Sasquatch to the Moon

42: Talk Me Down

this is also long long long

HÅKON

I buckle and call Milo about ten minutes later. I was going to leave him out of the loop for a little longer, just until I got home, because he's off having fun and I didn't want to pull a big storm cloud into it before I got myself together, but I need him to say something, anything, to make this seem less of what it is.

"Hey," he picks up. "We're at the lake today and I miss your ass in swim trunks. Anyway I convinced my Dad the sailboat wasn't going to sink and so it's back out in the yard and I'm trying to clean it just a little so we can, like, flex seal the whole thing and-" he stops. "You're being quiet."

"Yeah,"

"Are you okay? Are you tired? Have you eaten anything today?"

"M'okay," I mumble. "I just got into a bit of a tussle with my parents, that's all."

"Oh," he says. "Let me stand up and get out of here, I can walk and you tell me everything. I don't care if you think I shouldn't listen because I'm supposed to be having fun. Talk about it."

"It wasn't," I pause. "It honestly wasn't bad, it wasn't what I thought it was going to be. They asked if you were in a relationship with me and I said yes and we got into a bit of a screaming match over it but I told them I wasn't hiding it anymore and eventually they came to the conclusion that they weren't going to distance from me so there's that. It's better than I thought it was going to be. After that we argued a little about whether or not they care about me and that's... you know."

"So it wasn't the worst, but it still wasn't good."

"Yeah," I mumble. "I think I'm going to be okay about it. Did you know they didn't know I was missing those teeth?"

"No? They didn't? How?"

"I don't know," I sigh. "I guess they just never noticed."

"What are you doing now? What's the plan."

"M'going home. To Canada, that's the plan. I'm gonna go jump in on the summer stuff back there and wait until you get back and then next season. You know. Just like last summer."

"I might go back a little early, just because I think you need a hug."

"No, Milo, don't cancel plans because of me, you should stay."

"Håkon, I'm not staying here if you're not doing well, this family is new in my life and you've been around longer, you're a little more important than them right now. Especially if you're not doing well and they are."

"Milo," I stop him. "I'm okay, I'm really just relieved, this is the same as normal with them. You should stay and get to know that part of your family a little better and I think maybe a little time to myself would be good just to recenter and work with what I'm feeling."

"Are you sure, or are you saying that because you want to curl up into yourself and stew on it?" He pauses. "That was a little condescending, what I meant to say is are you trying to toughen up on the topic or are you going to use the time to let yourself work through it all the way?"

"Uh," I breathe. "I think I just need a little bit of a reset on everything and I don't know."

"Okay," I hear him shift the phone to his other ear. "I just want to make sure you're taking care of yourself."

"I'll be okay," I mumble. "It really was a long time coming and it went better than I thought it would, it's still just a shock to the system, having gone through that and had that... sorta conversation."