21 Jump Street (Tom Hanson)

Amy's Death

Inspired by Orpheus 3.3

February 1988

I stood in front of Tom's apartment door, with the number 222 staring back at me. After I knocked, I heard a slight commotion coming from his apartment before sickening silence and heavy footsteps headed to the door.

Judy had visited him the day before, but she said that she wasn't able to get Tom to leave or even have a night-in with her. I hoped that I would be able to get him out and have some fresh air, hopefully assist him in anyway that I can. I didn't really know what to do to help him.

The door opened and Tom was standing in front of me. He wore a blue and white flannel with the short sleeves rolled up, and only buttoned in the middle. He had no pants on, but was wearing tall white socks and light blue boxers. His shirt was covered in wrinkles and grease stains, and his usual nice hair was messy. And not teenager messy. It was messy messy. I smiled pleasantly and asked, "bad time?"

"No— uh, what do you... what's up?" He asked.

"I didn't mean to show up unannounced, but you said I could call and you didn't pick up."

"I said you could call, I didn't say I would answer. I've been keeping to myself a bit, it's the only way I know how to deal with everything. Sorry, my phone has been off the hook lately so I unplugged it."

"Oh."

He scratched the back of his head and he asked, "do you want some water? Or something to eat?"

"No, I'm fine," I said.

"What can I do for you?"

"May I come in?" I asked.

He closed the door a little more but he said, "yeah— no, it's fine."

Tom's girlfriend Amy died about a week ago, and they had been dating for a couple of months. There was a robbery at a store they were at one night, and she got shot right in front of him. He returned to work a couple days ago, with a personality of a Care-Bear. He was very friendly with a smile for everyone. He is never that expressive with his happy emotions so we all immediately knew that something was seriously wrong.

"I've missed you. It's lonely at the chapel, I'm just watching the hours slowly go by."

A small smile perked up his dry lips and he said, "I've missed you too."

"I just wanted to invite you out for dinner," I said with a chipper attitude, "get you out of your apartment for a little bit. My treat."

"I'm fine," he said with a fake smile. His eyes looked lazy, like he wasn't even looking at me.

"We can take a walk together around the lake, or we can go for a little drive just listening to music. We can go to that Italian place that just opened up downtown that you've been talking about. Or we can go to the movies. The drive-in is playing House of Horror's for its 46th anniversary."

"Might be a little cold for an outdoor movie," he joked with a small smile. He was sounding a little more like himself again.

I smiled back. "Just me and you. Whatever you want to do, I'm down."

"That's really sweet of you, but that's okay."

"We can walk over to that really good bagel place on the corner, walk around for a little bit then we can come back and just hangout here until you get tired of me," I suggested. If I can just get him outside for a few minutes, it'll be a win in my book.

"I could never get tired of you, but I just want to stay home today."

"Are you sure?" I asked sweetly.