Chapter 10. Misery Doesn't Love Company.
"Okay, okay. Gently!" Kalen scolded as he and Callie carried the unconscious blonde girl to a more secluded spot in a park nearby. The little boy she was with followed silently behind them.
"Oh, my bad. I didn't mean to hurt the poor little dead girl. Maybe we should get her to a hospital or something Kalen!" Callie rolled her eyes, still holding up the girl's feet.
"At least you got the easy job," Kalen huffed as he held up her head and arms, trying his best to walk backwards while keeping her balanced perfectly in the air.
"Pft, enjoy it while you can. This is probably the closest you're ever gonna get to a girl," she scoffed.
"Yeah, well you seemed pretty cozy last night! Not that you really count."
That shut Callie up quickly. A blush crept to her cheeks either from embarrassment or anger, regardless she refused to acknowledge it. Kalen also felt the instant tension in the air from his words beginning to affect him. He didn't say anything more either until they found a space to put the blonde girl down.
"This spot will work. Just make sure you are very-"
Callie dropped the young girl's legs instantly and stretched out her arms without a second thought.
"Careful. I was going to say careful." He sighed and gingerly placed the young girl's head down on the long, soft green grass. The little boy joined them, no hint of emotion on his small, youthful face. Callie curiously studied him. She noted dark circles under the boy's eyes, and a small scar that stretched from his right temple to the tops of his cheek bone. Her eyebrows knitted together as she tried to get a closer look.
The girl sighed and rolled herself over onto her side as she began to wake. All eyes went from the strange little boy to the previously unconscious girl. She sat up with a dazed and confused look on her face. For a moment the trio only gawked in silence and held their breath, not knowing what to do in this particularly peculiar situation. At Callie's lack of reaction, Kalen huffed, and then made his way to the girl. She couldn't have been more than sixteen or seventeen years old.
"Excuse me, Miss. Are you okay?" he politely questioned, bending down on one knee to her level. Callie grunted impatiently. This girl seemed like a delicate little flower and that instantly rubbed Callie the wrong way, though she wasn't entirely sure why. Maybe it was the way she leaned on Kalen so helplessly, like a damsel in distress. That was one thing Callie would never let herself become, that she was certain of.
"Yes, I'm fine. I'm sorry, I don't know what came over me. I just, after I realized that you two were... Well, like me... I just..." She was at a loss for words. Kalen smiled brightly and offered her his hand, which the girl gratefully took. Callie bit down hard on her lip and felt her fingernails dig into the flesh of her palms as she tried to keep her smart mouth in check. I'm losing my damn mind, she thought as she crossed her arms.
"It's okay. What's your name?" He pulled her up to face him, holding her softly as he made sure she was steady enough to hold herself upright.
"Laila. And this is Addison," she gestured to the young boy that Callie and Kalen had all but forgotten about. He just stood there and blinked in reply. Laila's eyes flickered to Addison, gazing at him lovingly.
Laila was objectively very beautiful. Her giant blue-green eyes contrasted greatly with her sun-kissed face, and her long, golden hair was the cherry on top of her perfect, all-american image.
"I'm Kalen, and my delightful friend here is Callie." Callie shot him a dirty look. Kalen couldn't help but smile.
"You don't say much, do ya kid?" Callie asked dryly, turning her attention back to Addison. He didn't even acknowledge her. Addison stared straight ahead, as if he saw something very fascinating off into the distance that none of the others could.
"No, no. He's been through a lot. Poor little thing. He's barely spoken two words to me in the time that we've been together. I only know his name because of that man we saw before we were sent back here." Laila clasped her hands together in an attempt to calm her nerves. Callie cut into the conversation.
"So you saw that lunatic, too?"
"Well, yes, I suppose. It all happened so quickly. What was his name again?" She pondered.
"Well I feel less crazy now. But, don't you agree that he had, like, a crazy look in his eye or something?" In spite of herself, Callie was actually sort of excited at the thought of having someone else to connect with, even if it was with her and their connection was a strange, large man in a bathrobe.
"I-I don't know. His face was kinda sweet. He had a sort of grandfather-y quality to him." Callie scoffed at Laila's innocence.
"You can't actually be this naive. No wonder you ended up here." Laila's eyes instantly widened, and Kalen quickly stepped in to save the conversation.
"Why are you two here? Why were you chosen to be sent back?"
