Becoming Us (2015) s01e02 Episode Script

Previously on Becoming Us It's not a normal situation for a kid to go through.
Danielle and I have one really big thing in common, her dad is transgender too.
Woo hoo, look at this, even my jeans look better on me, look at that.
Lately it just feels like one situation after another.
I'm gonna have surgery.
It's kind of official that my dad is gone.
Who knew my dad would become a woman at the same time I was becoming a man? Check it out.
I'm Ben, I'm 16 years old and I'm a junior in high school.
I grew up with loving parents, I have an amazing sister and I have an awesome girlfriend named Danielle.
If I fall, you're always there to pick me up.
I've got your back.
I thought I knew exactly where my life was headed until she came along.
Her name is Carly and Carly was my dad.
What now? [Music playing.]
- This is Ben, I like cheese, leave a message.
- Of course not.
[Music playing.]
Hey Ben, it's me.
Why don't you ever answer your phone? Call me, love you, bye.
What's up? Like you texted me? What's going on, like, you told me to meet you here, like, talk to me about it.
Carly's getting SRS.
- Surgery? - Yeah.
It's like why? She didn't tell you ahead of time? - No.
- This is when she told you? Yeah.
I just don't really know how to process Carly's surgery.
I mean, thank god Danielle is here because at least she knows what I'm going through.
It's like what what did you do when your dad did the transition thing? I got really distant, I didn't really talk to my dad that much.
Yeah.
You know, I was angry, I was definitely angry.
It's like you're losing a father and you're gaining another mother, so Exactly.
I only got one mom, my mom is my mom.
Does Carly want you to call her Mom? Yeah.
Has she talked to you about it? Yeah and I'm like, "no, I'm not gonna do that.
" If you don't let me call you Dad "I'm not gonna call you Mom.
" Just call her Carly.
If my dad ever asked me to call him "Mom" I would be freaked out by it.
I would not wanna do it.
I've always known my dad as "Dad".
You need a hug.
Hug me.
You gonna be good? Yeah.
Positive? What? - I have to go.
- Why? I have to go to see Emilia.
Who's Emilia? My tutor, I'm late.
Well I mean, I kind of drove all the way out here to see you.
Okay, well I guess I have to drive all the way back now.
Thank you for coming.
Yeah.
It was it was a good good talk, I'll text you.
[Music playing.]
Hey-o.
Where you been? What took you so long? I was biking and it's cold and It's cold for me too but I'm not 15 minutes late every single session.
True, true.
If I didn't think that you could do this, I wouldn't care.
And then you wouldn't do it? I mean, no I would, I'm getting paid.
I would tutor you but it's not hurting anybody but you, you know? Like your mom told me that you have 52 detentions, how does that even happen? There's only 52 weeks in a year.
Like I tutor a lot of people who are legitimately idiots, okay? You have no excuse to be acting like an idiot because you are smart, you are talented, you're creative.
Okay, did you bring pens, paper? - Well I brought paper but - Did you bring pens? - I did not bring a pen.
- Okay.
I feel you're having a really hard time focusing, Ben.
- I am.
- What's going on? I found out that Carly's having surgery.
She's she's she's decided to do the surgery? Yeah, mm hmm.
That's a large choice, wow.
It's like I'm expected to understand what she's doing but I I don't.
And that makes me angry that I don't know why she's doing it and it's just hard to like, focus.
It's hard to do all this stuff.
Do you think if you talked to her it would make it easier? No because she's just gonna do it anyways.
Look, I know that I need to talk to Carly but right now, I just cannot figure out anything to express my feelings.
Honestly, I just don't want to talk to her until I do.
So what do we have to do today for homework? What's for homework today? Algebra 2.
Algebra 2? Okay.
[Music playing.]
There.
I saw your homecoming pictures and they are really cute.
Thanks, it was a lot of fun.
One of the most amazing people in my life is my best friend Sarah.
She never had an issue with my dad.
I told her that my dad was transgender, I was struggling with it and I didn't understand it and she was just like, "that's so cool" you have like two moms now, oh my gosh.
" So like, what's the deal with you and Ben then? To be honest, I don't completely know.
