[color=lightgray][right][sub]TIMESTAMP: During the game
LOCATION: The Callaghan Home
Featuring: [color=31ba9c]Jamie “It’s Been A Shitty Day, Alright?” Callaghan[/color] & [color=ba314c]Katie “Communication Is So Last Season” Callaghan[/color][/sub][/right][/color]
[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/GIWEbTR.jpeg[/img][/center]
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When Malcolm Callaghan met with architects to design his house, he had asked them to make it feel “unique.” He had come from nothing, and he wanted his home to scream his success out to the world. He wanted a house that his wife could tour for Vanity Fair, a house that would remain on tours of Hollywood long after he’d died. The result was a sprawling complex, all glass and concrete walls. Boxy and minimalistic, it peered down at the city, an austere eye in the heart of Beverly Hills. It was cold and sharp, a house but hardly a home.

The interior was all white and black marble, smooth and sanitized. The house, despite being occupied and well furnished, hardly felt lived in. It was simply too big, too empty. It was the kind of home built for a family of seven, but tonight, it held two. It was rare to have every Callaghan under this expansive roof; the twins’ parents flitted around the country with abandon, for work and for parties (which their parents insisted were for work) or for whatever camera called to them next. The twins themselves had gotten used to it a long time ago. They made do.

Jamie spent most of the time he was home, in his room. Bigger than any teenager needed, the walls were decorated with photographs purchased from art shows, and a collage of his own, pictures of himself and friends and family. A bookshelf loomed large against one wall, filled with every book he’d collected in his seventeen years. There were a lot. Some nights, he could be found curled up in a large chair in the corner, digging into whatever novel had caught his attention, and others he was seated at his desk, ruthlessly killing his darlings. Tonight, he was crying on his bed, and listening to Olivia Rodrigo blare from a bedside speaker.

[color=#a6a5ca][center][sub][i][url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AXi213cWgYM&ab_channel=OliviaRodrigoVEVO]♫♫[/url] I told my friends you were the one
After I'd known you, like, a month
And then, you kissed some girl from high school
And I stayed in bed for, like, a week
When you said space was what you need
Waited by my phone like a goddamn fool [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AXi213cWgYM&ab_channel=OliviaRodrigoVEVO]♫♫[/url][/i]
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He was lying still, on his back, eyes trained on the ceiling. He had managed to get through the rest of the school day intact, through the afterschool Newsroom meetings and the quick drive back to his house, only to fall apart at the sight of AJ’s hoodie hanging in his closet. The sudden reminder had landed him face down on the bed, and the boy who hadn’t cried in two years finally shed a tear. 

The eldest Callaghan twin might have given off the impression to the rest of the school that he was cold, calculating, and unfeeling. It was not a difficult impression to give off. In fact, nothing could be further from the truth. He felt things deeply, too deeply. When he was angry, it was a raging fire, lapping at the walls of his mind. When he was happy, it was the death of sadness, the dawning of a new day where bad moods were not allowed. And when he was sad, it was a flood of Biblical proportions, wiping joy away for what felt like 40 days and nights. All this to say: Jamie Callaghan loved to wallow.

So, he cried until he couldn’t anymore, and then he put on music he hoped would soothe his troubled soul, turned it up loud enough to drown out his thoughts, and finally rolled over to face the world. And then he cried a bit more. He did all of this without getting up. That would’ve been too much work.

[color=#a6a5ca][center][sub][i][url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AXi213cWgYM&ab_channel=OliviaRodrigoVEVO]♫♫[/url] And now, it don't mean a thing
God, love's fuckin' embarrassing
Just watch as I crucify myself
For some weird second string
Loser who's not worth mentioning
My God, love's embarrassing as hell [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AXi213cWgYM&ab_channel=OliviaRodrigoVEVO]♫♫[/url][/i][/sub][/center][/color]

So much of his day was spent managing himself and his emotions, regulating his reactions and focusing them into something worthwhile. He hadn’t felt this unbalanced, this insane, in years. He wanted to text AJ until he couldn’t ignore him, but that felt desperate. He wanted to go by his house and bang on the door until someone answered, but that felt embarrassing, not to mention a bit insane. Mostly, he just wanted AJ again, but that felt stupid and selfish and like the exact thing he had been taught not to want. As he stared up at the oscillating blades of his ceiling fan, guilt and shame and heartbreak beat their somber rhythm against his heart, and he wondered if it would always be like this.


[color=ba314c]“Hey, is this cut–Oh. Yikes.”[/color] Katie Callaghan disturbed her brother’s peace the same way she always did: without knocking. Jamie lifted his head up slightly to look at her, but could only muster up a defeated groan.


[color=31ba9c]“Go away.”[/color]


Katie looked down at him, lips pursed in concern. She had been through enough of his and AJ’s breakups to recognize the fallout, and despite what Scott had said, there was nobody else in the world who understood her quite like Jamie did. They had come into this world together, had survived the same parental failures and endured the same well meaning parental guidance. Her and Scott were forever, but she and Jamie were infinity, even on the days when she hated him. Luckily for him, it wasn’t one of those days.


