...And a Happy New Year

January 21, 2014

Alex woke up to the sounds of his sister’s annoying music alarms. Despite having separate rooms, their walls were paper thin, so he could hear her obnoxiously loud music blaring through the walls every morning because she was impossible to wake up. He unfortunately was a light sleeper, so any noise woke him up; from the air conditioning turning on, to someone walking down the creaky wooden steps to get a glass of water in the middle of the night. He heard it all. And he hated it.
He hated how every little sound that was made would wake him up from his deep slumber. That’s why when his sister would set her alarms to go off beginning at 6:30 in the morning, he would loathe her existence even more than normal.

He didn’t recognize any of the music she chose as her ringtones due to their differing taste in music. She was into whatever top 40 rock was popular. Alex was more of an old soul. He stuck to his roots in 70s and 80s rock. Their dad lived off that music growing up, and raised Alex and Chaney to listen to it. Chaney despised it, opting instead for her boy bands. Alex was the opposite. He soaked up everything his dad showed them. His favorite being Led Zeppelin. Though he would never admit this to another soul, his guilty pleasure was Frank Sinatra. He absolutely loved the pure, rich sound of his voice.

His love for Frank Sinatra came not from their father, but their mother. When they were kids, she would listen to Sinatra while she would clean the house, and often times when she put them down for naps. He associated Sinatra then with serenity and would often put on one of his albums when he got stressed out. Sinatra was his escape music. No other person knew this outside of their mother.

When Alex was around 8 years old, his mom was complaining about missing her favorite Sinatra album. She searched all over the house and never found it. She never thought to look in Alex’s room.

He had been sad about not seeing Chaney as much anymore because her and Halvo begun to hang out all the time. So, he grabbed his mom’s Frank Sinatra CD, put it in his Walkman, plugged in his headphones, and drowned out the world as he got lost in the crooner’s voice.

His mom found him in his room listening to it after not finding the album for a couple of days. She wasn’t upset, but instead let him keep it, and vowed not to tell anyone that he was a closet Sinatra fan. Alex made her promise because he was so embarrassed about loving his voice so much and didn’t want to be made fun of by his friends at school.

The same held true today. To this day no one outside of his mother knew of his love for Sinatra. He still listens to his music whenever he needs to cheer up.

After waking up to Chaney’s alarms, he quickly realized today would be one of those days. He couldn’t place what it was about that day, but he woke up in a bad mood, and not just because of Chaney’s music waking him up.

Once he was sure Chaney had left for the day, with their father leaving for work not long after, he grabbed his go-to Sinatra album and put it in his stereo to play as he got ready to go into work. He hated days where he woke up in an off mood, but normally he would get so caught up in singing along, that he would forget what was bothering him.

His mom often teased him about having a crooner’s voice, only when no one else was around. She knew he liked to sing along, and would often catch him belting out as well. She was surprised the first time she heard him because she didn’t realize that it was Alex singing. She genuinely thought it was Frank Sinatra. Alex never, and still doesn’t think, he could sing, so he denies any praise his mother makes about his beautiful singing voice. He just sings to feel better. Nothing more. He learned to “sing” by listening to Frank, and as he grew up, tried to imitate his voice, and eventually it stuck. There wasn’t any musical ability in their family that he knew of, and therefore never believed his mom when she said he could sing well.

He was in the middle of singing “Fly Me to the Moon” when he jumped a few inches in the air because an unwelcome guest came into his room.

“Alex?!”

He abruptly turned around, mortified, to see who it was that caught him singing.

“Halvo? Why the hell are you here? How did you get in here?”

Halvo sheepishly holds up their spare key. “Uh, Chaney showed me a while back where you guys keep your spare key in case I ever needed in. Sorry, I uh, I came to uh—”

Alex cut him off. “Chaney’s already at work Halvo,” annoyed that he had been caught singing.

“No I know, I just, I actually came by to hang out with you, and I didn’t mean to startle you but I came in and heard your singing and had to see if it was actually you. Dude, I didn’t know you could sing like that.”

“Yeah well, don’t say anything about it. No one outside of my mother knows about this and it better stay that way.”

Halvo nodded in understanding. “Don’t worry about it. I won’t say anything dude.”

“Look, I don’t know why you’re here but I have to finish getting ready for work. I have to go in—” he looked at his watch to check the time. “Shit! I have to be at work in 15 minutes!”

