21. Callie
Chapter 21
Callie
Senior Year
It’s finally my senior year.
I have filled out college applications, taken my SATs, and am now waiting to hear back. I’m hoping to get into the University of Texas at Austin, but I’d be happy with any of the schools I applied to.
I chose social work as my major because I’ve always appreciated the many different disciplines within that field. When my great grandma, my dad’s grandma, got sick she was placed on hospice, and I was so appreciative of the social worker who came and spoke to us about the progression of her disease and everything that we should expect.
Last year I reached out to the agency that handled my great-grandmother’s services and spoke with the social worker. I wanted to make sure it was something I wanted to do and not just something that sparked a little of my interest. We scheduled a meeting for the following weekend. She also welcomed me back after school to do volunteer work to get a better idea of the day-to-day.
I spent over an hour with her talking about the job, schooling, and anything she could give me information on. I left that meeting with a clear head and a new hope for my future.
Christmas is nearing and it’s hitting me that this could be my last Christmas at home before I enter adulthood. Next year I’ll be away at college and while I plan on coming home for the holidays it will be different. Even Mom brought it up the other day how next year she won’t have the whole family to help her decorate and do all the holiday traditions that we’ve done every year as far back as I can remember.
Dad doesn’t like decorating before Thanksgiving, but Mom lives for Christmas time so every year, the first week of November, he goes up in the attic to bring down all the Christmas decor and the tree. Mom, Emily, and I spend the entire weekend setting up the tree and all the decor with Hallmark Christmas movies playing in the background.
Every year, starting the first week of December, we drive around looking at lights once a week, hitting a new area every time. Then we come back home and mom makes us all hot chocolate and we watch a Christmas movie as a family.
Mom offered to wait to put up decor until I was able to make it home for winter break, but I can’t be the reason the traditions change. She and Em will do an amazing job with it and I can just pick up wherever they are when I get in.
I won’t see Mason at all this winter break because his family is going to visit his grandparents in southern Alabama. Normally they all get together at the farm, but his grandma fell a little over a month ago and can’t travel this year. He’s leaving Saturday morning to drive down there and won’t be back until the Sunday before we start school.
I’ve got enough planned to keep me busy, though. I hope.
I check the mail before unlocking the door. I should be getting my college letters soon. Flipping through I see two envelopes addressed to me. One from the University of Texas at Austin and the other from Savannah State University. Deeper in the pile are letters from a few other colleges I applied to, too.
I quickly unlock the front door, drop my backpack at my feet, and tear into the letter from the University of Texas.
I take a deep breath before unfolding the sheet of paper inside.
“Dear Callie. Thank you for your interest in the University of Texas at Austin.” I start reading. This doesn’t sound good. “It is with our pleasure that we offer you ACCEPTANCE INTO THE SOCIAL WORK PROGRAM,” I scream. Oh my god. I got into my dream school. I cannot believe this.
Me : MOM! I GOT INTO UT!
Me : DAD! I GOT INTO UT!
Me : MASONNN! I GOT INTO UT!
I throw my phone on the couch and jump up and down in excitement. I grab the envelope from Savannah State University. This was my backup in case I wasn’t accepted into U of T because their social work program is great, too.
“Dear Callie. It is with great pleasure that I offer you acceptance into Savannah State University Social Work Program.” I’m not as excited for this one, but it’s still awesome that I got into my top two schools. I don’t bother opening the other letters and lay it all on the counter before grabbing my phone. It’s been buzzing with incoming texts.
Mom : Congratulations honey! I’m proud of you! Let’s celebrate tonight!
Dad : That’s awesome, Cal! Congratulations! Knew you could do it.
Mase : Duh! Of course you did. You’re amazing. Congratulations. I’m still waiting on my letters.
Graduation was two days ago. I’m still exhausted from the planning and prepping that went into it. The whole week leading up to graduation we had practice at school. On the last day of practice, we had to wear our cap and gowns, so we all knew what to expect as if we hadn’t already figured that out after a week of practicing.
Rose texted me asking if I could come in today because one of my coworkers called out. I’m tired but since Rose is laid back about what we do at work I can relax between customers with my book. So, I agreed to come in, letting her know I’d be there in an hour.
I throw on some dark wash skinny jeans, my black and white vans, and my white t-shirt that says Book Nerd with a pair of glasses under it. Very fitting for a recent grad working at a bookstore.
