Callie lay, head resting gently, perfectly serene on what definitely didn't feel like a mattress. She slowly opened her eyes to see a thin navy fabric, a shirt? Her eyes gazed up to meet the five o'clock shadow of no other than Brandon Foster. She continued to admire him, his smooth jaw line, his long eyelashes, his plush lips. Before she knew it, Callie had pressed her lips gently against his, effectively making his eyes flutter open.
"I could get used to this" Brandon supposed, smiling unknowingly at Callie causing Callie's eyebrows to rise.
"Get used to what?"
"Waking up to you every morning" he explained as he brushed a piece of hair behind her ear before their lips met again. Callie snuggled her head against Brandon's shoulder trying to hide the blush she felt rise to her cheeks.
"Cheeseball" she tried to say jokingly, but she couldn't hide the smile in her voice as she took another look at the gorgeous face above her. They lay there in each other's arms, their heartbeats mimicking each other's and occasionally meeting each other's gazes and quickly looking away to hide the fact they'd been staring.
It was… Perfect. Too perfect, Callie thought. As the thought filled her brain the soothing heart beat and warm arms faded away being replaced all too quickly by the cold duvet and beeping alarm clock. Of course, that could never happen in real life, it was the little indulgence she had, her dreams. The only place that she and Brandon could be together without worries of disapproval.
Callie grabbed her phone of the bedside table turning off her alarm that was quickly giving her a head ache. Another Monday morning another long day of girls who ugly cry when their Facebook photo doesn't get enough likes and trying to face the temptation to go down the corridor that passes Brandon's class so that she could 'coincidently' bump into him.
As she descended the stairs, she became aware of the silence of the house, the only sounds being the ticking of the clock. The sound was usually was seen as calming but it just made Callie feel anxious, as if it was counting down to the next bad thing to happen to her.
As she scowled at the clock, another sound was added to its rhythm, a muffled sob. She knew that sound all too well. She ran to the kitchen, her heart beat increasing tenfold as the sob was added by a sniffle, but not Jude's this time… Mariana… What had happened? She ran through the dining room, narrowly missing the tangle of wires on the floor.
What she saw made her heart miss a beat, the whole family had gathered. Mariana standing, tears running down her face as she held Jude close to her chest. Jesus holding his head in his hands, then running them through his hair before tapping the table showing his face also red from tears and what looked like anger raging in his eyes. Stef and Lena stood in the corner, both trying to hold back their tears to help the others but failing as a chocked sob escaped followed by a cascade of tears before they held each other like they were each other's lifelines.
"Wha- What's happened?"