Overwhelming Quiet

Chapter Six: Escaping

Fall brought a strange divide between Kenji and Gunslinger. He was visiting the bookstore less and less, taking his reading to the high rocks along the beach instead. Despite their heavy financial contributions, he was ignoring more and more calls and texts from his parents. One particular pitiful night, around four in the morning, he dialed his younger sister. It wasn't a shock when he was met with her raspy voice instructing him to leave a message and she'd get back to him shortly.

In October, his dad left Kenji a voicemail telling him his time was up and he needed to find a job.

In the span of two weeks, he went through three different fast food jobs. Quitting after two or three shifts at each establishment. The week before Halloween, he received a call back from a construction site after a painfully anxious interview he assumed he'd bombed. As soon as he hung up, he called Gunslinger for the first time in weeks.

Leo had left town the first week of October for "some family stuff" as explained by Anthony, though he had no idea where he had traveled to or when he would be back. When Kenji asked if he actually thought he was going to return, Anthony had a solemn expression etched across his face when he replied that he didn't know. Leo hadn't left a single possession behind in the spare room he occupied in Anthony's house.

On October 26th, he asked Anthony for Leo's phone number.

"Don't be a hater, Smoke."

"Get off Twitter, Ant. Don't push me to confiscate your electronics."

Anthony shot an exasperated look. "Don't send him any nasty messages, okay? I'm serious. That kid doesn't have a lot of good things in his life."

Kenji felt a twitch of jealousy over Anthony's protectiveness, but that wasn't new. Still he had that nagging question. Why did he care about him so much? He was just some random kid. He had known Kenji for two whole years.

"I won't."

Kenji was sitting on the roof of his trailer that night when he made the call. He had been sitting for the past hour and a half with a wool blanket tangled around his lap, listening to the same four songs over and over through his headphones. He knew the lyrics by heart now. His mind traveled in loops at each repeat. Lately all his music consisted of soft voices and acoustic guitar. Loneliness and grief. Rejection and heartache. Outside his family, Kenji had never loved another person. He thought of adopting a cat, just to have something to love, but his trailer wasn't big enough to support himself, let alone an animal. Many days he was thankful to never have loved. Then he would never face rejection. No one could ever tell him he wasn't good enough. No one could put words to what he already knew was true.

It was 2 AM. He thought to himself that he really should learn not to pester people so late. But really, who his age was going to sleep before 3 AM anyway?

The phone rang for a while. Just as he was about to drop the call, the phone went silent and a soft voice cut through the quiet night.

"Hello." Leo didn't sound tired, but he sounded sad. He always sounded so sad.

"Hey."

Quiet. And then an uncertain, "Kenji?"

"Uh, yeah."

His tone was soft. "What is it?"

Kenji stammered for a while, cleared his throat a couple times, then asked, "Where did you go?"

Quiet.

"When are you gonna be back?"

"Why?"

"Me and Gunslinger are taking his little sister, Charlie, to a pumpkin patch in a couple days. I don't know— I—didn't know if you would wanna come?"