Alex quickly grabbed his shoes and slipped them on and turned off his stereo. He was frantically grabbing his wallet and keys while Halvo continued to stand in the doorway watching him move about.

“Hey Alex, so I know you’re working, but when do you get off? I wanted to hang out with you.”

Alex stopped dead in his tracks. “Why?”

“I know I’ve always been such a dick to you over the years, and that’s my fault. I should’ve tried to be friends with you over the years instead of getting you out of the way. After hanging out with you at guys’ night the other night, I realized you’re not the annoying little brat I always thought you were.”
He chuckled a bit.

“Ha, yeah, and you’re not the obnoxious prick I thought you were either. I still find you annoying but…”

Halvo just laughed and punched him in the arm as Alex was trying not to laugh at what he was saying.

“Alright smart ass. Just stop by when you get off and we can grab a couple beers and catch up. I should be friends with my best friend’s kid brother.”

Alex rolled his eyes. “Hey, I’m not a kid.”

“Are you or are you not younger than me?”

“What does that have to do with anything?”

“If you’re younger than me, you’re a kid.”

“I’ll always be younger than you.”

“Then I guess you’ll always be a kid. Well, a punk now. You’re no longer a teen. Thank god. You were annoying.”

“Speak for yourself.”

Halvo mock glared at him. “Get to work.”

They both descended the stairs and got in their respective cars before driving separate ways.

***

Chaney was sitting at her desk, and was finishing up what she was working on before she took a break for lunch when Stephanie came up to her cubicle.

“Hey! I’m about to head out for lunch. Wanna join?”

“Yeah, let me finish this up really quick and I’ll be right there. Can you wait a couple minutes?”

“Sure! I’ll just text John and tell him we’ll be a couple minutes late.”

“Wait, we’re eating lunch with John?”

“Well, yeah. He invited me to lunch with him a little while ago, and I figured since you both are neighbors that you would want to come.”

“I don’t think that’s such a great idea. I don’t wanna interfere with your lunchdate…”

“Nonsense! It wouldn’t be an intrusion at whatsoever. Please come…” Stephanie then dramatically pouted, hoping to further convince Chaney to join her.

She was about to give in when she got a text message. She put her finger up to signal that she would respond in a moment when she looked to see what her text was. It was from Halvo.

Yo Indy. Wanna grab some grub? I’m starvingggggg. ME. NEED. FOOD. NOW.

She rolled her eyes and chuckled before turning to Stephanie to reply to her invitation. “Actually, as much as I would love to, I’m grabbing lunch with Halvo.”

“Wait, the guy that totally ‘Lloyd Dobler’d’ in front of his car the other day outside the office?”

“Haha yeah, that would be the one.”

“He’s joining us.”

“What do you mean?”

“John invited me to lunch with him and Halvo.”

Chaney then realized why Halvo texted her. It was either because he needed a double so he wouldn’t be the awkward third wheel, because John was going to be there and we could hopefully clear the air, or both. She wasn’t sure which, but she decided as long as Halvo and Stephanie were there, John would have to be civil. Right?

Chaney quickly replied to Halvo’s text saying she would meet him and John along with Stephanie shortly.

Chaney and Stephanie made their way to Chaney’s car as they were meeting the guys at her and Halvo’s favorite diner.

Once they got there, Stephanie quickly sat by John, which put her next to Halvo, but across from John. She was already dreading this lunch, knowing he would be sending her death glares the entire lunch.
John and Stephanie greeted each other with small pecks on each other’s cheeks before looking at their menus for what to eat.

Halvo and Chaney exchanged confused glances. They were having a silent conversation with each other over how comfortable John and Stephanie seemed to be so quickly and how come neither of them knew it. They both shrugged it off before looking at their menus to keep from the awkwardness of this new potential couple sitting across the table from them.

Chaney couldn’t keep the red from filling up her face as she looked at her menu because she could feel John shooting daggers at her. She tried to keep herself calm and not cause a scene, but she was getting really agitated at the way John was treating her for seemingly no reason.

John was hoping that by having Stephanie and Halvo here, Chaney would be more apt to “slip up” and he could point out her manipulative nature. He would do whatever he could to sabotage this lunch and prove to Halvo that she wasn’t who she said she was.

There was an awkward tension filling the table and no one was quite brave enough to break it, not knowing how to do so or what was causing it.

Stephanie finally broke the silence by trying to get to know Halvo. “So Halvo, how long have you known Chaney?”

“Uh, what would you say Indy, like 15-ish years?” he looked over at her for confirmation.