“Mom, I won’t be here for dinner tonight. I’m covering someone at work.” I say, grabbing my keys off the hook by the door. Mom is in the kitchen prepping dessert for tonight. I’m sad I’ll miss it. “Save me a piece of that pie, please.”
“Will do, Cal. Be safe. Text me when you get to work.”
“I’m going less than six blocks up the road, Mom…” I say, rolling my eyes.
“Yes, I know. Text me when you get to work.” She repeats, opening the oven and placing the pie inside.
The town is quiet as I make my way up Main Street to work. There are a few people out walking but for the most part, it’s empty.
“Cal, thanks so much for coming in tonight. You’re a lifesaver.” Rose says, as soon as my right foot is across the threshold.
“You’re welcome. Any extra hours are always welcome. I hope Jasmine is okay, though. She never calls out.” I say, clocking in at the register.
“Her little sister came home yesterday with the flu, and she woke up today with a fever. She told me she’d let me know how she felt later and around 3:30 she called telling me that her fever was still present, and she was feeling worse.” Rose frowns. All of us are so close and she thinks of us as family. So anytime we’re down, she’s down.
“Oh, man. That sucks. What’s on the to-do list for tonight?”
“Not too much. I finished shelving the order that came in this morning. I’ve got books pulled already for the front table display. It’s going to be this month’s best sellers; you can put that together tonight and then just the regular closing stuff. You won’t be closing by yourself, though. I’m going to be here. I’ve got a lot of invoices to catch up on and a few orders to make. So if you need me, holler.”
“Sounds good. If we’re not busy tonight I will probably get lost in Pikeville Manor once I’m done with the featured table up front.” I say, waving my book.
“That’s fine with me. We were steady all day, but nights are hit or miss sometimes. If I think of anything else that you can help with, I’ll let you know.”
I place my book under the register and walk to the front table where Rose has stacked the books to be displayed. This feature table is my favorite display to put together. It shows off a variety of genres and it’s the first thing people see when they come in the store. We’ve had many customers tell us they’ve found their favorite books, and even new, to them, authors, on this table.
I place the books in stacks across the table and save the middle area for the sign. Rose always lets me make the signs because it’s a creative outlet for me and she hates doing them because “mine always look terrible” or so she says, I’ve never actually seen one of hers.
As I’m walking back to the register to put together the sign the bells above the door jingle. I turn back towards the door and say “Welcome to Scripted Serenity. Let me know if you need help finding something.”
“Thank you. We’re coming to browse the children’s books.” The mother says, holding her child’s hand and walking back in that general area.
A few moments later I hear “Excuse me.” I’d know that voice anywhere.
“Mason, what’re you doing here?” I ask, walking over to give him a quick hug.
“I stopped by to bring you dinner. I stopped by your house and your mom said you had to come to work.”
“Oh, yeah. Jasmine woke up not feeling well so I came in to do the closing shift with Rose.”
The door opens and a dad with two small kids walks in. “Welcome to Scripted Serenity. Let me know if I can help you with anything.”
“Well, I grabbed you a sub from the diner. Want me to go put it in the fridge in the back since you’ve got customers? I don’t want to stick around and bother y’all.”
“Yeah, go stick it in the back and hang out for a minute. Rose won’t care.”
I’m ringing up the father and his two sons when Mason walks back out here. I see him turn to go look at the mystery books while I’m finishing up. As I’m bagging their books the mother and young girl get in line behind him. I look over at Mason, who just smiles at me.
“I see y’all are busy tonight,” Mason says once the customers leave.
“Only because you’re here.” I laugh. “The mom with the little girl came in right before you did. So she wasn’t in here long.”
“Hey Mason, is that you I hear out there?” Rose calls from the back.
“Yes ma’am. What’s up?”
She peeks her head around the door of the office and says “Can you help me grab this box off the shelf in here?”
“Of course.”
Mason leaves to go help her and I yell for him to grab my sub while he’s back there.
I’m able to sit down with him and eat before two more groups of people come in.
“I’m going to head out. Text me later.” He gives me a quick kiss on the cheek and says bye to Rose before leaving.
Mase: Good morning, Cal. I’m going to come pick you up soon. We’ve got a whole day of things to do. Wear something comfortable.
Mason pulls into the driveway an hour later and I meet him at the front door.
“Hey babe.”
“Hey, Mase. Is this one of your super sweet planned dates?” I ask, yawning.
“Something like that, yeah. Come on.”
