"I haven't heard from him in days! He won't reply to me. I'm starting to worry," Olga Kay said, crossing her arms and leaning against the counter.
Jack, unconcerned, scrolled through the comments on his last video. Having to read through them all was such a hassle. Why did he create YIAY again?
"He broke up with you. So he doesn't wanna see you. That's how breakups go. I know it must be a new concept for you two—a real breakup. But that's what he said he wanted and you have to respect that by letting it go. Let him go. Live your life. Find someone new," Jack carelessly threw out clichés without looking up from his laptop. "You could even date a girl. You're bisexual, right?"
Olga rolled her eyes and took two quick steps over to him. She closed his laptop, getting his full attention finally.
"What the fuck?" He said angrily, looking up.
She leaned down in front of him and stared straight into his eyes. "I. Am. Worried. About. Toby," she said slowly, drawing out each word while keeping one hand on top of his MacBook. "He doesn't just ignore me! Yes, we broke up, but we're friends. Just a week ago we saw a movie, as friends, and everything was totally fine then, so what happened? He isn't responding to any of my calls or texts. I got Sean to call him and he didn't answer for him either. Never called back. Have you talked to him?"
"Yes. He said he's fantastic. Has a new girlfriend. She's blonde. He was talking marriage."
"Jack! Seriously!"
Jack saw how upset she actually was then, and got more serious, but he didn't worry. He just reached up and put a hand on her arm, trying to comfort her. But that was incredibly uncomfortable, so a second after he took it away and let it rest on the table again.
"I have not talked to him, but that doesn't mean anything. We don't talk that much anymore anyway. I'm sure he's fine. Maybe he just wants his space. Get over you. He needs time for that, you know?"
"No," she said stubbornly, Jack's words not making her feel better at all. "Let's go check on him. Come on." She took his hands and pulled, trying to get him up, but he didn't move an inch. He just looked at her with an annoyed expression.
"Oh, Jack! Pleeease!" She begged, getting down on her knees in front of him dramatically, making him crack a smile.
"Why don't you go yourself?" He asked.
"Because we broke up. I can't just show up like that anymore. It'd be weird."
"It'd be weird for me too. We kinda had our own breakup," Jack said half-jokingly, tilting his head and looking at the floor.
She laughed, causing Jack to look up, offended.
"What?" He asked.
"You're such a girl!" She exclaimed, bending over, laughing so hard. "'He never made time for me! He didn't call me when he said he would! He hurt my feelings!'" She mocked.
Jack rolled his eyes. "I never said any of that."
"Felt it, though, huh?"
"No," he said, irritated, then changed the subject. "Here. I'll call him. Seriously, I'm sure he's totally fine."
Jack gave in and picked up his phone. He pulled up Toby's number, hit call and held it to his ear. Olga waited impatiently by him, leaning down so she could hear each ring. And it rang. And rang. Then hung up.
Before Olga could say anything, Jack spoke. "He never answers his phone, really. He's probably okay."
Jack's confidence in the fact that Toby was fine dropped and, although he didn't want to freak Olga out, he was a little worried. Olga was right when she said Toby never ignored her. It was strange he didn't answer Sean too, and stranger he never returned the call. If nothing was wrong, if he just missed it, he would call back.
Olga just looked at Jack with big sad eyes until he groaned and got up, grabbing his phone and mumbling, "He's fine," before walking out the door and getting into his car. Olga followed close behind.
"Thank you. Thank you. I mean, you're probably right. I'm probably overreacting. But it's… you know…" she trailed off, not sure of what she was trying to say.
"It's Toby," he finished for her, saying it simply.
She took a deep breath and turned to look at him. "It's Toby," she repeated, thinking that that was exactly it.
They parked outside Toby's house, both noticing his car in the driveway.
"He must be here," Olga said. "He's probably fine."
"He's probably fine," Jack said it too, as if that was enough to make it true, and opened up his car door.
They walked up to the front door. Jack felt calm; he was sure nothing was wrong. But Olga was a little shaky, so she made Jack knock.
And it was a few minutes. In the few minutes, she felt her heart jump into her throat. Was the car in the driveway a good or bad sign? She told him to knock again.
Before he could, though, the door opened. And Toby was there, furrowing his brows at the two of them. His hair was even messier than normal. He looked tired. But he was there.
"Hi?" he said it like it was a question, not wanting to be rude, but he hadn't expected them. Or anyone. And he wasn't really in the mood to talk to them. Or anyone.
"Hey!" Olga said, a little too happy, then, more calm, continued. "Hey. Would have called to say we were coming over, but you haven't been answering anyone's calls. Or texts. We were just worried, so we came by."
"Oh. Well I'm okay. I just… my phone's… been acting weird," Toby lied, trying to smile.
"Oh, stop it. What's wrong? Seriously," she asked, putting her hand on his arm.
"Nothing!" He exclaimed, getting annoyed with her.
Olga looked to Jack, who stood there, arms crossed, looking down awkwardly, then pulled herself closer to Toby.