Like, he's my first real love and you know, he's special, he's special to me.
Like, we're really close and like, I understand everything he's going through.
You do have that like, one connecting piece.
Yeah.
That you can't really share with anyone else.
Yeah I know, I think he gets me more than anybody else can because like Yeah that's pretty special.
I like you and Ben together.
I'm definitely gonna always love him and you know, there's always gonna be something there.
I'm always gonna support Ben but sometimes, I could use a little support from him too.
It's complicated.
It's complicated.
[Music playing.]
Oh my goodness, everything's so beautiful.
Hi, how are you? Hello.
So I'm getting married Congratulations.
Thank you.
Do you guys do registries? We do, I'd be delighted to help you with that.
Oh lovely, awesome.
- Let me give you this.
- Okay.
And you can make a list and I'm happy to help you with anything you need.
- Oh thank you so much.
- Great.
Shiny things.
Will you write down six of those? Oh I like these.
What about you, did you guys register? I don't think we did.
Yeah because you just went to the courthouse, you didn't even like Yeah we eloped.
I think I remember you guys coming to school and being like, "do you guys want to do you want me do you want to come?" And I was like, "no.
" Yeah you were.
No.
No I want to play computer games, I'm busy.
Well how is everything else going with you? You might be able to help me with this, I'm kind of worried a little bit about Ben.
Why? I mean, he's like, off doing his own thing, never wants to come over, and I mean, I'm not trying to take it personally but I do.
- Don't.
- Well I do a little bit but he doesn't he doesn't return texts, he doesn't return phone calls, - he's terrible about it.
- Really? Yeah, that's kind of kind of that's kind of hurtful.
Well remember I used to always want to do my own thing and stuff like that.
But I answered your texts.
I'm sorry.
That's adorable.
Yeah.
Do you think maybe he's just like, having a little bit of a hard time with the fact that I'm gonna be having surgery? I just kind of wonder if that's got a little bit to do with it.
I don't know, maybe he's it's a big thing, that's a big change for him.
No I know, I know it is, I know it is.
And he's been doing great.
It's I'm sure it's a lot of things, I think it's just change and you have a longer time to figure it out.
Just love and be there and he'll, you know, he'll come around.
- He'll come around? - Yeah I think so.
- I don't know - I hope so.
[Music playing.]
I dragged the bunny suit out for the third straight year.
- - I guess you could say - - the bunny is the only family member that still lives in the closet.
I just love Halloween because you can be whatever or whoever you want to be.
I'm so excited, it's Halloween.
We haven't gotten candy yet, but so far it's been a good Halloween.
I don't really need diabetes.
I'm Ayton, I'm one of Ben's friends.
Together we both like to skateboard and do photography.
Lathan what is that? This is a raven demon.
That's awesome.
That is so cool.
My name is Brook, without the "E", so you remember me.
I'm on my fourth year at DePaul doing bio-anthropology.
Lathan is my dearest brother/vampire, no he's not a vampire but he does resemble one.
Lathan just moved back to town.
I'm extremely grateful that Ayton is letting my brother stay here.
I love having my brother back.
It's more of like, half-human, half-raven.
I'm Lathan and I design costumes, I call them cosplay and I perform them in animé conventions.
What kind of noise do you make? Like ca-caw? No I just talk like a normal person.
Lathan doesn't really have a sense of humor, he's kind of a dark person.
I'm not really that excited about Lathan staying with Brook and I, but it is Brook's family member so I do kind of just got to have to accept him.
Is that the door? Yo.
Oh my god.
- Yo, no way.
- That's awesome.
So messed up.
Yo Ben.
Cool.
Yo, did you check out his bird? It's a raven demon.
Ca-caw.
What's like, the message? I like this character because everyone has demons, everyone has that other side of them.
No matter how good of a person you seem to be outwardly, there's always something dark on the inside.
What are your demons? I would say secrets.
So you're a bird man? That's pretty deep.
I happen to know what Lathan's inner demons are and he's got a lot of them.
Lathan's been through some stuff.
I can't wait for tonight.
We're going in this haunted house thing.
Ayton, the funny thing about the fact that you're wearing that is because you're a female cow.
