Chapter Text
Tenna and Summer sat on the hood of the convertible in the parking lot of the diner, smoking cigarettes and staring up at the night sky. They had been quiet since their conversation about Spamton. Summer didn’t mind though. Being paid for a full night and being able to just sit, and think, and catch up with his body, it was a blessing and a half. Then, Tenna’s throat buzzed, cutting through the silence.
“So you really don’t have any idea where he went?”
“I’m sorry man, I really don’t.”
Tenna started to pull his wallet out of his jacket.
Summer held out his hand, waving his cigarette with it. “No, stop. I don’t need more money from you.” That’s not true!! Take it, you idiot!!
“What do you mean?”
“I mean,” Summer, STOP!! Lie to his face and take that money NOW!! “I mean I really don’t have any more information about him. Like, I’ve told you everything you know.” Although internally he was beating himself over the fact that he probably just missed out on a fat wad of cash, for another reason he couldn’t quite place, he couldn’t lie to Tenna. Maybe it was the omelette and the fact that Tenna wasn’t immediately eager to have sex with him. He didn’t know. He didn’t care. He took another drag off of his cigarette and sighed.
Tenna still pulled out his wallet. Instead of pulling out a bill, though, he pulled out a polaroid with Tenna and Spamton together, laughing backstage. As he stared at it sadly, Summer peaked over. He felt his own heart wrench.
“I’m really sorry I couldn’t help you. You two seemed…” A mysterious disappointment and jealousy washed over him. “You two seemed close, huh. I promise I’ll give you a call if I ever find him.”
Tenna shook head with a sad smile. “No… Yeah, actually, okay. Actually, please. Please just let me know if he’s okay, and if you can, tell him I’ve been looking for him.”
Summer wanted to crack a joke. He didn’t.
They sat there, smoking the whole pack Tenna had in his jacket, in the still, quiet night again. Then, Tenna cut through that silence again.
“Why are you still sitting here with me?”
“You paid me for a full night.”
“But that… sigh. But I’m not paying you for all that. I don’t care about it.” He paused. “... Do you want more money? More smokes?”
No. Yes. I don’t know.
Tenna answered before he could. “... I could use some company.”
Summer laughed and dropped his smoke, down to its filter. “Got no friends?”
“Why would I be asking you about Spamton?”
“The Mikes speak highly of you, even after what I said last night was pretty true.”
“You, of anyone, should know it’s only because they’re under contract to be loyal to me and my show.”
“Yeah, don’t gotta tell me twice.”
Tenna wasn’t sure why he wasn’t upset with what he was told. Obviously he was, but he just couldn’t place what made him so… Calm. He didn’t know that Spamton was okay, so he felt a deep guilt when he didn’t feel guilt about not feeling bad. But despite it all, he just couldn’t bring himself to become distressed about it. Just… a little sad.
Summer sort of laughed to himself. This wasn’t the first time someone had tracked him down and paid him for information he didn’t know. Last time though, he didn’t make it out the other side without some hassle. He was just thankful that Tenna seemed like he already wasn’t the sort of guy to buy a hooker.
“So…” Summer couldn’t stand it anymore.
“What’s up?”
“I know you don’t want anything, and you’re paying me, but I’d like to ask a favor since I told you what I know?” Also because you still haven’t shooed me away.
“Yeah?”
“Can you let me stay at your place tonight?”
Tenna pursed his lips. “... Yeah. Sure. Why not? I need to pick up smokes first.”
—
The penthouse felt… Empty. Well, not exactly empty, but it felt as if it truly had no soul. Everything was so corporate, sanitized. As Tenna showed him around, Summer took notice of the little bits here and there that showed someone actually lived there. Magazines on the coffee table with bent corners and curled covers. Framed photos of Tenna with Spamton, and other darkners he didn’t recognize. He didn’t know why it made him feel like he was violating him.
But there were plenty of things that screamed This is what a house is supposed to look like!
