AllFreeNovel
Share Us
He wasn’t.
Hayes swayed a bit, the alcohol and pills kicking his ass, clicked “Share My Location” in TK’s chain, and shoved his phone back into his hoodie. He took a deep breath and stepped foot onto the bridge above the icy Pequonnock River.
We Understand Us (14)
“Right here! Right here!” TK shouted. “Stop right here!”
“Jesus, could you maybe not scare the shit outta me while I’m driving, kid?” his Uber driver yelled, pulling the car over.
“Sorry, man. I just…I need to get out right here.”
“Whatever, dude.”
“Here. Thanks, and I’m sorry.” TK reached into his wallet, pulled out 200 bucks, and threw it into the passenger seat, quickly exiting the vehicle and checking Hayes’s location. The phone was putting him…on the East Washington Avenue Bridge?
That couldn’t be right.
Either way, he stepped onto the entrance of the bridge and scanned his surroundings, though the lack of light made it difficult to see. He’d tried texting and calling Hayes numerous times but he wasn’t responding.
He knew something was wrong.
When he woke up and Hayes was gone, he checked his phone and saw that Hayes had shared his location. It was a thing they did sometimes to let each other know that they might need help.
It’d started after one of the first few times they’d partied together on the road. TK had disappeared from the club they were at and Hayes couldn’t find him for over two hours.
They’d finally reunited when Hayes happened to find him passed out in a nearby alleyway. After that night, they’d agreed to share their location if they were somewhere they felt maybe wouldn’t be safe for them.
This? Didn’t make sense though. Why the hell would he…
A passing car’s headlights allowed him to make out a figure stumbling toward him about 20 feet in the distance. He immediately unlocked his phone and called Hayes, gasping when he heard the ringtone in person.
“Ty!” he yelled, quickening his pace toward his friend and wrapping him in his arms as soon as he got there. Hayes collapsed onto him, barely able to breathe because he was sobbing so hard. “It’s OK. I’m here. I’m right here, baby.”
TK ran his hands up and down his friend’s back, comforting him as he broke down.
“I don’t…know what the fuck…is happening to me,” Hayes cried.
“It’s alright. Let’s just go home, OK?”
They pulled away from each other, TK keeping a firm hold of Hayes’s hand and hurrying him off of the bridge. His skin was stone cold. God knows how long he’d been out here; he needed to get his friend somewhere warm.
They walked a bit until they found a CVS they could duck into, TK leading Hayes to the back of the store so they could sit down on the chairs in the pharmacy while he arranged them a ride back to Long Island.
“Alright. Ride will be here in 20 minutes. Did you wanna talk about it?” TK asked, resting a hand on his teammate’s thigh.
Hayes didn’t answer; he just continued to sit silently, arms crossed, head down, eyes closed, and shivering.
“You know, I’ve thought about it before, too,” TK offered quietly. “Sometimes it feels like there’s no way out, huh? I get it. I, uh, right before the trade to the Isles? I was in…a really bad place. That whole rumor with me and Yardy’s wife? So, it wasn’t all bullshit. I did have a thing with her, but I kinda misinterpreted it. It started as just a hookup, but I…fuckin’ fell for her. Hard. She told me she loved me, too. We were sneakin’ around together for a bit, before she even found out she was pregnant. And not for nothin’, but that dude cheated on her three times in every fucking city, man. Not that it makes it OK, but…”
He looked over at Hayes, who still hadn’t moved. TK felt like he needed to keep talking, needed to get this off his chest, so he did.
“She kept telling me she’d leave him eventually, and then she found out she was pregnant. We knew it wasn’t mine because the timeline didn’t work, which sucked ‘cause I’d have stepped up and been a dad. I loved her that much, man. I still do. But she…decided to try to make it work with him and have the baby. Told me she was sorry, but that she didn’t ever wanna see me again. I tried to drink myself to death that night, Ty. I ended up in the ER after my roommate found me passed out face down in my own vomit, my heart barely beating. Three days later, I was packing for New York.”
“I’m glad,” Hayes mumbled.
“Huh?”
“Not glad the bitch broke your heart,” he slurred. “Glad you ended up here. With me.”
