Every Year's New Year - Short Story

This is a short story I wrote not too long ago (I posted this in my journal as well) and I thought I would share it with you. Its open to critique, comments, etc.! Hope you like it. It was posted during a contest on GFF a couple years ago, but the ending has changed, as well as other edits and structure.

2007 was a year like every other year. People died, people were born, people fought, and people cried. To me, the year hadn’t been of any real importance. All I kept doing was getting older and it seemed that I have gone through so many years that I figured I should be long dead. I went to school, and I went to my part-time jobs. School and work hadn’t excited me much in the past few years and university had been really boring. I wished I was done school and could finally do something completely different to what I had been doing for almost all of my life. It was on New Year’s Eve when everything changed.

New Year’s has always been of making resolutions and promises in becoming a better person. At twenty-three years old, I wondered what I had done to improve myself. I had been single all my life, too afraid to find someone or even attempt to take care of another person. My many fears in life had always been too large to handle. This was because I lost my father due to a heart attack when I was fourteen. I am the only child my parents had and the pressure financially for my mother and I had been great since he passed away. She didn’t want me to leave home for university, but I knew I had to become something in my life so that Mom could afford to live well. I owed it to myself and to her because I had never been close to being a good son. A four hour drive away from home felt the best way to be near yet far enough to try to lead my own life. This was my first time back at home in almost two years because I couldn’t face up to the disappointments that followed me. I want to prove to myself and others that I could live on my own and move ahead in life.

Being single had never really bothered me even though I was considered handsome by many of the girls I knew. My personality is outgoing and my confidence was never an issue. There was one exception however. I had terrible luck even going out on dates with women and sometimes I wondered to myself if anything special was ever going to happen. December 31st, 2007 would be different than any other New Year’s Eve.

I woke up extra late, mainly because it was the holidays and I didn’t want to be tired by the time the evening wore on. I had been home for about a week and the city I lived in was fairly large. I had many choices to go out and party, so I called my friend Jonathon and we decided to try something different.

“There is this new place on Bishop Drive called ‘The Hidden Sofa,’” he said, “I figure that would be the first place to try. Knowing your luck it will just be another lonely party.” He added sarcastically.

“Well, I guess we could go there first and if we don’t like it, we can try one of the other fishing holes.” I replied.

“Do you always have to call it that? I mean, you don’t have to go fishing every time we go out somewhere. Let’s just have a good time.”

Reluctantly, I agreed and tried to shake my mind of women. The past few weeks exams had been really rough, so that probably explained why I felt a bit off.

I spent much of the afternoon with my mother. I made her an early supper and let her relax on the couch while I prepared the table and my special treat. We both sat at the table and after we ate, we began to talk.

“I really appreciate you making supper for us tonight. These days have been so wonderful since you came home from university. What do you have planned for tonight?” She gave me a small smile.

“Nothing really special other than going to a couple bars and to have a good time.” I smiled back.

“I know it’s been hard for us to get by since your father past away, I hope that you will find someone that will be able to help you in the near future. Isn’t there anyone for you? She looked at me with cautious eyes.

“I don’t know, Mom. All I really want to do is concentrate on my education and my work, but sometimes I just feel lost and lonely. But, nothing seems to be working out.” I shied away.

I headed upstairs and took some time to change into something that would be more decent and approachable to the crowd at the bar.

“Well, I hope you have a good time tonight and be careful.” She walked me to the door.

Jonathon and I got to the bar and opened the door. The music was already loud and it seemed there were many women there. The place was fairly packed which was probably most likely because it was a new bar. In fact, the place actually smelt new which was kind of nice considering most bars smell old and damp in my city. Jon saw some of the girls from our high school.

“I think I am going to head over to the lovely ladies and see what they have planned for the evening, he said, “maybe we could hook up with them tonight. Want to come with me?”

“Nah,” I replied, “Besides, I don’t want to lower your chances with anyone of them.”

“Thanks a lot dude. You know what? We have known each other for too long. We even know what each other is thinking.” He smiled. “Catch you later.”

I decided to head over to the bar stools where they were serving. I had a couple drinks by myself pondering on what I had planned for my future. Things have been the same in its monotonous tone for the past many years so I started to plan on what I was going to do once I graduate. “Maybe travel around the world.” I said to myself.

