chapter thirty-one song suggestion: moonshadow - cat stevens
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"Look, Mom, I really can't have this conversation right now, okay? I will call you sometime this week—I'm in the middle of something and, honestly, this is the last thing I want to deal with right now."
"Of course. I'm always the last person you want anything to do with, so I'm not surprised." My eyes shut tightly in hopes to keep myself from blowing up as I tried to end the call with my mom, which had already lasted entirely too long.
"That's not true, okay? I never said that, and that's not how I feel. I promise I will call you soon." I heard a loud sigh from her end of the call and I gently bit my lip as I glanced over at Michael who was doing his best not to listen in.
"I'm putting your father on." Instead of 'goodbye' or an 'I love you,' my mom pawned me off to my dad for any final words.
"Hey, sweetie," Dad spoke softly once he had been given the phone. "We'll talk to you soon."
"Dad, could you please talk to her? I'm really not trying to be difficult, despite her insistence." I hated that my dad was constantly being made into the middle man, but he was usually the only shot I had when I was trying to reason with my mom.
"I know, sweetheart. We'll talk to you later, okay?" Knowing my dad wasn't going to be too obvious with my mom likely standing right beside him, I let him off the hook. "We love you."
"I love you. Bye." I ended the call and then proceeded to throw my phone down onto the couch, just a few feet away from Michael. I had been walking all over his apartment while on the phone, and I felt bad for not just stepping out. But it was raining. "I am so sorry about that, Michael. I should have just let it ring."
"No, no... don't be sorry," he told me as he took my hand in his. He pulled on my arm gently before successfully getting me to sit down in the small space between him and the arm of the couch. Once I was sitting down, he lifted my legs and draped them over his lap. Despite having no intention of doing so, I suddenly began to cry out of frustration. "Hey, hey. Shh." Michael pulled me into his chest and I hugged him tightly as I continued to cry. I knew it wouldn't be a long cry; things had just been bottled up for too long and they needed a small escape.
"Jesus, I'm sorry about this. She just frustrates me so much," I told him through my tears. I pulled away from our hug to cover my face; I took in a couple of deep breaths to compose myself and hoped that it would work. Crying was not something I liked to do in front of other people.
"Don't be sorry, Aves," he told me as he began to comfortingly rub my back. "Do you want to talk about it?" I let out a bogus laugh as I tried to think of where to begin, but nothing good came to mind. "You don't have to."
