"Right now he needs a friend. A tangible one."
☆

Milo stands in the vacant room, taking it all in. The space was pristine! The bed, perfectly made, as if it had never been slept in. The curtains still in the perfect tie back position, the desk and chair on the other side of the room, empty. 

Milo hurries over to the closet and opens it, to reveal bare hangers hanging on the rail, with two suitcases shoved to the bottom. He turns around and looks at the room again. He was on the balcony, what...5 minutes maximum. How did Hester manage to pack and leave so fast?

Milo heads out of the bedroom and checks the bathroom. "Hessy...Hester! Where are you?" He shouts, before the real panic sets in. 

He had actually gone and done it! Hester had left him without a word...again! It was Milo's fault. He should have listened to his friend. He shouldn't have been so selfish. Hester obviously needed him and Milo had once again let him down.

Grabbing his jacket and car keys, Milo dashes out of the apartment door. He surely couldn't have gone far. He needed to find Hester before he was out of his life...for good. 

***

..."What do I do?" Jude squeezes his phone in the palm of his hand as it's pushed up against his ear. He can hear Tashen adjusting himself on the bed. Sheets brushing against the phone, accompanied by a thoughtful sigh.

"Jude, when you think of Milo right now, what word springs to mind?"

Jude closes his eyes and thinks of the man who has grabbed his attention and possibly his heart for the past couple of months. "Help...he needs help." 

"Then that's what you must do...help him." Tashen concludes.

"But how?" Jude questions, "I know nothing about seeing things and visions and...

"You don't need to know about all that stuff." Tashen interrupts. "Just listen, understand, talk, help him find the path he's wondered from...just be his friend Jude. Right now, he needs a friend. A tangible one."

Jude squeezes his eyes closed, he can't contain his emotions any more as the tears begin to roll down his winter blushed cheeks. 

"Hey...hello...Jude..are you still there?" Tashen asks a little concerned. 

Jude again frantically nods, lips pursed together, trying desperately to keep the sob from escaping.

"Hey...I know you're crying baby. It's gonna be ok." Tashen's voice calming Jude a little. 

"I'm not." Jude blatantly lies.

"Well...if you're not crying, then I'm not sleeping with a stuffed animal, wearing Char's hoodie...deal?" 

Jude lets out a chuckle from his lips. "Okay...deal." 

They end the call and Jude gets up from the seat, wiping his face with the sleeve of his jacket. "Come on Jojo, let's get you home." 

***

Jude opens the door to his apartment and lets Jojo off the lead, the small dog making his way straight to his plush cosy dog bed by the window.

He is about to turn to close the door, when Jude hears footsteps, then a hand push against his on the other side of the door. "Milo...what are you doing here?" Jude asks, surprised to see him so soon since this morning. 

"I...I need your help!" Milo about manages to say, with him now bent over, resting a hand on his leg as he tries to catch a breath. His smokers lungs failing him a little.

"What's happened? Jude asks pulling the door a little wider.

Milo straightens himself up to standing, composing himself a little. "Hessy, Hester. He...I don't understand how, but he's gone." 

Jude's ears take in what Milo is saying. He knew he had to tread carefully. Did Milo think his friend had just up and left, or did he realise that his friend wasn't there in the first place.

He thinks back to his conversation with Tashen. Listen, understand, talk... Jude steps back into the apartment. "Come in, tell me what happened." 

Milo enters the space, where Jude gestures for Milo to join him at the table. "I don't know where to start." Milo begins.

Jude takes his hand in his, instantly calming down a restless Milo. "When I left you, what happened?"

Milo looks at Jude, a huge sense of guilt kicking in. "Hester wants me to choose...choose between you and him." He glances up at Jude, expecting to see him offended, upset, even enraged and even though Jude was screaming inside at the fact that there was no choice to actually be made, he just about manages to play it cool.

"Then what happened?" 

Milo again looks away, recalling the sequence of events. "I went for a smoke. I thought about you and Hessy and I decided I couldn't choose. I don't want to choose..." 

Again Jude's insides painted a different picture to his exterior, as his heart literally jumped for joy to hear that Milo wasn't going to give up on them just yet, 

"...When I came back inside, I was going to tell Hester, but he had left..." Milo now looks puzzled as he seems to stare into space. 

Jude notices this and tries to catch the stare in the distance with his own eyes. "Milo...what is it?" 

Milo seems to suddenly come back to reality as he looks at Jude. "Jude...his room...it was like he was almost never there."