...And a Happy New Year

July 11, 2014

Chaney woke up to someone stroking her forehead. She looked up and saw Alex. He was sitting on the side of her bed as he looked at her worriedly. “Hey sis, how are ya feeling?”

She blinked a few times, trying to dust the cobwebs off her mind as she attempted to formulate a response. Honestly, she had no idea how she was doing. She was confused. The last thing she remembered was answering the door to a well-dressed man. Past that nothing was ringing a bell. “Um, fine I suppose? I don’t remember much right now.”

His lips turned down in a frown as he brushed some hair off her face. “That’s what I was afraid of.”

“What happened?”

“Basically we were all watching fireworks and I noticed that you had gone missing and hadn’t reappeared for a while. I excused myself from the group and went inside to check on you. I found you on the floor by the front door, knocked out. I’m still not sure how long you were passed out for.”

“I don’t know who it was, I just remember he was really well dressed.”

“I got you checked out and you didn’t have a concussion, luckily. However, because you hit your head so hard, they wanted to air on the side of caution. You’ve been sleeping off and on for the last week.”

“I have?”

“Yeah,” Alex trailed off hesitantly. “We’ve had conversations. You don’t remember any of it?”

Chaney moved to sit up in her bed. She ran a hand through her tangled locks and tried to rack her brain of anything she could’ve done since The Fourth. Unfortunately nothing was ringing a bell. She believed Alex, but for whatever reason her mind was at a disconnect. “I’m sorry Alex, but none of this sounds familiar,” she said worriedly.

Fear filled his features as he took a deep breath. “Ok, um, we need to take you back to the doctor then. He cautioned against this happening.”

“Why? What’s going on?”

“Chaney, the scans didn’t show anything but you could have some sort of brain damage from when you fell and hit your head. Not to mention you were knocked out for an unknown amount of time. That’s not exactly great,” he scolded.

“Please don’t scold me. I’m just confused about what’s going on right now,” Chaney reasoned.

Alex sighed, “I get that. I do, but you gotta understand where my concern comes into play. I don’t want anything happening to my indestructible big sister. You’re the strongest person I know and to see you struggling to remember anything from this past week makes me a bit nervous alright?”

Chaney nearly lost it when she saw Alex’s eyes start to get a bit misty. Her eyes got a bit teary as she reached towards Alex to embrace him. He leaned forward and clung tightly to her as she buried her face in his shoulder. “Alex, I’m scared. I don’t know why I can’t remember anything past last week but please be strong for me. I need your support.” She felt him nod against her as he hugged her tighter.

“Alex, there’s something else, too.”

He leaned back from their embrace to see her face. “What?”

“I uh, I think I saw Stephanie last week.”

“Woah, are you serious? Where? When?”

“Right before I left to go to the store. I was waiting for the car to cool down when I saw her on the sidewalk. I went to grab my purse and shut off my car to go out and see her, but she disappeared.”

“Are you sure you saw her? I mean, you did say it was really hot outside…”

“Ugh, yes I’m positive. I don’t think I could’ve hallucinated an entire person. And then…oh my god.”

“What is it?”

“I remember who was at the door,” Chaney muttered as her eyes grew wide with realization.

***
John had been lounging under their merch tent before gates opened when he observed Halvo walking around constantly pulling his phone out of his pocket, messing with the screen before pocketing it. He decided to ignore it as he prepped to get ready to meet fans when the gates opened.

Halvo kept trying to ignore his phone but to no avail. It started early that morning while he was walking around with Garrett, Kennedy, and Pat before gates opened. His phone started ringing and he looked at the caller ID to see it was Alex calling him. He loved the kid, but he really didn’t have time to talk to him at the moment because the group was making their way to start walking the line to meet and greet fans as they came in. However, his phone wouldn’t stop ringing once he ignored it the first time. Pat kept looking at him strangely.

“Uh, dude? Y-y-ya gonna answer your ph-ph-ph-phone?”

Halvo rolled his eyes. “It’s not a big deal. I’ll answer it later during one of our breaks.”

