Page 50 of Pure Silence

All because of some fucking jobber with a baseball bat.

Angrily, he slammed his phone down on the coffee table.

He jumped when Day touched his shoulder. “Oh, hey.”

Day tapped him again, frowning at him in concern.

“I’m okay,” Goldie replied. “Just… just stupid shit. Wrestling stuff.”

Day handed him another beer.

“Thanks.” Goldie polished off the one he’d been sipping on so he could open the new can. He was surprised when Day sat beside him, looking at him expectantly. “What? Aren’t you making lunch?”

Day looked at his wrist as if looking at a watch and then shrugged. He motioned for Goldie to speak.

“You wanna know what’s wrong?” Goldie asked.

Day nodded.

“What’s wrong is I broke my body for a sport that most people think is a joke, wrecked my entire career over it, and I’m left here in this shitty little apartment with nothing to show for it except a bunch of junk.” Goldie paused to drink his beer. “Junk that’s now apparently worth a lot of money because someone somewhere remembered who I am and everybody has decided they love me again. For fuck’s sake, Flo, my old partner, he’s trying to get in on it now, and wow, that hurts.”

Day put his hand on Goldie’s knee.

“Itreallyhurts,” Goldie repeated, stunning himself a bit with the revelation. “He’s supposed to be my friend, but he only ever talks to me when he wants something. He comes to town to hang out and talk about the good ol’ days when we still wrestled, and it’s just to make himself feel better because he got fucked over too. He invited me over onto his podcast for the first time ever because I’m finally relevant enough for him to use for his own gain.” He snorted. “Fuck, I must sound like an asshole, huh?”

Day squeezed Goldie’s knee and shook his head.

“No?”

Day smiled, shaking his head again.

“I feel like one. I feel like a grumpy old asshole.” Goldie leaned his head back on the edge of the couch.

Day scooted closer, and he snuggled into Goldie’s side.

Goldie lifted his arm to make room for him, and he hugged Day close. “Sorry, you probably don’t wanna listen to this. I get in these moods this time of year, and I’m just… angry. I miss what I had. Miss what I could have had.”

Day trailed his hand over Goldie’s chest, caressing him lightly as he listened. He didn’t seem upset or bothered that Goldie wanted to vent, and he peeked up at him when Goldie fell silent as if checking on him.

“I’m okay,” Goldie promised. “It’s been a pretty crazy day, you know? Heh.” He took another sip of beer. “Pretty crazy everything lately. Not just you, but this whole getting famous again thing has been wild. Stirred up a bunch of stuff.” He snorted. “Wonder if anybody will want my VHS copies ofStarax.”

Day mouthed, “Starax?”

“Yeah, it was a movie.” Goldie grinned. “A very terrible, awful sci-fi movie I was in. You ever see it?”

Day shook his head.

“Oh, I know what we’re watching.”

Something in the kitchen beeped.

Day held up his finger as if to say he’d be right back, and he kissed Goldie’s cheek. He got up to hurry into the kitchen to tend to whatever was going off.

Goldie lurched off the couch with a groan. He had to get on his knees again and crawled over to the cabinet that the TV sat on. Inside were movies, DVDs mostly, but there was a boxed VHS set of theStaraxtrilogy.

Right on the cover was Goldie in a shiny silver-and-purple leotard, with his glorious blond curls, holding a ray gun.

God, he looked ridiculous.