Boy emotion

Today at school I got one of my classes started on group work. While I was walking around "managing", a boy asked to speak to me in the hallway privately. He's on the smaller side for a 6th grade boy...easy to remember that he was just in elementary school 4 short months ago. I was expecting him to tell me he was getting bullied by people in class. Instead, he looked me straight in the eye and said, "You seem really nice and like you would be good at giving advice. I really like this girl and I need you to tell me what to do about it."

Then he went into a story about how he wanted to ask her to the movies, but he didn't have any money and he had Netflix, but his parents would probably have to meet her parents before she would be allowed to come over. He said his last plan would be to invite her to next month's school dance, but he hoped to hang out before that. Then he went on to say how hard it was to get a moment to ask her anything because he was supposed to pay attention in class and if he wanted to do it at lunch, he would have to get just the right seat...etc.

First of all, I thanked my lucky stars that his love interest was not also in his same class period. I really wanted to tell him that we didn't have so much time to talk about all of that now, but he was so cute and apparently this has been on his mind the past week and a half!

I told him dating was a challenging art and to go with whatever he decided was best. Then I said he could come in before or after school if he wanted to talk more. I'm sure he talked to every teacher today...
We've all been there...consumed by a crush.

Alex has been coming home from school later this year because of our schedule change. He's tried and hungry when he gets home and tonight was no exception. He was lingering around my leg vicinity while I did  my best to cook dinner as fast as I could without feeding him snacks.
I get everything together and we sit down to eat. He tears up and says, "I don't want you to die. I will be all alone if you and Dad die."
And then he let one single tear drop and roll down his cheek as he ate.
WHOA.
I asked him who told him we were going to die and what he knew about death. He had no good answers, but only continued to talk about our seemingly impending death. I thought about what to say and realized I was completely unprepared to talk to him about death...
Don't I need to read a book to be qualified for this conversation? Some articles? Some advice blog? I didn't want to lie and say we weren't going to die or tell him not to worry and dismiss him, but my wheels were turning at a glacial speed.

I think I ended up saying, "I hope I don't die either; I'm not ready." Then tried to assuage his fears by letting him just talk without me talking. It got rather comical with him assuring me that if I died, he would take me to Smith (not his real pediatrician for identity safety, but he called her by her last name...) and she would fix me. Also, that Dad could fix me and they would then take me home and take care of me.

After we ate, I gave him a hug and [with great difficulty] carried him upstairs. Try to imagine me carrying 40 pounds that is 3/4 my height...with a fresh sweat on my brow, we had extra cuddles and books.

It's been another incredibly long week.
Boys are just like us...