." calum said turning around and walking towards the water with tucker running after him.
the father and son spent almost an hour running around laughing and yelling in glee while mali watched from her spot perched on a blanket against the dunes, protecting herself from the wind.
"daddy!" tucker shouted from a couple feet away, holding something in his hand. "look at this! it's blue!"
calum jogged over to the his son and crouched down to be eye level with him.
"whatcha got there?" calum asked pointing to tucker's closed fist.
"i dunno look!" tucker said opening his hand to let calum see the small piece of blue beach glass in the palm of his glove covered hand. "isn't it pretty?"
"it's beautiful." calum cooed. "let me put it in my pocket so we don't lose it."
tucker nodded and handed calum the small treasure and immediately went back to search for more.
"daddy help me look for more!"
"alright alright." calum chucked slipping the beach glass into his pocket and starting to look for more.
twenty minutes later calum's pockets were full of colorful seashells of all different shapes and sizes along with three more pieces of beach glass and tucker was still searching for more but was stopped when mali called out for the two.
"what's up?" calum yelled back not looking up from the sand.
"why don't you look up and find out."
calum looked up to see michael standing above him.
"what are you doing here? who told you we were here?" calum asked standing up.
"well we went to your house to talk but you weren't there and your mom said you were here so we came." michael explained.
"we?"
"yeah ash, luke and i." michael answered jerking his head in the direction of mali. calum looked over his boyfriend's shoulder to see ashton talking to his sister and luke standing quietly next to him.
"why is he here?"
"he wants to talk to you." michael replied. "so here we are."
"i don't want to talk to him." calum retorted before walking towards tucker who was holding yet another shell out for him to take.
"thank you daddy." tucker smiled handing the shell to his father.
"no problem." calum said putting the shell away and going to pick up the little boy. "c'mere love."
tucker graciously complied and climbed right into calum's arms and snuggled close.
"i'm cold." tucker mumbled into calum's neck.
"so am i." calum replied softly. "i think it's time to go home."
"but mikey just got here." tucker pointed out.
"i know but i wanted to just be alone with you and mali today." calum sighed quietly so only tucker could hear.
"oh ok." tucker replied softly.
"calum? can we talk?" calum turned around to see luke standing next to michael looking at him with hopeful eyes.
"to be honest i really don't want to talk to you right now."
"cal come on just talk to him." michael interjected.
"please." luke begged. "i realized i was wrong and i want to apologize."
"you want to apologize now?" calum scoffed. "it's been almost a month. if it really took you that long to figure that out i don't want to talk to you at all right now."
"calum he's willing to apologize to you let him just talk." michael groaned.
"which one of you are forcing him to do this because he still won't even look at tucker. he's not doing this willingly and i know it." he retorted.
"how could i look at him?" luke nearly yelled. "h-his father is the fucker who kidnapped you!"
"no!" calum snapped. "his father is no one but me. i am his only father. he is mine and only mine. and if you can't accept him as my son then you can go to hell."
"i don't understand how you can stand to look at him and love him when he came from that hellhole! he's only here because of that disgusting pig!"
"hey!" ashton yelled running over to the group stopping luke from saying anything else. "don't you dare fucking say that luke. that is way out of line. are you trying to make this situation worse than it already is?"
"i don't even want to be here ashton. i'm only here because you forced me to."
"i fucking knew it." calum muttered before storming off towards the parking lot with tucker holding onto his father as tightly as he could.
"calum wait!" michael called after him running to catch up with mali quickly following behind him. "calum!"
"leave me alone." calum snapped not looking back.
"just let me drive you home." michael pleaded.
"no." calum mumbled. "mali can you please unlock the door?"
"why not?" michael asked while mali searched her bag for the car keys.
"because you brought him here and ruined my day." calum snapped.
"i didn't mean for that to happen."
"you may not have meant for it to happen but it did and you didn't even try to stop luke! ashton had to shut him up. so just leave me alone." calum said opening the back door and putting tucker in his car seat before turning to climb into the passenger seat.
"please calum." michael begged as the raven haired boy opened the door to get inside the car. he just shook his head and turned away from michael.
"just leave me alone."