Haner to Save the Day

“Ohhh, it’s Brian,” a group of girls whispered as they saw him walk past them. He winked at the girls and smirked, making them all blush and giggle.

“They’re all so easy,” he mused.

Jimmy shook his head. “You’re such a whore.”

“I know what I want,” he quickly quipped.

On the other side of the hallway, Veronica was trying to organize her locker to make it less of a disaster. As she began pulling all her belongings out of the small metal cube, she made sounds of disgust. There were papers and gum wrappers everywhere. How did she have time to create this huge mess?

Jo sifted through the papers, wrinkling her nose at everything that came out the locker. “Dude you’re a hoarder.”

“I am not!” Veronica retorted from the depths of her locker, but she knew her friend was right. It was only November and she already felt immense regret for letting her school space become so disorganized. Her mother always said, “Disorganized space means disorganized mind.” Maybe that motto was right; Veronica noticed she felt all over the place as of lately. It could have been the stress with Alana, the new job, and SATs. To top it off, Jack kept shedding everywhere in the house, forcing her to vacuum at least once a day. She seriously contemplated if it was possible to check into the hospital for a day to get away from everything.

“Hey there beautiful.”

“Ow!” Veronica groaned banging her head on the ceiling of the locker. She slowly wiggled herself out and peered to see Evan smiling down at her. Immediately, her cheeks sparked with red. “Hey you,” she breathed.

Jo raised her eyebrow. She already knew about her friend’s encounter with Evan, but still seeing her so flustered was truly amusing. She was so accustomed to the Veronica that was too negative about everything under and past the sun. She had yet to see her truly nervous and unable to formulate words.

Evan offered his hand to help Veronica to her feet; she obliged, albeit a little shakily. “I told you I would find you,” he teased.

“You did,” she agreed. “But how did you find me? This place is huge.”

“I’m not telling you my methods. That wouldn’t make it fun.”

“Or maybe you’re a stalker.”

“At least I get to stalk a cute girl.”

Another round of blush attacked her cheeks. He was so confident and bold, she didn’t know how to handle it. She really disliked how she felt around him. She somehow lost her smart-ass quality to quickly counter anything said towards her.

Trying to regain her composure, she shrugged her shoulders and flipped her hair to her back lightly. “Yeah, join the list.”

Evan laughed. “I hope I’m not on the waiting list.” The bell rang, signaling first period. “I guess I’ll see you later. Gotta run to class!”

Watching him run to class, Veronica subconsciously bit her lip. Jo pushed her shoulder to capture her attention. “So that’s Evan. He’s cute.”

All she could do was hug her textbook to her chest and nod.

A few hours later, the lunch bell rang, giving all the students at Ocean View High the freedom to stuff their faces with junk food and soda. Veronica was among them, sharing a bag of chips with Nick once they stepped out of Biology. They both decided to grab slices of pizza when they met up with their friends out on the grass.

Reaching the picnic blanket Jo placed on the ground, Brian raised his eyebrow seeing Nick and Veronica walk over to them. Before Veronica could even say hello to everyone, Brian opened his mouth. “Evan… Really?”

Veronica narrowed her eyes. “What’s wrong with Evan?”

Brian rolled his eyes, knowing it would annoy her more. “He’s gross.”

Veronica made a face. Aside from Brian and Jimmy, Jo was the only other person in their group that knew about Evan. She was planning to make the announcement today; clearly, Brian had beaten her to it. Aside from that, he always found a way to make her day worse, simply by existing. She questioned whether he was really human or Satan’s spawn.

Jo took Veronica’s side before she opened her mouth. “You’re being a dick. He seems like a nice guy.”

“How do you know that?” Brian challenged. “You know what it doesn’t matter. All he does is go around and talk about girls.”

“Dude, all guys do that,” Nick chastised. He didn’t care about who Veronica liked and who Evan was, he wanted the debate and the headache he was beginning to have, to end.

“I-”

“Jesus shut the fuck up!” Veronica yelled, earning glances from other students close enough to them. Immediately, her face flushed red. She didn’t want all the attention, she was frustrated by the bickering.

Taking a deep breath, she voiced, “Look I get it. He can turn out to be a total creep. But you guys,” she glared at Brian, “don’t know him. He’s nice and I like him. And that’s it. Can we get pizza before I kill someone? And Brian you’re gross.”

