...And a Happy New Year

June 7, 2014

Chaney was startled awake from her deep slumber by the sound of pots and pans in the kitchen. Still in her sleep-induced state, she cautiously got out of bed as she tip-toed towards the kitchen to figure out who was making all this racket this early on a Saturday morning.

She crept down the hallway and peeked her head around the corner carefully only to find her brother Alex hunched over. He was digging around through the various cabinets looking for something. She giggled at his confused state as well as herself for forgetting her brother now bunked with her.

“Uh, looking for something there Al?” she smirked.

He turned around glaring at her. “You know I hate it when you call me that,” he groaned.

She giggled. “It was either that or Alexander…” she mused.

“You’re not funny,” he stated flatly as he closed the cabinet he was currently shuffling through.

“Alright, alright I’ll stop. So what are you so frantically looking for this early in the morning?” she smiled as she made her way into the kitchen.

“Oh ya know, I’m hungry, it’s morning…figured I would do something about it. Pretty sure there’s a meal for this time of the day,” he mused with sarcasm. “What’s it called? Oh yeah, breakfast,” he stated flatly as he tried to hide his grin. “Also, it’s not that early. It’s like…10:30.”

She rolled her eyes. “Well sit down Bobby Flay and I’ll make you something. What are you hungry for?” she asked as she made her way around the kitchen getting various items for breakfast out, not knowing what he was in the mood for.

“Eh, I just wanted cereal,” he murmured.

“You just wanted cereal and you were looking under the sink?” she chuckled.

“Sorry! Ya know I’ve been living here for about a week now and I still don’t know where everything is,” he groaned.

“In due time bro, it’s all good. Are you sure you just want cereal? I can make you a big breakfast if you’d like.”

“Nah, it’s good. I’m just in the mood for some good ol’ Captain Crunch wi—”

“—with strawberries, I didn’t forget,” Chaney smiled as she grabbed the bowl and box of cereal from the cabinet by the fridge and brought them over to the bar where Alex was currently sitting. “I’ll start putting post-it notes on the doors so you know where everything’s at,” she teased.

Alex rolled his eyes. “Whatever Chane. So what all do you have planned for today,” he asked as he poured his cereal in his bowl.

“Uh, not much really. Thought I might try to catch up with John. I haven’t seen or talked to him since Halvo’s party…” she mused as she grabbed the milk and strawberries from the fridge.

“Really? That’s strange. He’s stopped by in the store almost everyday this week.”

“Has he said anything?”

“Nooooo….should he have?” he asked over his bite of cereal.

“No, I guess not,” she sighed. “He just hasn’t returned any of my calls or texts all week. The guys all leave for Warped soon and I was hoping to catch up with him before he left. I’ll give him a call later,” she concluded.

“Well sis, as fun as this was, I gotta head to the store. You gonna be out late tonight?” he asked as he brought his dishes to the sink.

“Mmmm, shouldn’t be. Why?”

“Thought uh, maybe we could have a brother-sister night?”

The smile spread across her face. “That would be great Alex. I’d love that.”

He smiled lightly, “Good. I mean, I’m still pissed at you, but I am trying.”

“I know, and I appreciate the effort. Ever think you’re gonna tell me why you’re so mad at me?”

His smiled dropped and he slightly glared, “Don’t push it.”

She laughed, “Alright I won’t. Have a good day Lex.”

“You just can’t settle on a nickname huh?” he laughed.

“You didn’t like Al or your full name…”

“What’s wrong with Alex? You’ve always called me that. Everyone calls me that.”

“I know, I just, I want something with one syllable…” she trailed off.

“Aww, because Alex is too long to say?” he teased.

“Shut up!” she said pulling a face as she lightly shoved him. “Get to work.”

“I could say the same for you. See ya tonight sis.” He waved at her over his shoulder as he exited the apartment.

She couldn’t get over how happy she was that Alex was actually living with her now. She was so thankful that Halvo had been such an instrumental part of this. She never thought she would get to a place where her and Alex were on speaking terms again. He’d hated her for almost half her life. She couldn’t contain her excitement at hanging out with him later that night. She didn’t know what they would do, but as long as they were talking she couldn’t complain.

Her thoughts were interrupted by her front door unlocking.

“Knock, knock,” Halvo peeked his head around the door and greeted her with a smile.

“Hey hon, what’re you doing here?” she smiled, getting up from her stool to greet her boyfriend.

