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For some reason, he expected it to play out the way it did in the movies. Long lost parents finally finds their child, lots of crying, and vows to never leave again; you know, the usual. After all, it had been nearly 25 years now since she left. 25 years since she walked out the door, claiming to be going to get some milk, yet she never re-entered the way she left. He had always wondered if it was his fault, because if it was his Dads, then she would’ve taken him with her, right? Stuart was hardly around so he would’ve been left alone with his alcoholic dad without reason. She would never have left him alone, so it must’ve been something he did.
Callum hadn’t really given the woman much thought in the past few years, why dwell on someone you can hardy remember? He hadn’t had any contact with her and couldn’t really remember her face, so she is practically a stranger. That’s he’s confused why all the ‘mum’ comments are suddenly getting to him. First, it’s with Vinny, though it was mostly aimed at supporting the troubled young man. Mums don’t always know what’s best. Then immediately after that, she’s brought up again by his Fiancé: you take after your mum, don’t you?
To go from never mentioning her, to two comments in under ten minutes? Yeah, it’s a lot.
She had been plaguing Callum’s mind for the past couple of weeks, yet he didn’t tell anyone. Stuart would surely blow a fuse if she was brought up, and as much as he adores him, Ben wouldn’t understand. Sure, Kathy was out of his life for a while, but she came back to him. There had been times where Callum even considered confiding in Mick, because naturally the man would’ve had some sort of interaction with his mum, what with being Stuart’s best friend for most his childhood, but from what he’s heard from Frankie, it seems the Carter has enough on his plate.
So, he did what he does best, suffered in silence and alone.
Soon enough, all the negative thoughts dissipated from his mind and he returned to some normality. While the guilt and doubt still remained, he tried to focus on his current family. The family that took him so long to find, but he wouldn’t trade for the world. Every day is a blessing to him, from the chaotic mornings in the Mitchell household, to the quiet and intimate evenings with Ben. Life was just perfect right now, but then the universe reminded him that he wasn’t allowed to be happy. This was a common occurrence; he was excited to spend Christmas with his new family in 2019, then Ben breaks up with him; they get back to either, boom, Callum is kidnapped; then he’s rescued, but hold on, Ben lost his hearing; Ben gets his cochlear implant, then is immediately arrested which led to Callum being blackmailed. It’s just a vicious cycle of drama and pain. So, he really should’ve seen this coming.
Ironically, it had happened on his 30th birthday. Ben and Lexi had been secretive all week about it and somehow, they had been able to keep the surprise to themselves, which doesn’t make sense because they’re as about as subtle as Karen Taylor. Callum had wanted just a quiet day with his family, but no, Ben wasn’t going to let his fiancé get away that easily: “Babe, you’re officially old now, and we have to give you a proper send off.”
He had woken up that morning to Ben being vacant from his side of the bed. Mourning the loss of the morning cuddles he wanted, Callum groaned and pulled the covers over his head as a way of conserving the remaining warmth. No more than a few minutes later, Callum was aroused by Ben’s side of the bed dipping. He pulled the covers down so just his eyes were exposed and was greeted by ben smiling down at him with a tray on the bed next to him.
“Do I need to call the fire brigade or is the kitchen not on fire?”
“I’ll have you know I’m a perfectly capable cook.”
“Yeah, tell that to the Chicken pasta you set on fire.”
Ben gave him a glare as Callum sat up properly, “you keep being ungrateful and you won’t get your birthday breakfast.”
“Alright, alright, I’m kidding. Thank you”, Callum gratefully took the tray from Ben and smiled down at the cup of tea and syrup covered pancakes. He immediately tucked into the meal, wasting no time as the smell radiating off the food caused his mouth to water.
He briefly caught Ben watching him, his lips held a faint smile and his eyes twinkled, “take a picture, it’ll last longer” Callum says, in the most graceful of ways, with food in his mouth.
Ben chuckled and shuffled so that he was sat next to Callum on the bed, legs stretched out in front of him, “Happy birthday, Callum soon-to-be Mitchell”. He leant over and kissed Callum on the side of the head before wrapping an arm around his shoulders, pulling him into a side hug.
They sat there for a while, content with having the tv on a low volume while Callum devoured his breakfast. If this had been all they would’ve done for his birthday, Callum would’ve been perfectly satisfied and happy. But, no. Ben, the drama queen, had other ideas. Luckily, he had taken Callum’s terms and conditioned into consideration and it was only a family affair, however, none of them expected to see that taken so literally. Thinking back, Callum wishes they could’ve just stayed in bed all day.