Everyone mumbled their agreement, taking their things to walk over to the pizzeria. Brian was the only person who had not moved; he was on the war path to retort back to Veronica’s comment, but Nick beat him to it. He covered Brian’s mouth and dragged him away. The twins made sure to separate Veronica and Brian in preparation for another argument, which of course happened the moment they reached their food savior. There was only one slice of sausage mushroom pizza left, creating another huge mess. They were becoming obnoxious to the point the pizzeria owner gave them a free pizza pie just to get them out.

“You always cause problems!” Veronica glared across the table at Brian while he took a bit into his pizza slice.

Brian snapped with a mouth full of food, “I called it first.”

Agitated, Jimmy climbed on top of the table while Jo and Nick did their best to move all the food. It always tasted better without footprints in it.

“Listen here!” Jimmy announced, placing his hands on his hips like an irritated mom. “You children are going to get along or I will make you go on squirrel hunts with me.”

“But-” Brian and Veronica replied in unison.

“We’re not talking about butts here. Maybe later. But you will stop arguing or I will make sure there is a squirrel every morning in your bed!”

They kept their mouths shut and nodded silently. If any other person made that threat, it would have been a bluff; but it was Jimmy. He would somehow find a way to find an army of squirrels.

After school, Jimmy decided to take a stroll around the neighborhood. Too much had happened in one day; he needed to collect his thoughts. He was curious. He was certain his best friend had never met Evan before. Jimmy didn’t even know what he looked like and what grade he was in. It was strange for Brian to already have an opinion. But, giving him the benefit of the doubt, he supposed it was possible Brian knew this information from what guys spoke about in the locker room. But, it was also possible that could have all been lies.

Looking up, he found himself in front of the diner. Shrugging, he walked inside hoping to see Alana. Once they made eye contact, he smiled and sat down in a booth. She walked over and followed suit, feeling massively nervous. She didn’t expect to see him so soon. That had to have meant he already made a breakthrough. Smoothing her apron over her lap, she looked at him. “Soooo.”

Jimmy laughed. “Oh, sorry I haven’t actually talked to her yet.” Alana frowned, feeling silly for having such high hopes. “Wait! She likes some guy at work.”

“Really?” Alana breathed. She never remembered Veronica peaking an interest in boys, or anyone for that matter. She already felt her sororal tingles reaching her brain. She needed to know all the details about this boy. Who was he? What did he look like? When did they meet? Was he a gentleman? Was he good enough for her?

“Yeah,” Jimmy replied, tapping his chin. “I never met him though, so I can’t tell if I like him.”

“Right. Was that all?” Alana’s mouth twitched. She knew the moment the words left her mouth that she sounded rude. She expected Jimmy to copy the same attitude, but he only smiled.

“I don’t know,” he shrugged. “I like Veronica. I want to get to know you too.”

“About what?”

“Like what happened between you two?”

Her hands instinctively went to her face. It had felt like so long. “It started when I first met my boyfriend. We met in a chatroom. She got really jealous I was spending some of my time talking to him more and not hanging out with her. That’s when she started hating him and me, I guess.”

Jimmy sighed. He could believe Veronica’s jealousy, though he wasn’t sure if he blamed her. If she was always with her older sister, and that time was suddenly ripped away from her, it was rational why she was upset. What he didn’t believe was that Alana told him the full story. As dramatic as Veronica could be at times, he had a gut feeling if she was genuinely so stubborn and upset about anything, it was more than skin deep. Something else happened.

“That sucks…So can you tell me her favorite foods?”

Alana narrowed her eyes slightly. “Why?”

Jimmy shrugged. “We always hang out, but she never tells us what she wants to eat.”

She didn’t like the way that he weaved in and out of different conversation topics. She had assumed there was more he wanted to know. Nevertheless, she took a deep breath and began naming foods, using her fingers to number them, “Root beer floats, anything cherry but it has to be real and not artificial, curly fries, PB&J without the crusts, sushi, Pho Tai, butter pecan iced coff-”

“Wait! What’s Pho Tai?” Jimmy asked, trying his hardest to pronounce the words properly.

She forgot Jimmy didn’t know much about their culture. “It’s a noodle soup with beef.”

Jimmy accepted her response but felt somewhat disappointed. He expected a more detailed experience of what the food was and why Veronica liked it so much. He was so accustomed to Veronica explaining every little detail about her culture to him, he was wrong to assume her sister would do the same.

They spoke for a few more minutes until Jimmy decided to leave and head home. He could have stayed longer to speak with Alana, but she didn’t give him any indication she wanted to continue. At the very least, he noticed he made her nervous. She constantly fidgeted in her seat and cracked her knuckles. He felt somewhat accomplished for being able to discover new information into their complex relationship. It was also reassuring to know Alana truly cared, regardless of how badly she portrayed it.