02 - The Old Apartment

I stopped outside my old apartment, wondering if it was still empty, still for sale. I had enough cash to pay for it for right now, and I'd have more by the time next month's rent was due. I looked around, but the lights were off, and it seemed to be empty. I smiled and pulled out my cell phone. I didn't know who to call to see if this place was still vacant, so I went through my phonebook for a minute, the radio playing Tom Petty's "Always". I stopped at a number I hadn't called in ages.

Actually, it had only been a year, maybe not even that long, but it felt like so much longer to me. I hit the call button and put it to my ear. It rang and rang and rang, and just as I was about to hang up, I heard a sleepy, familiar voice say:

"Hello?"

I paused and took a breath. "Matt?"

There was a pause on the other end. "Tom?" the voice asked. "That you?"

"Yeah," I said with a smile. "It's me. How have you been?"

"Okay, I guess. I was in the hospital for a little while-"

"What?" I broke in. "Why?" He was in the hospital and he hadn't even bothered to call me? My best friend was in the hospital and I hadn't known? What kind of a friend was I? "Are you okay?"

He chuckled. "I'm fine. I had the flu. But I'm great now."

"Why didn't you call me?" I asked, slightly puzzled. "I would have come to visit you."

"Didn't want to distract you from your sister and such. Last I heard, she got fired and was drinking a lot."

"You got that right," I sighed. "I just moved out. She's on her own now. I tried to help her, Matt, I really did, but a guy can only take so much. She's never in a good mood, she's always drinking...I don't know what to do anymore."

He sighed at the other end. "I hear ya."

"Hey," I said. "Do you know if my old apartment is still empty, or has someone bought it?"

He paused for a moment. "I'm not sure," he said finally. "I haven't been by there. Need a place to stay for the night?"

"If it's not too much trouble," I said, a bit uneasily. I hadn't spoken to him for so long, and he was acting as if that didn't matter. It had been my choice to break off contact, I was sure, but he was acting so cool with it. I wanted to talk to him for hours and catch up on old times, but I knew right now wasn't a good time.

"No trouble at all," he said. "Where are you?"

"Outside my old apartment."

"Okay. Stay there, I'll be there in about twenty minutes."

"Okay. Thanks, Matt. Really." I swallowed. "You're a good friend."

"Of course," he laughed cheerfully. "And you're welcome. See ya in twenty," he said as a goodbye as he hung up.

I hung up as well and pocketed my cell. I hadn't expected him to be so cool about all this. I had expected him to nag me about not calling and not going to see him when he was ill, but he had done none of that. Matt truly was a good friend, and a good person. I was lucky he was on my side, or I would have definitely been screwed.

I looked back at the apartment. Memories surged through my mind. Matt had been drunk there one Christmas, and had been singing random songs with his voice oddly slurred. I could remember him slinging his arm around me as he sang, and though the smell of alcohol was thick, I knew he had never meant me harm. He would never hurt me.

As for Amanda, I couldn't say the same. I had trusted her at one point, but when she had lost her job, she'd changed. Now she was so completely unpredictable, and I just couldn't deal with it.

Sighing, I focused my attention on the mirror and imagined myself next to the tree I was looking at. Suddenly, I was standing there, completely unharmed. A few leaves rustled and fell off, but other than that, there was no damage. I laughed to myself and walked back to the car.

I had just tapped into this 'power' around four months ago. I had been practicing when I could, but it was hard to do that when Amanda was on one of her rampages. If she was drunk ang PMSing at the same time, oh God, get out of the house. I had learned that the hard way, with her constantly nagging at me and yelling about the tiniest little thing.

She had yelled because there was a picture on the wall. She claimed it was crooked, when it clearly wasn't. I had said that it wasn't crooked, that she was just lying at an odd angle, her head hanging off of the couch. She had denied that she was lying like that, when she clearly was.

That had been one of our many fights since I had moved in. I just didn't know her anymore, and it made me upset. We used to be so tight, but now it seemed we just kept drifting further and further apart. It was seriously beginning to become too much.

I waited in the car for a while, before Matt drove down the street in his truck. I smiled as I saw him and got out of my car to greet him. He stopped his car next to mine and got out, facing me. He looked different than the last time I had seen him. His black hair had grown longer, and his auburn eyes seemed to glow when they saw me. He was still taller than me, though I seemed to have caught up slightly. His shoulders were broad and he was well muscled, but he still had his slender build. He had to be the only guy I knew who could pull that off without looking like a total whacko.

"Hey, Tom," he said, smiling at me.

"Matt," I said, smiling in return. "It's been far too long."

He shrugged. "Your fault, not mine. I would have called you, but your last note to me seemed to make me stop."

I frowned at him, not recalling what he was talking about.

"You were drunk," he said. "One of the rare times you ever got drunk, you were at my place. Left me a note saying you needed some space and time to think something out, and that I shouldn't call, that you would call me when you were ready." he shrugged again. "I waited. You never called."

"I...I'm sorry," I stammered, at a loss for words. I glared down at the sidewalk before I kicked at it with the toe of my shoe. "I'm so sorry, Matt, I didn't even know..."

He waved it off. "No worries," he said, cheerful as ever. "It's in the past now."

"...You can forgive me that easily?" I asked, looking up at him.

"Nothing to forgive," he said. "I'm sure you had a reason for leaving, even if you're not sure what it is. I trust you."

I smiled slowly. "Thank you," I said. "For everything."

"No problem. I suggest you leave the car here for the night, it's a quiet neighborhood, or you can follow me home in the car. Your choice."

I debated on that. I wanted to take my car, for I had been in some major shit with it and hated to think that some punk kid would come and smash its windows in. But then, at the same time, I wanted to ride with Matt and catch up on old times.

In the end, going with Matt won.

"I'll ride with you," I said. "I'll come back for the car tomorrow."

He smiled and gestured toward his truck. I climbed in the passenger seat and he got in and revved the vehicle to life. Soon, we were off.

I just hoped that whatever I had done hadn't left too much of a gap between us.