...And a Happy New Year

January 27, 2014

Another. Day. At. Work. It was barely 11 am and Chaney was already going crazy. It was only Monday, but she had a less than eventful weekend compared to her past few weekends and she wasn’t sure what to do. She didn’t see Halvo or even John this weekend. Despite how rudely John has been treating her as of late, she couldn’t even deny that she missed his annoying presence.

Chaney was sitting at her desk and was short of hitting her head repeatedly against it when she hears her phone buzz on her desk. Relieved to have some sort of human interaction, she perks up to check her phone only to be disappointed to find it was a text from her mom listing groceries she needed Chaney to pick up when she got off work. Chaney audibly groaned and hit her head on her desk.

“Chaney? Are you okay?”

Chaney quickly sat up and saw Stephanie standing at the entrance to her cubicle wearing a worried expression.

“Oh, yeah. I’m just…in a funk today.”

“Did something happen over the weekend?” Stephanie inquired tentatively.

“No, just the opposite. Nothing happened this weekend for the first time all year. I can’t help but feel I’m starting to get into a life rut, and this is only the beginning.”

Stephanie laughed lightly. “Chaney don’t be ridiculous. You’re a 25 year old business woman who is working her way up the corporate ladder. You’ve barely been working here 3 years. Don’t tell me you’re already ready to give up now?” Stephanie asked with a hint of challenge in her voice.

“No, I’m not ready to give up yet. I’m just particularly bored today. I literally have sat here for the last hour or so doing absolutely nothing. I finished filing all my paperwork Friday and nothing has been given to me to work on. I feel so useless right now. I don’t want to do this the rest of my life. I don’t want to sit in a small cubicle waiting for the next stack of papers to file or waiting for my Prince Charming to waltz through the door. I’m ready to actually do something with my life. I want my life to count for something. Right now the biggest thing going on in my life is getting a kiss this New Year’s Eve from a guy I’ve liked since I was about 6 who didn’t even know of my existence until about 3 weeks ago and now hates me for some unknown reason.”

Stephanie stood there speechless. She had no idea what all was going on with Chaney. Hearing of this mysterious kiss at midnight definitely intrigued her though. She thought if nothing else she could potentially help her win this guy over. To be honest, Stephanie figured Chaney was trying to mask her feelings for Halvo because despite what either said, she could definitely sense the tension between the two and was more than willing to help the two get together.

What Stephanie didn’t realize is that she would be helping Chaney get with John, the guy Stephanie was semi-dating and beginning to grow quite fond of. Not Halvo like she assumed.

Stephanie spoke up to console Chaney. “You know what I think? Firstly, I think you need a good, stiff drink. Just to take the edge off. Then, I think this should be accompanied by a girls’ night where you tell me all about this guy of yours that is giving you so much grief. Who knows? Maybe I can help. For starters though, let’s grab lunch with Halvo. He is always able to cheer you up.”

Chaney smiled and nodded. She said she would text Halvo to see if he wanted to grab lunch with them.

Chaney sat there in contemplation, repeating the words Stephanie told her. Stephanie wanted to help her win John over? She didn’t understand why because Stephanie seemed to like John, but maybe she was mistaken. Stephanie hadn’t really talked about John much, so maybe they realized it wouldn’t really work out. She decided she would let Stephanie help her out, but wouldn’t mention John’s name. She wanted to keep it as anonymous as possible so suspicions wouldn’t arise should something backfire.

Chaney was about to text Halvo when he beat her to it by texting her first:

Indyyyyyy I’m friendless and therefore dateless for lunch. Favorite diner about 12:30?

Chaney smiled at her phone. Halvo knew her more than she often gave him credit for. She quickly replied asking him if it was alright that Stephanie joined them as she was going to invite him initially to join her and Stephanie. Halvo agreed and they set their plans to meet for lunch.

***

“So Halvo…is that actually your name or is it some weird nickname?” Stephanie asked over her sandwich as she ate.

“It’s actually a clever nickname. My name is Eric, but everyone calls me Halvo.” He smirked.

Stephanie rolled her eyes, “Yes, because when I think of the name ‘Eric’ I instantly think that the appropriate nickname to call him is Halvo…”

He laughed at her. “It’s because my last name is Halvorsen…”

She stopped mid-bite and just stared at him as Halvo and Chaney laughed at her reaction.

Chaney decided to speak up. “So not that I don’t enjoy both of your guys’ company, but why didn’t you guys invite John to lunch? I mean…”

Now it was time for Halvo and Stephanie to exchange amused grins before turning to Chaney.