She looked up from her menu, not realizing she was being addressed. She took a couple seconds to replay what she picked up in the conversation so she could answer. “Oh, yeah, about 15 years or so.”

Stephanie nodded in response, not really knowing what else she should ask. She was hoping this would have sparked more conversation, and when it didn’t she sat back in her seat, trying to think of what else to talk about.

By this point, they were all sitting back in their seats trying to figure out what to talk about, and John was grappling to figure out how he could expose Chaney. So far his plans weren’t working because she had barely said anything. At this rate, he was hoping she would speak up more, or his idea would fall through. He purposefully invited Halvo to his lunch date with Stephanie knowing that if she didn’t invite Chaney, that Halvo would just to avoid being a third wheel. That part of his plan was successful, but he didn’t want to spend more of his time with Chaney than absolutely necessary.

Halvo decided to try his hand at conversation, and planned to ask Stephanie how she and John met, though he knew very well how they did, but was merely looking for someone to talk about something.

“So Stephanie, how did you and John meet?”

She began to smile as she told Halvo what happened. “It’s a funny story actually. I was having a girls’ night with Chaney actually when—”

She was cut off by John interjecting. “I think a better story here is how Chaney met Halvo. That’s an interesting story.”

Confused, Stephanie meekly replied, “Oh, yeah, uh, what happened?”

Chaney saw the hurt cross Stephanie’s face and didn’t want to talk over her story, but Stephanie gave her a look that said it was alright for her to tell her story. Chaney gave her an apologetic expression that Stephanie accepted before encouraging her to continue.

“Well, we met in fourth grade over a science project. You see our teacher assigned us to work in pairs for the science fair that year instead of working individually. Halvo called me that day and asked me to come to his house to work when he began doing these horrible impersonations of people—”

“Now, now Chaney. Is that anyway to speak to your friends? Do you go around and knock everyone’s talents?” John interjected.

“No, but, you know how Halvo is, we all know he can’t do impersonations worth shit—”

“So? Who are you to judge how good at it he is? With a little practice, he could’ve eventually made a living doing that. Who knows, because of your bad reaction to his impersonations that he worked so hard on to impress you with, he quit his lifelong dream of being a comedian. I guess now we’ll never know.”

Halvo stared incredulously at John, not believing how he was talking to Chaney. He didn’t quite believe her at first, but after witnessing it firsthand, he was more determined to take action.

“Dude, what’s your deal? You know just as well as Indy that my impersonations sucked. You said so yourself. Why’re you givin’ her such shit over it? It’s not that big of a deal. We both know music was where my passion truly was…”

John just shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly, upset that his plan was beginning to backfire on him. Halvo was in deeper than he thought. He wasn’t anticipating him taking her side so quickly. He always thought they lived by the motto “bros before hoes” but apparently not; at least not in Halvo’s case. Then again, this particular argument was weak. He needed something else he could pin on her. Halvo isn’t so easily swayed. Maybe he could get something from Stephanie, but he would have to gain her trust first.

The awkward silence enveloped the table again, and they were all stuck on conversation, not sure how to get past John’s sudden outburst.

They were saved by their waitress coming by to take their food and drink orders. Each gave their order before handing over their menus.

Once the waitress left, they were left again in silence. Chaney couldn’t believe John was acting this brashly to her in front of Stephanie and Halvo. She looked over to Halvo who was giving her a look that expressed his disbelief at what just happened.

They got their food shortly after, and the conversation was kept casual and very minimal. No one knowing how to get past the additional tension John brought to the table. Once they finished eating and paying, Halvo spoke up.

“Hey John, why don’t you take Chaney back to work and I’ll take Stephanie back.”

Chaney stared at him incredulously, knowing this was some sort of set up, but wishing he wouldn’t force her into this. She then remembered one important fact that Halvo didn’t know. “Halvo, I can’t. I drove Stephanie here in my car.”

“That’s fine. I know how to drive your car. I’ll drive her back and John can drive you back. I rode with John anyway. This will give me a chance to get to know Stephanie better. Besides, John can just pick me up when he drops you off. It’ll give you guys time to catch up.”

Chaney glared at him, disbelieving that he was forcing his hand on this. The last thing she wanted at this point was a ride alone with John. She wasn’t about to put up with his childish antics anymore.

Before she could say anything more on the topic, Halvo plucked her keys from her hand and led Stephanie to her car before getting in and driving away. Chaney was now stranded at this diner with John, figuring he would abandon her.

