...And a Happy New Year

October 18, 2014

John stood pacing around his room. His mind wouldn’t shut off; his thoughts clouded by the mess surrounding him, Chaney, and Halvo. John felt utterly stuck. He wasn’t sure how to help Chaney and Halvo mend their relationship and he found it funny how the roles had reversed. Just earlier this year Halvo was playing that role to try and mend the drama between himself and Chaney. He chuckled bitterly at the irony and wished more than anything that he could find some solution.

John raked a shaky hand through his disheveled hair. He barely slept the night before; thoughts of Chaney plaguing his mind. Sleeping didn’t help matters as he only dreamt of what if felt like to be kissing her. When she rejected him, he woke up in a cold sweat, and had been pacing in his room ever since. The sun had long since risen and his thoughts of Chaney and the pickle he’d gotten himself into only worsened. He had to see her.

He let out a bated breath as he moved to change from his sweats and get ready for the day. He grabbed a pair of jeans and one of his button up shirts as he made his way to the bathroom to clean up. He showered, dressed, and put on his shoes, grabbing his keys to the Jeep as he made his way outside.

He got in, turning up the radio in hopes of drowning out his thoughts. However nothing he was doing was helping. Driving usually helped defog his brain; pair that with music and he always found himself lost in the moment and enjoying the simplicity of it. It would become a means of escape as he was momentarily able to forget about the stresses of life in those times. This was not one of those times. Music did little for drowning out the noise of his problems as he continued to drive down the highway. He spotted the familiar road name and pulled off.

He navigated through the city to the small, familiar coffee shop hidden from the hustle and bustle of downtown. He smiled softly as he observed it. He parked his Jeep and got out, happy that he decided to come back. It had been a while since he was last in there.

The strong smell of fresh coffee beans filled his nose as he opened the door. He inhaled the bitter fragrance; letting it wash over his senses. There weren’t many people inside. A few people in line and even fewer sitting at the tables. There was a couple sitting on the same side of the table next to the window that caught his eye. John smiled softly as he observed them. She was taking a bite of her croissant as she flipped through a magazine. Her right hand intertwined with the man with whom she was sitting. He was sipping his coffee with his free hand as he casually looked out of the window beside them. Though they were doing their own thing, their movements were in sync with each other. When she went to flip pages of her magazine, they would disconnect their hands momentarily long enough for her to change pages, before reconnecting their hands. He would occasionally bring their intertwined hands to his lips, pressing small kisses to the back of her hand as she read. She would look up from her magazine and observe him looking out the window and smile warmly at him before resuming her reading.

In the simplicity of the moment this couple was sharing, John couldn’t help but wish for the same thing.

“Next!”

The barista’s voice from behind the counter grabbed his attention as he sheepishly made his way to the counter. “I need a grande Americano Roast coffee and a grande French Roast please.” He pulled out his wallet to pay for the coffees and left his change in the tip jar. He made his way over to the small counter over to the side to doctor their coffee before making his way out of the small coffee shop, two coffees in tow.

The drive to Chaney’s didn’t last long enough as he still hadn’t sorted out his thoughts by the time he pulled into her complex. He turned off his Jeep and sat there for a few moments as he stared at her building. He could see where her room was at as her living room windows were at the front of the building. Leaning forward, he looked through his windshield up to her floor. He let exhaled deeply and grabbed their coffee as he got out and made his way upstairs to her room.

When he approached her door, he moved his coffee into the crook of his other arm and knocked on her door; anxiety filling his being as he anticipated her answering the door.

“One sec!” she yelled from the other side of the door.

He heard her shuffling around and a few moments later the door opened to reveal a slightly out of breath Chaney.

“John? What’s goin on?” she asked breathlessly, confused as to why he was standing at her doorstep.

“I uh, I brought some coffee…”

“Oh! Yeah, uh, come on in. Sorry. I’m a bit scatterbrained this morning,” she chuckled. She opened the door wider as John made his way inside. “Make yourself at home John. I just need to finish getting some stuff together.”

Chaney left to head towards her room.

He moved to the bar separating the kitchen from the living room and took a seat on one of the stools. “So uh, I didn’t mean to intrude. I didn’t know you had plans today. I can leave if I need to,” he called out.

Chaney poked her head out from her bedroom and looked towards John, “Don’t be ridiculous,” she scoffed. She returned a moment later carrying a basket with her paintbrushes and paints inside. She set it down on the counter and leaned against it.

John motioned with his head towards her coffee.

“French Roast--” she started.

“...with two sugars. Pink, not yellow,” John smirked.

“You remembered,” she smiled. She took a lingering sip of her coffee, letting it the warmth trickle down her throat.