Oh yeah, a guy cow would be a bull I guess, right? - Yeah you're a female cow.
- I didn't even think of that.
We got transgender cows up in here, woot woot.
[Music playing.]
Alright who's gonna be the most scared tonight, guys? Me.
Speaking about ghosts and goblins, Ben where's your boo? You are so corny.
Like candy corny? Oh my god.
Oh you didn't invite her? Yeah I just didn't want to invite Danielle.
Sometimes people ask me why I'm not hanging out with Danielle and I'm just like, "because sometimes I just don't want to hang out with her," like, that's normal.
Carly is like, way up my butt.
Like, she will not stop texting me.
Is that what all those like, blub blub blub blub? It's like text after text after text after text.
You should text her, "cut the umbilical cord.
" That's really funny.
- - I want to see how this door's gonna hang.
And you're gonna owe me another dinner, then.
Anything you want.
You're like the best ex in the whole world.
- Yeah thank you.
- Swear to god.
Mandy, my ex, Danielle's mom, I love her, I have a lot of respect for her but I also feel very guilty for what I did to her.
But we've picked up the pieces and remain a functioning family, which is nice.
Hi Danielle.
Is this your water? Yeah.
Oh are you really gonna drink my water? Mm hmm.
Didn't you have plans with Ben tonight? What's going on? I mean, we were gonna hang out but you know, he found out that Carly's gonna go have surgery.
The surgery, that surgery, yeah.
Yeah and he's just going through a lot right now, I don't think he's handling it well.
Is he kind of freaking out a little bit or Yeah, no, he's freaking out about it like, a lot.
I don't think Ben has had any time to process any of it.
Carly's basically gonna be the same person in a lot of ways.
I mean, have you at least told Ben how you dealt with it? Yeah I told him that he needs to talk to Carly, he needs to talk it out and everything but Do you think he's afraid? Well I think he's just angry.
And I think he's upset.
Do you think he would talk to your dad? I don't know, maybe but Just to kind of see that there's some normalness to this? Like look at us, I mean, we're pretty cohesive.
I mean, it didn't change things that much.
I'll take any opportunities to talk to him.
I mean, he has a second family here.
I think it'd be nice, I mean, that way he could kind of, maybe we could sit and have a family dinner.
Family dinner.
So by the way, how are you guys doing, I mean how's He's being wishy-washy but I don't really want to talk about it.
Is there anything there? Well, Dad, I don't I don't want to talk about it, can we just like, leave it at that? I don't want to talk about this to my parents.
He should at least know that he's really lucky to have you as a friend.
And if not you'll beat it into him, right Dan? I already threatened him once before, as you remember.
I think you've threatened all of my boyfriends.
Yep.
[Music playing.]
Statesville Haunted Prison, where no one escapes.
Oh no.
Oh my god, oh my god.
I don't like it.
Just take the girl, take the girl.
Thank you for coming, I kind of feel like I need your help with Ben.
You know, I text him, I call him, he doesn't text back, he doesn't call back, he never answers his phone.
Somehow I've got to be able to connect to him.
Yeah I understand how frustrating it is when he doesn't answer.
He doesn't answer you either I'm sure.
Well he does normally.
He's confused probably.
You know, do you guys talk about what's going on? Do you listen to Ben when he expresses how he feels? Does he feel safe expressing how he feels? Well he knows he can talk to me, he talks to me about all kinds of stuff.
He's talked to me about sex, he's talked to me about drugs.
I mean, there's no reason why he can't talk about this stuff, you know.
I think Ben doesn't seem like he wants to really tackle feelings head-on, he wants to just make things different, which is kind of normal for a kid.
He's quiet.
Carly and I have our differences in a lot of areas but anything that would help Carly and Ben have a better relationship, I'm willing to do.
I'm not doing it for Carly, I'm doing it for Benjamin.
I think because he is young, a lot of the feelings are layers and you take a layer off and the next one is like, "ooh, I don't want to go there.
" Because it's a lot for him to to handle, so you're gonna have to really walk across the line many times to pull him back.
Alright, that's fine.
Can you on your side be there doing sort of the same thing? "Carly said she called you," you didn't call her back, what's up? "Can you call her back?" Yes absolutely and I'll encourage him to try and tell you how he feels.
