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“What?”
“Your phone call… you’re entitled to one, ya know? And you haven’t made a peep about wanting to talk to anyone the whole time you’ve been here.”
Guilt washed over me as I thought about Riley. She was sure to have heard about this by now, and she was probably going crazy over it. I should’ve called her, but I couldn’t figure out how to explain it. I wasn’t going to lie to her, but I couldn’t exactly say what happened on the jail phone. I guess the least I could have done was let her know I was okay.
“Can I go?”
They looked at each other one more time and sighed. “C’mon, follow us. We’ll get you signed out.”
Riley
The second I saw his smiling face, I wanted to slam the door in it. He was wearing the same jeans and t-shirt as when I saw him on Thursday and he looked like he hadn’t slept since then, either.
“Hold on,” he said. “Calm down, let me explain.”
“What is there to explain? You stole a fucking car and got arrested. How are you even out right now? Who bailed you out?” I’d shed more tears the past two days than I ever had over anything in my entire life. The fact that he didn’t call once and still had the nerve to show up with that cocky expression on his face was enough to drive me crazy.
“Whoa!” he said, putting his hands out in front of him in surrender. “Give me a chance, here.”
“Why, Troy? Don’t you care that I gave up my whole career to be with you?”
“Alright,” he said, “but that’s not exactly true. You were looking for a way out anyway.” The dismissive way he said it made my blood boil.
“How big of an asshole are you?”
“Just… can you listen?” He pushed the door the rest of the way open and walked into my apartment. If I could have remembered how he showed me to do the choke hold, I would have put it on him.
“Talk fast,” I said, “because I’m throwing you out of here in a minute.”
Troy walked to the oversized beanbag chair I had in the corner and flopped down on it.
“Oh, are you comfortable?” I said, sarcastically. “Can I get you something to drink?”
“Jesus, Riley. I’m tired. I’ve been in a shitty concrete room for two days straight. I didn’t even go by my place before I came here.”
“Yeah, that’s not my problem now. The only person you have to blame for that is yourself. I can’t believe how much of a prick you are.”
When I said “believe”, I tried to shout it for effect but it came out as a broken squeak. My throat was raw from all the crying, too.
“Would you relax? I’m not in any trouble?”
The momentum that had been building in me faltered. “Wait… What? How can that be?”
“I’m out,” he said. “They let me go.”
I suddenly felt like the worst person on the planet. The poor guy had been in jail for two days and he hadn’t even done it. On top of that, here I was screaming at him and calling him names without even getting his side of the story. I was a horrible person.
“Oh, Troy… Troy I’m so, so sorry.”
“Riley-”
“No. I’m such a bitch. I can’t even believe I acted like that. Troy, please forgive me.”
His brow furrowed. “It’s not what you-”
“Please accept my apology, Troy. I don’t want you to be mad.” I knelt in front of him. “I was so confused, and… and you didn’t even do it.”
“Oh, no,” he said. “I did it. They just didn’t catch me.”
“What?!”
I threw his hands back at him and jumped up. “What’s wrong with you? You let me apologize like an idiot when you knew you did it?”
Troy buried his face in his hands and grabbed two fistfuls of hair. He pulled on it like a crazy person until it was a mess. “You haven’t stopped talking since I walked in,” he yelled, throwing his hands out to his sides. “What do you want me to do?”
“I want you to get out. Get the hell out of here, Troy.”
“Riley, I had to do it. I didn’t have any other choice. It wasn’t even-”
“Really, Troy?” I snapped. “Who has to steal a car? I’m so sick of your bullshit.”
I got behind him and pushed him toward the door. It was like trying to move a boulder.
“You know what?” he said, ripping his arm away from me. “That’s fine. This was always going to happen.”
“What are you even talking about”
“If it wasn’t this, it would have been something else. You were always going to come back to your senses and realize you couldn’t be with somebody like me. I don’t have the proper upbringing to be your boyfriend.”
“You’re so far off and you don’t even know it.”
He spun and caught me by the elbow as I walked him back. “I’m sorry my family didn’t have everything laid out on a silver platter for me after I was born,” he said. “I’m sorry I had to fight for what I needed.”
“Errraahhh!” I screamed. “You’re so frustrating. You weren’t fighting for anything the other night. You were out stealing someone else’s property. You’re just too immature to own up to what you did. You are a fucking thief.”
That one looked like it stung him. Troy shook his head. The hurt on his face almost made me feel sorry for what I’d said.
He turned and walked out. I let him go.
Troy
At least the gym didn’t give up on me. I threw half-hearted jabs at the bag while Ray held it steady.
It had been ten days since the blow up with Riley and she hadn’t answered one of my calls since. I sent her text after text about how we needed to get together to talk, but I doubt she looked at them.
After word got around that I was a suspect in the theft, I got fired from my job. I didn’t even know if that was legal. They told me to challenge them on it if I wanted to, but they said I would lose. It didn’t matter. Fight day was coming up fast and I’d get paid in time to make the rent.
“What’s wrong with you, Son? Nothing you’re doing today looks sharp. To tell you the truth, you haven’t looked good in a couple of weeks,” Ray said.
“Hold the bag,” I snapped.
“If you say so, but if you think what you’re doing now is going to be good enough to beat Webster, then you’ve got another thing coming.”
I bit down on my mouth piece and put everything I had in to a left hook to the center of the bag. I hit it at the wrong angle and my wrist folded. “Ow, goddamnit!” I yelled. I took my glove off and threw it at the wall. Ray shook his head and walked away.
“Hey Pal! Hey Buddy, c’mon over here.”
I looked up to see Larry waving me over. He was on the phone and he wore a look of concern. I yanked my other glove off and trudged over to him. “Yeah?”
He put his hand out as if to tell me to wait and finished up his conversation. “I see. Mmmhmm. Yes, okay. I understand.”
He ended the call and gave me a pathetic look. “Troy, that was Mr. Gold with the M.W.F.C.”
Great. What now?
“Yeah?”
“Yes, well, he said that your fight this weekend is in jeopardy?”
“What?! Why?”
“This, uh, this thing with the car.” He gulped nervously. If he’d been wearing a tie, he would have reached up to adjust it. “Mr. Gold says you might have a hard time getting licensed by the athletic commission if you have charges pending against you.”
“There are no charges!” I practically yelled.
“Nothing is for sure,” he said. “Mr. Gold even told me to tell you that you should keep training as if you are going to fight on Saturday. He just wanted me to let you know of the possibility.” Sweat poured off his forehead.
“This is fucking bullshit, Larry. They can’t take away my right to get in there and fight. It’s not fair.”
“I know, kid. I’m sorry.”
I spun away from him and headed for the door. “Where ya going?”
“I g
otta get the fuck out of here. I need time to think.”
Lucky for me there was plenty of time to think. I didn’t have a job or a girlfriend anymore, so there was plenty of time to do a lot of different things.
Riley
Things sure could change a lot in a few short weeks. I’d gone from having a healthy career with a ton of prospects, to being a jobless wretch with an anxiety problem and a no-good ex that I couldn’t stop pining over. It was almost funny if you thought about it.