“Pat’s right man. What if something is wrong?” Kennedy chimed in.

“Psh, I doubt it. The only person that I’d be concerned about calling me isn’t calling me so…” he trailed off.

“Oh, so it’s not Chaney then?” Garrett asked.

Halvo froze momentarily because he wasn’t even thinking of Chaney. His mind instantly went to Stephanie. He brushed off his momentary lapse and played off as if it were otherwise. “Guys, just don’t worry about it alright? I’ll deal with it later,” he scoffed as he retracted his phone to put it on silent and airplane mode as they continued walking towards the line.

Alex tried calling once again, and this time he went straight to voicemail. “Chane, I think he’s either turned off his phone or completely blocked me. He won’t answer his phone and it now sends me straight to voicemail,” he said with a sigh.

Chaney’s face deflated as she heard the update. “Oh, um th-that’s alright. We’ll just uh, call him later,” she mumbled. She couldn’t believe her own boyfriend was ignoring her, much less her brother. She didn’t know what was going on with him and why he suddenly felt the need to shut them all out of his life. Things had been going so well between them and then he just isolated himself. No explanation. She wouldn’t have been as mad if he had just told her he needed some time to himself. What she couldn’t stand was the purposeful exclusion that he seemed to be so fond of as of late.

She slumped back against the headboard of her bed as she looked at Alex sorrowfully.

He looked back at her with a slight frown. “We’ll figure it out alright?”

She nodded as she turned her attention down to her hands. She just wanted things to return to normal. She wanted her and Halvo to be back to the way they were. Even if it meant that they were back to being just friends. She didn’t care. She just missed him. She wanted Stephanie back. She missed having her around to talk to and cut up with. Work was even more of a drag now and she just wanted to know if her friend was alright. She’d been sick with worry over her over the last couple months. Seeing her the other day just reinforced how much she wished things were back to normal. The one change she was happy about was Alex. His presence in her life meant so much to her. Especially now that all of her other relationships seemed to be so strained, she was thankful to have family on her side.

Alex gave her hand a small squeeze before exiting her room and closing the door behind him. He made his way to the small landing outside the kitchen and pulled his phone out again. If Halvo wouldn’t answer his calls, John sure would. He took a deep breath as he scrolled through his contacts to find John’s number. He wasn’t sure what their schedule was today, but he at least knew if John couldn’t talk, he would text Alex and let him know that. John had no reason to ignore him. Halvo didn’t either, but he didn’t want to think about that.

His finger hovered over his number as he pressed send to connect the call. Fortunately John answered on the second ring, bringing much relief to his face as he answered.

“Hello?” John answered.

“John! Thank god you answered.”

“Yeah, what’s up man? I only have a couple minutes.”

“That’s fine, I’ll be brief. First of all, any reason why Halvo is ignoring my calls? He hasn’t said anything about being mad at me has he?”

“What? No…” John replied surprised. “He’s actually been ignoring me, too,” he muttered.

“Wait…Halvo. Your best friend for almost your entire life. He’s ignoring you.”

“Uh, yeah. He’s been keeping to himself most of the time this tour. I’m not really sure what’s going on, but apparently he’s been ignoring Chaney as well?”

“Woah. Halvo’s been ignoring my sister?!” Alex exclaimed, the rage slowly building within him.

“You didn’t know?” John asked incredulously.

“No!”

“Chaney hasn’t told you anything?”

“No! Do you think I’d be this outraged if I had known?!”

John sighed, “I guess not. So to answer your question, he hasn’t said anything about being upset with you. Then again he hasn’t said much to us to begin with. He seemed to be alright until a couple weeks ago and something in him just snapped. He won’t tell us what’s going on.”

“That’s so strange. But it does explain why Chaney has seemed her less than lackluster self though.”

John immediately became alert. “What’s going on with Chaney? Is everything alright?”

“That’s actually why I was trying to contact Halvo. See if he could help out.”

“What happened? I’ll take the next flight there if something happened.”

