...And a Happy New Year

January 11, 2014

Chaney woke up a few hours after she arrived home that morning, eager to talk to John. She rolled over, and looked at her phone to see that it was now 11 am. She quickly jumped out of bed and put on her shoes, since she slept in her clothes from the day before. At this point she only wanted to clear the air with John to make sure they were okay and that she didn’t do anything to upset him while she still had the guts to do so.

She hastened down the stairs as fast as her feet would allow her, ran across the street and knocked loudly on the O’Callaghans’ door. While she was waiting, she stood there out of breath, and pulled out her phone to double check the time hoping not to wake any of them up. She had never really met any of them so she doubted they would know who she was, much less remember her, and was nervous about anyone other than John opening the door.

She heard movement from the other side of the door, and anxiously anticipated the person opening the door. As soon as the door opened, she almost attacked the person in a hug to begin profusely apologizing, only to stop herself upon seeing Mrs. O’Callaghan opening the door. She was glad she didn’t attack the person opening the door or else she would have a lot of explaining to do.

Mrs. O’Callaghan spoke first. “Hello. Can I help you?” She asked sweetly.

“I uh, sorry. I live across the street. My name is Chaney and I’m a friend of John’s. I was uh wondering if he was at home?”

She saw Mrs. O’Callaghan’s face fall slightly. “I’m sorry to tell you as I figured as his friend you would’ve already known, but he’s not here and he won’t be back for a few days.”

“Oh, um, can you tell me where he’s at?” Chaney was becoming desperate and would drive and meet him if necessary.

“Of course, but I’m surprised he didn’t tell you himself. He’s currently in Manila for a tour.”

“Wait. Manila? As in the Philippines?!”

Mrs. O’Callaghan laughed in reply. “Yes, as in the Philippines. He left early Thursday morning and should be there already. There’s quite a time difference. I’m sorry you missed him dear, but he should be back sometime towards the beginning of next week.”

Chaney meekly nodded as Mrs. O’Callaghan shut the door. Defeated, she made her way back to her house, officially losing all of the courage she once had in approaching John.

She went back to her room and collapsed on her bed in thought. She knew John was in a band, but had no idea that his band traveled internationally. She had always been in awe of him as a person and always observed him from afar. Halvo never really talked about John unless it had to do with a party he would be attending. She began to realize, she truly didn’t know much of anything about this guy she’s been fantasizing about most of her life. She never took the time to learn anything about him.

She then began to question what exactly it was about him that she was so drawn to and try to really pinpoint why she was so desperate to have a midnight kiss from him on New Year’s Eve. She couldn’t really think of any reason other than it was something she’s always wanted to do. Like how some people are born wanting to bungee jump or rock climb, that’s how she felt about wanting to kiss John at midnight. It wasn’t necessarily rational, just something she’d always wanted to do. It’s not that she thought of him as some conquest or a mark off her bucket list, because she genuinely found him interesting; especially the more she was around him. She has always been drawn to him like a moth to the flame and she never understood why. Something about him has always attracted her to him.

She continued to lay on her bed and contemplate the mysteries of John O’Callaghan, wondering if she would ever get to know the real him behind his charming persona. She wanted to know about the skeletons in his closet and she wasn’t sure yet if it was because she wanted her kiss at midnight more than anything in her life at the moment, or because she was desperate to know more about the man behind the social exterior. Chaney knew it was a little of both, but was unsure which was the more dominant force at the moment. She would decide later.

She didn’t even realize someone was standing in the doorway until she heard them clear their throat. She turned her head to see her mother standing in the doorway.

“Chaney Jo Masters. I can’t believe you’re still in bed at this hour. And lying in your clothes! Look how wrinkled they are! Oh, don’t tell me they’re from yesterday…” She then walked over to where Chaney was lying down, bent over, and sniffed the sleeve of Chaney’s shirt before shaking her head with disdain. “As I can see that these are indeed yesterday’s clothes, I ask that you add them to your laundry and do them. Your basket is beginning to smell and you know you’re responsible for your own laundry.”

Chaney rolled her eyes. “I know mom. I planned on doing my laundry today.”

