...And a Happy New Year

January 19, 2014

Halvo woke up to an angry text from Chaney. He looked at it puzzled, and was wondering why she was so upset with him. He realized then that he never told her about it, and must’ve assumed that he invited Alex instead, which wasn’t the case. He went to reply to her text when his mother called him, demanding his presence at brunch.

Once he got off the phone, he quickly showered and dressed as he drove to his parent’s house, neglecting to respond back to Chaney’s text to explain to her that he didn’t intentionally leave her out. Unfortunately Chaney would never get that explanation.

***

Chaney woke up on her couch with the TV on. Luckily it was still pretty early in the morning so the rest of her family was still asleep. She had been sleeping off and on the day before, so despite the short amount of sleep she got last night, she still felt pretty rested. Not wanting to disrupt anyone else in the house, she decided to quickly get ready and go to the small café John showed her and grab breakfast. Not to mention, she needed time away from the house and to think through what all had happened over the last couple weeks.

She pulled up to the café and parked before making her way inside. The smell of fresh coffee beans overtook her nose as she stepped in. It was stronger today more so than the last two times she had been there. There were also a few more people in there with it being an earlier hour in the day. She stood in line and looked at their menu board to see what they were brewing that day. Chaney never used to be that into coffee, but she had gained an affinity for it during her years in college.

So many times when she was in college and she would get stressed, she would make her way to one of the smaller, local coffee shops near campus and would sit in there just to unwind. Something about the ambience of a coffee shop relaxed her and she was able to clear her head of whatever worries were clouding her mind at the time. This small coffee shop reminded her of the times she would spend in the coffee shop during college, and she looked at this place with fond nostalgia.

She ordered her coffee and went to find a small table to sit at. She found a small table by the large window facing the sidewalk, and she sat there. She could easily get lost in everything going on around her; from the sounds of coffee being made, to watching people study, seeing people come in and leave after getting their drinks, and purely just taking in the ambiance around her. Coffee shops were easily one of her favorite places to spend her time. She realized then, that she barely darkened the door of a small coffee shop since she graduated college, settling instead for making coffee at home or going for a more corporate brand of coffee. She missed the small cafés that she would frequent as a student, and decided that she would make coming here more of a habit.

Chaney wasn’t the only one that made that decision because John walked in the doors not long after. Chaney decided she would wait to get his attention after he ordered his coffee in hopes that he wouldn’t blow her off like he had in the past.

John waited in line, simply taking in his surroundings as he stood there, completely content with where he was standing. He didn’t need anything electronic to distract him, the coffee shop alone being the distraction where he sought solace. He ordered his drink, and waited while it was being made. He thanked the barista as she handed him his drink, tipping her quite generously as he turned to head back out the door when he noticed Chaney sitting at the table. Just like the other night, his happy-go-lucky demeanor disappeared; easily replaced by one of annoyance.

His jaw was tight as he begrudgingly made his way over to where she was sitting, disappointed that she was ruining the one place where he enjoyed escaping the world.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing here?”

Dumfounded, Chaney replied, “Getting coffee, same as you. Why, is that a problem?”

He rolled his eyes and began to walk off, when Chaney quickly stood up and grabbed his arm to stop him from leaving. He looked over his shoulder at her, irritated that she kept him from where he was going.

“Look John, I know you’re mad at me for some reason, and honestly, I just want to talk about it and figure out what it is that I’ve done that has made you so upset at me.”

He tried to pry his arm from her hand, but she only gripped his arm tighter.

“I know you don’t want to talk, but please just tell me something. I need to know what it is that I’ve done. I don’t understand why you’re so pissed at me and I want to make things right.” She pleaded with as much sincerity as she could muster in hopes that he could see her desperation to make things right.

He saw the look of desperation flash in her eyes for a brief moment, and in that moment, he believed her. He saw that she genuinely had no idea what was going on and wanted to actually mend whatever happened. His judgment kicked in in that moment and he shoved that idea so far away that he doubted he’d ever think that again.

In that moment he realized that this was the sort of manipulation that she would pull on Halvo. No wonder he was so helpless when it came to seeing who Chaney really was. He was so blindsided by her faux sincerity that he never knew what she was capable of doing.

Realizing his momentary slip of judgment, he successfully extracted his arm from her grasp and spoke to her, his words dripping with enough venom to convince her that he genuinely hated her.

“Look Chaney, you know what you did so please, spare me the ignorance shit and own up to what you did. The quicker you own up to what you did, the easier it will be on Halvo. I think you’ve screwed with his head enough as it is.”

“Ok, now I really don’t even know what you’re talking about. John. Seriously, you have to tell me what’s going on! How have I been screwing with Halvo?”

