Milo Axel

2

Milo's POV
I'm sitting next to Charlie and Sloane in front of the school, playing a game of sudoku, when I see Aunt Ash's car pull up. She rolls down the window with a grin and calls out, "Do you have any grey poupon?" We all start giggling at the stupid inside joke. Once we finally stop laughing, we get in the car and Aunt Ash starts driving off.

I pull out my phone and finish the game of sudoku with minimal mistakes. I look up and see Aunt Ash looking at me in the rearview mirror with a concerned and confused look on her face. I raise my eyebrow in return as if to ask "What?" She responds with a smirk and a raised eyebrow, then returns her eyes to the road. No idea what that was about.

Eventually we arrive at the Kreiger-Harris household. I grab my stuff, walk up to the door to find it unlocked so I walk in and smell homemade spaghetti. I set my stuff down then walk towards the kitchen. Walking into the kitchen, I see Aunt Ali making her infamous spaghetti sauce and the homemade meatballs ready to be put in the sauce. I walk up to her and give her a hug from behind, "Hey Aunt Ali." Giving me her signature smile, she replies "Hi El." Internally cringing, I send her a fake smile in return before leaving the kitchen to grab my bookbag and head up to Sloane's room to work on math homework for Mr. Luffler's class.

On my way upstairs, Ash stops me for a hug; complying, I wrap my arms around her, resting my head on her chest. "Hey Aunt Ash," I murmured. "Hey kiddo," she responded with a kiss to my head. Ash gives good hugs. She's great. I can definitely see why she's mom's best friend.

I release my hold on Ash after a moment to head upstairs to do homework with Sloane. When I make it to Sloane's room, closing the door behind me (unlike some people *cough* mom and mama *cough*) and sitting down on her bed.

Sloane walks out of the bathroom, sits down on her bed next to me and pulls me into a hug. I return the hug squeezing her tightly. "Good or bad day, Milo?" I shake my head into the crook of her neck signaling I don't want to talk about it. She sighs in response, pulling me in for a tighter hug.

I become overwhelmed with emotion- anger, sadness, fear, confusion. Angry at the world for not making me in the right body; I'm sad I'm stuck in the wrong body; I'm scared to come out to my moms, even though I know that they're some of the most accepting people in the world, I'm scared to come out at school because of the backlash, I'm scared of what people will think of me if I come out.

But most of all, I'm confused as to why I had to be born in the wrong body. I'm confused because gender is hard. I'm confused because feelings are difficult. Life just wanted to give me the shitty hand.

I silently start crying. Unable to put words to all these emotions, unable to just explain what I'm feeling.

Sloane's POV
Feeling my shirt get wet, I look down at Milo, he's started crying. I pull him closer, whispering comforting words trying to soothe him. Seeing my attempts aren't helping, I pull my phone out and text Charlie.

Sloane:
hey, milo is crying and i can't get him to calm down- idk what's wrong-

C-Dawg:
i'll be right there

I put my phone down and whisper into Milo's ear, "Charlie's coming." He doesn't seem to acknowledge what I said but I know he heard me by the way he nuzzles his face farther into my neck. Hearing the door open, I look up to see Charlie closing the door behind her. I shoot her a grateful smile as she walks over to my bed. She shoots me a quick smile in return before turning to her brother whose face is buried in my neck.

She places her hand on his lower back before softly moving it up and down in an attempt to calm him down. I softly begin singing Over the Rainbow in his ear as it's one of his favorite songs and a sure way to calm him down. Milo slowly begins calming down, his cries turning into sniffles. Once he fully calms down, Charlie carefully asks "What's wrong Milo?" He murmurs out a "Too many emotions," my heart clenches knowing how much pain this must have caused him because Milo almost never cries. Charlie and I exchange looks; she knows how much this must have hurt too.

Milo untangles himself from me, turns to his sister and pulls her into a hug. Charlie, momentarily shocked, returns the hug from her brother. Milo whispers a quiet "Thank you," to his sister who just nods in return. When their hug ends Milo turns to me, gives a watery chuckle and asks, "So what about that math homework, eh?" I chuckle slightly in return knowing he doesn't want to talk about his emotions. Charlie makes her way out of the room, closing the door behind her.

Milo and I pull out our math homework, quickly finish it and turn it in on canvas as required by Mr. Luffler. Seeing as we're finished with our homework, Milo picks out a movie for us to watch on my computer. He picks out the Lion King, of course. I roll my eyes at his predictably but snuggle into his side as the movie starts. I love this boy. Slowly, I fade into the unconscious.