He's a he's a tough nut sometimes.
Doesn't want to ruffle the water.
I keep eyeballing those.
Have one.
[Music playing.]
Dude, what's that smell? Dishes? I can smell them from here.
There's not that many, it's not even piling over.
Look, I got half of 'em clean.
I asked you to take care of your own dishes.
I take care of them, I cuddle them, I read them stories, I nurture them, they get fed all day.
I'm just trying to get things straight and established between us.
It's like, you have to take care of your own stuff just like I do.
I've just been working, I've been busy, I got school like, it's just a couple of dishes.
You're staying on the couch, the least you could do is roll your sleeves up, man.
It's not just the dishes, it's the bathroom, it's the living room, it's the clothes that pour out of your bedroom that I have to pick up.
Well at least I don't have to worry about you stealing my clothes.
Yeah, no, I don't want any of your [Bleep.]
.
I'm making a lot of jokes and Lathan just doesn't find them funny.
I don't know if he doesn't like my humor or he just doesn't like me.
You should pitch in.
I do at weird hours of the night when you're sleeping, I'm like a nocturnal cleaner.
I'm like a koala cleaner.
Whatever.
[Music playing.]
This is nice to finally go out on a date.
You're looking good tonight.
Thank you.
No I was talking to the food.
Although Ayton has his douchebag tendencies, he's still one of the sweetest, most loving guys that I know.
You're really sweet.
Brook is beautiful, she's definitely intelligent.
We find a lot of the same stuff funny, we find a lot of the same stuff interesting.
I would definitely consider Ayton for marriage.
But it's just something about that girl that I just, I care so much about.
We have an amazing sex life, holy.
Why I'm still with him, no I'm kidding.
But honestly, it's awesome.
I've been meaning to ask you something, Brook.
Yeah.
I'm not getting on my knees to ask you this question.
I hope not.
How long is Lathan gonna be crashing on the couch? - Whoa.
- I I mean, he's family so I'm gonna let him stay for however long he needs to.
It's not like I don't like the guy or anything but it's like, finals and I need to study and I need my space and it's just kind of hard.
Then go to the library.
Tell him to go to the library, tons of homeless people hang out there.
Alright, that was a little harsh.
This is like, a date.
I don't know why you're being mean.
Just a little space from him is nice.
Every time I talk to him, he has some weird stuff to say and I mean, we both went to through a lot of change growing up.
It's just something, he's just kind of secretive and kind of keeps to himself.
Lathan can definitely be hard to warm up to so you've just give him time.
I think it's been extra tough because we're all cramped up in a tiny apartment.
I don't know, I think we we should get out.
Well this is a good start definitely.
No I meant like, all three of us.
Oh.
I don't know, you guys should bond.
What's like a good bonding thing? Does he want to come to the gym with me or something? I don't think he's a gym kind of guy.
Would a renaissance fair Jousting, fencing.
Go bowling.
Bowling? That's like, too modern for him.
Easy and fun and See I have these really fat thumbs that like, don't fit into bowling balls so like, bowling is not really my go-to sport but Lathan has long, spider fingers so it's not really his go-to sport either, you can bond over that.
Alright, let's do bowling, I'm down.
Awesome, I'm actually really excited about this.
He's probably gonna like, cast a spell on the pins to have them all fall down.
Don't be mean.
See, he would never say stuff like that to you.
Because he speaks in vampire.
I'm just kidding.
[Music playing.]
Sutton, I need to see what this SRS surgery's all about and I'm gonna make you watch it with me.
No I'm not watching that.
Sutton, it's all we've been talking about.
Aren't you at least kind of interested? Not only is Emilia Ben's tutor but she's also a really good friend of mine and she's got a lot to teach me, too.
- Okay.
- This looks normal.
Yeah, there he's going into the room.
- She.
- This is just as beautiful as a caterpillar coming out of its cocoon.
- Right.
- You know? She's pretty.
Ahh, oh my god.
What is going on? Oh my god.
- Oh no.
- What are you watching? Oh god.
This is a sexual reassignment surgery.
- Maybe you've heard of it, Suze? - Yeah.