“You keep acting like I need a reason to see you,” he chuckled as he embraced her, kissing her lips quickly.

She pulled back, grabbing them both mugs out as she made them coffee. “So what are your plans today babe?” she asked as she poured water into the coffee maker.

“Eh, not much. Thought I’d spend the morning with you, maybe drop by John’s for a bit…why?”

“No reason. Hey, do you know what’s up with John?”

He looked at her perplexed. “No…I didn’t realize anything was wrong with him?”

“Well, I don’t know. I’ve been trying to catch up with him some before you all leave for Warped and he won’t reply to my calls or texts. It’s just unlike him is all,” she mused.

He hummed in contemplation. “I’ll be sure to ask him about it. Why don’t we go out for breakfast this morning? Have you eaten yet?”

She shook her head no.

He smiled, “Go get dressed and I’ll wait out here.”

She nodded enthusiastically and ran back to her room to get ready.

Halvo took a seat at the bar, waiting for their coffee to finish. He was messing with his phone, catching up with various social media when his phone rang. He looked down at the caller id and saw the familiar number cross his screen. He looked towards Chaney’s room and heard the shower start. He figured he had time to take this call uninterrupted, but went outside on the landing to take the call anyway, closing the door behind him. Just in case.

Chaney finished getting ready and made her way out to the living room. She was confused as Halvo wasn’t sitting out there, but saw him standing outside on the landing on the phone. She wondered who he was talking to, but decided not to push it. She poured her cup of coffee, stirring in a little sugar and milk.

Halvo came into the kitchen a few minutes later, his demeanor completely changing. “Hey uh, sorry to have to do this, but I have to go,” he mumbled, his mind elsewhere.

“What’s—”

“I’ll catch up with you later, yeah?” He gave her a quick peck on the cheek and promptly left. He wouldn’t even look her in the eyes.

She wondered what happened. His happy-go-lucky mood completely vanished and instead looked like he had seen a ghost. She wanted to ask him about the call now that she had seen how much it affected him.

With a defeated sigh, she goes back to her room to grab her phone off her nightstand. She looked at her phone to find no reply or missed calls from John from the night before. Desperate to see him again, she dialed his number, praying that he would finally answer.

John had been sitting at home not doing much when his phone rang. He looked at the id and saw Chaney calling. Groaning, he hit ignore and let her call go to voicemail for the umpteenth time in the last week. He hoped she would have gotten the message by this point that he didn’t want to talk to her.

He purposefully was ignoring her calls and texts this past week. He was not only disappointed in how Chaney treated him, but disappointed in himself for letting his guard down so quickly with her. At this point, it was a matter of pride more than anything. Granted, he would never admit to that.

Chaney sighed in defeat once again as she was greeted not with John, but his voicemail. She decided to leave him a message, hoping he would at least listen to this one.

“Hey John, it’s Chaney…again. I uh, I know I’ve called a lot lately. I’m just wanting to see you before you leave this summer for Warped. I don’t know what’s going on, but you’ve been ignoring me since Halvo’s party. If I did something wrong, I want to fix it before you leave for the summer and—” she was cut off by the message. She ended the call and put her phone in her pocket. She didn’t know what she was going to do today since her plans to hang out with Halvo and John were quickly dissipating.

Halvo quickly rushed to the other side of town as soon as he jumped in his car. He could barely understand what was being said on the other side of the line due muffled cries. Fearing the worst, he made his way to the abandoned park near the outskirts of town as fast as his car could take him. He pulled on the road that the park was on, searching for her. He drove slowly as he made his way down the now gravel and patched road. He was about to turn around and retrace his steps when he noticed a figure sitting in the pavilion in the distance. He quickly parked his car in what used to be a small parking lot and ran towards her. His pace slowed as he noticed her sitting atop one of the picnic tables, back towards him, as she held her sides. He could hear her sobs from where he stood a few yards back.

He carefully approached her, not exactly sure what happened, but knowing that whatever it was couldn’t be good if she was reacting this badly towards it. Once he was on the other side of the table, a couple of feet behind her, he tentatively reached out to place a comforting hand on her left shoulder. “Stephanie? Are you okay? What happened?”

She turned her head towards her right shoulder, further shielding her face from him. “Just, just get me out of here,” she sobbed. She sounded exhausted.

“I’ll do that, but hon, you have to tell me what’s going on alright? I don’t know how to help you if—” he stopped mid-sentence once she turned around. He knew exactly what was wrong. He could see it. It simultaneously broke his heart and ignited a fire within him.

