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tedrick · 3 years

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caldel fic bc i can’t put it in docs uwuwuwuwu

mostly early 2020???? late 2019???? unfinished

Calvin found himself a bit bewildered, and unsure what to do with his hands during the long elevator ride. Typically not the type to be visibly nervous, Calvin was clearly out of his comfort zone in this large, grandiose building.

It was hard not to notice from the outside, ornate and elaborate; Calvin was used to staring at it whenever he’d pass by, wondering about what the apartments inside looked like, the size of the lobby, the expensive furnishings. Now he found himself inside, traveling to one of its top floors in the elevator.

Adel really lived here?

The silence was becoming increasingly awkward. If Calvin had dared to watch Adel during their ascent he would have seen that Adel was also clearly uncomfortable, standing a bit too stiffly and holding his breath. By the gracious nature peripheral vision though, Adel seemed to just be naturally and comfortably subdued.

“So..” Calvin said, looking across the elevator, the walls of which were lines with a soft, velvety looking covering. “You live on the twelfth floor? Here?” He laughed as he said it, trying not to seem rude or strange, while also making an attempt to hide his nervousness.

Adel turned to him, eyes wide and attentive before he quickly glanced away again. “Uh, yeah- haha.” The laugh was embarrassingly forced, but he wanted to seem as nonchalant as he mistook Calvin to be. “The suites are all on the highest floors, but it’s still a very nice building, I think.” Adel punctuated his sentence by nodding to himself, that was probably the right thing to say.

Calvin stared at Adel for a moment, processing what he had just said. There wasn’t very much time for him to process though, as the elevator finally slowed to a stop, the doors swiftly opening to a classy well-lit hallway with a faint pleasant fragrance.

Adel stepped out and Calvin followed stiffly, transfixed by the elaborate patterns in the carpet and the wallpaper. Some ways down the hallway, Adel finally stopped at a door, and Calvin stood behind him as he retrieved a key ring from one of his jacket pockets, a singular key hanging from it. As he leaned over Adel’s shoulder, Calvin also saw that attached to the key ring was a small, cute keychain of a frog that he had never seen before. He smiled, thinking that it was adorable.

There was a click as the door unlocked, and Adel slipped the key ring back into his pocket. Surprisingly, after he swung the door open, he stood by the doorway and motioned for Calvin to enter first.

Calvin drifted through the doorway that entered into the bedroom portion of Adel’s apartment, which was even larger than his own bedroom.

The room was immaculate as well as bright, mainly thanks to the rather large window on the opposite wall which displayed a view of the busy street outside, and the sprawling blue sky above it.

The cleanliness of the room brought attention the its decoration, which was mostly limited to various instruments arranged around the perimeter of the floor and the walls. A guitar leaned against one wall, a ukulele hung on another, a keyboard sat in the corner, aside several other instrument cases. Besides the instruments, the rest of the decoration in the apartment was comprised of different houseplants, which took up most available surfaces- the windowsill, the desk, the dresser. They all looked different, and were all obviously very well taken care of.

Besides that, the apartment wasn’t just impeccably clean, it was also incredibly sparse. Evidently, Adel didn’t take much an interest in interior design. Furnishing the room was the bare minimum: a comfy bed, a polished nightstand, a desk and a seat, a cushy chair, some shelves and a rug.

It all looked nice enough to fool the eye at a glance, but there were no knick-knacks that weren’t plants or schoolbooks. The entire area was distinctly.. utilitarian.

“Ah,” Calvin started, removing his jacket as he took it all in. “So you’re one of those ‘minimalists’, huh?” He cracked a smile at Adel, who was locking the deadbolt on the door.

“I uh, don’t really know what that means.” Adel said timidly, trying not to show his confusion as he turned around. He smiled at Calvin, and removed his own jacket, then walked past him and draped it over the chair at his desk.

“You hungry?” Adel asked with a grin, and without waiting for an answer, he disappeared down a hallway, leaving Calvin alone beside the entrance.

Taking his cue, Calvin gingerly placed his jacket over Adel’s and followed him through the short hallway into a small, organized kitchen space. Adel was searching through stainless steel refrigerator. Quickly, he turned and tossed something to Calvin, who caught it to find that is was a large, round orange.