“Really? Playing stupid now? I can’t believe you. To think that I actually thought I’d be able to trust you, too. Unbelievable. You may have Halvo fooled, but I can see through your façade.”

“What façade? You’re honestly not making any sense right now. What’s going on?”

“Ugh, fine. I’ll leave you with this. Don’t think I didn’t see that stunt you pulled at my party a couple weeks ago during Truth or Dare. That shit was messed up. You may be able to live with yourself for screwing with people’s heads, but I can’t. I may not have the most reputable past, but I would never stoop so low. I thought you were better than that.”

John quickly turned and exited the coffee shop after that, leaving a very perplexed Chaney behind.
She slowly made her way back to where she was sitting, thankful that John didn’t make a scene from their last encounter, and racked her brain over what he could possibly be talking about.

She couldn’t remember ever playing Truth or Dare that night, much less anytime recently. The last time she ever recalled playing that wretched game was in 6th grade with Halvo. It was what led to her strong distaste of the game. She never really played it in elementary school, but once she hit middle school, all bets were off.

Her and Halvo had been pretty solid friends for a couple of years by that point and she realized by that point that she trusted more than almost anyone she knew. They had already become practically inseparable and she enjoyed his company. She was also hitting that age where she began to find boys attractive and not containing cooties. Halvo happened to be one of those guys for her. She already trusted him so much and admired him from the close friendship that they had, that she couldn’t help but transfer those feelings to something more than platonic. What she didn’t know, was that Halvo felt the same way about her, though he would never admit it at the time, for fear of being made fun of by his guy friends. He didn’t want to be seen as weak or stupid because he had a crush on the one girl he was best friends with.

One of those friends, had a birthday party during that time and both Halvo and Chaney were amongst the guests invited. Chaney was one of the few girls invited because she was seen as one of the guys due to her close friendship with Halvo; not to mention how she wasn’t into all the girly things that most girls her age were like boy bands, makeup, and Seventeen Magazine. She preferred to chill out with the guys and play video games or listen to music.

At this party, there came a point where they were going to play games, and since they were in middle school, they didn’t want to play “baby” games. It was down to Spin the Bottle or Truth or Dare. Spin the Bottle was quickly rejected by the guys when they realized there were nowhere near enough girls to play that game to balance out how many guys were there. Truth or Dare was the final decision. Up until her turn, the guys were the ones getting random truths or dares, stemming from doing stupid boyish dares, since none of them wanted to do truths. Not wanting to take part in their dares, she opted for a truth; a decision she would come to regret over the years.

The guys that were there were ones that she was never really close to, but only hung around because of Halvo. If she had her choice, she would never befriend them because they were always so mean to her, that party being no exception. They all looked at each other mischievously before one of them spoke up and asked her the question she had to answer truthfully: who she had a crush on.

To an 11 year old girl, that was a traumatizing question, especially in front of a group of guys she didn’t really like, and the one boy she actually really cared for. She couldn’t lie, so she told the truth, and admitted to it being Halvo. Naturally, all the boys in the group began making fun of them both and teased them about getting married and kissing.

Halvo did nothing to stop it, and due to his own embarrassment in not wanting to admit how he felt about Chaney, he joined in their antics and instead, made fun of her for liking boys.

Chaney ended up leaving the party in tears, and swearing off boys for much of her youth. She didn’t stay mad at Halvo for long because it wasn’t in their nature. However, he did apologize to her later for his actions, though he never admitted how he actually felt towards her. That event forced her to move on from Halvo and her sole focus returned to John.

Chaney shuddered from her memories of that point in her life, and she sat there, continuing to contemplate what John was talking about. As much as she abhorred that game, she had no reason to play it ever again. She figured if John was talking about it, he must have played as well.

The only explanation she could possibly come up with is that, in her drunken state, she realized John was going to play and she was hoping she could get a dare that would ask her to kiss John or something. What she couldn’t piece together is what that had to do with Halvo. Much less how it would have to do with screwing with his head.

Her and Halvo were partners in crime. Best friends. Siblings. They did almost everything together, and often times she thought of him as family more than her actual family. She would never dream of doing anything that would intentionally hurt him. She loved him too much for that. She was determined to figure out what it was that John was referring to and clear the air. She knew John was still reluctant to talk to her, despite their short conversation earlier, but she had to get him to tell her exactly what was going on so she could fix things.

She sat back in her seat and wondered how things went south so fast. She knew it was only January and so much could happen in the next 11 months, but she knew John to be a guy that was stubborn. Stubborn in the sense that once he made up his mind about something, he wasn’t changing it. He was very set in his ways, and most of the time, it was in ways that were very admirable. Most of those ways being ones that initially attracted her to him. She loved how he was set in being a gentleman and acting as if chivalry wasn’t dead. How he was so polite to everyone and always made everyone he met feel like they mattered. However, this side of his stubbornness, his grudges, his mulishness to believe anything other than what he had set in his mind; she didn’t care for so much.