"Oh," she began, her lips shrinking down to a grimace. Callie snapped out of her own head and was focused on the present again. "It's a very long story. I wouldn't know where to begin."
Laila looked down at her feet, letting her perfect, bright curls hang over her face. Her hands lightly traced over her belly, which brought to Callie's attention that it was slightly protruded, and not in the way hers was after too much pumpkin pie and vanilla ice cream on Thanksgiving. This could only be described as a baby bump. Well look at that, Callie mused, maybe she wasn't very innocent at all, now was she?
"Did it have anything to do with the fact that you're pregnant?"
Laila's eyes went wide, and she wasn't sure if it was because of the bluntness of Callie's accusation or because she called her out on her dirty little secret. Well, she supposed while looking down at her belly, it's not much of a secret anymore, is it? She was almost sixteen weeks along. It wasn't too hard to put two and two together.
"What the hell is wrong with you?" Kalen demanded angrily, catching a glimpse at the horrified look on Laila's now pale face.
"What? As if it wasn't obvious! I wasn't trying to make a big deal out of it or anything, I wasn't trying to be a bitch," Callie explained, narrowing her eyes.
"Yeah well, it's not like you need to try." Kalen turned away from Callie before he could be a witness to the shocked, crestfallen look on her face that followed his bitter words. His words actually hurt her, more so than she thought they ever could. She replaced her look of sadness with one of indifference and turned away from Kalen, not giving him the satisfaction of seeing her that way knowing that he had caused it.
"I'm so very sorry about her," Kalen apologized, sounding more like he was sorry that she existed or sorry that she was even here rather than apologizing for her rude comment. He cut her a stern look across his shoulder. Callie was fighting incredibly hard to keep from slapping him in the face. She forcibly looked away and mentally counted to ten.
"No, it's totally fine." To her surprise, Laila didn't seem angry. There was no malice in her kind, soothing voice. "Really. I don't mind. At least now I can be open with it. I don't have any reason to hide anymore."
Kalen decided to change the subject. "So you guys have been here for a while now? Where have you been staying?"
"Not much of anywhere. We've just been wandering from place to place. I have no idea what I'm doing. I just know that somehow we," again she gestured towards Addison, "have to figure all of this out. Soon."
"I understand. This is only our second day. Is there, I don't know, anything we can do to help you guys out?"
"Keeping your eyes in their sockets would be helpful," Callie mused quietly from behind Kalen. He tried his best to ignore her and kept his focus on Laila.
"That's very, very kind of you. But I don't want to impose." She gazed at the ground timidly, absently tugging at her shirt sleeves.
"Well, in that case-" Callie began, only to be cut off by Kalen mid-sentence.
"No trouble at all. My mom's never even home. You can just stay at her apartment with us until you guys can figure stuff out! Isn't that right, Callie?"
"Yeah. Sure. Whatever. It'll be a blast."
Hesitantly Laila pondered the offer, realizing that this would probably be their best chance for the time being. Her heart filled with gratitude for these two complete strangers who are opening their door to them.
"Thank you so much!" she shrieked, pulling Kalen in for a tight hug. His eyes went wide as she squeezed him with all of her might. His arms hovered by his sides, not sure of what he should do with them. He decided to leave them there.
Upon seeing this emotional display of happiness, Callie decided that enough was enough and for the sake of her own sanity she needed to move along. She gave Kalen a small and swift smack to the back of the head as she strode past the couple.
"Well come on, let's get a move on then. We're burning daylight!"
Callie began to walk away. Addison stood there for a beat, a look of confusion now replaced the tired, sullen expression. He looked up at the other two for answers. Kalen and Laila exchanged questioning glances and shrugged at each other, deciding to follow the emotionally unstable girl against their better judgment. Laila and Addison linked hands before they began moving, as if she were Addison's mother.
Kalen was intrigued by this, but didn't want to bombard them with any more questions until they were all settled in, though they freely floated through his mind.
Why were they here? What happened to that little boy's face? What the hell was wrong with Callie and her sudden mood swings?
He shook his head as he walked, still a good three feet away from Callie, who was marching away as quickly as her legs could carry her. His dark hair now freely hung in his face, as if to mask the feeling of bewilderment and uncertainty that rose up inside of him.
There was only one thing in this life that he was adamantly sure of anymore: Women. He will never understand them.