Maybe you've heard of a sexual reassign Yeah I have actually.
It's pretty amazing that they can do this.
You know they use it, they don't just get rid of it, they're using it - and that's very - No it's fascinating.
That's very hunter-gatherer of them.
We are being extremely progressive people right now.
Oh.
Oh my god.
See, what's happening now? It's basically like pulling it inside out, right? And then rebuilding with the opened and inside out I wanna I want to see what the final product looks like.
Oh boy.
Oh.
Oh.
- There you go.
- Boom.
Imagine how desperate to be a woman you must be if you're willing to go through this? That's a vagina, my friends.
It's a girl.
Wow.
[Music playing.]
How's it going bro? I forgot how good you were, you're awesome.
- It's been awhile.
- I know, it's been like - I honestly didn't think - It's been like seven years since you've watched me play.
You have a lot in you.
And do you still play like, all the time? Well I play here like, pick-up hockey.
You've always been the girl with the all-guy team.
Yeah, it's a lot more competition.
- Yeah.
- Depending on the girls' team, - I've been on some nice - Well, yeah.
- girls' teams.
- Yeah.
Like the Olympic tryouts, they were really tough, that was awesome.
Badass is badass, doesn't matter.
That's what it is.
Plus there's fighting in guys' hockey [Inaudible.]
.
Oh yeah, you can check.
Isn't that weird, - you can't check with girls.
- No.
Where's Ayton, I thought he was supposed to drive us home.
I came on the train, I didn't see him all day.
He doesn't talk to me anyway.
I don't really I honestly don't even know what you see in him.
He's like, there's no communication, that's ridiculous.
He has his moments.
I don't know, everybody has their flaws, you know? I guess so.
You just got to give him a chance.
I think we should do something fun together, like bowling, what do you think about that? - Bowling? - Yeah.
Yeah.
Having them bowl is a step towards them getting along.
I don't have a lot of faith but we'll see.
What about your love life? What's going on with that? Well there might be someone special, I just don't want to talk about it now because I don't want to jinx anything.
That's that's fine, you don't have to talk to me about it.
I'm so tired.
[Music playing.]
- So Ben, I hope you like sushi.
- Oh yeah.
Because it's on the menu tonight.
Ben, you want a couple of those? - What are they? - Yeah you do, they're deep-fried.
Are you gonna save any for the rest of us? I need one more.
- Ben? - Yes? What's been going on in your life? A lot is going on with Carly.
Have you guys sat down and had some serious conversations or ? None.
I haven't really been talking to her.
My head has just been in like, the clouds, basically all week.
How's your your mom handling this too, I mean, she's got to be a little beside herself.
Yeah, she's kind of just like why did I pick all of these dumb guys in my life? Yeah I kind of know how that feels a little bit.
Mom, you do not have good luck with men, no offense.
We don't want to get into that.
I have good luck with friends, Dan, because you're my friend forever.
So Ben, I can tell you, from my experience, it may seem like a kind of a very selfish journey.
I'm sure he feels guilty and he feels shame and he feels a lot of different feelings that he's probably not talked about, but what your dad is dealing with is something that he has to deal with.
And I guarantee you that we worked through all that kind of stuff over a couple of years and we're still a functioning family.
You know, over time, you get kind of used to it and after awhile, you don't really even I don't even think about it.
Yeah.
I think you'll find once your dad gets through this part of his life, that he'll be a much happier person.
- Mmm hmm.
- I've seen it.
She would like, kind of just mope around at the house when we were like, a family.
And it was just like there was just all this like, - negative inside of her.
- Right.
And now that she's like, done what she's wanted to do her whole life, it's just like I see her with a smile every day.
Carly's like, always happy.
I love Carly, she's so fun.
I can relate with what you said about your dad.
- I was uptight.
- Yeah, you were kind of an [Bleep.]
.
- Yeah.
I was.
- No offense.
One of the things I'll challenge you with is, I think you should be able to talk to your dad - as much as possible.
- Yeah.
About it.
We can be there for you and Danielle, okay? - We're always here for you.
- Yeah.
I got you.
Seeing Danielle and her family, I mean, it gives me a lot of hope that my family will definitely be able to do that, it's just it takes time.