“First of all don’t roll your eyes at me young lady. You may be almost 25, but you’re still living under my roof so you still need to show me respect. Secondly, you better plan on doing it today because if it’s not done by dinnertime you can forget about keeping free rent.”

Her mom then stormed out of Chaney’s room. Chaney just groaned. She decided to go ahead and do her laundry before her mother gave her anymore grief about it. She walked to her bathroom and grabbed her laundry, only to run into her younger brother Alex. As she was walking out of the bathroom with her basket-full of laundry, he was walking into the bathroom, knocking it onto the floor and scattering her clothes everywhere.

“God, Alex, must you always neglect to watch where you’re going?! Would it kill you to use your eyes for more than two seconds?”

He just rolled his eyes and slammed the door shut behind him, closing a couple of her shirts in the door in the process. She groaned and scrambled to pick up the mess off the floor before her mom came back upstairs to yell at her about that, too.

Alex was Chaney’s younger brother. He was only a couple years younger, making him 22. He was in his senior year of college, but was still on break for a few more days.

Alex and Chaney used to get along well when they were younger. Back before Chaney met Halvo, Alex was her best friend. They looked out for each other especially once they moved to Tempe. She made it her big sister role to look after him despite only being six at the time. Alex was four and didn’t really understand what was going on. They moved from the house she had lived in since birth in a small town in Southern Alabama.

Luckily, despite having quite the southern drawl when they moved to Arizona, she was still young enough that it eventually fizzled out and she didn’t sound like the southern belle she was destined to sound like had they never moved.

Reflecting on this fact as she gathered her dirty laundry off the hall floor, she couldn’t help but laugh thinking of how Halvo would’ve made fun of her had he not met her once she got rid of most of her accent. Truth be told, she secretly missed her southern accent, taking pride in her southern born heritage. However, she loved Arizona and considered it home. She couldn’t imagine living anywhere else and was proud to consider Arizona her true home. Though the more she thought about it, the more she realized that what made Arizona home was her friends, rather Halvo. He was the reason she loved it here so much.

She loved how the desert heat felt on her skin. She loved the brightly colored sunsets that painted the skies every night. She loved the look of cacti against the Arizona sky. Most of all, she loved how she almost missed the opportunity to live in this amazing place.

When Chaney was six, her dad’s job relocated to Tempe, and she had the option of either moving with them or staying in Alabama with her grandmother and aunt who lived a couple streets over. Chaney would dearly miss her grandmother and aunt, but she couldn’t abandon her brother Alex and felt like she needed to protect him during this time of transition. At that point in time, they were each other’s best friends and she wanted to be there with him as they grew up. What she didn’t count on happening was him isolating himself from her once they hit high school. He no longer wanted any association with her, and to be honest, has spoken very little to her since then. She hated how far apart her and Alex grew over the years, but she would continue to try to get him to open back up to her.

Alex then came out of the bathroom, and once again wasn’t looking where he was going, and tripped over Chaney who was still sitting on the floor gathering up her clothes and getting lost in her thoughts.

He fell over her and rolled against the wall, rubbing the back of his head where it hit the wall. Without saying a word, he quickly gets up and stalks to his room, slamming his door behind him.
Chaney sighed, and sat up, grabbing her laundry basket and walking down to the laundry closet to do her clothes.

As her clothes washed, she decided to crash on the couch and watch a movie since her dad was outside working on the yard since it was still warm in the winter there and her mother and since left, she assume to run errands.

She sat back on the couch and propped her feet up on the coffee table and began looking through the channel guide to see if she found any movies on. She perked up when she saw one of her favorites, The Blues Brothers, and quickly turned it on, happy to find it just started.

Chaney quickly got engrossed into the movie and didn’t hear her dad come in from outside to get a drink. When he saw she was in the living room, he stood in the doorway leading from the kitchen to the living room, and leaned against the doorframe. He stood there watching the movie while taking a sip from his drink. He, too, quickly got caught up in the movie as it was a common favorite between him and his daughter. He slowly made his way over to the couch to sit and join Chaney in watching the movie, never taking his eyes off the screen. As he sat down, Chaney jumped a few inches in the air, startled that she had a visitor.

