Scary Middle-of-the-Night Phone Call

Any calls between 11:00 p.m. and 6 a.m. scare me to death. That moment is all about seeing who is on caller ID, isn't it? Ack.

Last night, about 2:45 a.m., the phone rang with a private number on caller ID. I picked up and a young guy said hello. His voice was shaking. I could tell he was physically shaking, because of the sound of the phone rustling against his head. He was speaking very softly. Between the muffled whisper and the shaking voice, I could barely understand him. He identified himself as my nephew, of which I have zero, but my cousin is Lauren's age, and I am frequently mistaken for his aunt (although not by him)... so I asked if he was at home in Colorado and he said yes.

He wouldn't talk, so I asked if everything was ok and he said no. I asked if he and his mom were alright. He said yes. I asked what was wrong. He said "relationships."

"With mom? A girlfriend?"

"My girlfriend."

"Is she there? Is she ok?"

"She isn't here. She's fine."

Once I established that no one was hurt, we continued to talk for about fifteen minutes. He said he was whispering because he didn't want to wake up his mom. He went into great detail about an extremely personal problem with his girlfriend. I gave him lots of advice and calmed him down a little.

I just kept wondering if it was actually my cousin. Age came up at some point, so I asked him "How old are you right now?" (He's 16.)

"Eighteen."

"I'm sorry, tell me who this is again."

"Michael."

Yeah. NOT my cousin.

I had to tell this poor kid that he wasn't talking to his aunt.

"I'm so sorry, but it looks like you dialed the wrong number. This isn't your aunt."

"Oh my God, I'm so sorry."

"No no no. It's totally okay. I want you to call her about this though."

"Ok. I will."

Poor guy. I'm still wondering how he's doing. :(