“Nah, I should be able to handle it for now. Besides, I’m not overly positive that she wants anyone really knowing.”

“Alex…” John warned.

“Fine. At our Fourth of July party last week, we were all out on the landing watching fireworks. She excused herself to go inside at some point. I go in when I notice she’d been gone for a while. I find her passed out unconscious on the floor.”

“What?!”

“John,” Alex reasoned, “chill. I took her to the doctor. She didn’t have a concussion, thankfully. However when she woke up this morning, she didn’t recall anything that had happened in the last week. She had been fine, minus sleeping a bit more than normal. However now…dude, I don’t know what to do. She’s starting to get back some of her memory which is what I wanted to call Halvo about.”

“Don’t worry about him. I’ll take care of it. I’ll make sure he calls her,” John seethed.

“No, just have him call me. She’s stressed enough as it is.”

“Yeah, but her boyfriend shouldn’t be ignoring her. Especially if she’s not well.”

“Try telling Halvo that,” Alex replied bitterly. “No, but don’t cause any more grief than what’s already present. Chaney’s got enough on her plate.”

John took a deep breath through his nose to calm his nerves. “Fine,” he breathed with a grunt. “But I’m letting him know his actions are uncalled for. Keep me posted on Chaney. Have her call me later tonight.”

“What time do you guys perform?”

“7:45.”

Alex quickly did the math in his head to gauge the time difference. “Alright. I’ll have her call you guys around 9:30 your time. That work?”

“Yeah, that’s fine. Later dude.”

John hung up his phone and was seeing red. He saw the gates had recently opened and that fans were trickling around the grounds. He had to suck it up and put on a face of indifference until he had the chance to talk to Halvo. Maybe he would be able to cool off enough by then so he wouldn’t worry about possibly severing their friendship. John darkly chuckled at the ironic twist of fate. The anger he had towards Halvo recently was to the severity he had towards Chaney. However that has in turn, been channeled to Halvo for treating Chaney poorly. He shook his head to clear his thoughts as he stood up from his chair to stand behind the merch table to start greeting fans. It was going to be a long day.

The guys all gathered about halfway through the day and walked away from the bustle of Warped so they could grab some lunch and eat on the bus. It provided the solace and cooler environment they needed to refuel for a little bit. After the last batch of fans walked off, they made their way towards the bus.

John distanced himself from the group as he walked slightly behind them. He observed Halvo cutting up and joking around with the rest of the guys as if nothing was going on. The fact that he seemed to be fine acting normally around everyone else but him really unnerved him. He felt his anger raise as he continued to watch. As they approached the bus, luck was on his side as Halvo was one of the last one of the rest of the guys to load the bus; Pat going off to talk to some of the other bands sitting around. Before Halvo had the chance to get on the bus, John grabbed the back of his shirt and drug him around the back of the bus so they could talk.

“Dude! What the fuck, man?” Halvo questioned.

“Oh, don’t even start with me. You’ve got some nerve ya know.”

“Oh cut the dramatic, cryptic shit John and just tell me what’s going on,” Halvo deadpanned.

“Like you really need me to tell you,” John snipped.

Halvo glared at him, not backing down.

John sighed. “Alright, wanna know what’s going on?”

“Yeah, some insight would be nice,” he quipped.

“So I hear that you’re not only ignoring your girlfriend but her brother as well. What gives?”

“Please, could you say that word with any more disdain? Get over yourself. I have a girlfriend finally and you can’t handle that for once someone preferred me over you.” As soon as the words left his mouth, he knew he took it too far. He regretted his words immediately, but it was too late to take it back or back down now.

“Is that really what you think?” John replied softer, but with as much force and conviction as before.

“No, I just—”

“Stop Halvo. Just stop. I was just trying to help you mend your relationship with your girlfriend before you screw that up, too. Call her, or don’t. Just don’t come complaining to me when she doesn’t want anything to do with you anymore because she’s tired of waiting around for your shit. At least have the decency to tell her if you want out. Don’t lead her on if you’re not interested. And for god’s sake, call Alex back. He hasn’t done anything.”

