Chapter 7


The Walgreens bag that held the thermometer and a box of Tylenol immediately dropped from Stef's grip the second she entered Callie's bedroom. "HEY! WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON HERE!" she snapped, causing both teens to slightly jump at the sudden loudness of the woman's voice. Callie quickly lowered her dress to cover herself more, while Brandon bent over to pick up his shirt from the ground. The door rapidly slammed shut and Stef stood it with her arms crossed as she shook her head in disbelief.

And although Callie still had her cardigan and her dress on, she still reached for the covers from her bed to bring them up closer toward her chest. She was feeling even more exposed than she really was, understandably. She barely glanced at the blonde and instead kept her eyes focused on the pattern on her comforter, while Brandon awkwardly threw on his shirt, although his nerves slowed him down.

"You two have got to be kidding me," she said in a harsh tone. At this point she didn't care about being rational.

"Mom—" Brandon started to defend but Stef wasn't in the mood to listen to his explanation. Nothing he could say would make her feel any better about this.

"Save it, Brandon!" his mother stopped him and held up her hand, so that he knew not to keep going. "What…" Stef huffed as she tried to figure out what to say, but her frustration was jumbling her thoughts all together at once, "Why…How could you do this?" she yelled and made sure to glance back and forth and both of them. "Both of you…both of you promised that nothing was going on…" her eyes glared more at Brandon for some reason, partly because it was easier for her to blame her own son than it was to blame Callie.

"Nothing was going on," Brandon defended. "It just—"

"DON'T YOU DARE LIE TO ME, BRANDON! This was NOT NOTHING!" she pointed her finger at both of them and tried her best not to lose it, but she could feel her anger boiling up insider her even more and more as every second passed that they were all in Callie and Mariana's room. She needed her wife here to help her keep it together. There was no way in hell that she could deal with all of this on her own.

Brandon took in a deep breath and turned to face Callie, who by now had tears in her eyes but she still remained silent.

"LENA!" Stef yelled for her wife, as she opened the bedroom door slightly from fear that her other kids would hear if they hadn't already. "LENA!"

"Come on, mom! Do you really have to tell her now… right now?" Brandon asked as he quickly put on his shoes.

"You are no in a position to be asking me for anything right now, so DON'T START WITH ME, B!"

Callie looked sadly at him and for once she felt remorse for something she had done today. She wanted this to happen but she didn't want everything to unravel like this. She didn't want to get Brandon in trouble.

She had a plan. It wasn't carefully thought out, but she knew that she was going to tell both Stef and Lena that this wasn't going to work out, on her terms. The fact that Stef had walked in on them just made her feel even disgusted with herself and she couldn't understand why.

Sure, it was the path that she had chosen or at least… that was what she was trying to convince herself. But she felt horrible for pulling Brandon into her mess. He didn't deserve it. And had Stef not been right there staring at both of them, she would've apologized.


Within seconds, Stef could hear the door creak open from behind her as Lena poked her head inside. "Hey," she smiled as she made her way into the room, but her smile quickly faded as she saw that Brandon was in the room with the two of them. "What's…what's going on here?" she asked in confusion as she stared at her wife, waiting for an answer.

Stef's mouth tensed and her lips pressed together as she shook her head slightly at Lena and breathed in roughly from her nose. Lena's eyes widened and all it took was one look at Callie, who was now completely facing away from all of them and looking at the wall with the sheets still pulled up to her chest.

Lena took in a deep breath, herself, and tried to keep her own confusion and anger in check, since it was obvious from her wife's yelling that someone had to. "Okay…" she started as she looked from Callie towards Brandon, who seemed to be the only alert one besides her wife, "Brandon, what' going on?" she asked as she crossed her arms over her chest out of awkwardness, but quickly let them down so that she could grab onto Stef's hand.

"Callie and I… We were just talking," Brandon started and Stef let out a hissing sound, that neither of them chose to ignore. "WE WERE just talking," Brandon raised his voice a little, "and… one thing led to another… We didn't mean for this to happen—"

"You didn't mean for me to walk in and catch you? Or you didn't mean to make out practically naked on Callie's bed?" Stef retorted with anger evident in her voice.

"Oh wow!" Lena's eyes widened even more and she looked away from Brandon toward Callie and could see that she was crying even more now.

"No! Look, I know that you're mad about what you saw, but I'm just so sick of pretending in front of you two."

"Brandon," Callie tried to stop him as she wiped away a tear that managed to fall down her cheek.

"No!" Brandon fought back. "We shouldn't have to lie about this. It's not fair. I'm so sick of pretending to be someone else in front of them, someone else in front of you," he gestured towards Callie and turned back to face his mothers. "…All either of you have told me since you got together was that you can't control who you fall in love with. Mom, I didn't understand that at first but how is it that when I finally do, you don't? It doesn't make any sense! Why are we the ones who are wrong, because we're fighting for the people who we love? Both of you are such hypocrites!"

Stef stared at her son and she couldn't help but feel anger towards him and it just kept pending up by the second. To her, it was like both of them were throwing away Callie's last chance to be a part of their family, all because of their ignorance and hormones. "You two aren't in love," Stef stated as if it were a fact. "B, don't be so stupid as to tear this family apart because you don't know how to control yourself!"

This family is already torn apart, Callie thought to herself.

"But we are," she said when she finally found her voice. "Stef, I do love him," she answered without a doubt. The teen's eyes showed determination even though they were also filled with hurt.

But she was determined.

She was determined to say and do everything she had to, to make the decision as painless as possible.

In her mind, it was easier to let them go like this. The decision would be that much uncomplicated, if they hated her for choosing him over them. It was obvious now.

"Callie," Stef stopped her. "You don't mean that," she argued.

"I do," Callie nodded.

"No," Stef said sternly as she tried to take a step closer toward the girl to continue their conversation, but Lena grabbed onto her arm to stop her.

"Brandon," Lena turned toward him. "Please, go to your room. I'll be there in a sec."

Brandon glanced at Callie, and then back toward his moms as if he wanted to argue. But after looking at his mother's face, he thought it'd be better not to. Instead he hissed before he got a chance to walk out.

"Callie, you stay put. We'll be right back," Lena informed her as she tried to grab Stef's hand but the woman remained stiff as if she didn't want to go. "Honey, please," Lena begged as she stared into her wife's eyes. They would have to talk to them both soon, but Lena knew that Stef had to calm down some or else they would both shut down, especially Callie.

Stef took in a deep breath and glanced toward the girl, "Don't move," she warned before she slowly followed her wife out of the room.

To be continued…


A/N: Okay guys, I'm in serious need of a beta. (Someone who is really good at grammar and could help me out with proofreading and maybe even adding more to (one or some of my stories). You don't have to be an actual "registered beta reader." I just need someone to help me edit them so if you're interested, pleaseeee pm me. I will send you my chapters via pm, email, or the docx thing that's on here, whichever you prefer. And I will gladly give you credit for the re-editing etc. You don't even have to be a writer so this is pretty much open to all of my readers out there.

Again, this is NOT a Brallie.