i knew his halo map callouts not his real name

Had an Xbox friend called ToastedMango. No numbers, which felt impressive even then. We met in Halo because both of our teammates quit and we spent the rest of the match trying to launch a Warthog onto a roof instead of fighting. After that we played most weekends. He always drove. I always said I could snipe and then proved otherwise. I knew what his microphone sounded like when the cable was dying. I knew his little brother would grab the controller if he went to get food. I knew he hated one specific map and voted for it anyway when everybody else complained. Never knew his surname. Not sure I even knew which city he lived in. That seemed normal. One day the account stopped appearing online. No dramatic goodbye, just a friend list that stayed unchanged for longer and longer. This is not a sad speech about old internet magic. Half our matches were laggy and the voice chat was a disaster. He might also remember me as that annoying guy who never passed the sniper. I just found the old headset in a box recently and immediately remembered the broken mic noise. Brains keep useless save files forever.