John began walking out the door before he noticed Chaney wasn’t following him. In an exasperated tone he questioned, “So are you going to walk back to work or…?”

She shook her head and followed him outside and to his truck. Unlike last time she rode with him, he neglected to open her door and instead went straight for his door. Due to the old age of his truck, they didn’t have automatic locks on the interior, so he forgot that her door wasn’t unlocked so she couldn’t get in until she knocked on the passenger window. He then leaned over the seat and unlocked her door so she could get in. She got in and he instantly turned the radio up and began to back out before she could get her seatbelt on.

Tom Petty began to play on the radio and Chaney reached for the volume dial to turn it up.

“American Girl. I love this song.”

John looked at her, surprised. “Uh, me too. Didn’t take you for a Petty fan.”

“Typically I wouldn’t be. I grew up listening to my dad’s music and hated it. Petty was the only one I ever enjoyed listening to. His was the only voice I could tolerate listening to. I couldn’t stand the screeching of Bob Dylan or Neil Young. I never understood how people could listen to that cat shrieking and call that music.”

John stared at her incredulously. “You obviously have no taste in music…”

“Why? Because I don’t share your taste? Doesn’t mean that what I listen to is any less music than what you listen to. Just because you like older artists doesn’t mean you’re anymore superior than me.”

Once again, he was dumbfounded. Only this time, he had no rebuttal because she was right, and he didn’t want to admit it.

She looked out of the corner of her eye to see his shocked expression as he stared ahead at the road, obviously not having a response to her statement. She smirked in satisfaction for putting him in his place.

He then mumbled so quietly she almost missed it. “At least you can be somewhat redeemed because you like Petty.”

She laughed softly. “Yeah, Petty’s pretty great. Even better live though.”

John smiled lightly, “Yeah. Definitely better live.”

He couldn’t believe he was actually getting along with her, much less that she liked Tom Petty. That fact alone almost wanted to make him call off this whole thing he had planned. But he realized he couldn’t completely give up his quest. He would try for himself since his former plans to get info from other people will take time. He opted instead to pretend to befriend her and hope he could get something that way.

“So Petty huh? What was it about him that made you tolerate him more than the rest of your dad’s music other than his voice?”

She contemplated for a moment before answering. “I’m not sure. There was something about the style of his guitars that are so distinctly Petty and I love that sound. His music just has really great grooves that you can’t help but vibe out to.”

“I agree.” He responded hesitantly. He wasn’t expecting such an honest answer from her, much less one that he was in complete agreement with. “So I’m not gonna lie, I didn’t expect you to think of Petty the same way I do.”

“Why? Because I’m apparently a manipulator that screws with people’s heads?” She retorted accusingly.

“About that…”

“Save it John. If you don’t wanna clue me in on why you suddenly hate me, save your breath.”

John was torn. Part of him didn’t want to say anything because she should know what she did and shouldn’t try to play the ignorance card to get out of her actions. Yet, on the other hand, he wanted to tell her because then maybe she would be more open with him. He debated internally for a couple moments until he realized that they were already back at her work. He was going to tell her and hope for the best.

“Look Chaney…”

“John forget it. Thanks for the drive back. I’ll see you later.” She then hopped out of his car and went over to where she saw Halvo and Stephanie still sitting in her car waiting for her arrival back.
John figured maybe he wasn’t meant to say anything to her about it. That was his chance. Maybe he would get to say something to her eventually.

Chaney made her way over to the driver’s side so she could retrieve her keys from Halvo and telling him bye before heading back into work for the rest of her shift.

Halvo opened the door before she could and got out. “It’s about time you got back! What took you guys so long? We’ve been back for a few minutes…”

“Honestly I have no clue. We left not long after you did. I guess we got caught in a bit of lunch rush traffic.”

“I see…Well, did you guys work anything out?” he asked hopefully.

“Eh, not really. I gave him the opportunity,” she started, “but he never said anything. So my guess is he won’t. I’m over it for now.”

Halvo frowned slightly before bringing Chaney in for a big hug. As they embraced, he told her, “Alright, I’m heading out. Go back to work, bring home the bacon, and all that shit.”

She just laughed as she pulled away. “Alright, alright. Will do, dad.”

He ruffled the top of her hair before walking towards John’s truck.

Stephanie then rounded the front of her car and began walking back into their office with Chaney. “So Halvo…he’s uh, interesting.”