Decorative embroidered pillows on the couch that matched the monogrammed decorative hand towels in the bathroom. Candle holders with brand new candles, wicks still white and covered with wax. Trash cans tucked into cupboards. Master bedroom with a made bed. A pristine office with a mahogany desk. Books on the shelves without a single crack or bend in the spine. No spec of dust out of place. No sign of a hobby or a life outside of picture-perfect work and magazine-ready rooms. He frowned at this.
“My couch pulls out into a mattress, you can sleep there tonight. If you’d like to eat anything, there’s plenty of food in the fridge and cupboards. I’m going to go put my blazer and tie away, I’ll be back out with a blanket and a pillow for you.”
Summer sat on his nice, cushy couch, his knees pressed together and his hands squeezed together in his lap as his eyes darted around the living room, almost suffocated by the purity of it all.
He was used to motel rooms that smelled like cat piss, and nasty back alley apartments filled with empty cans, bottles and fruitflies. Tonight he would sleep in a nice, air-conditioned penthouse without any fear for his safety. So why did he feel so uncomfortable, so uneasy? It made him nauseous trying to work it out in his head.
Tenna came back out from his bedroom, without his blazer, gloves, or tie on, his undershirt unbuttoned a bit, and his suspenders slacked by his legs instead of over his shoulders. Summer almost didn’t notice that he was carrying a pillow and a blanket until he pushed them into his lap.
“... Do I have something on my screen?”
“N-n… no.” He blushed.
Tenna didn’t know if it was just the lighting, or if he was seeing things.
“... Goodnight, Summer. I’ll leave the bathroom light on so you can find your way around if you need it.”
Summer couldn’t help it, he stared as he walked away.
—
Tenna woke up to the sun streaming in between his curtains onto his screen, and sat up. It was the first good night’s sleep he had in about a week or two. He stood, and stretched, before opening his massive walk-in closet, and picking out one of his many carbon copy suits.
After tying his tie, he went to the bathroom, and brushed his teeth, and strolled out to the kitchen. Starting a pot of coffee, he got out two mugs, his sugar, creamer, two spoons, and a few napkins, before placing them all on a tray. He had put the creamer in a little dish shaped like a cow, and the sugar in a glass dish with a cover and a small indent in the cover for a spoon to sit inside.
He picked up the tray, and turned the corner to the living room to bring it to the coffee table, and speak to Summer a bit more.
“I’m not sure how you like your coffee, so I brought-“
On the couch, sat a fluffed pillow and a folded blanket. Summer was nowhere to be seen. Tenna quickly put the tray down on the coffee table and slipped on his pink bunny slippers, to go downstairs. He noticed the door was unlocked. He felt… saddened that Summer had just… Run.
He wasn’t in the stairwell, none of the hallways. He searched the parking lot, and up and down the block. He knew if he was further than that, he wouldn’t catch him. He half-heartedly trudged home in his bunny slippers.
I don’t really know what I expected.
—
Netskie counted the money carefully at its table, smoking a big cigar like a cartoon villain. Summer sort of shuffled in place uncomfortably.
“This all of it?”
Summer nodded.
“Yeah, okay. Get out of here. This still isn’t enough.”
“But you said that 250 a night was reasonable!! You can’t do this to me.”
“That was before you went behind my back and drank half of my stock while working out of the back of the bar. Take it somewhere else. Raise your rates, run out on your guys, I don’t care, just do something.”
Summer stamped his foot. “No! I’ve already lost out on so much business and time because you keep making me raise my rates, I practically gut my regulars now. I can’t keep doing this.”
“My way, or the highway.”
Summer flipped it off as he walked out of the bar, sober and exhausted. What was the point of coming back every damn morning if he was gonna get his money swiped, and get kicked out before he could rest or drink. Then he made eye contact with a Swatchling outside smoking a cigarette barking violent orders in a cell phone.
Oh. Right.
The bottoms of his feet stung, and his ankles were blistered at the back from walking around in his heels. Fifth night this week Netskie had kicked him out since he found out about the booze he had been stealing. He understood why but he was pissed that this darkner had thought he could be trusted when he had already crashed its half a million dollar car.
