The mysterious disappearance of Tyson...

I haven't heard from Tyson in almost three months. Weird. We use to be so close--inseparable. He doesn't like Craig. He thinks I can do better.
Tyson got a dog. The only reasons I know this is because I can hear it barking when he's not home and I have seen it sitting in the window of his apartment waiting on him. Small thing it is. Not sure the breed. I've heard that he named him Cheese.
He stopped answering my phone calls and text messages and then one day I noticed that he had deleted me from his friends list on that stupid social networking site. That really bothered me. It bothered me for more than one reason. I was bothered because I realized that I didn't even notice when he did that. I was bothered because until then I was unaware that he and I even had an issue, let alone one grand enough to cause him to delete me from his life. I was bothered that it even bothered me. Something so small and stupid as a social networking site signified something so huge and he didn't even have the nuts to come and speak to me about it. What could I have possibly done to merit this exodus without so much as an explanation? What happened to "Will and Grace"?
My mind drifts back to the last vivid memory I have of hanging out with Tyson...he had finally decided to return his empty beer bottle collection and about $20 worth of his collection had been taking up space in my storage unit in the basement for a couple of months. He knocked on my apartment door and I immediately knew who it was from the familiar rapping. He was all out of breath. Hair all messed up. Sweaty. Wearing the same T-shirt I was sure he wore three days before that when I was at his apartment smoking and swearing on his couch while he played video games. I opened my storage unit for him and watched as he loaded up the bed of his buddy's truck with what I guessed was $150 in glass bottle returns. Giving nothing away that something was bothering him. No inkling whatsoever. That was the last time I saw him.
I must have missed something. Scanning my memory banks, I recalled the night a couple days prior to that last encounter. Yes I was sitting on his couch venting about something....but what was it?? Was it something important? Did something I said that night piss him off?? Think, Leila! What was the topic of that last smoking-on-the-couch-and-swearing session? Then it hit me.
"He'll never be any different! People like him just don't change!"
I had just started seeing Craig and was confiding in Tyson all the things about him that I could never tell Pheobe. All the things that only Tyson could possibly understand--only he obviously didn't understand. Craig has a little bit of a shady past. A past full of violence and addiction. Things that Tyson had dealt with in the past I knew. Tyson had put in his two cents here and there, but gave nothing away that he was actually angered by my attraction to Craig.
"I can see the attraction in a sense. I can see that you want someone to toss you around and fuck the hell out of you and yes, Craig is a great choice. I think you need more than that. He is dangerous, Leila."
I didn't take his words seriously and maybe that was the cause of the problem. Thinking back over it all, there was another exchange with Tyson since then.
We had gotten into an argument over the wireless signals in the building and how I had bought a password from a neighbor and had swore not to share it. They specifically made me swear not to share it with Tyson and when I refused to give it to him, he snapped. Surely this wasn't about a stupid Internet password, was it? No. It couldn't be. Come on, Leila. You really should quit smoking so that maybe you could remember things!! Oh yes. It had escalated that day in the hallway. He told me that things were changing and he didn't like it. He told me that he didn't like the choices I was making or the person I was becoming. At the time I thought he was crazy and this was just going to be another one of our 'off-weeks.' Afterall, in my opinion, Tyson was the one changing, not me. Tyson was hardly around anymore. He was going through a bunch of shit with his ex and fighting for custody of his daughter. He changed a lot during that time. Suddenly, Tyson's words rang loud and clear in my memory.
"Don't come crying to me when he beats the hell out of you and you see that I was right from the start! I can't stand the thought of that happening, but you obviously don't give a flying fuck about yourself!"
How could I have so easily forgotten that exchange? THAT was the last time that I spoke with Tyson.


Be a dear and don't forget to feed the fish on your way out!