|| Friday, early evening ||

Callum didn’t know what to do. He wanted to stop his parents—and the rest of government—from changing the laws, restricting people like Elliot.

Who on Terraqua with a high EQ would do this to other human beings? How could anyone justify these upcoming rules? How could any of them look at themselves in the mirrors and think that it was a good idea?

How could any of them sit at the dinner table at home, eating dinner and pretending as if nothing happened.

Dinner time was awkward, with Freddy refusing to look anywhere else than towards his food, Ayla sending their parents deadly looks, and Callum fuming in anger, silently, while refusing to eat at all.

And their parents? They were talking about the upcoming remodelling of their garden house and garden as if today was just like yesterday. Like nothing was going to change.

Like nothing was changing in that exact moment.

They didn’t speak about the new upcoming laws, they didn’t talk about the protesting people who went out onto the streets right after the first news bulletin—which had been repeated over and over again ever since—and they didn’t talk about what it meant to people like Elliot.

Ten minutes into dinner, Eleanor looked at Callum’s plate—left untouched—and frowned.

“Callum, honey, eat your dinner,” she said, shortly touching his arm in a motherly way.

“No,” Callum replied, shoving the plate aside. “I’m not going to eat your stupid food.”

“Excuse me? What’s wrong with my food?”

“It’s made by a hypocrite,” Callum grumbled while crossing his arms in front of his chest. And while he did, the whole table fell silent. Freddy, Ayla and their father David stopped eating too, all staring at Callum and Eleanor.

“What?” David asked, nearly choking on his drink.

“Well, he isn’t wrong,” Freddy added. “Are we really going to pretend nothing happened?”

“We’re not pretending nothing happened,” David said holding up his hands in defence. “We’re just focusing on things that are more important to us and—”

“Remodelling a fucking perfect pool house is more important to you?” Callum cut his mother short. He couldn’t believe what he was hearing.

“The new laws aren’t affecting us—”

“Those new idiot laws are going to affect Ayla, if nothing changes for her,” Callum spat out, staring daggers at his parents. “They’re going to affect people like Elliot, who deserve a fucking happy ending.”

“I agree with Callum on this,” Freddy gestured. “You can’t do this to all those people.”

“We are very sorry that we felt the need to separate good from bad—"

“Those people aren’t bad people!” Callum shouted. “They’re people too, for fucks sake!”

“Callum, language,” his mother sent him a look full of disapproval.

“I’ll watch my fucking language, if you can look me in the eye and tell me you feel even an ounce of remorse. Because I don’t think you can without lying.”

“What are you implying? That I don’t feel remorse?”

“I don’t know, mom. Do you?”

“Of course I do!”

“If you really did, you wouldn’t be doing this,” Callum stood up from his seat, his chair scraping over the hardwood floor. “You can’t sympathize with them, you don’t feel remorse, you don’t feel guilty. You’re discussing a fucking pool house during dinner, while people outside are protesting the laws you came up with.”

“Callum, we do feel all of that—”

“No, you don’t,” Freddy mumbled, pinching his nose in annoyance. “It’s an act, I know it is. Obviously, Callum and I know it’s fake.”

“Excuse me? We’re in government for a reason…”

“You faked your EQ because you’re smart enough to know the theory behind all emotions. Even Elliot does that sometimes. For fucks sake, I know even Ayla does it sometimes to get the things she wants.”

“Callum Marlowe! You sit back down right now and apologize for such a terrible accusation!” His mother was now standing too, pointing towards Callum, trying to get him to sit back down.

“I’m not going to apologize for the goddamn truth,” Callum said, crossing his arms in front of his chest. He refused to sit back down. “Just admit that you faked your entire life. Just, for once, be who you are.”

His mother was shaking in anger, and Callum knew that if he pushed the matter far enough, she would explode. He was almost entirely sure Freddy and he were right about their parents EQ’s. She wouldn’t be able to control her anger.

They never pushed their luck far enough for their parents to really explode. Neither Freddy, nor Callum or Ayla were difficult children. Ayla only lost her cool because of her low EQ, but that never made their parents angry to a point where they couldn’t control their emotions.

But this? This accusation? That would surely do the trick.

“You’re fake, you’re a hypocrite, and you’re a liar,” Callum snapped. “You’re a fraud, and your ability to show the right emotions sucks.”

“That’s it! Go to your goddamn room and think about what you just said!” His mother shouted. “David, goddamn it! Why are you sitting there in silence allowing him to say all these things about me—”

“About both of you,” Callum added to the fire. “Dad’s just as worse, if not worse, for being able to hide who he really is.”

Callum shot his father a look, and saw that he was pressing his lips together, and bawling his hands into fists in his lap. He was seeing red, and the only reason why he kept silence, was to try and hid it.

“Both of you are terrible people,” Callum said calmly, starting to walk away from the table.

“You come back here right now and apologize!” Eleanor screeched, following after him with a raised hand as if she was going to slap him. “Where are you going, you… you ungrateful… you selfish… you, you—” His mother wanted to stop him from opening the front door. “You’re a pathetic excuse for a son! Who do you think you are, talking to us like that?”

“Someone who’s sick and tired of liars and assholes in government restricting people like Elliot. I’m in love with him, you know? And you just took away my right to be with him. Why, mom? Are you fucking afraid one of them is going to expose the truth to me about how easy it is to fake emotions? Newsflash, you exposed yourself, to the whole goddamn world.”

With those words, Callum stepped outside, marching through their front garden, towards his bike.

“Callum, wait!” Freddy called out after him. “Let’s go with my car, I know a place we can stay for tonight.” Freddy caught up with him, followed by Ayla, who was seemingly fuming, but refrained from screaming.

While their mother was shouting profanities at them, their father was nowhere to be seen.

They got in Freddy’s car, drove to a motel a few miles out of town, and checked in for the night. Callum wasn’t planning on going back the next day, but he was too tired to think of the next steps they could take.

“Let’s just go to bed,” Freddy suggested with a sigh. “we’ll figure out what to do in the morning.”