You don't have to stand in for someone's son in order for them to care about you. At your age it's not unusual to be living away from your family for a while, and what most people seem to need at that stage in life are good friends and teachers. You've got a mom. And you've got a dad too. [Even if he is passed on, which Mark doesn't quite have the heart to add.]

...Not that I'm trying to compare the Barge to college, because this is a lot harder.

Yeah, that confused me too. You weren't acting any differently than you usually do. I'm not here to make a call or point out who's at fault, but it sounds to me like you both have a lot of expectations of what you want out of each other and haven't really talked about or clarified what those were.