Unravel Me

10: Unwanted

"What the fuck do you mean he's not here?"

   "I mean he's not here," Ranpo answered with a roll of his eyes. "He is not in this building. He did not show up for work today. How many meanings of 'not here' are there? I mean, use your head."

   As was the norm by now, Ranpo was ignoring Chuuya—face buried in a graphic novel while he reclined in his office chair with his feet up on the desk, resting a bag of chips in his lap. When he'd first started coming to the academic resources center, it rubbed him the wrong way, but he eventually just got used to it. Ultimately, he didn't care how much they interacted. He was only there for his stupid lessons. But now that he needed his help, it was the most infuriating thing in the world.

   "Well, do you know if he WILL be here?"

   The boy shrugged. "Who can say?"

   "Have you heard from him at all?"

   "Mm nope. Not a peep."

   "What time was he supposed to be here?"

   "Couple hours ago."

   Chuuya pinched the bridge of his nose, trying to contain his fury. "And you didn't think to call and check in on him? Isn't that like. . . part of your job?"

   "Ehh, I figured he'd just texted everyone he was meeting with to cancel."

   "Jesus fucking christ," Chuuya muttered under his breath, pulling his phone out of his pocket.

   That caused Ranpo to finally look up from what he was reading. "What are you doing?"

   "What do you think I'm doing? I'm gonna call this lazy bastard. If he's going to waste my time then he can at least give me a good fucking reason for it."

   "He usually ignores my calls when he ditches work, but. . ." Ranpo's eyes narrowed as he studied Chuuya. "Yeah, give it a try."

   Chuuya pulled up Dazai's contact and hit the call button. It rang a few times before going to voicemail. The fucker really was ignoring his call! The nerve on this guy! He immediately dialed again. This time, Dazai answered with a groan.

   "Alright, fine. What is it, short stack?"

   Chuuya ignored the nickname, already too pissed to deal with it. "Did you forget what day it is?"

   "Um, nooo. It's Friday."

   "Uh-huh, and do you know what that means?"

   "Chuuya, that's incredibly vague. There are many things that—"

   "Our study session, asshole! Where the hell are you?"

   "Ohhhh, thaaaat!" Dazai sucked his teeth. "Yeah, I can't make it tonight."

   That was bad. Chuuya had another quiz coming up and he still felt completely lost. He needed this study session with Dazai—he was desperate. He changed his tone. "Okay, well, maybe we could meet this weekend instead for another off-the-clock study session? I don't have anything going on for track, and I only work Sunday night, so—"

   "Sorry, can't do that either. I'm not going to be around this weekend."

  "Why not?" Chuuya asked, not even really having meant to. He was just so surprised.

   "Well, if you really must know, a pipe burst in my apartment, so my landlord had to turn my water off until it's fixed, which means I won't have any running water until a plumber can come on Monday, so i'm unfortunately going to have to stay with my family over the weekend."