It’s loud in Claire’s apartment; the blare of TV and shouted conversation overpower the sound of his mom’s voice. “Milo…” “Mom, is everything okay?” Milo half shouts. His mother calls him once a week, dutifully, Wednesday evenings at seven. Gives him boring town gossip and pretends her calls will keep him tethered to her. Love can’t save someone who won’t be saved, and it’s taken Milo a while to figure out that no matter what he says, she’ll never leave his father. The crushing guilt of leaving her alone with him almost killed him that first year at USC. It’s easier to forget that her acquiescent silence was as damaging as his father’s special brand of abuse. His summer at home made so many things clear to him. With the bond between him and Andrew slackened, Milo feels less and less responsibility to care about the place that used to be home. California might never feel like home either, but it certainly doesn’t hurt the way Santuit does.