Chaney smiled. “That he is. Love him to death.”

“So what exactly is the story with you two?”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, he did nothing but talk about you the entire way back here.”

“All good things I hope…”

“I mean, he did tell embarrassing stories about you….” Stephanie joked. “But it wasn’t anything I didn’t already know.” She smirked.

Chaney playfully hit her arm before they got on the elevator to head back up to their office.

Halvo got in John’s truck and instantly punched John in the shoulder.

“What the fuck dude? What was that for?”

“For being such a dick at lunch. What the hell was that about? Seriously man, I’m not buying this shit that there’s nothing wrong between you and Chaney after your outburst at lunch…”

John sighed, not really wanting to get into this at the moment. He’d rather Halvo forget about his outburst at lunch since Halvo clearly wasn’t taking this the way he planned.

“Forget about lunch. I just…I had no idea she liked Petty.”

“So…because you didn’t know what music she liked you thought it was alright to treat her with such disrespect?” Halvo questioned, trying to figure out John’s process of thinking.

“No, I mean, I have my reasons for being cross with her. But when we were driving over here, a Petty song came on and she was telling me how much she loved Petty. Granted she had to counter that moment by insulting the musical genius of Dylan and Young…”

“Ha, figures she’d harp on two of your favorite artists. Don’t sweat it man. She hates most of what I listen to as well.”

“And yet you still hang out with her?”

Halvo stared at him incredulously. “Uh, yeah. Music taste isn’t all our friendship is comprised of. Despite her overall shitty taste in music, she does have redeeming moments. Though don’t tell her that she doesn’t have music taste because she’ll counter it with some shit about how she doesn’t have any less taste than you because it’s different.”

John sideways glanced at Halvo as he bit his lip, and looked back at the road as he drove.

“Oh god. Don’t tell me you already told her that…”

John didn’t respond.

“Ha dude. That’s hilarious. Don’t worry, she does it to everyone. Consider it an initiation of sorts. If she doesn’t disagree with you on music at some point, then she doesn’t care whether you’ll be friends or not. She’s as serious about her music as we are about ours.”

John contemplated what Halvo said. He never thought that Chaney would be passionate about whatever it was she considered music. Then again, there was a lot about Chaney he was realizing that he didn’t consider. He was finding out that the more he learned about Chaney, the more he was surprised about what he learned. What surprised him even more was that he liked the things he was learning about her, despite his reluctance to admit it.

***

Halvo was sitting on his couch when he heard a knock on his front door, only to reveal Alex standing on the other side.

“Yo Alex! C’mon in. Make yourself comfortable.”

Alex walked in, and was a bit unnerved about hanging out one-on-one with Halvo. It’s not that he didn’t know Halvo, but it was still odd for him to think of being around Halvo without Chaney there. Granted, he preferred not having Chaney around.

He made his way to the couch as Halvo went to the kitchen to retrieve a couple bottles of beer for them both.

Halvo handed him one and Alex nodded in appreciation before popping the top and taking a swig. Alex wasn’t sure how to initiate the conversation because Halvo was the one to invite him over and he figured Halvo had something specific in mind to talk about so he decided to wait it out.

Halvo sat in the chair adjacent to the couch, contemplating how to bring up the topic of Chaney. He didn’t want Alex to think he was only hanging out with him in order to repair the relationship between the siblings, thought that was partially true. Halvo realized the other night that he misjudged Alex and genuinely found him fun to be around. Would they become best friends? He didn’t know, but he thought Alex fit in with the rest of the guys well enough and he was sorry that he wasn’t given the chance to fit in until 15 years later.

Halvo stared down the opening of his bottle to the bottom of it, trying to figure out what to talk about. He would occasionally twirl his bottle around, swishing the liquid inside just to have something to do. After an awkward few minutes of silence he decided to speak up.

“So Alex,” Alex looked up from his concentrated stare at the coffee table and turned towards Halvo.
“What did you think of guys’ night the other night?”

“Oh, I thought it was fun. I’d never met most of the guys there, so it was nice to actually have guys around your age to chill with. Sure as hell beat sitting around the house all the time.”

“No girl to speak of?”

Alex chuckled lighly. “Nah man. Flying solo. Han Solo.”

There was a momentary silence before they both burst out laughing at Alex’s ridiculous analogy.

“Dude that was…terrible, but hilariously so.”

“You know, I try my best. But seriously though, I appreciate you guys letting me come. It was nice to kick back after working all day and just goof off. Haven’t done that in a while.”