Internally grateful that he hadn’t fumbled the orange and made a full of himself, Calvin further tested his luck by tossing the orange back and forth from hand to hand, trying to look cool.

“Thanks, man!” He said, looking up at Adel with a beaming smile. Adel smiled back, relieved that he made Calvin happy. From a cupboard he pulled out a granola snack for himself and began to unwrap it.

“You’re welcome.” He replied sheepishly, looking down.

Making short work of his orange’s peel, Calvin glanced around the kitchen, which was relatively small, yet well-outfitted with different appliances and utensils. Still, something about the arrangement of it was off- it looked superficially decorated rather than a well-used kitchen. He got the feeling that Adel didn’t spend too much time in here.

“So uh, how-“ Calvin started before Adel wordlessly moved forward and gently took the orange peel from his fingers, sliding a drawer open to reveal a trash can that he dropped the peel and his wrapper in.

Realizing this had interrupted Calvin, Adel looked back at him with his wide, expectant blue eyes. “S-Sorry. Go on.” He prompted.

Now flustered, Calvin spun the peeled orange in his hands. “Yeah uh. How’d you even get a place like this dude?” He asked, gesturing to the space around them to show that he was impressed by it’s grandeur.

Adel didn’t seem to share his sentiment though, as he shrugged. “I dunno really. It’s a nice building. It had nice reviews so..” His sentence trailed off as he took a bite of his granola. He was dodging the question.

Forcing the orange slices apart with his thumb, Calvin chuckled. “No, I mean, how do you even afford a place like this? The rent here must be crazy.” He hoped that Adel could tell that he was sincerely not trying to be rude, he was just bewildered. Calvin couldn’t fathom this small, awkward, punkish boy living in a place so lavish. In fact, he was pretty sure Adel had never even mentioned having a job that would pay well enough to support such a living situation.

Something about Adel’s posture shifted and solidified, taking up the brooding and serious shape it had before they’d gotten to know each other better. When he spoke his words seemed stilted, as he gave his response a good amount of contemplation.

“Well.. it’s mostly family money.” As he spoke, he suddenly began walking back to his bedroom area. Calvin followed. “My grandparents are kind of... doting? I think. They send me money from Germany to help with school, housing, the like..”

From an outside perspective, it was unclear what Adel was thinking. Part of him was embarrassed to admit that he was sustained by money that he didn’t earn. Another part of him was ashamed by the fact that the money was mostly insurance against him needing to work.

“Wow! That’s really nice of them!” Calvin exclaimed, painfully aware that Adel had become a little uncomfortable, and they were both just standing in the middle of his room. “I’m sure my parents would do the same but, five kids is a lot to provide for already, haha.”

At this, Adel’s discomfort seemed to disappear. He perked up and looked at Calvin, who was in the middle of eating another slice off his orange. “Five kids? You told me you have sisters but not four other siblings!” Adel sat down onto his bed, clearly unable to fathom being a part of such a large family.

Tentatively sitting down next to Adel, Calvin nodded. “Yeah I’ve got four sisters. I swear the exhaustion will kill me someday.” He feigned a wistful look into the distance, making Adel crack up immediately. Seeing Adel laugh so carefreely made Calvin loosen up a bit.

“We all have our differences,” Calvin continued. “But I love them. At least it’s never boring.” As he spoke, he lovingly thought of his large family, and all of his younger sisters who he cherished deeply.

“I can imagine.” Adel said. “It’s probably never lonely either, huh?” Even though he was speaking directly to Calvin, his gaze was lowered to his hands, which he fiddled with now that he wasn’t holding the snack he’d just finished.

Calvin shrugged. “I dunno... It can get pretty lonely sometimes. I’m the big brother- I’ve got to take care of everybody, be responsible, be smart, be happy. Its a.. Its a big role to live up to, y’know?” He tried to smile but the furrow of his eyebrows wouldn’t allow anything convincing.

At this point Adel looked up at him again. “I never really thought of it like that before.”

Instead of replying, Calvin remained silent. He could tell that Adel was thinking through something that he wanted to elaborate on.

“I’m an only child so.. sometimes I wonder if i missed out on any of that. Those-“ He gestured with his hands as he tried to think of the word he wanted to use. “Those bonds, i guess, that are built in with siblings. Even the responsibility. Someone to take care of. It sounds nice.”