Stephanie couldn’t even hold his gaze, too ashamed at herself and what happened to even acknowledge him.

“Don’t tell me that asshole laid a finger on you or so help me…”

She shrugged as she aimlessly dragged her finger across the table, drawing imaginary patterns on the table.

“What happened? Steph, please. I know this is hard right now, but I need you to tell me what happened alright? I thought you were being looked after…” he said as he moved to sit on the table next to her. He placed his right arm around her shoulders, bringing her into his side for some sense of comfort.

She broke down then and all Halvo could do was sit there and try to console her. She clung tightly to him, burying her face in his shirt as she tried to cry away the pain and memories of this monster. Once she felt like she had cried the pain away for the time being, she moved out of his embrace enough to talk. “I had been looked after,” she croaked, her voice dry from crying. “Mr. Rickford was doing a wonderful job of keeping me on lockdown.”

He wanted to ask what the problem was, but decided she would tell him in time.

She shuddered as she thought about what took place earlier in the morning. At this point in time, she had no clue what time it was or how long she had been here. All she knew was that she had to get away. She sighed before speaking. “I uh, I went out this morning to go to the store. Mr. Rickford has been such a wonderful host to me, and I wanted to make him a special dinner tonight to thank him. I left early this morning to get ingredients so I could spend the rest of my day cooking. However, I never made it to the store…”

Halvo felt his blood run cold as he stared into the distance. He didn’t like the direction her story was taking.

She continued, deciding it would be best to get it out in the open rather than keep it bottled up. She knew she could trust Halvo. He’d been nothing but supportive this entire time.

“Since it wasn’t a particularly warm morning compared to most, I decided to take the scenic walk to the store. I was a couple blocks away when I felt someone grab my arm and pull me into one of the side alleyways…” her mind then drifted off as she recalled the exact moments of this morning.

She didn’t know who grabbed her, but she was instantly afraid. That fear only intensified the moment his hand covered her mouth. Unfortunately she was all too familiar with his calloused hands. He pinned her up against the wall with the arm he had clamped against her mouth and started beating her. He started by punching her in the face, giving her blackeyes. He continued his torture as he kneed her, kicked her, slapped her, any form of physical pain he could cause her. He was so angry with her for running away.

“Didn’t think I’d notice your little disappearing act huh?” he spat as he slapped her cheek. “Oh, but I’ve been keeping tabs on you and your ‘friends’. You’re not as safe as you think you are. I’ll come for you when you least expect it. Them too. I’m going to teach you a lesson that you will never forget. This will be the last time you run away from me. Understand?” he spat.

Stephanie looked at the monster she unfortunately called her husband and meekly nodded. She looked into his dark, brooding eyes seeing the almost pleasure he seemed to find in her fear.

With a final knee to her gut, he threw her on the ground. He was determined to remind her that she was married to him and that she only answered to him. He made his way to her crumpled figure lying on the pavement in the alleyway and turned her onto her back.

Her eyes widened in fear as she recognized that gleam in his eye. She knew what was coming next as it had happened many times before; and it was even worse than the beating she just took. However, she knew as beat up as she was, she wouldn’t be able to muster up enough strength to fight him off.

He straddled her waist as he began to unbuckle his belt, grinning devilishly at her. He grasped both of her wrists in one of his hands, pinning them to the ground above her head so she couldn’t fight him off. He knew exactly what he was doing; he knew she knew it too. He leaned down and began kissing her neck.

She was disgusted as she felt his hot breath against her skin. A gesture that used to make her melt in his arms now brought nothing but repulsion. Her stomach churned as she tried to wiggle from beneath his grasp.

He only saw this as a challenge and tightened his grip on her before pulling up her maxi skirt, discarding her underwear and his before having his way.

She felt sick as she tried to move from beneath him. Any advances she made only encouraged him more. She got to the point where she gave up and laid there until he was finished. She couldn’t stop the tears pouring from her eyes as she stared at the brick walls beside her, wishing for any kind of escape. She would scream but her voice, as well as her courage was gone.

After what felt like too long, he got up, redressing himself. He gave her a sloppy kiss on her cheek and left her, walking off as if nothing had happened.

Stephanie recounted her experience to Halvo, wincing in pain as she thought about the bruises to her sides. She only curled into herself more. The physical pain was more than unbearable, but the emotional pain that came with it was even worse.

