"I need space." Those were the words Jacky said to Ryan the night before they both left for separate colleges. Now, each of them will try to learn who they are without the other. Will their paths lead them back together?
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Ryan
All day long Ryan felt unmoored from the world. He hadn't realized how often he checked his phone for the time. He hurried to his classes, only to find he was twenty minutes early.
He had never considered himself the kind of person who spent their days staring at a cell phone screen. Now that he didn't have one, he realized how often he had been doing just that, mostly because everyone else around him was doing it. All the students around him walked with headphones in and eyes directed down. It made him feel like there was something he should be checking.
Like his text thread with Jacky.
After his classes he headed down to the phone repair shop he'd passed on the way in, only to find it closed. The sign on the door indicated that they were closed every Friday. Ryan sighed. He didn't know what he was going to do if he couldn't get it repaired over the weekend.
Turning away, he started the trek back to the apartment. Jacky would have responded to his text by now. Hopefully he wanted to do a video call or something. But if Jacky had said that, and Ryan hadn't responded all day, he could only imagine what Jacky was thinking now. Ryan didn't even know if a call would go through to his broken phone. He could try emailing Jacky, he supposed. Ryan had Jacky's email address, although he wasn't sure how often Jacky checked it, especially if he'd gotten a school email like Ryan had. Ryan hadn't checked his own personal email in a few days.
He started to walk faster.
He could also use Pete's phone, or one of his other roommates' phone, to call to schedule a repair. Otherwise he was going to have to run back down to that store after he worked his shift tomorrow morning and hope they took walk-ins. He could research that on his laptop too. Maybe they had an online appointment booking system.
By the time he got to the apartment and hoofed it up the three flights of stairs, he was so eager to get the ball rolling on getting his laptop fixed and getting word out to Jacky that he'd have to communicate via email for a while, that he stopped short when he saw who was sitting on the top step in front of the apparently locked door.
Charlie.
They were wearing baggy jeans with a hole in one knee, and an army jacket over a faded concert t-shirt, their dark hair tousled and hanging over one eye.
"Hey," Ryan said breathlessly. He didn't miss the way his stomach dropped. He hadn't thought about Charlie once all day. Hadn't considered letting Charlie know about his phone situation. And along with the thrum of annoyance at having Charlie delay his email to Jacky, his stomach churned with guilt.
Charlie looked up from their phone, jaw tense. "I've been texting you all day."
"My phone's broken." Ryan pulled out his keys and unlocked the door. "I dropped it last night."
It took a moment for Charlie to answer, and they seemed reluctant to follow Ryan into the apartment. "Oh."
"Sorry," Ryan said reflexively. "I couldn't figure out how to let you know, and I had classes and then I went down to try to get it fixed, but the place was closed."