He scoffed, “Of course I remembered. You only order the same thing every single time.”

Silence fell over the pair as they continued to sip their coffee. John avoided eye contact, his eyes trained on the countertop in front of him. Chaney would occasionally cast a glance in his direction and could see the inner turmoil he was battling. She didn’t know what he was struggling with, but she felt that for whatever reason, he needed a friend and had chosen her.

“Hey John,” the sound of his name bringing his attention to her, “um, you know we can still hang out today. I’m not really that busy.”

His brows furrowed momentarily as his eyes shifted briefly towards the basket sitting on the counter before returning to her. “What uh, what’s with all your painting supplies? Don’t tell me you’re throwing in the towel now.”

She laughed, “Oh god no! Farthest thing from it! So you know that gallery I was invited to earlier this year? Well, there was a gentleman that had attended the gallery and had come in contact with me a few weeks ago. Apparently he’s a practicing artist that has a huge studio space that he rents out to local artists. It took him a while to find me, but he liked my work well enough that he’s offering me a space free, on a three month trial basis. He called me yesterday and told me I could move my stuff in today so I planned on heading over today to drop my stuff off.”

“Wow, that’s amazing Van Gogh! I told you it’d work out.”

“Hey, I’m on a trial period, so we’ll see,” she laughed. “But I’m excited. This has potential of opening up some really awesome opportunities.”

“I hope it does. You definitely have the talent.”

She blushed and playfully nudged his shoulder. “You have to say that. You’re my friend,” she mumbled.

“No, I’m saying it because I’m your friend.”

“Isn’t that what I just said?” she chuckled.

He rolled his eyes with a smile. “Lemme try this a different way. I’m not one of those people who will bullshit with you. If you sucked, I would tell you.”

“Gee, guess I know who not to ask for brutally honest opinions,” she teased.

“Hey now, don’t be like that,” he chuckled.

“C’mon,” she said as she finished the last of her coffee, “help me tote this stuff out to my car and you can see my spot.”

“Better yet, let’s take my Jeep. Tim is having a party tonight at his place with all the guys. You should come.”

“Oh, I don’t wanna intrude on your guys’ night…”

“You won’t be! Some of the guys’ girlfriends will be there. We can head over later this afternoon. I have to pick up some stuff for it tonight anyway.”

“Alright, well grab that roll of canvas and stack of wood frame panels next to it. I’ll get this basket and the few pieces I’ve been working on. Lead the way O’Callaghan.”

They loaded up the back of his Jeep. The drive was silent save for her directions to the studio. It was located in a section of a refurbished factory. She led him inside and up the stairs to the floor the studio was on. She entered in the keycode and the door clicked unlocked as she pushed the door open. There were large windows along two of the walls. The room smelled of old brick with a faint hint of paint. The light was streaming through the windows on their left and she observed the dust particles in the air floating around in the sunlight.

She looked around and found her station over on the far side of the room. Chaney made her way over to her spot and looked to her right to see if anyone else was there. The room was fairly large and provided more than enough room for the other five people she was sharing the space with. No one else seemed to be there, so she shrugged it off and started to set her stuff down.

John was still holding the roll of canvas and framing boards as he slowly strolled to where Chaney was at. He looked around, checking out the rustic space surrounding him.

“This place is really cool Van Gogh. Is the studio the only thing here?”

“Ummm...no there’s a couple shops and small restaurants downstairs. Oh! And on one of the other levels there’s actually a couple small stages,” she smirked in his direction.

The words “small stage” piqued John’s interest as he turned to Chaney wide-eyed. “Really?”

“Yeah! Halv--” she stopped herself from finishing his name, “he uh, he had taken me to a couple smaller shows in the past,” she shrugged.

John gave her a small smile and walked over the short distance to her work station. “Where do you want these?”

“Oh, you can just set them--”

“Chaney?”

“...Beside my desk. Kelly!”

“Oh my god girl I’m so glad to see you! I didn’t know when you were moving your stuff in here.”

“Yeah, Jake contacted me earlier this week and said it was free today! I’m so excited!”

“Hey, I’m Kelly,” she said as she extended her hand towards John, “and you are?”

“Oh, um, I’m John,” he smiled as he took her hand and shook it.

Chaney snuck a glance at Kelly and could immediately see all the tell tale signs. All of her weight was on one of her legs. She had one arm wrapped around her waist. The other hand was wrapped around a strand of her hair, constantly twirling and untwirling it. There was a glow on her face that wasn’t there a few moments prior. Not to mention the smile hadn’t been removed from her face since she spotted John. She definitely had a crush on John. Chaney sighed and turned to continue unpacking her basket.