"Is it me?" She whispered.
"No. It's nobody and it's nothing," he assured her, pulling his arm away and taking a step back, feeling uncomfortable.
"God, Toby, come on," Jack spoke up. "You're gonna end up telling us anyway, or we'll find out, because we're your friends and we came all the way over here just to see if you were okay. Just skip this 'I'm fine' bullshit and tell us."
Olga smiled at Jack, then looked to Toby hopefully.
Toby thought for a second, and decided that was true. So he just gave in, though he didn't want to talk. Not just about it, but about anything at all, which was unlike him. Usually he hated being alone.
"I'm… old," he said simply, turning around and going inside. He sat on the couch, biting his thumb nail, a habit that Olga hated. A habit that most people hated.
Olga and Jack exchanged confused glances before following him inside. Olga sat by him and pulled his thumb from his mouth. He rolled his eyes at her. Jack stood by the couch.
"You're old?" She asked, not sure she heard him right.
"Yes."
"I'm older than you," she pointed out, almost offended.
"Yeah," he said, shrugging.
"Hm," she grumbled, now most definitely offended.
Jack smiled to himself and thought, I'm younger than both of you. But he didn't say that. He figured it wasn't the time for jokes. Toby was acting serious and Jack was bad at being serious.
"I'm gonna be thirty. That's almost forty. Which is almost fifty, which might as well be dead," he explained. "I don't wanna be dead. I'm basically dead."
"Well then so am I," Olga said through gritted teeth, crossing her arms and leaning away from him.
Jack fought a laugh and Olga noticed. She glared at him.
"This is not funny," she said to him. "It'll happen to you too."
Jack rolled his eyes. "I know," he said, even though really thirty felt forty years away for him.
"Toby, life is in no way over at thirty. Everything you have at twenty-nine, you'll have at thirty. Believe me, I know. I freaked out about it too, but guess what? Nothing ever changed. I still feel twenty most of the time," she tried comforting him, though he had pissed her off. She understood anyway. Thirty was hard.
"Yeah, but…" Toby started, then paused for a moment before saying, "I found a gray hair," and started to bite his nail again.
Olga and Jack both looked at each other. Jack almost laughed again, and she gave him a warning look. She sort of wanted to laugh too, though. Not wanting to hurt his feelings, she held it back.
"Toby… that's…" she tried to find the words, but couldn't think of a way to put it nicely.
"Not a big deal at all," Jack finished for her, letting himself laugh then. "See, I'm fucking receding. And I'm only 26. That's a real problem."
Toby just glared back at him.
"Did you pull it out?" Olga asked, looking at his hair, trying to see it.
"No! If you pull it out two more grow in its place. Haven't you heard that?"
"That's not true," she said surely.
"I'm not chancing it! I'll just dye it. You can dye one strand of hair, right?"
"Oh, you don't wanna be that guy," Jack pointed out.
"I wanna see it! Show me!" Olga said, suddenly excited, patting Toby's arm.
"No! This is embarrassing!" Toby said, clutching the top of his head and leaning away from Olga. "I'm so old. I'm so old! Oh my God, no one will ever date me again."
Jack rolled his eyes at that comment. Toby and Olga would be back together next week. Then broken up again. Then back together. Then broken up again. And the cycle just kept continuing. Jack decided a while ago to never get involved in the Toby/Olga thing. It was exhausting, frustrating, and time-consuming, and he was no longer going to be stuck in the middle of that.
And even if he wasn't with Olga next week, he'd be with some other girl. He could have a full head of gray hair and still have a line of girls waiting outside his bedroom door.
"Oh, Toby, stop it! You're overreacting. It's a gray hair. At least you're not going bald," Olga comforted, earning a loud sigh from Jack. "Sorry, Jack."
"I'm not overreacting," Toby said stubbornly, not even listening to Olga's words. He crossed his arms like a child.
"Yes, sweetie, you are," Olga told him, using the same voice she would use with a five year old and rubbing his arm. "Now, show me. Please!"
Toby gave up and motioned to the top of his head. "It's around there."
Olga smiled happily and got up on her knees to get a good look. Jack, interested then, went over and looked too.
"Ahh! I see it! Aw, it's so cute!" Olga said happily pointing it out for Jack.
"Cute?" Toby asked, looking up at her, giving her a questioning look.
"Yeah! And gray!"
"Yeah, Olga, that is exactly what I meant when I said I found a gray hair," Toby said slowly, nodding his head.
She playfully hit his shoulder. "It's adorable! Aw, Toby, you have to keep it! You can be like the next George Clooney. A silver fox."
"I am so not okay with this," Toby said, but he smiled for the first time since they'd gotten there. For the first time since he saw that stupid gray hair, sticking out so obviously against all the brown.
"'t worry, Toby. No matter what, people will still always see me as the less attractive one," Jack assured him, putting a hand on his shoulder.
Toby smiled up at him. "Thanks, man. That makes me feel a lot better," he joked.
"I thought it would."