She finished off her coffee and decided to talk to Halvo about it, despite still being peeved about him not inviting her to John’s party the night before. She looked at the time on her phone, and saw that he should already be home from his weekly Sunday brunch with his parents before calling him.

“Oh hello there. Asshole here. So you’ve decided you want to talk to me now?”

“Halvo….”

“Chaney look, I’m sorry okay. You know I always invite you, and—”

“Exactly. You always invite me. What was so different about last night?”

“I honestly don’t know. John decided to throw this impromptu guys’ night last night, and only told me about it after he invited Alex.”

“Wait. John invited Alex?”

“Yeah.”

“When did you guys see him yesterday?”

“At the record store….He works there.”

Chaney sat there dumbfounded. “Really? I didn’t know that.”

“Wow, he wasn’t kidding. You guys really don’t talk to each other.”

“That’s beside the point. So you guys saw Alex at the record store and John invited him to an impromptu guys’ night…”

“Right. And I was telling him that I was going to invite you when he strongly suggested I didn’t. I hadn’t seen him so adamant about something in a while. I’m not sure what exactly he was so against, but all he kept saying was he didn’t want you there because you weren’t a guy.”

She rolled her eyes. “Of course he did. Well, I actually ran into him today…”

“Oh? What happened?”

“That’s what I wanted to talk to you about. Do you have any plans the rest of the day?”

“Nope. I’m clear. I’m Scotch tape I’m so clear of anything.”

“Did you just make an Olan Rogers reference?”

“I know he’s your favorite.”

“This is why I love you. Okay, I’ll be at your place in a few minutes. I’m gonna head out of the coffee shop now.”

“Later hater.”

“See ya loser.” She laughed as she hung up.

She gathered her things and exited the coffee shop, headed to Halvo’s place.

Chaney arrived there shortly, and knocked on his door.

Halvo quickly jumped up off the couch and made his way to the front door to let her in.

“Indy!”

“Halvo!”

They both embraced before he opened the door more to let her in.

“So, tell me about lover boy. What happened?”

Chaney then told him about their encounter at the coffee shop and what John told her. She was hoping that maybe Halvo could remember something from that night that she couldn’t and could possibly shed some light on what supposedly happened.

After she told him what happened, he sat there in confusion, with furrowed brows, trying to decode the cryptic messages John was relaying to Chaney. He kept racking his brain to try to remember as much as he could from that night, but try as he may, he fell short. He couldn’t remember anything past swapping Chaney’s alcoholic concoction to water. Anything after that is completely blank. He didn’t remember anything about Truth or Dare, much less anything that John could possibly be talking about.

“Well Indy, I don’t know what to tell you. I honestly don’t remember much more than what you do. I have no clue what he could possibly be talking about.”

“Me either! And it irritates me because he has some vendetta against me over something that I’m apparently doing, or did, to you that neither of us know about! I don’t know what to do Halvo. I fear he’s not going to get past whatever this is that he has built up in his head.”

“Look, like I said before, I’ll talk to him. Maybe he’ll be more straightforward with me since apparently whatever is going on is to support me. If I find out anything I’ll let you know. Beyond that, I don’t know what to tell you.”

“Could you, I don’t know, maybe put in a good word for me? I know he’s not exactly my biggest fan right now, but maybe you could help convince him that I’m not this monster that he thinks I am.”

He smiled gently at her. “Of course. You know I’ll always put in a good word for you.” He then playfully nudged her shoulder with his own, hoping to get her to smile. It worked.

“Thanks. I’m beyond trying to figure out how to deal with this whole John thing, and I’m beginning to question whether I’m in over my head with trying to get him to kiss me on New Year’s.”

“Woah, woah, woah. We’ve made way too much progress for you to back out now. Firstly, because he knows your name and of your existence. Secondly, you’ve finally gained the courage to approach him in conversation. Two weeks ago you wouldn’t even do that, and today you did it with no problem. Despite whatever is going on right now between you two, too much progress has been made for you to back out now. I won’t allow it.”

She smiled at him, glad that she has his support despite their puzzling setbacks.

Halvo draped his arm around her shoulders and brought her into his side, kissing the top of her head, and rubbing soothing circles into her shoulders. He thought to himself how he could possibly fix the problems between his two best friends. He never pictured this ever being an issue. For as long as he could remember, he always thought the two of them would get along so well, and initially they had. He just needed to figure out what John’s hang-up with Chaney was and how to change his mind. Knowing John, he knew it wouldn’t be easy, but Chaney was worth all his efforts and trouble. He loved her more than he ever let on, and would do whatever it took to ensure her happiness.