“John? What an unoriginal name,” she teased.

“Well, I am the fifth one in my family,” he chuckled.

“Fifth? Really? Your family that crazy about the name John?” she challenged.

“I mean, it’s a family name. My full name that is.”

“Is it now?” she asked. “Well, what is your full name pray tell?”

“Guess you’ll just have to wait and see,” he smirked.

Chaney rolled her eyes as she continued unpacking her stuff. Whether he realized it or not, the O’Callaghan charm was definitely working. She had always heard that he was a genuinely sweet guy, but until she experienced his charm first hand she had no idea just how charming he could be. He was too endearing for his own good, and what made it worse is that he didn’t realize he was doing it.

“So are you an artist too?” Kelly asked.

“Well, sorta, but not in the way that Van Gogh, here, does.”

“Van Gogh?” she chuckled. “That was oddly specific.”

He laughed, “No, that’s what I call Chaney. Because she paints ya know?”

“Aww, that’s so cute,” Kelly cooed. “So are you guys like…”

“No,” Chaney cut in too quickly with a nervous chuckle. “Uh, we’re friends.” She turned and gave a strained smile to John who was too puzzled to show another response other than confusion.

“Uh...yeah, friends….” he replied.

“Well, I’ve got to head out. I’ve got a family dinner tonight and I still need to shop for food and cook. Will I see you in the studio this week Chane?”

She looked up from her box that she was still unpacking, “Oh, uh yeah. Not sure what days yet, but I’ll text you and let you know when I find out.”

“Perfect. I’ll see you this week then. Nice to meet you Fifth John,” Kelly giggled as she walked out.

John ran a hand through his hair as he stepped over towards Chaney to see what she needed help with.

Without looking up, but sensing John’s presence over her shoulder, Chaney spoke up. “Ya know she likes you right?”

“Huh?”

Chaney turned to look over her shoulder at him. “Kelly. She has a small crush on you,” she chuckled.

“Why would you say that? We barely talked.”

“John,” she deadpanned with a knowing glare, “you can’t honestly tell me you didn’t see her trying to flirt with you.”

“Flirt? With me? Why would she flirt with me?”

“Because you’re too damn charming for your own good O’Callaghan.” Chaney finished unpacking the last of her painting supplies and set it up on her work table before turning to John with an accomplished smile. “I’m honestly surprised you haven’t picked up on that fact by now.”

“What fact?”

“You’re killing me, Smalls. The fact that all you have to do is flash your famous smile and be your normal charming self and you have just about any girl wrapped around your little finger.”

“But...I can’t talk to girls…”

Chaney sighed, “Apparently that only makes you more endearing.”

John let that sink in a moment before his face broke out into a wide grin. “Is that how I won you over? With my dazzling smile and charming personality?”

Chaney’s face turned red as she turned away from John and moved to mindlessly arrange her stuff on the desk. “Your ego was enough to turn me away,” she muttered.

John laughed, “Hey, play nice! I was only joking.”

Chaney’s face only turned more red, and she didn’t want to turn around and face him. She opted instead to just shake her head and continue to mess around with her stuff.

“Chaney.”

Nothing.

“Chane.”

Still no acknowledgement.

John sighed, rolling his eyes and moved to stand next to Chaney. “Are you even gonna look at me or acknowledge that I’m standing here?”

She still didn’t make any movement to acknowledge him. By this point, she was more embarrassed with herself than actually upset with him, but didn’t know how to respond to him by this point.

“John, I just...nevermind,” she mumbled.

“No, what’s wrong?”

“Just embarrassed alright? Can we drop this please?”

“What are you embarrassed about?” he chuckled.

“Jooooohn,” she groaned.

“Alright, alright fine. Subject dropped.” There was a beat of silence. “But I still don’t understand how that Kelly girl could possibly like me.”

“Oh my god you’re like a middle school girl,” Chaney groaned.

“What? I’m just saying...we didn’t even talk much.”

“Once again. Missing the point.” She turned to grab her bag and started to walk towards the door. “C’mon Casanova. Let’s go get supplies and head over to Tim’s.”

He chuckled and followed her out the door.

***

“Ok, we got beer, chasers, chips, salsa, and hot dogs. Was there anything else we needed to get?” Chaney asked as she eyed the grocery basket.

“Nope. That’s got it.”

The pair made their way towards an empty checkout lane and Chaney began to unload the basket onto the lane. “Damn, how many people are coming tonight? Are you sure this is enough for everyone?”

He chuckled, “Promise. We’re good on supplies. Everyone’s bringing a little something anyway. Chill out. You act like you’ve never been to a party before.”

