.indyxoxo:
Letting her toes dip into the water as her legs dangled over the edge of the pier, Indiana leaned a head back and squinted up at the afternoon sun. It wasn’t hot today, and she could feel the chill against her legs as her tiny shorts rode up, the wind whipping harshly against her bare skin. But no amount of good or bad weather was ever going to get in the way of Indiana Kelly and a good outfit, and she wasn’t going to let the chill of the air stop her from wearing her favourite, low-cut top that accented her boobs so perfectly, or her booty shorts that made her bum look like something you’d need a good surgeon and a few hundred thousand dollars to acquire.
Stealing a glance to the side, she watched with vague intrigue as Callum’s hands worked expertly on the boat before him. His concentration never breaking as he brandished tool after tool, doing Lord knows what.
Indiana loved spending time at the docks with Callum, and she adored the boy in question moreso than the venue itself. In all honesty, crass and tactless as she could be, Indy was very fond of all of her friends, and she held a particular soft spot in her heart for Callum. While she, and the rest of the cheer and football squad, had been all too proud of Callum for his recent bravery in coming out, she’d felt nothing but anger at the events that had lead up to it. Though Cal’s sexuality hadn’t been Messina’s best kept secret, it was his secret, and only his, and she loathed the idea that cowards and bullies had been the reasoning behind him having to expose such an important part of himself before he was truly ready.
Indiana herself had always been lucky with her own coming out story. She’d always been a very excitable child, and from a young age she’d never shied away from kissing both boys and girls on the playground, but it hadn’t been until she was 13 years old that she’d really understood what it all meant. Upon returning home from school one day to announce that she’d kissed Angela Tennant behind the bike sheds, and that she’d been a way better kisser than Ryan Clark had ever been, she’d happily exclaimed that she thought girls were much better than boys, and that maybe she’d like to keep kissing them. Both of her parents and Bree had shown her nothing but support, and even Cora and Lottie had tried to understand, despite being that bit younger than her. It hadn’t been until she was way past high school age that she’d heard of the term ‘pansexual’, but she’d been all too happy to claim the label as her own, and she thought it fit her quite perfectly.
Callum, however, wasn’t experiencing the same love and support that she had, not in some aspects of his life. And while she’d come to terms with the fact that it wasn’t her place to intrude on such personal aspects of his life, it worried Indy to no end that he’d been so quiet on the topic ever seen that dreaded night. Nobody had wanted to intrude, or overstep, and so she wondered if that was why nobody was speaking of it, but that only left Callum to fester in his own thoughts and to deal with it alone, and that just wouldn’t do.
A mixture of her own nosiness, and a legitimate concern for her friend, won over in the end, and Indy quietly pondered how to to broach the subject.
“Hey, boo?” she called to him, lifting her feet back out of the water and crossing her legs beneath her. Watching as Callum put in the finishing touches to, well, whatever it was he was doing, she finally managed to pull his attention away from the boat. “Can we maybe talk, baby?”
Sliding her phone out of her pocket, she swiped up to open the camera option, already switched to the front facing one, and started examining herself in it. She wasn’t really all that fussed about how she looked right now – she knew she looked hot – but she was trying, and probably failing, to adopt an air of casual indifference so as not to look as though she was cornering Callum, or bullying him into talking.
“We haven’t spoken since all those blog posts went up, babes, and I sort of wanted to check in? See how things are going with you, gorgeous?”
Even though Callum himself loved being on the water, he still couldn’t understand the appeal of a rickety fisherman’s boat. In his opinion, clambering into a decade-old vessel that had already had a woodworm infestation was a recipe for disaster but old Alf had insisted that there was no better boat for the job than his Darla. When Alf had been out fishing on the Hudson, however, Darla had taken on water and had all but capsized poor Alf. When a hole in the bottom of the boat had been discovered, it opened up the opportunity for Callum to give the elderly fisherman a smug ‘I told you so’. As it was, he simply gave him a meek reassurance that he would see to it that the boat was fixed.
Bending down as the boat rocked underneath him in the water, tied to the pier by a sturdy rope, Callum was touching up all the other repairs Darla required when he heard a small splash and Indiana adjust her position.
He knew she was stewing over something and the concerned glances she continuously sent his way clued him into what. Feeling uncomfortable under the scrutiny, Callum pretended to pay her no heed, focused on his task until she spoke up herself.
“Hmm?” he asked when she called on him. He glanced up to see her looking worried and wished she wouldn’t. Truth be told, the last thing he wanted to talk about were the blog posts that had forced him to out himself, but he also knew that they had been the elephant in the room for going on two weeks now. Everyone on the team had told him they were proud of him, but when it became clear that he seemed to sweat a little under all the attention, the issue was dropped – even if it was unresolved.
“Sure we can,” he said after a brief pause, dropping his tools into the bed of the boat and hoisting himself up onto the pier beside his friend.
Pushing all his weight onto his forearms, he twisted his body so his backside hit the wooden dock with a thud. Dusting off his hands for something to do, he waited for the blow to arrive, surprised at how soft it was when it came. That had everything to do with Indiana’s gentle tone.
“I mean… I’m doing fine,” he nodded, a little detached. The truth was he had tried not to think about the incident and how he was forever changed in the eyes of anyone who followed his Tumblr account. He selfishly didn’t even want to entertain how much of a disservice he was doing to Petey.
“I’m just glad my parents think the internet is Satan’s mark on the world.” He played off his lame joke with a meagre shrug, biting his lip nervously all the while as he knew it was only a matter of time before his mom and dad found out what he had revealed to anyone who read his blog.
