The Powerful Dustin Rodriguez

You aren't my friends.

The air was chilly as it was winter season. Dustin was walking down the street with his shirt doing little effort to protect him from the cold.

He still couldn't get the whole scene from his head. How could she treat him like that? And with no remorse whatsoever?

He knew he didn't have where to go, but his friends, two besties of his, Mark and Tom, would have enough space to accommodate him. He always did nice things for them whenever he had the chance to, so repaying his kindness shouldn't be a hard thing to do.

In fact, he trusted them. They were good people.

His phone rang and he saw it was one of his friends, Tom.

"Hey buddy, what's up?" he said, trying to hide the pain in his voice.

"Dustin, you don't have to lie but is it true? That you're jobless and now single?" Tom asked.

"Whoa, whoa, calm down. Jobless? Of course not." Dustin said.

"But the news about your wife is true then."

Dustin frowned. How did he know already? It hasn't even been thirty minutes yet!

"Wait, how did you know of our misunderstanding?" deep down, he still wished it was only just an argument and they would settle it.

"What? No way, Laura just posted she's single! She's really hot by the way, trying to sell herself to the market."

"What? We had a fight, and now she's saying she's single?" Dustin muttered under his breath.

"Dustin, are you talking to me? Speak louder."

"You know what? Fine, she can have a good life." Dustin said finally. Good riddance, right?

He was almost in front of his friend's apartment now. He smiled when he saw Tom coming out from a taxi.

He wanted to hang up and yell out his friend's name, when...

"Wait, Dustin," Tom called. "What are you going to do now? Officially, your life is over. Sorry to say."

Dustin chuckled. "Nah, it's just beginning. You don't worry, I'll make it on my own just fine."

"Okay, but where will you sleep tonight? We know she kicked you out of the house." Tom said.

Dustin was glad that his friend was worried about him. He saw him pause on the road as if waiting for something. Then he saw Tom waving at someone...It was none other than Mark.

Great, his two friends were back. They would have time to talk at length.

"Are you there, Dustin?" Tom asked again.

"Oh yea, I'm almost on my way to you guy's place. I'll be there soon." Dustin said grinning. He couldn't wait to see the look on their faces when they saw that he had already reached their house.

"Oh wait, you wanna come here?" Tom asked. There was a matter of urgency in his voice. And a little panic in his eyes...Dustin noticed.

"Yea..what is it?"

"No, it's just that, I'm out of town." Tom spilled and Dustin's mouth hung open.

"Out of town? But, wait, what about Mark? Won't he be at home?"

He saw Tom scratching his head. Mark was beside him now and they both whispered to each other.

Finally, Tom spoke. "Mark is not at home too. He uh, traveled. But he'll be back next week. There's no one at home, Dustin. What are you going to do now?"

Dustin's heart sank in sadness as he saw his friends giggling and laughing. He couldn't take it anymore so he walked over to their side in fast strides.

Their eyes were wide open in shock when they saw him, and seeing a phone in his hand.

Dustin hung up, glaring at his friends with anger. "Is this a prank? Why don't you want me over? I thought you were my friends!"

Tom frowned his face. "Are you spying on us now? Should we be worried about you?"

Mark looked a little sad. "Dustin, we can't have you here because we'll need to be cooking extra. And we know you won't have any money with you seeing your wife kicked you out."

"What is that supposed to mean?" Dustin demanded. "We're supposed to be friends!"

"Then why did you make your wife angry? Now you don't have anything, and you want to bring your poverty to rub on us? No way."

"B-but I'm not poor. I have a job!"

"Part-time job as a cleaner." Mark said.

"And delivery man!" Tom added.

"And your wife even said that you're owing a colleague of yours, so when you collect this month's salary, it won't be yours! You're really screwed, and we can't help you." Tom said.

Before, people said; a friend in need is a friend indeed. Now, if you don't have money, you're useless!

Why was it like this? These people are supposed to be my friends!

"Hey friend, please leave. We're heading inside already."

"But--" before Dustin could say anything else, they walked away from him.

He knew there was nowhere else to go to. But he needed to keep going. Maybe he would be able to clear his head as he walked.

His eyes were all blurry now from the tears that had gathered in his eyes, and the cold wind contributed to the dryness of his eyes.

His heart ached, as well as every muscle in his body. What was he going to do now? Where was he even going?

How could his world just crumble like this? All this while when he thought he was fulfilled with a loving wife and two best friends. It was all a joke to him.

Was he such a bad person that everyone ran away from him?

Unknown to him, a dark van had pulled over. They'd been tracking him since morning.

"We've found him, boss." one of the men said on call.

"Well, bring him to me already." The boss's voice replied.

"Yes boss." The man hung up and gathered his men. "Let's go get him, boys."