[color=ba314c]“Move over,”[/color] Katie said, shoving her brother's legs out of the way so that she could take the spot next to him on the bed, joining him in his staring contest with the ceiling. [color=ba314c]“So. AJ?”[/color]


[color=31ba9c]“Shut up.”[/color] Jamie rolled his eyes. He did not want to hear his sister gloat over the ashes of his ill-advised entanglement. Still, he turned the music down.


[color=ba314c]“I didn’t even say anything!”[/color] Katie fired back, immediately raising her voice as Jamie went on the attack. [color=ba314c]“It’s just very obvious.”[/color]


Jamie sighed. [color=31ba9c]“You’re thinking it, I can tell.”[/color]


[color=ba314c]“That’s not fair, okay, of course I’m thinking it, I love Nobu.”[/color] Her attempt to lighten the heavy mood that hung over his room was in vain. He didn’t even crack a smile. [color=ba314c]“Tough crowd.”[/color]


[color=31ba9c]“I hate you,”[/color] Jamie said, crossing his arms over his chest with a huff.


[color=ba314c]“No you don’t. If you hated me too you’d be down to Mom and Dad and Trixie, and that’s a depressingly small list.”[/color] Katie rolled over, to stare at the side of her brother’s head, waiting for him to turn and meet her eyes. This was how they’d always had these talks, since they’re problems began to outgrow their youth. [color=ba314c]“Where the fuck did this hickey come from?”[/color]


Jamie put his hands over his eyes, pushing down as though the pressure might make it all go away. It did not. [color=31ba9c]“Jesus fuck, Katie, I don’t want to talk about it!”[/color] The words exploded out from him, sharp and unforgiving. If he couldn’t have AJ, if he had fucked that up so irreparably, then he wanted to be alone, replaying the supercut of his failures.


Katie smacked him on the shoulder, confusion and a flash of anger etched onto her face. It had not taken long for her to grow tired of her brother’s self-pity. There was something exhausting about watching him self-flagellate like this, when their entire lives had been the story of how fucking wonderful he was. He was the smart twin, the less abrasive twin, the one that nobody but her bothered to worry about, because he was Jamie and of course he was okay. Their proximity meant that she couldn’t make the slap sting, but she’d gotten her point across all the same: "We don't lie. Not to eachother.” [color=ba314c]“I wanted to talk about my outfit, you’re the one wallowing, and now you’re being weird.”[/color]


[color=31ba9c]“We broke up. It sucks. What else is there to say?”[/color]


[color=ba314c]“Uhhh, a lot?”[/color] she said, [color=ba314c]“Start at the beginning. Scott’s not gonna be here for a bit.”[/color] Jamie finally rolled over to meet her gaze. She clocked the red, puffy eyes and tearstained cheeks with ease. Okay, so they were in this part of it all. Slowly but surely, he began to recount what felt to him like the end of all things, AJ’s words and the text that came later. He attempted to skip over the harsher parts of the story, the origin of the mark on his neck and the crazed energy that had swirled around the Gearhead in the moments before homeroom. Katie did not fall for the ruse. [color=ba314c]“You’re leaving shit out, I can tell.”[/color] She was the master of lies of omission, after all.


Jamie sighed, turning back to face the ceiling. He couldn’t face Katie for this. [color=31ba9c]“He just…out at the shed while we were talking…he just got so fucking angry. It was like…I don’t know how to even describe it. He was just…unhinged. Which is when [i]that[/i] happened,”[/color] Jamie gestured to the mark on his neck, as though it were an unwanted zit.


Any good humor Katie had still possessed fled in the wake of Jamie’s confession. She sat up abruptly, staring down at him, lips pursed into a tight line. [color=ba314c]“Did he hurt you?”[/color] She wasn’t sure what would happen if the answer was yes, but she feared it would involve a lot of yelling. Still, that was a small price to pay for Jamie. [color=ba314c]“Cause I can go over there and handle a twink if I need to.”[/color]

Jamie sighed. [color=31ba9c]“Jesus, you sound like Trixie. He didn’t hurt me, I’m fine. He was…high and upset. Which was probably fair, if I’m being completely honest. Why does everybody assume I can’t look out for myself?”[/color] he said, long arms flailing with exasperation. He wasn’t sure why he was so insistent on denying what had happened back at the shed. Maybe it was the pain of admitting to it, or maybe it was his own guilt, over seeing what he’d turned AJ into. He did know that he didn’t want to be pitied. He had never wanted pity. 


[color=ba314c]“I’m gonna kill him.”[/color] Katie said the words calmly, void of emotion. It was a simple fact, as indisputable as the color of the sky and the curvature of the earth. She was a force of nature, a storm in the form of a blonde with an affinity for cherry chapstick and combat boots. By this point, Jamie should’ve known that you didn’t stop storms, you endured them. Still, he gave it his best shot.


