Page 99 of All That Remains
When I awakened, it was after 10pm. The lounge was pitch black, apart from the faint light streaming in from the windows. I listened and didn't hear a sound. I thought it impossible that Rome was still asleep, and even more impossible that he hadn't turned the lights on for me if he had awakened. I set the script aside, stubbed my toe, then sprinted upstairs only to confirm what I'd feared. He was gone. No word, no note—nothing. Of course he figured it was easier that way.
In search of any reason behind his exit, I entered the kitchen and flicked the lights on, only to see the food was untouched. The soup had gone cold. The salad, wilted. My caretaking had been snubbed. Apparently, my concern for him wasirrelevant,and he'd made that clear by ghosting me. So I dialed him up and didn't hold back.
"Where thefuckare you?!" was all my voicemail said.
I nearly threw my phone against the wall when he didn't answer on the third attempt. I was becoming livid. Now he was sayingscrewme. It was abundantly clear I meant fuck all to him. Without thinking, I was out the door, fumbling for my keys. Except, they were missing. I ran back inside and checked around the hooks adjacent to the entrance, then in the sofa where I’d slept, but they were nowhere to be found. Right away I knew he'd taken them. I called five more times and left as many voicemails, chewing him out to varying degrees in each one.
Why the fuck was he shutting me out? We were in this together, right? Here I was ready to die for him, to kill for him, ready to risk it all, and here he was pulling another disappearing act. His trademark:running scared. It was the one part of him I despised the most—or that I understood the least. It was abhorrently spineless.
I tried to sit but couldn't stomach the inaction. I needed to get to him. Needed to see that he was alright. I didn't want her family to extort him, which he was ripe for at the minute. They held all the bloody leverage, and probably would for the rest of his life.
Fuck’s sake, that could easily drive a weak person off a cliff. I saw flashes of him offing himself in inventive ways and was nearly sick. I grew so jittery I could barely use my phone. My fingers kept hitting things I didn't intend to. Several apps opened and crashed. Then the system froze altogether.
Sometime later, the Uber arrived. My leg wouldn't stop bouncing in the backseat. The driver—a husky white guy with Dahmer-style glasses stared at me in the rearview. Something must’ve dawned upon him.
"Dude?! Aren't you, like...thatdudefromInvicta?! With the hair?"
"Uh, yeah…” I chuckled. “I guess."
"Duddde! You're like...totallyhim!"
"Yeah, Ralph Rawlings. Good to meet you, mate."
“Duddde!”he shrieked. “How fucking sick is that?! You just called memate! You’resoBritish, bro!”
“Yep, haha…”
“Holy shit! So who the hell isNick Goldbergthen?" he asked, referencing the name I used on the app. "Is that like, one of those cool fucking aliasesor something? Like James Bond?”
“Uh, yes, actually.”
“Fuck, man, that's cool. You're alright in my book, Ralph Rawlings."
"Thanks, mate," I grinned. "So are you."
He accidentally ran a red light, because he was so focused on watching me in the rearview. A storm of angry horns followed us for a while. When we neared Rome’s street, I told him to drop me at the corner, since I didn't want to risk exposing his address like I'd done my own.
"Dude, not to push my luck here or anything," he began, as I got out of the backseat of the Toyota. "Mind if I get a pic real quick? My little sis would freak the fuck out—"
"You know what, I'm so sorry, mate, but I really don't thi—" I saw his big dumb eyes when he turned around, and couldn't discount all we'd been through together. "You know what, fuck it. Why not? Let's do it!"
"Awesomesaucesome!" he exclaimed.
I leaned over between the two front seats and offered a lackluster thumbs-up and half-grin.
"My sister's gonna freak!"
"Cheers, mate. Good to meet you. And how about we keep that whole alias thing between us, alright?"
"Not a problem, Mr. Rawlings. Your secret's safe with me, bro."
"Appreciate that." I shut the door with a nod and started up the unlit street.
Soon I met a steep incline and couldn't see what lay ahead until I reached the summit. Nothing awaited but more pavement, dense shadows, tree cover, and the neighborhood wildlife. Nocturnal things that rustled in the darkness around me.
There were few signs of human life, apart from a light or two in a front-facing window. When I discovered Rome's address post outside the private approaches, I buzzed the intercom andtook a trembling breath. After a few rings with no response, I began to deduce he hadn't come home after all. Just as I started to pull out my phone and call him for the hundredth time that night, his voice broke through the static.
"Yeah? Who is it?"
