“No, no, it’s nothing like that.” I shook my head and had to fight the smile that wanted to creep up at the word “drinking.”
“I’m just trying to understand why you won’t come home.” By then, he was nearly pleading with me, and it broke my heart. “I can get Mom off your back, if you could just try to get home before she does. And you don’t have to hang out with me all the time, but I’ll help you with your homework and I can make you supper. Then you could just come out here and hang out with them. You don’t have to live here.”
“I’m not living here.” Swallowing hard, I tried not to look at him. When he was sad, he looked so young. He had big innocent brown eyes, and they were so forlorn. “I just need some time here to figure things out, okay? But don’t think for a second that I’m going to leave you behind. You mean too much for me to walk away from you, not even for a foxy guy and a lot of money.”
“What do you need to figure out?” Milo furrowed his brow, but I could tell that he’d relaxed a little.
I decided to tell him the truth on this one. “What I’m going to do with the rest of my life.”
“You’re thinking about college?” He brightened at that, and I knew that I’d inadvertently opened the door for all sorts of college talk that I really didn’t want to listen to.
“Among other things.” College had vaguely crossed my mind, as in, hey since I’ll be a rich vampire I won’t have to go to college anymore.
“I know you were mostly being sarcastic, but I started doing some research on med school and psychiatry for you, and there are lots of fabulous opportunities because we’re so close to the Mayo Clinic.” The tangent had started, and he was moving his hands and talking excitedly.
“Milo, you’ve seen my grades,” I tried to nip his enthusiasm in the bud. “There’s no way I could get into med school.”
“You’ve got time to turn it around,” he brushed me off. “The U of M has a lot of great programs too, and if you really worked hard your first couple of years, it would be so fantastic for you.”
“I’m sure it would,” I mumbled.
I decided to let him just go on, nodding and agreeing when the conversation required. He was happy to be talking about something he was an expert on, and something that still included me in his future.
After awhile, he finally managed to run out of steam and informed me that he’d brought over some leftovers to eat. Mae had gone grocery shopping yesterday, so there was some food in the house for me, but it didn’t compare to anything that Milo made, particularly since nobody here could cook.
When we went downstairs to eat, Jack joined us, claiming that he had already eaten, of course. He sat with us at the table, scratching Matilda’s head and chattering along with Milo.
It had been days since Milo had been able to have a real conversation, so he had plenty to fill us in on. Like the impossibility of a level in World of Warcraft (something about orcs and letter abbreviations that seemed completely random to both Jack and me, but sounded very grave when Milo said them), and how bitchy Jane has been at school since I’ve been gone.
There was also some rather juicy gossip about this boy, Troy, at school, who Milo deemed “utterly foxy” and then blushed so red, it looked like he’d been burned.
Apparently, the young man in question had made some rather flirtatious advances towards Milo in gym class, and he didn’t know how to reciprocate. Jack advised him not to make any moves at school, in case things are being misinterpreted, he wouldn’t want an audience. Milo agreed that he should do some fact checking on Twitter and Facebook, and then maybe he’d escalate to text messaging from there.
It was getting late, and Milo started mentioning an Intro to Business test he had to study for, so Jack took him home. I rode with, just for the fun of it, and Milo was still an endless stream of conversation. He explained the finer points of running a small business, and Jack somehow managed to sound interested in all of it.
“That was fun,” Jack grinned at me once Milo had gotten out of the car.
“I don’t know if you’re being sarcastic or not, but it really was.” Then I smiled gratefully at him. “Thank you. I really missed him.”
“It sounds like he missed you, too.” Sadly, he sighed, and at first, I didn’t understand why. We had all had fun, so I didn’t see what could be so depressing about that. “This isn’t going to be quite so clean cut for you, not like it was for me.”
“You mean leaving your family?” I asked. Up until Mae mentioned his family the other day, I hadn’t heard anything about them. The only thing Jack had ever told me was that he was from Stillwater.
“Yeah. My dad was a bastard, but he was dead anyway. My mom hated me because she hated all men, and my sister barely knew me. There was nothing to miss, nothing to leave behind.” Pursing his lips, he turned to me. “Not like you. He’ll be devastated when you go.”