Delicate

Chapter Twenty Five

Milan paced down the street, walking as fast as he could. He gripped the strap of his bag pack tighter as he reached the house at the end of the street. He went up to the porch, and without thinking twice, he knocked on the door.

Roan opened the door, greeting Milan with a smile, that the boy tried his hardest to return.

"Milan. Come in," Roan moved to the side to let Milan enter.

"Sorry for coming over unannounced, Mr. MacElroy," Milan apologised.

"Call me Roan, and it's okay. You're welcome here anytime," the blond said, "Leo's in the living room, come."

Milan followed Roan into the living room, where the whole family was seated. Kai had their car, baseball, in his lap. He looked up to Milan, and for the first time he wasn't surprised to unexpectedly see his student. He had seemed to have gotten used to Milan's presence in his home by now. He took the remote and paused the movie that was playing on the television.

"Milan! Hi!" Maya waved wagerly.

"Oh, hey Maya," Milan said, unfortunately not being able to return the little girl's enthusiasm, he turned over to Kai, giving him a polite smile, "hi, Mr. Nahar."

Before Kai could respond, Leo walked over to Milan. He had immediately noticed that something was wrong the moment he saw the other boy's face. He wondered if it had anything to do with his brother, but he didn't want to make any assumptions.

"Hey," Leo said softly.

"Can we talk?" Milan asked.

"Sure, let's go up to my room," Leo replied.

Milan gave him a nod and turned around to walk up the stairs. Leo glanced at Roan and Kai, who were giving him matching looks of concern. Leo shrugged, as if saying he had no idea what was up, before following Milan.

As soon as they were inside Leo's room, Milan dropped his bag on the floor and hugged Leo tightly, catching the latter slightly off guard. His face was pressed against the taller boy's chest, as he held onto him for dear life. Leo returned the hug, holding him just as tightly. When Leo felt Milan's hold loosen up just a little, he pulled back and finally spoke up.

"What's wrong?" Leo asked.

"They... My parents... I can't, Leo, I just can't... I—" Milan shook his head rapidly, stumbling on his words.

"Hey," Leo said softly as he pulled Milan back into a hug. He rubbed the boy's back soothingly as he whispered, "just breathe first, okay? Take deep breaths with me, Mila."

Leo kept whispering sweet nothings to the other boy, until Milan finally pulled back and gave him a nod. A sign that he had somewhat calmed down. Leo held Milan's hand and took him over to the bed. They both sat down next to each other, Leo didn't let go of Milan's hand as he once again asked him what was wrong.

"The whole thing with my parents is... much more complicated than I've told you. They've been super controlling my entire life, always telling me what to do and what not to do and what to study, what to eat, where to go, what activities to do— just everything, okay?"

"Okay."

"And I saw their relationship with Ben. I saw how disappointed they were with him. I didn't want them to feel that about me so I always listened to them. I was always the good son. But I'm just... I'm just exhausted now. They're still trying to control everything that I do and I can't... I can't do that anymore, Leo."

"You don't have to," Leo said.

"The worst thing is that a part of me still wants to, you know? Like, that part of me is dying for their approval and I hate the fact that I'm mad at them and they're mad at me and I hate myself for that. I hate myself for being so weak," Milan whispered the last part.