She rolled her eyes. “Trust me, I’ve been to more than my fair share. Always woke up hungover as hell at them too. No thanks to Hal--I mean Eric,” she muttered the last part quietly.

John hadn’t realized until that day just how much Chaney’s broken relationship with Halvo was affecting her. She could barely say his name. He knew it had been rough on her, but didn’t quite understand just how deeply it affected her. She was ace at putting up a front, he observed. He opted not to draw attention to that fact, and instead helped her finish unloading the basket and paid for the supplies.

“John, I didn’t mind paying or chipping in for half,” she deadpanned as they walked towards his Jeep.

“I know, but I was the one assigned to bring it anyway.”

“Yeah, but you invited me to go and I didn’t bring anything.”

“Exactly my point. You were invited and by definition, not required or obligated to bring supplies.”

He opened up the trunk of his Jeep and they loaded the few bags of groceries before sitting and making the short drive to Tim’s house.

When they pulled up, the party seemed to already be in full swing as there were cars lining the driveway and street.

“John, I thought you said this was a small get together…”

He shrugged nonchalantly. “It is. This is about normal. I promise, once you get inside, you’ll see it’s not as crowded as you think. There probably weren’t as many people that carpooled this time around. C’mon, let’s grab the stuff and head inside.”

They retrieved the bags from the back and made their way inside, making a beeline towards the kitchen to put up their stuff.

“Alright Van Gogh, if you could go ahead and put the beers and dogs in the fridge for now, that’ll be helpful. Looks like the alcohol is in full stock for the time being, so we need to get those chilled for later. I’m gonna put the rest of this stuff up, but if you wouldn’t mind helping me cut the limes I would appreciate it.”

She nodded and both moved to put up their respective supplies.

“Alright, I’ve got a bowl, sharp knives are in the drawer by the fridge.”

Chaney retrieved knives for the both of them so they could cut the limes into wedges.

“Ya know, I really don’t think we needed to buy an entire bag of limes John...This is going to take forever,” she chuckled.

“Duh, which is why I recruited you to help. You think I was gonna do all this?” he laughed.

She scoffed, “Hell no. I don’t trust you with sharp knives,” she teased. “You’re likely to cut your finger off. You need supervision.”

He smiled and rolled his eyes, nudging her shoulder with his.

Pat walked into the kitchen not long after. “Chaney!” he greeted with a big smile. “S-so glad to see you! I didn’t know you were coming.”

“Yeah, because apparently I’m the only nice one in the band,” John joked.

Pat rolled his eyes. “I’m about to help Tim with the grilling. Did you guys get the meat?”

“It’s in the fridge along with the hot dogs,” Chaney supplied.

He nodded and went to retrieve them. “Hey, come chat with me later. I ha-ha-haven’t seen you in a while. We should c-c-catch up.”

“Of course! I’ll come find you after I finish helping Rambo cut the limes.”

Pat laughed and nodded as he walked out of the kitchen with the food to grill.

“Rambo?”

“What?” Chaney asked skeptically.

“Nothing. Just...wondering where that one came from,” he chuckled.

She shrugged as she went to cut one of the limes in half. For whatever reason this particular lime was being stubborn and she leaned over closer to the counter so she could add more pressure to the knife. When she did, the knife cut the lime in half, but squirted a fair amount of juice into her eye.

She dropped the knife instantly and clutched her eye, hissing in pain.

John put down his supplies and turned Chaney to face him.

“Hey, what’s wrong? What happened?”

“I cut the lime and it squirted juice in my eye. Hurts like hell.”

“Ok, hang on. We’ll need to flush it out with some water. But I need you to take your hands away from your face.”

She clutched them tighter to her eye and vigorously shook her head no.

“Chane,” he reasoned, grasping her wrists so he could gently pull her hands away from her eye, “we need to flush the juice out of you eye with water. C’mon.”

He led her to the sink and she splashed some water on her face towards her eye.

“Here, lemme take a look at your eye.”

Chaney stood up and turned towards John. He put both hands on either side of her face and went to slightly move her eyelids up to check and make sure that it was all flushed out and that there wasn’t anything else that had gotten in her eye.

Halvo walked into the kitchen to refill his drink when he saw Chaney looking up at John, her cheeks wet, while he held her face. He felt his insides twists and knew it wasn’t from the alcohol. He set his cup down on the counter and forged his way through the crowd to head outside to his car. Earlier this year he would’ve been rooting for this to happen between them. He’d always been trying to help Chaney cross kissing John off her bucket list. However he had no idea that it would feel like this.