[color=31ba9c]“Did you listen to a single thing I just said? Besides, you can’t kill him. You’d go to prison and then who would be around to make sure Scott didn’t drive his car into oncoming traffic? Me?”[/color] Jamie’s words barely chipped Katie’s stoney exterior, but they kept her from getting up immediately. He’d count that as a win.


[color=ba314c]“Fine. I won’t kill him. I’m just gonna make him wish that I had,”[/color] she said, shrugging. There was no swaying her from this course of action. She still wasn’t sure exactly what AJ had done, but she’d heard enough to draw a solid picture in her mind. Breaking up with her brother was one thing; he probably deserved that, if she was being honest. He’d crossed a line though, in the process. It wasn’t just a betrayal of Jamie, it was a betrayal of her. When she’d set them up last year, she hadn’t realized she’d needed to explicitly tell AJ to keep his hands to himself. [color=ba314c]“Scott wouldn’t kill himself if I went to prison. He’d help me break out.”[/color]


[color=31ba9c]“Even if you’re there because you murdered his best friend?”[/color] Jamie said, sighing and sitting up.


[color=ba314c]“I have faith he’d see my side of things eventually.”[/color] She grinned and placed a hand on her brother’s shoulder. [color=ba314c]“You deserve a lot better than that, Jay. You know that, right?”[/color]


Jamie groaned and fell back onto the bed, out of her grip. [color=31ba9c]“Stop being sappy, I’m going to combust.”[/color] Katie laughed, and then he joined her, and for a moment, they were children again and the world was still years away from barging through their door. He was glad he had her, even if she did consistently threaten to drive him off a cliff and into the depths of insanity. [color=31ba9c]“So. Have you told Scott yet?”[/color]


Katie scowled. [color=ba314c]“Shut up, we’re talking about you right now,”[/color] she said, turning away from Jamie’s prying gaze. She had done a very good job of forgetting that particular wrinkle, until just now.


[color=31ba9c]“That’s a ‘no,’ then?”[/color] Jamie replied, smirking. At least he wasn’t alone in this troubled paradise. [color=31ba9c]“That boy pretty much worships the ground you walk on, you know? He’s gonna be excited for you.”[/color]


His sister shook her head. [color=ba314c]“I know that. I do. It’s just…”[/color] She paused to take her bottom lip between her teeth. There was no lying to Jamie, a concept that had grown more perturbing as they approached young adulthood. [color=ba314c]“What if he isn’t? Or what if he just pretends to be excited, but really, it’s eating him up inside? People break up over this shit, Jamie.”[/color] Her words fell onto the room, and silence fell with them. [color=ba314c]“I love him and I just…I don’t want to hurt him. I mean, what if I totally blindside him for no reason. I might not even get in, it’s fucking Juilliard!”[/color]


Jamie raised an eyebrow. [color=31ba9c]“And blindsiding him for a laughably mid reason is better?”[/color] He shook his head. [color=31ba9c]“You’re definitely gonna get in. If talent doesn’t do it, I’m sure nepotism will. Then, it’ll just be a bigger, different kind of problem.”[/color] He took a beat before adding, [color=31ba9c]“People break up over this shit because they don’t talk about it.”[/color]


It was Katie’s turn to groan. [color=ba314c]“Shut up. We were literally just talking about your failed relationship.”[/color] 


Jamie put up his hands, smirking. [color=31ba9c]“Hey, I’m great at managing other people’s relationships. It’s mine I have a problem with. Also it wasn’t a relationship. Technically.”[/color] Katie smiled.


She thought hard about what she said next, lips pursed until she could parse her feelings into words.[color=ba314c]“He loves me so fucking much. What do you do with all of that?”[/color] The question hung in the air for a moment before she tilted her head and followed with another. [color=ba314c]“Did our parents do this to us?”[/color]


Laughter overtook the pair, leaving them breathless and at least a little bit less dejected. [color=31ba9c]“Almost certainly. They make up for it with the money though. Some kids have absentee parents, and they’re still poor.”[/color] 


[color=ba314c]“Well then, remind me to thank them for the Black Card.”[/color]


Jamie grinned. [color=31ba9c]“We’ve got Black Cards and issues with intimacy. Watch out world, the Callaghans are coming, and they’re unstoppable.”[/color] 


The conversation drifted from their respective troubles in paradise, to matters of more fun. They caught eachother up on everybody else’s gossip, traded opinions on the latest celebrity scandal, and broke down the recent developments on their favourite show, Blackfyre. 


When the tell-tale hum of Scott’s car alerted them to his arrival, their anxieties had been soothed, at least for the evening. Katie leapt up, smoothed out her skirt, and checked her reflection in the mirror. [color=ba314c]“Tell Trixie I said hi,”[/color] she said once she was satisfied with her appearance.


[color=31ba9c]“Tell Scott I said his best friend’s a dick,”[/color] Jamie called out, holding his position on the bed.


[color=ba314c]“I will, but a lot nicer.”[/color]


[color=31ba9c]“You are the twin that everyone likes for a reason.”[/color]


Malcolm and Alison Callaghan hadn’t built much of a home, but their children had still managed to make one for eachother, in spite of them.
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