the line rang, and rang, and rang, until finally, you picked up. hal had been fidgeting nervously with his watch, pushing up his glasses, kicking his shoes against the pavement of the sidewalk in front of the little telephone booth he was standing by.

“hey.” he finally said, breaking the silence between you two. the silence had went on for quite a while, and no, not just the silence on the phone call. he had left you, ghosted you, whatever term you wanted to use for somebody leaving in the middle of the night and never coming back.