Soon enough, they had both dragged themselves up from the bed and trudged downstairs, only to be greeted by Lexi rampaging down the hallway and throwing herself at Callum; “HAPPY BIRTHDAY CALLUM!”
Callum lifted her into his arms and gave her a small kiss on the side of her head, Ben watching on with a soft smile that echoed his previous one. It was a smile that was reserved for the two most important people in his life.
Lexi quickly scurried down from Callum’s arms and dragged him into the living room, where the coffee table had been filled to the brim with presents, with a banner hung up on the wall reading “HAPPY BIRTHDAY! (You’re old now)”.
It took roughly an hour for Callum to get through all the presents, they varied from cooking books to a home made picture collage by Lexi containing herself and her two dads, Callum had to look away to stop the tears that had filled his eyes from falling. He even received a grunt from Phil wishing him a happy birthday.
The day was packed with people coming and going, even the Carters had time to drop by between their moving schedules. Stuart, Rainie and baby Abi came over around mid-day and stayed until late into the afternoon, with Stuart and Phil getting along in a scary sort of way and Ben and Callum giving each other worried looks. Everyone had started to wind down when there was another knock at the door, Ben looked at Callum confused as his fiancé gave a helpless shrug and moved to the kitchen to open the door.
He wished he didn’t.
He opened the door with a polite smile on his face which quickly dropped when he saw who was on the other side. It doesn’t really make sense, how he was able to recognise her, I mean, she left when he was just 5. He stood there wide eyed before clearing his throat and attempting to talk.
“I- erm, what-”, he hadn’t noticed that Ben had now entered the room and saw that Callum was in some level of distress, his protective instincts rising to the surface.
“Callum? Who is this?”
The woman at the door shifted on her feet and looked between the two before finally speaking, “Callum… I know it’s been a while.”
This did nothing to clear up the situation for Ben and he watched as his fiancé flinched slightly when she spoke, “my name is Eleanor… Eleanor Highway, Callum’s mum.”
Ben wanted nothing more than to slam the door in this bitch’s face for even making Callum upset on his birthday, let alone in general. He doesn’t though, because he knows Callum will probably react badly and his moral compass will go into overdrive. It’s obvious that her sudden arrival is an unwelcomed one, he doesn’t care if she’s his fiancés mum, besides, it’s not like she’s made an effort over the last 20 or so years, so why bother now? Suddenly, Stuart too entered the room and his face morphed into one of anger as he caught sight of who was at the door.
“What the hell are you doing here?”, the older brother moved to stand in front of Callum as he stumbled backwards, needing the counter as a support. Ben quickly moved over to him, offering him comfort and grounding Callum by simply placing a hand on his arm.
“Look, I-I just want to talk, try and explain what happened.”
“And you chose today to do it? That’s convenient, only took you 25 years.”
“Don’t you judge me Stuart, you have no idea what it was like.”
Stuart maintained his glare at her for a few more moments before turning to his brother, waiting for his verdict.
Callum finally lifted his gaze from the ground and met Stuart’s, both coming to a mutual understanding. He shifted his eyes to look at his Mum and mumbled, “you have one hour.”
Stuart ushered the kids out the house, telling Rainie to take Lexi and Abi to the park for a bit. She gave no protest. Eventually, the highway family, Ben and Phil had all gathered in the living room, the latter supposedly being there to make sure his house didn’t get destroyed. Or maybe it was because he was curious. They stood there, watching the woman expectantly, waiting for her to start.
“Well, I suppose I should start with why I left”, she looked at Callum, hoping for some sort of reaction, but his stony face gave nothing away.
“Jonno- your Dad had become unreasonable, every night he would come home black out drunk and I had to make sure nothing happened to us. He wasn’t always this way, but it was when Callum came along-”
Ben jumped in before she could say another word, “hold on, I know you’re not blaming Callum for his piece of shit dad!”
“That’s not what I’m saying! But Jonno did change when Callum was born, and I tried my damn best to keep him from you but I just couldn’t take it anymore… so I left.”
Stuart scoffed, “you mean you ran.”
“This is not my fault! I was scared-”
“So, you think I wasn’t scared?”, everyone looked over to Callum as he spoke for the first time since his mum arrived, “did it not occur to you that leaving a 5 year old with an alcoholic and abusive dad might not be the best idea?”