What is going on with you two? Danielle and Ben, I mean, come on.
What's the deal? Aren't we late for bowling? - Yeah.
- [Inaudible.]
- Yeah we - Yeah we Yeah we got to go meet Brook and Ayton for bowling.
You've just made this dinner very awkward.
Wait, wait, wait a second.
Come on, tell us something.
- We're just, we're accomplices.
- We're always Accomplices, I like that.
Have you kissed my daughter? That's my cue.
Thank you so much for dinner.
Anytime.
Alright bye guys, have fun.
- Bye guys.
- We'll see you.
- Stay out of trouble.
- Have fun, see ya.
- Nice kid.
- Yeah.
I'm gonna kick his ass.
Oh be nice.
We need some shoes.
These are probably good for like, moonwalking.
This one fits my thumb.
Let go, let go.
Alright so we're girls versus boys? Alright, how about if guys win, then you have to cook.
And like, real cooking, not mac and cheese, not peanut butter and jelly.
- No.
- But if we lose, we have to cook.
So we have to win, let's do this.
I can bowl.
Whoa, whoa.
Yeah.
Lathan, go for the tip, go straight for the center.
I don't know if I can take advice from someone who bowls like this.
Break it, whoa, break it up, break it up.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah close enough.
Yeah you guys kiss and make up.
Is the pressure on now, Ben? Yeah you suck, Ben.
- Holy.
- Yeah.
Suck what.
Wow.
Oh wow, we just got so much better, you guys better fear us.
We're getting our asses handed to right now.
- You done? - No.
- Are you done? - No.
It slants to the right, Lathan.
With three people we still suck.
You know we're definitely gonna cook dinner for a week, right? I hate to say it but I'm bringing the team down.
- Yeah.
- But not in spirit.
So I guess bowling kind of was a good idea because Lathan and I bonded.
I wouldn't say we bonded like on a molecular level but we made a teeny bit of a connection.
Alright guys, let's go, let's tally it up.
102.
5.
174.
667.
You did you did not do that right.
I did it, watch.
212 divided by 3.
Divided by 3.
Oh.
Now you have to cook for us, you have to cook for us and you have to cook for us.
So we'll just have to cook really bad.
Oh yeah.
- This is the craziest - Alright, so good, so good.
We won, awesome, and I cannot wait for the gourmet meal.
But I'm even more happy that Ayton and Lathan are getting along so mission accomplished.
We suck.
[Music playing.]
No tickles, no tickles today.
If I get tickled, I'm gonna spaz out.
My legs are trapped.
Yep, you're trapped, you're not going anywhere, you're stuck.
So I got some exciting news.
What up? I got into Columbia in Chicago.
- That's cool.
- So - That's really cool.
- Yeah.
With a little bit of an academic scholarship.
That's huge, what are you saying? - I'm excited.
- I would be, too.
What the Yeah and you can come visit me.
That's pretty cool.
The support that she gave me and that I give her is very it's good and it's helpful and that's something that I really want to be able to hold onto.
Have you accepted? Like, are you going to go there? Please, I'm begging you.
I think I made my decision.
It is really nice to know that Ben actually does need me.
Even though he's a jerk, he's a cute jerk.
I'm so done with my high school.
When I was younger like, you know, I had the whole thing with my dad and my school and People need to learn how to get over stuff.
That's true.
If I hadn't met you, my life would probably be a lot more different.
Really? Yeah, it would've been a lot more harder.
Things with your dad? Yeah it's like if I fall, you're always there to pick me up.
Yeah, I think that goes both ways.
So thank you and you're welcome.
Give me a hug.
Oh, thank you.
Ow, ow.
Oh my god, I'm gonna fall off my bed.
[Music playing.]
Hey dude.
Hey dude-tte.
What's happening? Killing people.
Killing people? How's that make you feel? Feels great.
- Yeah? - Yeah.
Oh geez.
Have you talked to Carly lately? No.
I've just gotten like, a couple texts, voicemails and calls that I haven't picked up.
I feel like I'm talking to the window over there.
I'm hearing you, trust me.
- Kind of.
- I'm serious.