Halvo spoke first. “Dude Indy, you really don’t know anything about John do you?”

“What are you talking about?”

“Indy…He’s on tour again.”

“Again?! Didn’t he just get back from Manila?”

“Uh, yeah but he’s touring again…”

“But…why?” Chaney asked, still confused as to why John was gone.

“Do you seriously not realize he tours in a band for a living?”

“I mean I do, but I didn’t realize they were that popular…”

“Did their tour to Manila not convince you enough or something?”

Chaney looked at Halvo with a quirked eyebrow wondering why he was being so seemingly short with her about John’s band.

Halvo rolled his eyes and threw his phone at her. “Check his Instagram and Twitter.”

She hesitantly opened up Halvo’s Instagram and found John’s profile fairly quickly and began scrolling through his pictures. As she looked, she was amazed at all the sights he had seen as well as how artistic many of his photos were.

Halvo noticed her astonishment and added, “You think that’s something? Check out his Twitter. He often tweets lyrics to whatever he’s currently working on. Confuses the fuck out of his fans until they figure out it’s from a song yet to be released.”

She hesitantly goes to Halvo’s Twitter and began to look through John’s tweets. She was equally confused, and was seeing another dimension of John that she never knew existed. His cryptic tweets and strangely artistic Instagram photos intrigued her, and she began to remember why she was so drawn to him. This mysteriousness that he always seemed to veil himself with was so appealing. Even if he was being rude to her, she was willing to work past that if it meant she got to unravel another layer of the elusive John O’Callaghan.

Halvo was smirking at her confused yet awe-inspired expression at looking through John’s social media. He quickly plucked his phone from her hands and with a devilish grin on his face, began messing with his phone until he brought the phone to his ears.

Stephanie and Chaney exchanged confused glances until they heard Halvo speak.
“John? Hey man! How’s the road treating ya?...That good huh?...I take it the tour is going well…That’s great to hear…Where are you guys now?...Gotcha…Hey, I’ve got someone special here that wants to talk to you…”

Chaney glared at Halvo. She could barely hold a civil conversation with John at the moment as it was, and she was not ready to converse with him over the phone. She vehemently shook her head no to indicate her distaste for talking to John over the phone but Halvo wouldn’t have it. The smirk on his face only grew the longer he talked to John as he was looking at Chaney to gauge her reaction.

“Yeah man…I’m serious…Hang on…”

Halvo then hands the phone over to Chaney and pushes it up against her ear so she was forced to talk to John.

She was half tempted to just hang up on him, but she knew Halvo would just continue to call him back until they talked, so she gave in.

John was on the other line confused as to what was going on because no one was talking.

“Halvo? Are you still there dude?”

“Uh, this isn’t Halvo…”

“Wait…Chaney?! Is that you?”

“Uh…yeah…”

There was an awkward silence on both sides of the phone, neither knowing how to converse with each other over the phone considering their less than civil conversations as of late.

“Uh…not to sound rude, but why do you want to talk to me?”

Chaney wasn’t sure how to respond. She did want to talk to him…face to face. She was so awkward when it came to talking over the phone. She hated to do it.

“Um…I don’t know. Honestly, Halvo just randomly called you and passed off the phone to me, saying I wanted to talk to you.”

John sat there driving, contemplating how to take this. Upon hearing her reply, he figured Halvo was setting him up to talk to Chaney for some unknown reason. Maybe this was his chance to redeem himself, slightly, to Chaney. He was once again having the great internal debate over whether he should tell her over the phone or in person.

“Look John, if you still don’t wanna talk to me, I get it. Don’t act civil just for my sake.”
John decided he better talk quick.

“Chaney, listen. I know I’ve been a bit of an ass to you lately. I get that. There’s a reason for it, but look. You’re one of Halvo’s best friends and he’s my best friend. I’m just looking out for him.”

“And you think the best way to do that is to constantly talk down to me? Not sure I quite follow your logic…” Chaney argued.

“Honestly, this isn’t a conversation I want to have over the phone. Think you can keep from hating me long enough to wait until I get back from this tour?” he inquired with some desperation in his tone.

Sensing his somewhat pleading tone, she decided to acquiesce to his request. “John, I don’t hate you, but I just want to know why you’re treating me the way you are.”

“I get that. I do. Just…wait for me to get home. We’re currently en route to Utah. I’ll be back in Tempe next Friday. Think you can wait that long?”

