Haunted

Rootless Tree

"I hope so," he was still looking at the floor. "I won't get to do this, will I?" he asked.

"What do you mean?" Clara studied his face.

"I won't get a family like this," he pulled a diaper out of the basket by the changing table and turned it over in his hands. It was so impossibly small. He couldn't imagine he'd ever been so tiny or that any people started out that tiny.

"If you want a family, Maddox, you'll have one," Clara started to cry.

"How do you know?" Maddox didn't mean to snap at his mom but he hated that she was always just saying stuff like that. "You say all this stuff about how I'll find love someday and you're telling me I can have a family but it's not like it is for you, Mom. It's not the same. You can't just promise these things."

"It's not the same, you're right. You'll probably never have an oops baby," she shrugged. "But you will fall in love, Maddox, and you will get your family if that's what you want. You have so much time to find all those things, Dax, have some faith."

"It's just not that easy," he shook his head. Maddox tossed the diaper on the changing table and left the room before Clara could say anything else. He went straight to his bedroom and threw himself on the bed.

Eli texted him just seconds later and Maddox checked his phone. He sighed.

Maddox: do you think you'll ever have kids someday?

Eli: i want to, i really hope so.

Maddox: i always thought i would, but idk

Eli: doesn't seeing your mom do it make you want them?

Maddox: no, it makes me think i can't do it

Eli: why not?

Maddox: bc idk she just knows everything + i don't

Maddox: + who would i have kids with?

Eli: i would have kids with you.

Maddox bit his tongue. He hadn't been trying to get Eli to say that but of course he would. Eli always found a way to remind Maddox he had a huge crush on him. And when Maddox didn't answer fast enough Eli started calling him.

"Hi," Maddox said.

"Hi," Eli said back. "Um, was that really bad?"

"No, I just wasn't expecting you to say that."

"Yeah, I didn't mean to say it," Eli admitted. "Just so you know, I meant it. I wasn't just saying it to make you feel better. But uh, I know that's probably weird."

"Thanks," Maddox took a deep breath. "I wasn't trying to make you say that. I kind of know how you feel about me, so it's not that weird, I just....wasn't thinking."

"Can I ask you something?" Eli asked.

"Yeah."

"If you know how I feel, why do you flirt so much?" Eli sounded so nervous.

"Um," Maddox didn't want to take too long to answer but he really hadn't thought about it. "Well, I mean, I like talking to you and I think you're really cute so it's fun, I don't know. I really like you, Eli."

You like me," Eli repeated. "Do you mean as a friend or like a boyfriend?"

"I, um," Maddox took a deep breath. He wasn't sure how to answer, but he h. "Don't get the wrong idea, I would say as a boyfriend but I don't know if we can actually be boyfriends."

"Because I'm not famous?" Eli asked.

"No, it has nothing to do with that," Maddox promised. "I swear, I just, I don't know cause we live so far away and we'd never get to see each other. And we've only really met like once before, I mean, I don't know."