There were several moments of silence as the two of them were lost in their thoughts. Calvin spoke.

“Adel... were you lonely at home?”

Adel grew somber. He inhaled deeply, releasing his breath in a tired sigh. “I wish I could lie to you Calvin, but honestly.. there wasn’t really a time when I wasn’t lonely.”

Calvin stayed silent once more, opting to observe. As Adel began to continue speaking, he slightly shifted to face towards Calvin less. His words came slowly, as if reliving the memories was difficult, or perhaps he had spent a very long time trying to forget.

“I was an only child, yes, but.. not even my parents ever spent much time with me. My mother was always very paranoid. It pushed my father away, he became unfaithful. That only made her behavior worse.” Adel paused for a very long time. “They divorced very early in my life. I lived alone with my mother afterwards.”

This was the point where Calvin decided he should speak up, offer some words of consolation or a change in the topic. Before he could utter out anything however, Adel continued.

“You know, neither of them ever really treated me like i was their child though. I was probably just proof that two shallow people managed to achieve a nice family life. That was a lie. We’d smile for portraits, then go to our own rooms far away from each other. Even in such a big house, i could still always hear them yelling at each other.” Adel chuckled as he spoke these final words, but his face was emotionless, and his eyes were distant.

“And when there were two of us I hardly interacted with my mother. There was nothing she could do that a maid couldn’t do for her, so long as she didn’t have to look at me. I was just a little doll in a big empty doll house. Nothing ever changed. It wouldn’t even matter which room i used because they had never even made a room for me. Isn’t that strange?” Finally, Adel turned to make eye contact with Calvin. His eyes were wet, but not close to tears.

“A boy living in a house for adults. She had arranged the house to her liking before I was born, and never changed it afterwards. That house was exactly the same for as long as i lived in it. Sparkly and extravagant, my messed up family hardly belonged. It was like... a puzzle, that was already complete without us. Not a single one of us fit into it, and none of us fit together as well... I’ve never really known the closeness of a family, large or otherwise.”

“Even after we moved in with my grandparents, sold the house, I was still always all alone.” Then Adel fell silent, and withdrew into himself. It seemed he was done speaking about his past.

Calvin looked around the room once more. Perhaps thats why all of the decor was so superficial and functional. Perhaps thats why the apartment seemed so empty. He looked back at Adel.

“I’m sorry Adel. I shouldn’t have pried.”

Adel’s back straightened, and he swatted at his eyes, blinking back any threat of tears.

“No, it’s alright.” Adel assured him. “I shouldn’t be getting emotional, it’s not that deep.” Then he became visibly uncomfortable. “I- I’m sorry for making this awkward, Calvin. We should talk about something else. I didn’t mean to be a bummer.”

Without much forethought, Calvin said the first thing that came to mind, hoping it would cheer Adel up.

“Uhhh what about these plants? You never mentioned you were like, world’s best houseplant owner! I’d probably kill a cactus but these, these are really nice!”

Obviously Adel was invested in his plants, he must love them, and Calvin was earnestly impressed by them. He’d once tried to plant an orange tree when he was younger, but to his disappointment, nothing ever came of it.

Thankfully, Adel smiled. His eyes lit up with pride, and he straightened his back. “Yes, i love my plants. I’m very proud of them. I’ve always enjoyed gardening, but there’s not much you can do in an twelfth story apartment.”

This made Adel laugh, and Calvin tried to laugh too even though he couldn’t relate.

“Do they.. do they have names?” Calvin asked.

Adel tried and failed to repress a smile, and he leaned in close. “They do.” He giggled. “I wasn’t going to say- i think it’s a bit embarrassing.”

Calvin leaned forward as well, setting his hand down right next to Adel’s to brace himself.

“Nooo! I’d love to know, for real!”

Adel rolled his eyes playfully and smiled as he stood up, walking around his room and introducing each of his plants. He started out shyly, but eventually it was clear how invested he was in his individual houseplants- none of which Calvin could name, but they were all very pretty.

“This is Anne, and Claudio, Henry, Franz, Hector, Fanny and Felix, Guissepe, Gustav, Igor, Maurice, and Samuel.”

Adel paused next to the final plant, clasping his hands together and pulling at his fingers, eager to recieve praise from Calvin.

#moved from other blog #orange you glad #calvin #adel #words

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