Yes, I Am

Chapter Twenty Four.

June, 2016.

My bookshelf in the attic had been jumbled since quite a while. I'd been so busy with college and Caleb that I hadn't had time lately to set it the way I liked it. It was a Friday when I finally got time to do that. Caleb was spinning himself in circles on the desk chair like a child, talking to his father as he did so. After a few long hard weeks, he looked truly relaxed and I wasn't about to take it away because I was afraid he might knock something off the desk in his child-like pursuits.

Luckily, even Tony hadn't surfaced with one of his weirdos again so all was peaceful in Gayville. Caleb had even started opening up about his brother, Oliver. I didn't know much about MS but I knew it was a rare disease in kids and for Oliver, it had started with a simple fever that escalated really damn quickly to say the least. It explained so much about him; why he was so unfailingly caring, why he'd freaked out on on New Year's when my temperature spiked because of the hangover, why he felt guilty asking his parents for the smallest of things. He carried so much guilt inside him for skipping the continent on his sick brother that he randomly shut up while talking about him and I had to redirect the conversation to a lighter topic so I could see the light return to his eyes.

He kicked the back of my leg lightly. "Dad wants to talk to you," he said, holding out his cell phone.

I swallowed the 'yikes' that was about to burst through in a high volume and an equally high pitch and cupped my hand over the mic of the phone. "What? Why? What did I do?" I scream-whispered.

He rolled his eyes, clearly thinking of my perfectly reasonable reaction as petty. "Just say hi."
With a lot of trepidation, I took the phone and put it to my ear. My brain was working on overdrive, calculating time zone differences. "Good evening, Mr. Cooper."

"Call me Ed, kiddo. How are you?" said his father. He had the lowest baritone I'd ever heard but his voice was warm, the kind that makes you think he laughs a lot.

"Quite well, thank you. How are you?" I looked up to see Caleb's head cocked to one side, biting his lip so he wouldn't laugh out loud.

"Good, good," he said. "Caleb talks about you all the time."

I raised an eyebrow at Caleb. "I can't imagine what he could possibly find to say."

Ed laughed easily. "It sounds like you make my boy happy. There's nothing else I want to know."

"I try my best," I said softly.

"I know you do, son," he said and I smiled a little. "Listen, I know things can be tough and some people are unaccepting, but you have anything you want to talk about or need help with, you call me anytime, you hear?"

That kind of empathetic response was alien to me from any grown up, considering my personal experience with them hadn't exactly been the best. It was overwhelming to be on the receiving end of such support and I was so happy that Caleb had that in his life. "Thank you, sir," I said, a little choked up.

"Ed, Matt. Ed." He laughed again. "No need to thank me. Anyone that close to my boy is always welcome in our family."

He chatted with me a few more minutes about studies and general things and it was truly easy to make conversation with him about random stuff. Caleb tugged my hand and pulled me towards him until I was sitting in his lap. He circles his arms loosely around my waist, resting them on my abdomen, and placed his chin on my shoulder. There was an unreadable expression in his eyes as he saw me talk to his father. When I finally handed the phone back to him, he said to Ed, "I told you he's the best, didn't I?"

Because the ear on which he was balancing his phone was right next to me, I could hear what Ed was saying, "You got it, doodlebug. He sounds like a fine young man."