Page 61 of Septembers

But then he thought of something and immediately picked it back up.

love you too

*voice note*

He paused before hitting the button on the voice note, apprehension making his thumb hover before finally landing on the screen.

And then Dae’s tinned voice belted through the speaker, backed up by laughter in the background. “L is for the way you look at me!”

Theo let out a spurt of laughter that halted the footsteps outside his bedroom door. His aunt knocked—he knew it was her because her knock was always more of a warning than a request for permission—then came in just as the rendition came to its cacophonous conclusion.

“What’s so funny?”

“Dae’s drunk.”

She was dressed in a sweater and yoga-pants combo that suggested she was geared up and ready to dismantle Theo’s bedroom. “When is my favourite nephew coming home?”

“I don’t know.” He failed at keeping his voice free of the doubt and fear clawing under his skin. Dae missed him, sure, but that would never be enough to draw him home.

She frowned and crossed the room, then hovered by the bed. “Is your morning wood gone?”

“Liana!” He only dropped the ‘aunt’ from her name when she was being particularly inappropriate.

She cocked an eyebrow and waited until he nodded, then crawled in, opening her arms for him to rest his head on her shoulder. “It doesn’t smell great in here, Theo.”

He scooched into her. “No one says morning wood anymore.”

“What do they call it?”

“Nothing. We’ve evolved beyond such childish references to perfectly natural bodily occurrences.”

They snuggled in warm, comfortable silence until she squeezed his shoulder. “Dae isn’t going to leave you.”

“You’re a little late on that one.” He’d meant for it to come out light and sarcastic, but the words oozed out of him, heavy and low.

She turned her head at an awkward angle to glare at him. “He didn’t leave you; he left the country. It worries me that you don’t see the difference.”

Theo snorted and tried to squirm away, but she held on with surprising strength and grabbed his face with her free hand, forcing him to look at her, squishing his cheeks in the process. Theo wished she hadn’t—her stare was too intense for the first thing in the morning. “My favourite nephew left the country, but he still texts and calls you every day.”

“Not every day,” Theo mumbled through his forced-puckered mouth.

She released him to slap his leg, though the effect was lost through the poofy layer of comforter covering it. “That boy loves you, and you love him, and no matter what happens between you, that will always be true. Same with Jordan. And Jason and Caleb. You’ve built yourself a family, despite the example you’ve been given. Don’t fuck it up now.”

This time he was successful in pulling away. “Who says I’m fucking things up?”

She let out a long ppppppppfffffffffttttttt, not bothering to add any actual points to her argument. Not that she needed to. Theo knew who he was.

“Is this meant to be a pep-talk?”

“This is my A-material.” She winked, then swatted his defending hand away and ruffled his hair. “You need a shower.”

Auspicious New Start (Minus the Vomit)

It should’ve taken a day, tops, to pack, but Theo took a full week. It was the last time he’d live with his mom and aunt, and while he wasn’t exactly sad, he was nostalgic. Even borderline melancholy.

“Moving day!” His mom sang-screamed. She’d been pretending all morning that her red eyes were from allergies they’d been hitherto unaware of, which was likely for Jason and Caleb’s sake, since she’d never had a problem weeping in front of Theo before. Dog adoption videos were a particular weakness.

“You’re throwing this away?” Jason picked up the weightlifting thing, still in the box, that Theo’s dad had gotten him for Christmas three years ago.