EUPHORIA || L. MESSI

Part 6: Phone Calls and Confessions

"Mum says I need to stop calling you all the time," my youngest brother spoke from the other end of the phone "She says you have better things to be doing on a Friday night."

I laughed in response, as I was currently filing through lesson plans for the next term. "Troi, baby, I'm a teacher and a mum, I mark papers and care for my son on a Friday night. You can ring me as much as you want."

Speaking of my son, he had fallen asleep on the sofa about an hour ago, exhausted from his football session in which he told me they were preparing for their match tomorrow. Risking waking him up, I had decided to take him up to bed, scooping him in my arms and being careful not to jolt his small figure awake. It was successful in the end, and he was now snoozing peacefully under the covers of his bed.

"Well you weren't at home last Friday." Troi's voice rang out again, pulling me out of my thoughts "I saw on Snapchat maps."

I rolled my eyes "How do I turn that off?"

Troi laughed at me, and once he regained his composure he teased "You're 22! Not 80!" He giggled again, and a smile crossed my lips as I thought about my little brother's smile "Where were you anyway?"

"Riley and I were at a friend's house." I chuckled "Nothing interesting."

"A guy, or?" Even from the other side of the phone line, I could sense him wiggling his brows in the cheeky way he always did.

"Guy. You'd fancy him." I joked. Troi laughed and then dropped silent, clearly thinking about something. "Do you think you'll ever tell Mum and David?"

He stayed silent for a moment longer, and I knew it was a hard topic for him. Troi had come out to me just a few months after I had moved to Spain, but hadn't told either his brothers or parents. I was sure Violet knew, for the two of them were incredibly close, but I didn't speak to her as much as I did Troi.

"I have to at some point, I can't just lie to them my whole life." He sighed after a moment. It was getting late now, passing midnight here and 11pm for my brother, and I could sense the tiredness in his voice.

"Troi you should sleep." I sighed.

Voice cracking slightly, he answered "I don't want to. Everytime I hang up I have to wait a week to get chance to call you again, and even then I only ever get to hear your voice." His reply broke my heart, and I knew how deeply it hurt him that I never made the effort to visit.

I wanted to reply, but I was cut off by a sharp knocking at the door, which Troi clearly heard as he whispered a short 'Who's that?'. I myself didn't know, and stayed on the phone as I moved to where the window was. Carefully peeking out through the blinds, I saw Leo stood, shifting front foot to foot as he waited.

Incredibly confused, I thought it best to leave Troi to avoid getting him involved in whatever reason the man had driven all this way for. "I'll speak to you soon, I promise." My brother sighed, sounding as though he wanted to protest about how it wasn't good enough, but he thought better of it and whispered a quick I love you, before the phone line went dead.

Once I opened the front door, Leo looked up, and the redness of his cheeks and the way his eyes glimmered in the dim light from my hallway gave away that the man had been crying. Whatever had driven him to come all the way out here had clearly preoccupied his mind as he was stood in a simple t shirt and his ripped jeans, and feeling the cold drifting into the house, I quickly stepped aside so he could walk in. He muttered a thank you as he passed me, and I shut the door, realising just how small and untidy my house was.

Without saying anything just yet, I carefully took his hand, noticing the way he briefly tensed before his fingers relaxed into my touch, and led him through my winding hallway into the living room. There, I dropped my grip on his hand, quickly moving to tidy all the school work I had laid across the sofa into my office, returning to see he was still stood awkwardly in the centre of the room.