Halvo could only stare at the ground. He felt terrible. John had a point. He had been a shitty boyfriend, and an even worse friend over the last couple weeks. He couldn’t hold John’s stare because of how ashamed he felt and didn’t feel like he deserved to hold his eye contact. He nodded as he took in John’s words as he thought through what to do next.

“Besides,” John muttered, “I’d figure you’d want to talk to her considering she’s lost some short term memory.” With that, John walked off as he made his way to the bus to go on and eat lunch.

Halvo’s head shot up at John’s final words and watched with wide eyes as John walked away. He immediately pulled his phone out of his pocket and turned it off of airplane mode. His phone started going off for the next couple minutes as the notifications came in now that the signal was turned back on. Amongst the numerous missed calls, he saw he had a text from Chaney. Without even reading what she said, he instantly dialed her number.

She picked up with a weak hello as soon as it began to ring.

“Chaney?!”

“Yeah Halvo,” she replied flatly.

“Are you okay?”

She scoffed, “Finally concerned with how I’m doing now?”

“Indy c’mon,” he pleaded, “I’m serious.”

“I am too!” she exclaimed. “I’ve tried contacting you since before you left for Warped and this is the first time you’ve felt fit to talk to me, much less initiate conversation, since then! How the hell else am I supposed to react?”

“I’m sorry!”

“Halv—”

“Chaney,” he replied softer, “I am genuinely sorry.”

“Could you at least tell me what’s going on? I mean, we finally tell the rest of the guys that we’re together and then you drop off the face of the earth. Suddenly I’m worthy of your time again? What gives?”

“Chaney, if only I could tell you—”

“That would be helpful. I’d like to know what’s going on with you. I mean, if it’s some big secret or something you don’t wanna tell me, fine. Just tell me that you can’t say anything. It’s better than getting the silent treatment for no reason.”

He sighed. What he would give to just tell her now everything that was going on. If he could explain what was going on with Stephanie, he knew it would clear the air and she could have some peace of mind. However, he knew if he were to tell her now, months after Stephanie first came to him, that Chaney would be even more suspicious than she is now. The rift between them could potentially only get worse from there. “Chaney, you have no idea just how badly I want to explain everything to you.”

“But you can’t, right?”

“It’s not that simple,” he defended.

“It never is,” she scoffed. “Just tell me this. Is it because you don’t trust me? Or is there some affair on the side that you’re not wanting to tell me about? I mean level with me here. If there’s another girl, just say so. It’ll be a lot less heartbreaking than being strung along.”

Technically there was another girl, but not in the way she implied. “There’s not another girl. Only you.” He could handle partial truths right now.

She audibly sighed with relief at hearing that. Her voice softer now, “Then why are you ignoring me Eric?”

“I don’t want to.”

“Then why are you?”

“It just makes this…this…thing easier,” he tried to explain.

“What ‘thing’ is this? Is it whatever you can’t tell me?”

“Yes,” he mumbled.

Chaney nodded partially accepting his answer. “Alright. I’ll respect your privacy and won’t nag you to tell me everything that’s going on with you. I trust you. But I can’t say I like the fact that you don’t feel like you can’t talk to me about it.”

Halvo dropped his head back with frustration. “It’s not that I don’t feel like I can’t talk to you about it. It’s just that I can’t talk to you about it! It’s not my secret to tell!” His eyes went wide. He said too much.

Chaney’s eyebrows shot up as the pieces started to fall into place. “Wow. Well, I hope this secret is worth keeping.”

“Chaney—”

“It’s fine. I just wanted to tell you that I think I saw Stephanie last week and later that night her husband found me at my apartment and punched me; knocking me unconscious. I don’t have a concussion, but I have some short term memory loss. At least that’s what Alex is telling me. I only remembered this morning who was at the door. My memory is slowly returning to me, and quite honestly, I’m afraid of what else I’m going to remember over time.”