She debated and agreed she would. She then hung up the phone and passed it to Halvo silently.
John on the other hand was sitting there driving, wondering how much he was willing to tell Chaney.

He knew he wanted to clear the air somewhat, he was beginning to realize just how unreasonable he was being. He genuinely did want to be friends with Chaney since she was one of Halvo’s best friends. However, he was still super protective of Halvo and didn’t want her to be manipulating him. He decided that his best course of action was to go about this whole thing with Chaney a different way. Instead of trying to “expose” her for what she was, he would befriend her and would learn about her that way. He figured by getting to know her as a person first, he could get a feel for how she was towards Halvo and he could make deductions from there as to what kind of person she genuinely was.

---

Once Chaney handed the phone back over to Halvo, Halvo looked at her with a knowing smirk.

“So Indy, did you guys settle your lover’s quarrel?”

Chaney scoffed and ignored his question as Stephanie looked between the two, completely confused as to what they were talking about.

“Lover’s quarrel? Chaney, what’s he talking about?”

Halvo spoke up first, “Well you see—”

Chaney quickly cut him off. “Halvo drop it. It doesn’t matter.” She was glaring at him, hoping he would take the hint to not talk about it in front of Stephanie.

He acknowledged she was giving him, and replied with an over-obvious wink and the mime that his lips were sealed.

Chaney felt she had to explain somewhat what was going on, though she was hoping to explain this when she and Stephanie were both filled with alcohol rather than over a casual lunch.

“Steph, he’s being stupid. There’s no ‘lover’s quarrel’ between John and I. Halvo’s just being a dork like always.”

Halvo pulled a face at Chaney, and she pulled one back as Stephanie laughed at their interaction.

Seeing the way Halvo and Chaney acted around each other, Stephanie was even more interested in getting them to admit their hidden feelings for each other. They may both be in denial about it, but she could see it clear as day. She sensed their whole “hidden romance” that they were seeming to act so oblivious to. She was hoping that she could get Chaney to crack at their girls’ night later this week. She was completely positive that Halvo was who she was referring to and was determined to do what she could to help out Chaney. She would be discrete about it, and whatever “mystery guy” Chaney would refer to, she knew would be Halvo, so she would play along to appease Chaney.

Conversation was kept light the rest of lunch and they went their separate ways; Halvo back to his house and Chaney and Stephanie back to work.

As soon as Chaney started her car, Stephanie didn’t hesitate to begin interrogating her.

“Please tell me Chaney, what exactly the story is between you and Halvo…”

Chaney sighed. “I told you before, there’s nothing going on between us. We are and will forever be just friends.”

Stephanie still wasn’t buying it. She didn’t know why Chaney was being so secretive about it. The whole thing was completely obvious to anyone that saw them interact. They may try to pass off as brother and sister but she knew better than to believe that. She figured she might be able to loosen Chaney up once she got some alcohol in their systems. She figured she would plan the night out with her sometime this week.

***
Chaney trudged up the stairs to her house after dinner that night. She was miserable at home. Her mother was constantly picking at her, and complaining about her poor life choices. Criticizing her for being 25, single, and still living at home because her mother by that time was married with a well-paying job and Chaney on the way. Needless to say, dinner didn’t go well, and after a while, Chaney had had enough and stormed off from the table and up to her room to escape the disparagements of her mother.

She slammed her door behind her and collapsed face down on her bed, wondering why she was so stuck. Wishing she could escape this hell that had been created in her house. She calculated how much money she had saved up and figured that if she could make it another month or so, with Halvo’s help, she could be moved out into a cheap apartment by the end of February.

She rolled over to where she was laying on her back and staring up at the ceiling when she heard her phone buzz. Puzzled, she rolled onto her side to retrieve her phone off her nightstand. She had a text from an unknown number.

Hey Chaney it’s John. (Halvo insisted I have your number) I just wanted to clear the air with you. I know I’ve been an ass and I’m sorry. Just wait until I get back so I can explain myself. I’d rather do this face to face. Please don’t hate me.

She smiled slightly at his gesture and thought it best to quick text him back.

John, like I said, I don’t hate you. I’ll meet with you just let me know when.
She wasn’t expecting a reply so she placed her phone back on her nightstand only to have it go off as soon as she set it down.

Thank you. Sincerely. I’ll see you next Friday after our show. I’m about to go on, so we’ll talk later.

Finally feeling better about this whole thing with John, she quick sent a reply wishing him luck before rolling over to fall asleep at peace for the first time in a while.