After pizza, I went to go lay down and watch some TV and read a little. After a while, my step-dad was knocking on my door.
"Hey, bud." He stepped in.
"Hey." I sat up.
"Everything going alright?" Uh no.
"Yeah… why?" Hello interrogation, my old friend.
"Your mother told me you were having a hard time with your friends about something. Want to talk?" Why does my mom do this?
"Um, no, not really. I don't think you'd understand, anyway."
"I think I know what this is about. You're growing up. Things are changing. Feelings are coming about. It's just puberty. You're going to notice a lot of changes-"
"Mitch! No not that talk! Mom already gave me that talk two years ago."
"Oh, I was just going to go more into the emotional part of it, not the sexual maturation that most parents go into. You're at the age were people start developing crushes and start wanting to date and such. Girls starting to like boys, boys starting to like girls." He stopped for a moment and continued, "And let's not forget the girls who like girls and boys who like boys." He looked at me. "And not everyone who you like is going to like you back, and it'll hurt. A lot, even. Feelings can be confusing and along with it, there will be strong emotions. Think of it as two sides of the same coin. Anyway, what I'm saying is whether what you're feeling is platonic or romantic, for a girl or a boy… we're here for you. We've all went through growing up. You have your mom, me, your father and step-mom. None of us want to see you struggle and we're here to help. Just remember you have your family and you got some pretty cool friends. Please don't feel like you're alone, son."
I really have no idea how to respond to that. "Thank you, Mitch." I hope that would suffice.
"Anytime, Cyrus." He started to get up and go towards the door. "Good night."
"Night."
I laid back down. I wonder what Mitch was thinking or what he knows. How much did my mom tell him? Or was that all him just being a concerned step-father? I turned to my side and grabbed my phone to turn it back on. I wonder what I missed.
5 Missed Calls
1 Voicemail
8 Texts
All from Buffy. Uh oh. I decided to listen to the voicemail first.
"Cyrus, what's going on? You know you're worrying me, and now Andi and Jonah are worrying. Just talk to us. I have a feeling this isn't actually about you and Iris's breakup. If anything happened you know we're here."
I feel awful. I opened up the texts.
Cyrus, where did you go? Answer the phone please.
What happened? Cyrus?
There's no way your breakup could affect you this much. You never really seemed to like her that much anyway.
Cyrus? Dude?
I ran into Jonah and Andi again, they're worried too.
We're here for you, just answer your phone.
We hope you respond soon. We hope you don't do anything bad towards yourself.
Call back, anytime. Day or night. I'm spending the night at Andi's, we're gonna be up all night anyways so don't worry about waking anyone up.
I looked at the time. 12:42PM. Well, she did say anytime… I at least should tell her I'm okay and didn't do anything bad, right?
I called her, and the phone didn't even ring twice before she answered.
"Cyrus!? What happened? Are you okay?" Her voice was panicked.
"Y-yeah I'm fine. Sorry I didn't get your texts or calls until now, I turned my phone off and went home." I tried to sound normal as possible.
"Why did you leave so fast?"
"I just didn't want to talk anymore, I'm sorry. I wanted to go home and relax."
I could hear Buffy exhale. "Just say so next time. 'I don't want to talk right now, I'll see you later.' Or just text that if you really don't feel like talking. You've been acting strange lately and we're just worried."
"I understand. Don't worry, I've been talking to my mom and step-dad. I just don't want to bother you guys with my problems."
"You don't bother us. We just want to know what's going on; what's going through your mind, ya know?"
I sighed, "Yeah I know that, but I'm not ready to talk about that yet. Please respect that. I just want things to go back to normal. How things used to be."
"Nothing much is different. We're all still here. Me, Andi, and Jonah. Talk when you're ready."
"Thanks, I think I'm going to go to sleep soon. I'll talk to you guys later. Tell Andi I said hi and that I'm sorry for making you guys worry."
"Alright, I will. Good night, Cyrus."
"Good night, guys."
I hung up the phone and put it to the side. 1:13AM. Time to go to sleep.