I wish Ex was here. He would know what to do.
He was catcalled down an alleyway. He followed the voice, hoping for some work.
I miss the smell of the barn. The whinnies of my horses, the wind in my hair.
—-
Tenna sat at his desk in the dark, staring at the phone. Spamton hadn’t come in today, either. He already called him about thirty times, and checked his voicemail obsessively every few minutes, in case he somehow missed it ringing right in his face. The only real noise he could hear was his own breath and static, along with the canned audience laughter and cheers from the studio, along with whinnies from horses, where he had forced his cast members to do a rerun of one of his cowboy segments for the day. Hearing Spamton’s pre-recorded voice through the walls was almost painful.
He picked up the receiver, and dialed his number one last time.
Beep-beep-beep!
His stomach flipped. No.
We’re sorry, you have reached a number that has been disconnected, or no longer in service. If you feel like reaching this message is an error, please check the number and call again.
He put the receiver back onto the base, then put it back up to his head, and dialed again.
Beep-beep-beep! We’re sorry, you have reached a number that has been disconnected, or no longer in service. If you feel like reaching this message is an error, please check the number and call again.
And again, and again.
Until he found himself slamming the receiver onto the base of the phone over and over, the force bringing flashes of pain into his hand, but he continued to do so nevertheless. Then he grabbed the whole thing, and threw it at the wall, and the chord pulled out of the wall, as it hit the floor with a weak echoed chime from it’s internals. He turned to his walls with promotional posters and newspapers about TV Time, with him smiling wide next to Spamton. And he began to ferociously rip them off of the walls, and swiping all of the things off of his desk onto the floor. He pushed one of his filing cabinets over, opening a drawer and scattering set blueprints, costume drawings, skit drafts, and episode scripts all over the floor. Hot tears streamed down his screen.
There was a knock at the door, then it opened. The light that streamed in from the hallway blinded him for a moment, while his screen brightness adjusted. Ramb stood in the doorway.
“Mr. Tenna? Are you okay?”
Tenna fell to his knees and put his screen in his hands, as his body shook with sniffles and sobs.
“I did everything right.” His voice trembled. “He told me we would be stars.”
Ramb simply stared at him sadly, pitifully.
“Close the damn door.”
He held his right hand in his left, his right zapping in pain. He probably popped a wire out of place. Ramb kneeled beside him and held out his own hand to take his, and pulled his glove off, revealing his metallic plating. Ramb opened up the access panel in his palm, and sure enough, a wire was hanging loose from it’s connection, sparking.
Ramb stood, and left the room to retrieve some tools to fix it. Tenna just simply cried helplessly on the floor.
—
Tenna didn’t go inside the bar this time. He had gotten behind the wheel drunk twice already, and that… wasn’t like him. Instead, he sat in his car outside of the bar with the top up, watching, waiting.
… For Spamton, that is.
So why did his static surge every time the doors opened, and he thought he heard singing? Why did his heart skip a beat every time he thought he saw a glimpse of that neon green?
He continued to search for Spamton. Yeah, he was sure that he would find him here… The place he walked out of… It felt… stupid. He put his forescreen on his leather wheelcover. Why would he come back here? Tenna hadn’t even checked any of the other bars in the city, none of the strip clubs, speakeasies, hell, he could even check bowling alleys and sushi places, anywhere with a bar.
And as he put his keys into his ignition, that neon green peaked into the corner of his vision. He turned, and met the freckled face of Summer, his hands on the top of the car, leaning over to meet his gaze in a sensual way. He smiled, and Tenna noticed his tooth gap. It made a hot wave rush up his cold, metal spine.
“Are you stalking me?” It sounded like a joke, but Tenna could tell it was a genuine concern underlaid in the tone of his voice. “Listen, hun, if you like me, all you have to do is come inside and cough up a little cash.” He straightened up and put his hands on his wide hips. “Or… are you preserving your perfect image?”