There’s something in his voice that doesn’t feel right but I push it away as just him being tired. We drive through town and pull into my favorite breakfast spot, a small diner in town that makes the best french toast.
Once we’ve ordered we’re sitting there in silence and I don’t know if I’m picking up weird vibes or what. He’s not normally this quiet.
“Is everything okay? You’re pretty quiet this morning.” I ask, not really sure if I want to know the answer.
“Yeah, I’m good. Just didn’t sleep all that well last night. But breakfast should wake me up a little.” He says, forcing a smile.
I push my thoughts to the back of my mind so we can have a good day.
Once we’ve finished eating and paid the bill Mason looks at me and says “You feel like painting?” and immediately my negative thoughts leave. This is about to be a great day. I can feel it.
“Umm yes. When have I ever not wanted to paint?!” I ask, smiling from ear to ear.
“Good because I booked us a class at The Paint Bar. You ready?”
“Yes, let's go!”
The door closes behind us and I take off jogging. “I’ll race you there!” I call back even though I know it’ll take nothing for him to catch up to me.
“You’re on, Cal! I’ll give you a head start.”
I can hear him counting. He gets to ten and calls out “Alright, I’m coming.”
Before I know it he’s grabbing me around the waist and bringing me back to his side. He places a soft kiss on my temple before we start walking again.
“You only caught up because you’ve been running the last four years straight on the field.” I tease him.
“You wish that was why. I can’t help it you run so slow.” Mason teases right back.
He opens the door to The Paint Bar and I walk in. We’re greeted by Pam, the owner and teacher. She walks us over to a table on the left and tells us that we’ve got an open class meaning we can paint whatever we want but if we have questions she’ll be available to help. I’ve never done a class like this. I’ve only ever done the classes where she paints a picture and we paint our version.
I decide to paint a sunrise because they’re always beautiful. Mason won’t tell me what he’s painting, that it’s a surprise for the end. We both set our canvases up so the other can’t see them and get to work.
Forty minutes later Mason says he’s done. I let him know I was just about done and then we could show each other our paintings.
Once I’ve finished I clean up my area and sit back down.
“Are you ready?” I ask Mason.
“More than ever.”
“Okay, on the count of three, we’ll turn them around.”
He nods in agreement.
“One.”
“Two.”
“Three.”
We both turn our canvases around and as soon as I see Mason’s I’m trying so hard to hold my laugh in. I love that he tried but what the hell.
“Sorry, I suck at painting. Your sunrise is beautiful, though.”
“You don’t suck at painting. You suck at painting people.”
At that point neither of us can hold it in any longer and we both burst out laughing. Thankfully we’re the only two people in here, besides Pam.
Once we’re finally able to calm down we finish cleaning up and lay our canvases in the drying area letting Pam know we’ll be back later to grab them.
“Let’s walk over to Huntington Park. Maybe we’ll see the geese while we’re there.” Mason suggests.
He has thought about all of my favorite things today. Gosh, I love him.
We are standing there in front of my house. This has been one of the best days of my life, but the look in Mason’s eyes worries me. Is this about whatever was bugging him earlier? When he claimed he was just tired.
I know he is about to leave for New York and that he’s worried about a lot of things, so maybe I am just overthinking his expression. That is until he opens his mouth…
“Callie Grace.” He pauses and inhales deeply.
“Is everything okay, Mase?” I ask nervously.
“I think we need to talk.” He pauses again and I already know I’m not going to like whatever comes out of his mouth next, but I was not expecting to hear what I did. “You know I love you. I have loved spending the last four years with you. I’m leaving for New York in two days, and I’ve got a lot of reservations about doing this whole long-distance relationship. I can’t go off to college knowing that I am leaving you behind. I also know that you can’t go with me because you start classes in a few short weeks, too. As much as I don’t want to do this. I have to end this relationship before I leave. I’m so sorry, Callie Grace.”
He kisses my forehead and backs away watching as tears are strolling down my cheeks. He turns around and starts walking towards his car.
What just happened?
“Mason!!” I holler through tears. “MASON STOP!” He’s not listening. He’s just walking away.
“MASON PLEASE DON’T DO THIS!” Now I’m sobbing. I got his attention, though. He’s turned to face me. “Mason, please. Please don’t do this. Why are you doing this? What did I do?” I manage to get out between sobs. But instead of answering me he turns back around, walks to his car, gets in, and drives away.
My dream of going to the University of Texas shattered right along with my heart. Right then and there I decided to stay in state just in case Mason decides to come back.