“Not even at school?”

“Eh, not really. The party scene at my school absolutely sucked, and they always bought the cheapest alcohol so it absolutely reeked. I never understood how people could drink that garbage. It was cheap and it didn’t take long for anyone to get a buzz. It even went so far as a couple guys I went to school with were cousins with these guys that made their own moonshine. I tried that stuff once, and god it was awful. I would’ve rather drank the cheap whiskey. But alas, the people there weren’t fun, and literally every party was the same. I got tired of the scene fast. Any ‘partying’ I did happened with the close circle of guys I was friends with, and only happened on Friday nights when we had nothing else to do. Lame I know.”

“That’s not lame. That’s the same thing we do. One of us will be free and want to hang out with the guys. Next thing you know, impromptu guys’ night.”

“That’s a pretty sweet system. Sounds similar to what we’d do. I miss it though. Those guys are like brothers to me.”

“Where are they now?”

“Back at school. I won’t get to graduate with them this May because I’m taking this semester of classes online, so my degree will be mailed to me instead.” Alex spoke dejectedly.

“Ah that sucks. Why go through that trouble though if you could’ve stayed there for your last semester?”

“Truth be told, you’re the only one that knows what I’m about to tell you. I decided to stay home my last semester so I could work. I’m saving up to buy my own place. I can’t live at home anymore. Especially with Chaney.”

“Speaking of Chaney…”Alex glared at Halvo for bringing her into conversation. “What exactly is the deal with you guys anyway? I know she wants to talk to you and work out whatever is going on. What happened?”

“Hey man, I don’t wanna talk about it alright? I think you’ve found out enough secrets about my life today.”

Halvo quirked an eyebrow at him, confused to what he was referring.

Alex smiled and continued. “You know, my secret love of Frank Sinatra and the fact that I’m saving to get my own place…”

Halvo nodded in realization. “Yes. That. Firstly, you don’t have to worry about the Sinatra thing. I won’t tell a soul. Secondly, you’re not the only one secretly house hunting.”

“What do you know that I don’t, Halvo?”

“Oh, I don’t know. Just a certain girl that we both love has been saving her money for too long now, in hopes of buying her own place come summer.”

Alex groaned because he instantly knew who Halvo was talking about. “What does she have to do with this? What exactly are you getting at?”

“Nothing. I’m just stating that I find it interesting that two siblings are both saving up to live in their own place away from home and both want to move in around the same time. I’m just pointing out the similarities.”

“I see what you’re doing and it’s not gonna happen.”

“What? I’m not doing or implying anything. I’m simply stating two facts that I have recently been given. Nothing more.”

Alex rolled his eyes and set his beer bottle on the table before getting up to leave. If Halvo was going to sit here and tell him to work out his issues with his sister, he’d rather stay home alone.

Halvo noticed that Alex was going to leave and didn’t want to leave things on a sour note. He was genuinely trying to be Alex’s friend, and didn’t want him to think he had ulterior motives.

“Alex stop. Dude, I’m sorry for bringing Chaney up. I knew it was a sore subject, but I didn’t realize how sore. I’ll drop it. Promise. We’ll only talk about her on your terms. Right now I’m here to be your friend, not hers.”

Alex reluctantly nodded before resuming his seat on the couch.
There was an awkward tension that filled the living room again before Alex broke the silence.

“Best TV show on now…”

Halvo easily replied and conversation between the two passed as if they’d been friends for years. They were both getting over the initial awkwardness of only having a vague knowledge of who the other was. They discovered that they were more alike than they initially believed and spent much of the night shooting the breeze until Alex saw the late hour and left because he had to open the record store the next day.

After Alex left, Halvo sat back in the chair he’d been occupying for the last few hours, and reflected on the successful night he had with befriending Alex. He was glad that they were able to get along, and hoped that could potentially lead to healing the broken relationship between Alex and Chaney. It hurt Halvo to see how little they communicated, and the fact that it had been going on for about a decade. He was close to his older sister Dana, and couldn’t imagine having such a rift between them. He could relate to Alex being the younger brother of an older sister; a bond that he hoped could bring them closer together. He also hoped this shared bond would be one that he could use to show Alex how important of a role Chaney could be in his life if he gave it a chance. He now had two major relationships in Chaney’s life that he was determined to fix: her relationship with John and her relationship with Alex. He had his hands full, but he was ready to tackle the challenge.