The Butterfly Effect

Chapter 30

"No wonder you behave like this."

With tremulous hands, Sean clutched his pencil tightly from holding back anger and tears. Every time those words echoed in his head, he couldn't not curse himself. How stupid he had been. How could he let the devil inside him talk him into saying all those mean, hurtful things to Allison? But it was too late now that he was scared the worst thing that could happen to her would actually happen any second and he didn't have a chance to say everything he wanted her to know.

If he could get that one chance, he wanted to tell her how much he rued hurting her feelings. How much he rued making her cry. How much he rued breaking his promises to her. How much he rued not being there for her when she had had asthma attack. How much he rued all the things he had and hadn't done to her. He just profoundly rued everything.

His musings were interrupted by the sound of a door being pushed open that made him jolt in his chair. As Sean straightened his body and adjusted his glasses, he looked down at the sketch book and saw the page already filled with a lot of messy writings of two words. Under his subliminal mind, his hand had moved to write down those words.

It was 'I'm sorry'.

Pressing his fingers to his eyes, Sean exerted to withstand his dam of tears from breaking, but it failed. In hush, he gave in and cried silently with a heart full of remorse.

When would he stop saying sorry?

***

"Yeay, pizza!" Joey cheered, throwing his hands in the air.

It was Saturday night and Harley had decided to stay in tonight just chilling in their apartment after studying for next week's exam with Joey. After paying the pizza delivery man, Harley brought the pizza in then set it on the coffee table. The warm aroma of pizza wafted through his nose that pushed him to open the lid. Inside was pepperoni pizza with extra mozzarella and not-so-thin crust, causing water to come out of his mouth.

"You're the best, man," Joey patted Harley's shoulder.

Harley just chuckled then picked up a slice of pizza, followed by Joey. For a while, they were enjoying some pizza then busy playing and shouting at their sport games on PlayStation as the night got late. Two hours and a box of pizza later, when they needed a break from the game, Harley decided to ask Joey a question that he had been discussing with Jessica yesterday.

After he and Joey had bumped into Jessica and Ashley in the hall by accident a few days ago, Jessica texted him saying they needed to talk about Joey and Ashley. It was a big surprise for Harley to hear about what had happened between them and how bad it got for them afterwards.

Yet, knowing how miserable Ashley was now because of Joey, Harley didn't have the heart to tell Jessica that Joey looked just fine as if nothing big had happened to him recently. Still, Jessica had said she had a good feeling about this, so she had asked Harley to try probing some information from Joey himself.

"Hey, how's Maddison?" Harley asked for a starter.

Joey lifted his thick eyebrows, surprised for he likely hadn't seen it coming. "She's... good, yeah."

"I thought you were seeing her? She seemed to like you a lot, man."

Joey shrugged one shoulder. "We're just... really good friends."

"With benefits?"

"Let's say so."

"So, I suppose it was her you went home with last week, huh?"

Joey forced a chuckle. "Actually, no. It was just... some random chick I met at the bar."

Harley nodded, knowing for sure his best friend was partly lying. "Yeah, I stumbled on her boot right here that night, which is funny, because it looked exactly like the same pair Ashley was wearing a few days ago. Did you notice?" He let out a snicker. "I don't know, maybe those boots are in these days or something."

Stirring uncomfortably on the couch, Joey made what sounded like a nervous laugh. "I don't know, man. Maybe. I didn't really pay attention." He cleared his throat. "Hey, how about we drop it and back to our game?"

"Sure," Harley agreed, keeping the conversation smooth. After they started another game on NBA and played for fifteen minutes, he started loosely again, "You know what, this may sound crazy, but judging from the boots and the awkwardness between you and Ashley in the hall the other day, I thought for a second it was her you went home with last week."

Dry laughing, Joey gave no words and kept his eyes steady on the game. But from the way Joey couldn't keep possession of the virtual ball, Harley knew he didn't actually focus on the game.

So, Harley went on, "What's up with you and Ashley, anyway? You know, when I met you guys that one time in the hall, I could sense you were in the middle of some sort of serious talk."

"I don't want to talk about it. Let's just drop—"

"You like her, man?"

Joey scoffed. "Don't be ridiculous, Harl. She likes you, not me."

The answer was certainly not something Harley had expected to hear. Pausing the game, he turned to Joey with a crumpled face. "What?"

Joey took a deep breath. "Yeah, that day she told me she's got a crush on you."

"No, she has not," Harley denied. "It can't be. Now you're being ridiculous, Joe."

"No, I'm serious. She's been asking me a lot about you. What else do you think we talk about?"

It entirely threw Harley off balance, having no idea what to say. He wasn't sure whether Joey was telling the truth this time, but his voice sounded quite serious even though he wasn't looking at him.

"You see, if you're so worried about her, why don't you just cheer her up?" Joey suggested sullenly. "Bet she would welcome you with open arms and it would totally make her day."

Harley chuckled faintly, shaking his head. Joey misunderstood the whole situation for sure. "Listen, Joe, I—"

"Seriously, man, can we just drop it already?" Joey fumed. With irate gestures, he tossed his PlayStation controller harshly across the table and raised from the couch. "I'm going to bed now. Thanks for the pizza." Then, he walked fast into his room as he ruffled his hair, bummed out, deserting Harley all confused in the living room.

***

(to be continued)