“Callum… I wanted to-”
“Do you know that I spent nearly 20 years convincing myself that it was my fault that you left?”
“Callum, please, just let me explain-”
“Do you know how many nights I cried myself to sleep when Dad came tumbling through the door after going on a pub crawl? How scared I was that he was going to barge in and have a go at me? How alone I felt?!”
“Callum, that’s unfair-”
Ben took this opportunity to jump in, “I really don’t think you have the right to decide what’s fair or not, love.”
Callum’s mum scowled, “you’re not involved in this so stay out of it.”
“Woah, woah! You have no right to decide whether he’s involved or not! He’s been there more for me in these past two years than you have in the last 25!”
“Please, things can go back to how it was before, we can be a family again. It’s what I want.”
“Oh, that’s nice, so long as you get what you want, then everything’s okay”, Stuart said sarcastically as he tried to ensure that distance was put between his brother and Eleanor. He’ll be damned if he ever calls her Mum again.
“I can’t even remember what it was like before, but from what you’ve said, I can’t image it was all sunshine and rainbows.”, Callum doesn’t even shout it because what use will it do, she’s clearly made her mind up.
“Son, please, you must want us to be a family again, and I’m not going to leave without trying. If I have to force it to happen, then I will. Because it is what’s best for all of us.”
Callum stared at her in disbelief, the only thing stopping him from fleeing from the house is Ben’s comforting touch which he uses as a lifeline.
Eleanor tried to take a step forward, “Cal-”
The use of the nickname that was only allowed to be said by Ben had his anger spilling over the edge, “no, you don’t get to call me that. You don’t get to come here and try and demand that everything goes back the way it was. That’s not going to happen!”
His mum’s face changed into one of guilt, with underlying levels of irritation, “Callum, please just listen to me, it was so hard trying to balance making him happy and looking after you”, Callum shook his head and laughed in disbelief before turning away and tugging a hand through his hair, “you’re not even listening to me! You were a handful!”
Callum spins around to face her again, tears forming in his eyes, “Oh, so this is my fault then?!”
“Callum! It is nearly impossible to look after a child in an abusive relationship! You were constantly demanding, always hungry, always crying!”
Callum was done listening, he tuned and made his way to the kitchen, intending to leave. Ben was already following behind, trying to stop the manic woman from following and causing his soulmate anymore distress.
“You cannot just walk away from me! After everything, are you really gonna be the one to stop us from trying to be a family again!”
Callum had finally had enough, “don’t make this about me! This has always been about you…”
She looked at him and took one last chance to assert herself, “look at you, you get one taste at a happy family with this freak show and you’re ready to throw the rest of us away.”
Funnily enough, Phil was the one to interject now, “alright, I’ve had enough, you need to leave my house, now.”
She ignored him, and took a threatening step closer to Callum, “and now… I look at you and all I see is a wasted potential, a failure and a disappointment.”
Callum was speechless, he just looked on at the woman with a look of astonishment and utter devastation.
She wasted no time in walking out the door. Again.
The slam of the door reverberated throughout the house, but no one made a sound, no one moved.
“I- er, I’m just going to- yeah.”, with that Callum grabbed his keys and dashed out the door, ignoring Ben’s desperate call. He found himself sat in a familiar place, a place he always seems to go to when he’s in distress or troubled. He hasn’t done it in a while and he had hoped that he’d never have to again, his life had been going in the perfect direction and he’d assumed he’d never have return to this place… or this method again.
He was slouched in one of the swings just outside the Arches, a 4 pack of beer sat on the floor net to him, one already in his hand. He stared at the glass bottle for a while before he slammed it into his leg, over and over again. He already knew that a bruise would be forming, a nasty one at that, and maybe he’d have a small limp for a few days, but that didn’t stop him. Tears streamed down his face and he didn’t register his name being called, or the person run up to him and grab onto his hand, stopping him from hitting his leg.
His lifted his red rimmed eyes to look at whoever stopped him, only to sob at seeing Ben knelt in front of him, looking on with wide eyes and worry etched into his face. He gently took the bottle out of Callum’s hand and wrapped his arms around Callum’s shoulder, pulling him in and pushing his head into the crook of his neck. He listen on in anguish as Callum wailed and sobbed, and all he could do was run his finger through his hair, rub his hand on his back and say, “It’s okay, I’m here, and I’m never leaving you.”