Lovely Hues | Fillie AU

Chapter Twenty Seven

Since Duke's buddy at the NAACP office wasn't free to meet with them until the following week, Finn and Caleb spent the rest of their first week on the east coast venturing into Baltimore and then Washington D.C. to both sight see, and become more comfortable with the cities Finn assumed they'd be spending a good amount of time in.

After one particularly frigid day spent along the banks of the Chesapeake Bay, in Baltimore's famous harbor, Finn thought that it was probably wise to call his mother and let her know that he had arrived on the east coast. He hadn't talked to her since that call he made to her in East Plains and he knew she was probably worried about him. If he didn't call her at least once a month, she'd probably send the mounties after him to make sure he was safe.

To ensure the call didn't last terribly long like last time, he found a public phone, and after making all the proper connections to reach Vancouver, which took several minutes alone, he finally heard the familiar dial tone of his house's phone.

"Wolfhard residence, Nick speaking."

Of course when he actually wanted to talk to his mother, it would be Nick instead.

"Nick, hey! It's uh, it's Finn. . ."

"Finn? Ohmygosh hi! How have you been?! Where are you?"

"Oh good, just. . ." He fumbled his words a bit. Had he been good? Why was this such a common thing to say, even when you weren't good? But he guessed that at least today he was feeling good, so he skimmed to the next topic, "I'm in Baltimore right now, we have a meeting with some guys at the NAACP office next week, so we've just been—"

"Who's we?" Nick asked.

"Oh um—" Finn bristled, he hadn't wanted to bring up anything that might accidentally lead to Millie so he had planned on veering away from East Plains as a whole. Yet here he was, "Uh. . .me and a friend, Caleb. He's a farmer I met while I was in Wisconsin."

"Right, right. At least you're out of it now. I imagine being stuck in Wisconsin was debilitatingly boring."

A defensiveness arose within him, "It wasn't actually. I really enjoyed it and I—" what was he going to say? And I hope to go back? And I fell in love with someone there? Certainly not. "I think Wisconsin gets a bad rap sometimes, but anyway." he said, trying to distance himself from it all, "I was just calling to tell mom that I made it to the east coast and I'm feeling optimistic about it."

"Well, she's at the market but I'll be sure to tell her. Um—" there was a crackling sound, and Finn was afraid their connection would give out before their ten minutes were up. Maybe that would've been a good thing since he'd already accomplished relaying his intended message, but then Nick spoke and he really wished the connection would give out.

"Hey, so, I know I already asked this, and mom asked too—" suddenly the connection was nearly crystal clear. Finn rolled his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose, "but. . .Malcolm." He said, "You gotta talk to him and he—"

"No!" Finn said, "Why would I want to do that, and why are you asking again? Isn't it clear that I don't give two shits about what they do?!" He looked out of the booth and saw a few sets of eyes staring back at him so he turned into the panelled back, swivelling in his chair, "they didn't care to have me in their lives, why should I care what happens in theirs?"

"Because, Finn." Nick started, his tone not quite pleading. There was some older brother's sternness to it, "Because no matter what they did to you, you are a good person who doesn't want a family to split up."

Finn was about to respond with some clever reply about how Nick didn't have much to say when it was his family being torn apart. If you could've called Finn and Olivia a family. But then he heard whispering in the back and the crackle made him pull the phone away from his ear and when he put it back, he heard Malcolm, "Don't listen to them, Finn." he said.