Halvo was barely able to listen to her story. He wanted to find this guy and beat him up. He couldn’t believe that Stephanie endured this. He could only hold onto her tighter, wishing for some way he could help take away this situation.

“I can’t go back Halvo,” she choked out. “Please, please don’t make me go back,” she cried.

“Shhh, I won’t. I’m here. I’ll make sure he can’t find you.” He wrapped both arms around her, gently rubbing her back. He racked his brain trying to think of places he could take her. If she no longer felt safe at her boss’s house, there wasn’t many places for her to go. He felt terrible because he would be leaving with the guys next week for Warped Tour and he didn’t want to leave her there defenseless. However, he couldn’t bring her on the road. It would be cramped enough as it was and girls on the bus was never a good idea; at least long-term. It was alright if one of the guys had their girlfriend visit as it was only for a couple dates. He wouldn’t subject a girl to their lifestyle on a bus for two months. He was determined to find a place for her before he left.

“Hey Eric,” she sniffed, “can you not tell anyone about this? I mean, I already know you haven’t told anyone about me and for that I’m grateful. But this? I’d really like if no one else knew.”

He nodded against her as he had his head on top of hers. “I promise,” he spoke into her hair.

The pair sat on the old wooden picnic table in the middle of an abandoned park for hours as Halvo sat there holding her while she cried out whatever tears she had in her.

Once she felt comfortable enough to leave, he got off the table, offering his hand to help her down. She took it and he replaced his arm around her as he led them to his car.

“Do uh, do I need to take you to the hospital? Ya know, to make sure everything’s uh…alright?” he hesitantly asked.

She shook her head. “No. The hospital is one of the first places he’ll look and as I’m still technically married to him, they’d have to let him in to see me.”

He nodded in understanding, not really liking the idea of her not getting checked out. “Just…for my sanity, you’ll let me know if anything is going on right? I’ll take you to a private clinic in another state if I have to.”

She smiled at his sincerity and generosity. “Thanks. For now I’m alright, just shaken up. I know I’ll be pretty bruised up for a while, but I’ve had worse,” she chuckled darkly. “Just take me home,” she pleaded as she looked up at him.

He nodded, giving her a gentle kiss to the crown of her head, before opening her door and helping her in. He drove them to his apartment, knowing exactly where she meant when she asked him to bring her home. He refused to admit it, but his apartment felt less like home since Stephanie had left. He got used to her being around. It was empty without her presence. John planned on moving in after Warped which should help, but he wouldn’t deny he was happy to have the girl back.

He led her up to his apartment and she awkwardly stood there as she wasn’t sure how comfortable to make herself.

Halvo noticed hesitance and smiled gently. “Steph, please make yourself at home,” he encouraged, nodding his head towards the couch.

She meekly smiled as she walked to the couch where they marathoned so many shows on Netflix. Sitting on his couch brought to her mind all the late night talks and crazy stories they shared. Despite her circumstances, that was the last time she remembered being truly happy. Halvo was a great friend and she wouldn’t ever be able to thank him for his hospitality.

He called from the kitchen, “So I know it’s Arizona and it’s like 100 degrees outside, but would you like some hot chocolate? I know it sounds crazy, but hot chocolate always makes me feel better.”

She smiled as she replied, “I would love some.”

He got the milk and special hot chocolate mix that he only used on special occasions. He never shared this kind with anyone else as it only came out around Christmas and wasn’t cheap. This time, however, was a special case and he knew she needed it more.

He got out a small saucepan and poured enough milk for both of their drinks into it, letting it warm on the stove as he poured the flakes of chocolate into their mugs. Once the milk was done, he poured it into their mugs, slowly mixing in the chocolate flakes until they melted into the milk. For a special touch, he grabbed the can of whip cream from the fridge and added a large dollop on top. With some of the extra chocolate flakes he had, he sprinkled that on top of the whipped cream.

He grabbed both of their mugs and made his way into the living room, happy to see his Netflix pulled up as she scrolled through shows to watch. He set both mugs on the table as he made himself comfortable on the couch.

Stephanie had one of the blankets draped across her lap. Without looking up from the screen, as soon as she noticed Halvo’s presence beside her, she opened up the side of the blanket between him, offering to share.

With a smile, he draped it across his legs as he handed Stephanie her hot chocolate. His promise to Chaney to talk to John long forgotten as his new mission was to help mend the broken girl sharing his couch.