Her father just laughed and continued to watch. She sat back and slouched back into her comfy position, happy to bask in this father-daughter moment with her father. The two rarely spoke to each other, but she got along with her father more than the rest of her family. Chaney and her dad always got along well and had so much in common.

He was a man of few words, which was why they didn’t speak much. However, whenever he did speak, it was often profound words of wisdom. He was always very protective of Chaney though he didn’t always say so or necessarily show it. He hated that his job took Chaney and Alex away from their home in Alabama so many years ago, but he did everything in his power since then to do right by them however he could.

The calm that was created from Chaney and her father watching the movie in the living room was disrupted by obnoxious knocking on the door, followed by repeated ringing of their front doorbell. Chaney and her dad both exchanged confused glances before she paused the movie and made her way to the front door.

She looked through the peephole, and rolled her eyes as she opened the front door to reveal her best friend.

As soon as the door opened, Halvo barged in the door and headed straight to the fridge to grab a drink.

As he walked to the fridge, Chaney called out to him, “Hey Halvo! Nice to see you, too. C’mon in, make yourself at home.”

He was looking in the fridge for what he wanted when he responded back over his shoulder, “Don’t mind if I do.” He noticed her dad sitting on the couch and acknowledged him as well.

Her father just waved his hand in acknowledgement back before getting up to resume his work outside. As he walked past Chaney, he gave her a small kiss on the top of her head, and walked out the backdoor.

“So Halvo, to what do I owe this visit?”

“What, can’t I come over and see my best friend?”

“Sure, but a head’s up would’ve been nice.”

“Dude, I texted you like hours ago telling you I’d be over here.”

She looked at him confused before pulling her phone out of her pocket and seeing various messages from him saying he’d drop by later that afternoon.

“See, told you.” He looked at her through his eyelashes with a mischievous look in his eye.

“Whatever. Well, I was gonna talk to John today…”

“Yeah, and how did that go?”

“He’s in Manila.”

“Oh yeah.”

“You knew?”

“Of course. He’s one of my best friends, remember?” He mentioned.

“Yeah I remember, but don’t you think that would’ve been an important fact to let me in on?”

“Sorry, I didn’t find it necessary. I didn’t actually think you’d finally make the first move. My bad.”

Chaney was irate. Sure she was often shy about making the first move, but she was working on it. Not to mention, Halvo made sure she didn’t forget her lack of forwardness.

“Ya know, I’m almost insulted.”

“Why? It’s not like you’ve ever done anything like that before. Hell, it scares you shitless to approach him. It’s not exactly a secret. Even he picked up on your apprehension to talk to him. He can tell that he makes you nervous.”

“Perfect! So he just stands there and gets to gloat in the fact that he has this power over me that I can’t get over?”

“No, it just gives him more incentive to get you to open up. Believe it or not, he does genuinely care about people. Despite being the socialite he is, he would rather solely be around a small group of close friends than a large group of acquaintances.”

“Ok, fine. But what does that have to do with him knowing he intimidates me?”

“Look, all I’m saying is he knows that you’re one of my best friends and he’s making an effort to get to know you. Which to be honest, I don’t know why you’re freaking out about this. I thought that’s what you wanted. I mean, that’s all I’ve heard you talk about for the last 15 years, so pardon my confusion.”

“Forget it Halvo. I’m done with this conversation.” She turned and resumed her spot on the couch and continued to watch the rest of her movie.

Halvo made his way to the living room and sat in the chair perpendicular to the couch and watched the movie. He knew she needed her space to sort out her thoughts as well as to cool down.
He knows she’s been obsessed with the idea of John for years, and now that he’s finally paying attention and notices her, she freaks out and is appalled that he’s learning things about her. Isn’t that what she wanted though? He thought Chaney would eventually want a relationship out of this thing with John, but now he wasn’t so sure. As he sat there on the couch, going back and forth from looking at Chaney to the TV, he couldn’t help but think that maybe he didn’t quite understand Chaney as well as he once thought.