Suddenly, a girl sat beside me. “I’ll take whatever he is having.” She looked at me with a smile. I shyly looked at her and then looked away. She seemed curious as to why I reacted in such a way.

“Hi. My name is Chantal. We have political studies class together.” She tried to see my face. She was actually quite beautiful, although that wasn’t the part that really affected my reaction to her sitting down. I had been used to knowing many good looking girls, but personality has rarely matched to create anything deeper. Maybe this would be an opportunity to finally find someone that has a personality that I could really connect with. Since I never try to let a chance go out the window, I started the usual conversation line.

“Oh!” I said somewhat sarcastically, “I sort of recognize you.” I turned myself to face her.

“Well, I thought since we have never had the chance to talk before that I would come over and see you. I saw you and your friend come inside a few minutes ago.” She gave me a large smirk.

“That’s interesting. I didn’t know you came from the same city as me.”

“Well, to be honest, I have really wanted to talk to you for a while, but I haven’t had the bravery to talk to you in class. I know the bar isn’t the best place to get to know someone, but it’s better than not getting to know you.”

“Where do you want me to start?” I asked.

“From the beginning, if you wish. Tell me why you wanted get your degree or about your family?”

“Family is a touchy subject.” I told her.

“Ok, I understand. But we have to start somewhere.”

We started talking about life, interests, beliefs, why we are in university, and after having a few drinks and talking about everything that covered the sky I started to explain to her about my family. She was very open and understanding about my life and the difficulties that I had faced over the past many years since my father died. Turns out, she had a very interesting life and many difficulties as well. Her brother committed suicide when he was seventeen a couple years before, and it traumatized the entire family.

We soon moved beyond all the sad and depressing stories and moved onto the more enjoyable things. We were laughing and having an awesome time talking together. We connected in a way that would never have seemed possible. I actually couldn’t have imagined that I would run into a wonderful person such as herself. Maybe it was the Rye talking, but somewhere deep inside both of us there was some connection.

Jonathon had disappeared with one of the girls, probably to another bar. It didn’t surprise me much, since he was always lucky with the ladies. Home for Chantal was only a few blocks away, and after celebrating the famous midnight salute and song, I asked if I could walk her home. She agreed.

“I had a great time tonight,” She said, grabbing my arm. “I didn’t think it would turn out so amazingly. You are quite an adorable person.”

I blushed and smiled, looking deeply into her eyes. “I had a wonderful time as well.”

We soon arrived at her parents’ house and I took her to the door. “Thanks for taking me home.” She said. The alcohol had worn off for the most part. She turned to open the door, but stopped, and faced me again. She stared into my eyes, moved closer and kissed me. It was the most unreal feeling ever. I could feel the electricity between the two of us. She pulled back, opened the door, and walked inside her house. I turned around, still amazed by how well the evening, and made my way home.

A week later, I decided to stop by her house before heading to the store to pick up some groceries for my mother. I hadn’t gotten over the evening we had together the week before and I had a feeling never experienced before, so alive and fresh!

I knocked on the door, and after a couple knocks, her mother approached the door. “Hi.” I said cheerfully.

“Hello,” she answered. “Do I know you?”

“Well, probably not. But I met your daughter a week ago at the New Year’s Eve party at The Hidden Sofa. We had a wonderful time, and I was just wondering if she was around so I could see her.” I explained.

“Oh… you haven’t heard then…” Her face saddened.

“What’s wrong?” I asked.

“Chantal was hospitalized yesterday with an illness.” She seemed unnerved about the situation, “You seem to be a nice boy, and maybe she would like to see you? I am heading to the hospital right now.”

“Um, I can’t right now. If I have some time later, I might.” My faced felt flushed.

I turned around and headed back home. Depression came over me and fear as hospitals were my biggest phobia. My father lived much of his life in a hospital and I was stuck sitting beside his bed for many years. I didn’t want to have to go through that again with someone else that I cared about. How was I going to go about this? There was almost no possibility that I would enter that hospital but that also meant I might not be able to see her again.
I decided that I should just head back to the University. Nothing had ever gone right in this godforsaken city and I remembered that was the exact reason why I left in the first place. Every time I felt something strong for someone they always got hurt as well as me. Things were better off when Dad was alive, when I didn’t know anything about life. I realized then, that my life would always be lonely.

“Best to move on than sit waiting for the world to stop spinning. . .” I said out loud to the heavens and walked into a dark back alley.

Jam it back in, in the dark.