It's winter. There's a foot of snow outside Cal's quaint house that he bought with a loan to not seem inferior to Stevie, who now goes by Steve.
The air is still as Steve walks up to Cal's front door, and knocks using their secret knocking pattern. No answer. Which is strange, seeing how Steve had called him an hour before to confirm it was his place they'd be hanging out at. He tries the pattern again, thinking Cal didn't hear him the first time. Still no answer.

Steve looked back, to confirm that Cal's '02 Honda Civic was parked in its usual spot. He waited a bit, before trying a third time; maybe Cal was in the restroom, and it'd be a good angle to nag him for a while. No luck, again. Feeling alienated by the cold, he checks the windows, and the house is unlit and seemingly empty. Wondering why he didn't do this in the first place, he pulls out his phone and speed dials '2'.

"Hey, I can't make it to the ph-" Steve hangs up, before Cal's automation can finish. Taking a heavy breath, he leaves a fading cloud behind him as he walks back to his car.

On the way, he notices a glimmer, takes a step back, and spies a hole in the snow, leading to the ground. Putting his hand down in, he retrieves a nickel. Turning it over, and slightly clockwise, he reads "Liberty - 1995". Upon reading the number, his heart sinks, and panic starts to fill his thoughts: "Where is he?" "What happened to him?" "What can I do?"

His first clear idea is that the snow it had fallen through, fell last night, so any chance of them being nearby was unlikely. With that out of the way, Steve puts the nickel in his pocket, gets into his car, and peels off.