Halvo’s blood ran cold as she relayed her life over the last week so nonchalantly. He had to call Stephanie. Her secrets were now messing with his girlfriend’s safety and he was going to demand she come clean with her and John. He was sick of keeping her secret. She’d been hiding out long enough. They were her friends, too, and would keep her safe.

“Indy, I gotta go.”

He didn’t give her a chance to reply before he hung up and immediately started to dial Stephanie’s number.

“Eric!” she greeted on the other end of the receiver.

“Not now. I’m done,” he replied gruffly.

“What? What are you talking about?”

“I’m saying, I’m done keeping your secret. It’s time to come clean to John and Chaney now. Your little hideout is now affecting my girlfriend’s safety on top of slowly tarnishing our relationship. I’m done,” he seethed.

“What do you mean ‘affecting her safety’? What happened?”

“Apparently your husband paid her a visit. He was looking for you.”

Stephanie almost dropped her phone as she looked at Vito sitting on the other end of the couch. He turned his head towards her, sensing the tension on the phone, with a quirked brow. She looked back at him nervously as she worried her lower lip.

“H-h-he was?” she stuttered.

“Yeah, and fuckin’ punched her and knocked her unconscious!”

Her eyes started to water as she heard that her best friend had been hurt at the hands of her husband.

“Eric, ya gotta understand—”

“No, I’m done understanding. I’ve helped you however I ‘ve been able to and now you’re gonna help me. You’re going to come clean to Chaney and John about your whereabouts. You don’t have to tell them about what happened, but you’ll have to at some point. You can’t hide your pregnancy forever.” He stopped to take a breath and heard her silence on the other end. His eyes went wide as he spoke at barely a whisper, “Unless you—”

“No. I uh, I’ve decided to um, keep the baby,” she mumbled.

Halvo wasn’t sure which he was more surprised by: the thought that she could’ve terminated her pregnancy, or the fact that she was deciding to keep it.

“I was uh, wondering if you’d be the godfather,” she muttered.

He came to his senses as she said the last bit. “What? You want me to be the godfather?! I don’t know what to say…”

“I thought it’d be an offer you couldn’t refuse,” she uttered with a hint of a smirk in her voice.

He laughed at her attempt, “You’re right. Of course I’ll be the godfather. I’d love to. One question though; why me?”

She shrugged despite him not being able to see. “You’ve proven to me that you’re more than capable of taking care of not only yourself and your friends, but me when I’ve needed you to. I’m not asking you to help me raise it or anything, but—”

“You don’t have to ask,” he interrupted. “I’ll be here to help you raise that child. Maybe I won’t be its father, but I’ll be the father figure that it’s biological father couldn’t be.”

Stephanie couldn’t stop the wide smile that began to fill her features. “This seriously means the world to me Eric, and I’ll never be able to thank you for helping me…and my child.”

“If you don’t mind my asking, why exactly did you decide to keep it?”

“I don’t know. Something about a life that wouldn’t be able to be impacted by all of the amazing people I’ve met; you, Chaney, John, Vito…that would be so horrible to let a life not have the chance to be impacted by you guys. You all mean the world to me and I know you will to my child. I want nothing but the best for them.” She put a protective hand over her stomach at the thought of the life beginning to grow inside of her.

Halvo was near tears at her words. “While I’m gone on tour, you will have to keep me posted on the pregnancy alright?”

“Of course I will. And I promise, I’ll tell them. But I want to wait until you guys are home first. I want to tell them in person. I owe them that much.”

“Thank you Steph. I’ll talk to you later.” He hung up the phone and couldn’t wipe the smile off his face at the thought of being a godfather. He knew he had more ‘growing up’ he would have to do between now and her child’s birth, but he was ready. He wanted to take on that challenge.

Halvo turned around to start heading onto the bus and was faced with Pat who only eyed him curiously. Halvo’s eyes went wide as he realized Pat could’ve heard his conversation. “How much—”

“Enough to kn-kn-know you’ve got s-some twisted sh-shit goin’ on,” he said.