I have never done a game this well.
There, I won it.
- Oh you won? - Yeah, see? So now we can talk? - Yeah.
- Oh good.
- So you know how I feel and - Oh yeah.
Carly can push my buttons sometimes.
You just get kind of annoyed, you get very annoyed.
- Well yeah.
- You're like rawr.
Yeah I can't I can't hold it in.
- Mm hmm.
- But I've got to be careful not to throw that on you, that's not fair, even though it's hard to do because I get really, really frustrated.
Yeah and then you just gossip about it 24/7.
I do know that Carly really loves Ben and adores him and I would never, on purpose, disrupt or takeaway from that relationship.
Regardless of how I feel about Charlie/Carly, - it's okay with me - Mm hmm.
If you, you know, reach out to Carly and you want to continue your your dad/son relationship, because I ain't gonna say mom/son relationship ever.
You should have the relationship that you want to have.
Of course my mom is gonna have anger towards ex-husband, because it's her ex-husband and they got divorced, like, that's the normal thing to do but I'm gonna have to work on my own relationship with Carly.
So what's your name up there, buddy? Transparency.
Really? That's very clever.
Surprise.
You rarely pick me up from school.
Yeah well I'm taking you captive.
Oh.
Since I can't seem to get you on your phone or on a text message or Facebook because you do not reply, I'll just I'll just come and pick you up.
- Okay.
- So we can talk.
- Yeah.
- So you can tell me what is up, why are you totally avoiding me? I'm not avoiding you.
- Well you are.
- Don't I'm not, just because I don't reply to your text messages and all this, it doesn't mean that I'm not thinking about you, but I'm taking my time and I'm just trying to I'm just still trying to grasp what's going on.
With what? With the whole surgery and how it's like, it's official that you're going to be a woman.
Get in your head that my having surgery is kind of like a no-going-back kind of thing.
Yeah.
This is no longer possibly a phase.
Is it the surgery that's bothering you or is it the fact that my having surgery is bringing up emotions from when I first told you I was gonna transition? It's a lot of stuff.
You know, it's like you've had this vision for quite awhile, you know, and definitely took you some time and it's just it's gonna take me some time to get used to it, you know? Because it's fresh and it's still weird for me and it's like, I'm still adjusting.
I will give you all the time you need.
In the meantime, start answering the phone when I call.
You should at least respond.
Either way, I'm just dealing, you know? Dealing with it.
Okay well, you know what? That's fine but you're not gonna become less uncomfortable being around me by not spending time with me.
I get that.
You want to spend time with me, I want to spend time with you, too.
So is that all? That's the biggest part, yeah.
I mean, at the end of the day, you're my son and I love you, so At the end of the day, you're my - Parent.
- Parent.
And I will love you, so don't get it twisted, home skillet.
- Home skillet.
- Biscuit quillet.
That's what you are in my phone, you're my home skillet biscuit quillet.
[Music playing.]
Well we've got to cook something nice for the ladies.
If we're just boiling water, does that actually constitute as cooking? What? There's fire, if there's fire, we're cooking.
I'm using my noodle.
Yay finally.
We've got ramen.
What? No.
I'm not eating this.
Babe, ramen? This was homemade.
You didn't even get creative, you have no imagination.
This is bland.
I think it's great.
I'm really bad at sports but I like, bowled strikes for this? Like, what is this? We should have a competition on who can just make the worst dinner.
Like this sets it pretty high, but No this is like, what broke college students eat because they're starving to death.
Isn't that what Brook is? Look at what I invented.
A spoon and fork are being used.
This is why Lathan is my favorite person.
I don't think he's a person.
He's a ninja.
He's a bird.
- Bird man.
- Bird demon.
You're a bird man V2.
Wow.
Some days, I wake up and I just wish that everything would be back to the way it used to be, my dad would be my dad and my family would be together.
Carly just wants to have a wonderful relationship with me but it's a little bit too early for all that.
I just hope he stays really honest with me, and I hope I can stay his go-to person, because I think that's what's gonna get him through his teen years and, you know, it'll help him keep his head right-sized.
I know that life is never gonna be what it used to be but maybe it's a good thing, maybe it could even be better.