Page 70 of Refraction

16

Lord, itwas hot.

Tucker turned on the big fan and stared at the Pandora’s box he was making. He wasn’t sure what would go inside, what was going to hide within, but he was having a ball making something new, something different. The paintings were almost everything, but sometimes he wanted to make something new.

Sometimes he wanted to play.

He grabbed his hammer and pounded away, sweat pouring from him as he worked.

By the time he was ready to call it a day, he was drenched but felt great, as if releasing all that sweat was cleansing somehow. He had just found himself a towel to rub his face and neck dry, when he heard his phone chirping at him. The text that was waiting for him was from Calvin and had come in a couple of hours ago, but he’d been making way too much noise to hear it.

Is this Tucker? From Texas?

Huh.

Calvin shouldn’t have forgotten him. He sent a photo every day.

It is.

Dude. Finally. Can I call you? This is his roommate, Timmy.

Please.

His phone rang instantly.Oh God, please let Calvin be okay. Please. Please.

Timmy didn’t even give him time to say hello. “Tucker, dude. Thanks for letting me call. I’m freaking out, man.”

“Wh-what’s wrong?” he croaked out. He blinked, the sound of his own voice strange and odd.

“I don’t know. Two days ago Cal left for a meeting with his agent. He didn’t come home that night, and the next day I got a call from the cops saying they found him passed out by some coffee shop near the Midtown library. They put him in Metropolitan Hospital overnight, and I just brought him home this morning. He won’t say anything to me, and he looks like shit. I didn’t know who else to call.”

“Let me talk to him.” He grabbed a bottle of water and sucked it down.God. Cold. Whoa.

“All right. Good luck.” There was a little shuffling, and Tucker heard a long sigh.

“I’m fine.” Calvin’s voice sounded like he’d been swallowing glass.

“Hey, honey. You don’t sound fine.”

“I have a cold. Timmy shouldn’t have called you. I’ll scold him. Go back to work.”

“Oh.” He walked outside, not wanting the sound of Calvin’s voice in the studio. “I miss you.”

“But you have pretty flowers and birds and things keeping you happy.”

“I sent those to make you smile.” Lord, he’d fucked up again somehow, hadn’t he? “I’m sorry.”

There was dead air on the line for a minute, and when Calvin finally spoke again, he sounded even worse, if that was possible. “I can’t do this. Not right now. I can’t go there right now. I should go. I’m going to hang up, okay? But I love you. I have to go.”

“I love you. Be good to you.” He could feel himself becoming less and less, and he wanted to go bathe.Please God, he prayed,let my demons not have found a way to get Calvin.

The call disconnected, and a text came through not three seconds later from some random number.

Really, dude? That’s it? (this is Timmy)

Tucker stared at the phone like it was a snake that was going to bite him. What was this? What the hell? He didn’t understand what the fuck these people wanted from him.You should never have left home. This is where you stay.

He closed his eyes, his feet leading him into his house, the air conditioner set on deep freeze.

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