Matt pressed redial. She'd read the texts. She owed him now. After all the years of friendship, after protecting her, she was just gone? Her dad said he didn't know where she went, but that guy wouldn't know if he'd pissed himself these days. Andy used to be someone he looked up to, but now he was just like his old man, probably because they paled around. They were both drunk, junkie losers and Matt could probably kick both of their asses now.
Matt wasn't the biggest or toughest young man in his weight class, but he had a fire inside him that made him more aggressive. He took pain like a champ, probably from all the beatings. What didn't kill him, made him stronger. That's what his old man always said at least, as he was wrapping the belt back up into its ready-to-strike coil. One day hed take that belt to his dad, he'd think afterwards.
His dad loved hockey and so Matt had naturally grown up loving hockey too. They went to Blackhawks games fairly often growing up, and those were the best memories of his dad he had, even if Dave did get into a brawl every now and again. Dave would end up having one too many beers and be just close enough to a fan from the other side. If the other team scored and those fans had the nerve to cheer for it? In their home stadium? Well he would just have to welcome them to Chicago, wouldn't he?
Matt didn't like when his dad got that way, it made him feel scared. He felt like he might as well be the one rooting for the other team, because sometimes his dad would finish the fight he started when they got home.
He wasn't scared of his dad like that anymore. There wasn't much he thought he was scared of anymore, except for being alone. When he was alone he thought about all the bad stuff. The bad things he did and the bad things other people did. He thought about war, and the people who made the wars. He thought about the human traffickers and drug dealers who only cared about money. He thought about what made people do things like that. He thought about unavoidable accidents, machinery exploding, and being trapped in a burning building. He thought about the heat of hell. No he didn't like being alone. It scared him because he couldn't stop those thoughts by himself.
"I'm sorry, the person you are trying to reach has a voicemail box that has not…"
He pressed the end button. Her dad said they left. He'd opened the door to that dark, nasty smelling apartment and said "They're gone kid, stop asking me." and shut it again. Surely that smell couldn't have been Andy's doing, or worse coming off of Andy, could it? He'd only lived here a few days.
Last week Andy called Dave up around 6:00 p.m. and said his wife and daughter had decided to move out, that he had to break the lease and find somewhere he could afford on his own. They were of very few words, these men, so Dave said "You got it buddy." and hung up the phone. When Matt asked who it was, Dave said "Andy". When Matt asked what he wanted Dave replied "He's gotta move". Matt was surprised by that answer and quickly asked "What? Why?"
"How the fuck should I know!? Why don't you ask your fucking girlfriend?" Dave shouted at him and shut the door to his bedroom.
That was all the information he had. That they were gone. So he called Jen again and he apologized through text again. He asked why they had left without saying anything and that she was his best friend and that he was so sorry. The texts said were left on read and the calls continued to go unanswered.