Page 32 of All That Remains
"How'd you meet then?"
"Why d’you care?"
"Because you want me to care, right? That's why you left the card out? For me to see it? So, what happened?"
"We just talked."
"So, you were with him, yeah?"
"Uh...for a while, yeah."
“Right.” He looked straight ahead, arms resting on his knees. Jaw clenching.
"I was crying on the stairs and he came by—"
"Cryin’?"
"Yeah…after earlier. I was scared. He gave me a cigarette."
"You don't even smoke."
"I know…but I took it anyway."
He got up and put distance between us.
"Rome, we just talked for a while…” Why the fuck was I explaining myself? After what he’d done in Thailand?Fuck him. “Then he finished my cigarette..."
There was a noticeable shift in his demeanor, which lent me a wicked little shudder of gratification. He was on the brink of imploding, and for some reason I wanted to see it.
"He took it from between my lips and put it right between his."
"Fuck off, bro."
"He was rubbing my back. To be honest…it felt good. It’s what I needed." Finally, I lied: "He kissed me. I don’t know why I let him.”
He watched me, dead-eyed. No longer smug or manipulative, just empty. He walked out and I let him go. Moments later I looked for Han's card and it was gone.
11
Los Angeles
February 2018
John cleared his throat across the table, bringing me back to the discussion at hand. Where had we even left off? Oh yeah, Rome leaving the band without saying goodbye.
"Listen, mate, I appreciate you saying that, I really do. But...it's not even like that, y'know? Things were different with uz. Believe it or not, he did actually tell me goodbye. Only me."
"Mm..."
"Yeah...it was all pretty fucked to be honest. But, uh, he reached out before he left the hotel, and then again after he got home."
"Then what happened? How'd you gethere? The whole not speaking thing, for how long? Two years?"
"It’s when he didn't come back."
"Ah..."
"When he left at first, he promised it was just a break. That he'd be back in a couple of shows. But once we got to our next tour stop, everything fell apart. They Skyped uz—the head of the label…management…everyone—and just hit uz with the news. There was just no going back after that…"
