I'm Brendan

Now that you've had a small taste of how dull my life is, let's spend a little bit of time getting to know who I actually am.

I grew up in a small, normal family. ... Normalish. My parents divorced when I was 5 years old, but my dad lived near us and we never lost contact... atleast not for a long time. He eventually moved to New York and all I hear from him is a five minute phone call once every few months and a day long visit about once a year. He's a little out there, in the fun, harmless sense. My brother is four years older than me, and fluctuates from being a complete asshole to very nice and helpful. I threw a mug at his head when I was 6, forcing him to get stitches, but he got me back about three years later when he shot me in the back of the head with a BB gun, but it was only charged with one pump so it didn't hurt so bad. My mother took care of me and my brother pretty much forever. There's not much to say about her other than the fact she was never strict and let us do what we want, mostly, but not in a careless "Go ahead and smoke crack, see if I care" type of way.

I'm not a fan of drinking or drugs. Why? I think alcohol tastes like crap, for one. Secondly, drinking has ruined my brothers relationship with his ex-girlfriend, the mother of his child, and it had a hand in ending my last real relationship, but we'll get into that a little later. Drugs, I don't do just because I think it lowers a persons value. Not to mention i'm slow enough as is, if I ever did any sort of drug I'd probably go legally retarded. Interestingly, I have recurring dreams of doing mushrooms, but nothing ever happens. I never did understand why that dream keeps coming up, not only do I not have an interest in drugs, I just plain don't like mushrooms.

I have no idea what I want to do with my life. I was never one to say "I want to be a cop, doctor, astronaut, whatever", and I don't really enjoy doing anything I could profit off of. Everybody would be sitting on their ass playing games or watching T.V. for a living if they could, but they can't, so they have to suck it up and go take some office job or what have you. Not me though. ... I had to suck it up and take a job making coffee for those douchebag office workers. I'm sure i'll find my calling, or atleast something I can settle for, soon enough. No rush here, honestly.

I'm not necessarily a sociable person. I have a small handful of true friends and a growing number of acquaintances, but that's only a new development. I've had the same two best friends since I was about 8 years old, and they've stuck with me this entire time. Drew, a small guy at 5'4 who loves violence in movies, and has about four notebooks full of comics about people dying. It sounds creepy, but honestly, they're all funny and light hearted... in an ulta-violent way. Chet moved away about a year ago, but it's only an hour away so he's still around as much as he used to be. He usually has some big idea or plan about something, and it usually never works or makes sense. He gets credit for having a constantly flowing brain, either way.

I'm pretty sure I have some mental issues, primarily when it comes to anger, jealousy, and love. I've never had an outburst, gotten into a fight or anything of the sort, I just usually let whatever's bugging me pass and just keep it inside. I'm sure it's very unhealthy and will bubble up and explode at some point, but hey, keeps life interesting!

It's pretty sad that I have been sitting in this bathtub for five minutes, completely motionless, unable to think of anything else to say about me. I guess there's not that much to say after all.

Girls

Brendan showed up for work the next day with barely enough time to clock in without being late. The walk from the train station to the store was about 20 minutes, and a faulty crosswalk usually added 2-3 minutes to that. His boss was never too uptight about minor tardies, so he never really worried about rushing to work. He quickly entered the back office, said hello to Maribel who was sitting at her computer, and clocked in. Then, as he opened his locker to grab his apron, he noticed a note that had been slipped in through the vent hole. He opened it up:

"Brendan,

Would you like to go out with me?

- Annie"

The "i" on Annie was dotted with a heart. "God...dammit." Maribel looked over at him. "What's wrong?" This caught him off guard, being unaware he actually said that out loud. "Oh, nothing..." his hands were blocked by the open locker and he subtly tossed the note back inside before she could see. ".. I just realized I forgot money for lunch. Oh well, i'll just steal a few sandwiches from the café." She shot him a look. "Kidding! I'm just kidding, of course. ... or am I?" The look continued, completely unamused. "... okay, I really am kidding." He shut his locker and left to start work.

The entire day at work I debated how to handle the situation. It was off-putting, even though I had suspected she liked me for a while now. There's no ignoring it now, though. Man, why couldn't she be a little less weird? Whatever. I would've liked to have thought about it for a bit longer, but I didn't have much time since Annie was once again coming in as I was leaving. I guess I'll say yes, and then just hang out with her once and then just never do anything again after that and maybe she'll get the hint. It'd be alot less awkward than just flat out saying no... though I wonder if it'd be considered 'leading her on'? ... It doesn't matter I guess, after all, she did do this whole guerilla style way of letting me know instead of just giving me hints or anything like that. I'm the one at fault here! Okay, I know i'm not, at all, but still.

At the end of his shift, Annie showed up, routinely waved and went to the back to clock in for the shift. Brendan, on the outside, was his usual, casual self.. radiating a very chill, "I don't care about anything" aura. On the inside he was freaking out, horribly. Within about a minute, Annie was already back. "Heeey, Annie. You're here, that means I get to go. Rockin!" He took off his apron and seriously debated just leaving without saying anything, but decided he'd rather not have to wait to go through with it. "Oh yeah, I got your note and... yeah, I'd like to go hang out sometime." Her eyes brightened, obviously surprised. "Really?" He nodded, "Yeah, why not?" Smooth. "Give me a call whenever, and we'll figure out what to do. For now, I gotta get out of this building before I set it on fire." Brendan quickly went to the back to gather his things and then left.

I'll spare the boring details. She called later that night and we decided to go see a movie sometime next week, since we were both swamped by conflicting work schedules. The next day I had off, the day after that work was boring as usual, but then February 27th came around...

It was like any other dead day at work, nothing going on at all and Brendan standing behind the café counter by himself. Instead of cleaning or doing something productive, he was leaning against the counter just staring ahead as usual, zoning almost completely out... until she walked in the door.

Her name was Rebecca. All I knew about her was the fact she used to work here in the café for about two years and then left to work with Maribel out in the bookstore. She comes in from time to time to visit her friends in the store. The first time I saw her and heard that she used to work here, my initial thought was "Damn, I should have worked here sooner." She's very cute. She's not the hottest, most drop dead gorgeous person on the planet but she is definitely everything I like in a girl. Atleast, appearance wise. We'd never actually talked before.

As per usual, Rebecca walked through the café over to where Maribel usually was, and Brendan subtly rubbernecked as she did. Afterward he went about his business and began to do a little actual work, going into the back kitchen and doing a small load of dishes. He came out about three minutes later to find Rebecca standing at the café register. He almost stopped in his tracks but caught himself and casually walked up. "Hey, ... what can I get for you?" She smiled at him and ordered her drink, then he asked for her name. "Rub.. uh, Rebecca." She laughed, "Almost forgot it." This would have been a good time for me to introduce myself, seeing as I wasn't wearing a nametag, but no, i'm an idiot. Brendan made her drink and they chit-chatted for a little bit, and she made mention of living in Pinewood Valley. "Hey, I live there too... awesome!" She smiled again. "We should hang out sometime, or something. Seeing as we're basically neighbors. Um... I don't usually do this but, here, give me a call." She took a piece of paper out of her purse and wrote her number on it and handed it over. "Talk to you later!"

I didn't get ahead of myself and assume she liked me or anything like that. I just assumed she thought I was reasonably cool and wanted to hang out, seeing as we lived close. Besides, what would a super cute girl like that want with a guy like me? I'm not one of those people who talk about how ugly they think they are just so they can get compliments or reassurance, but I know my place in the world of attractiveness. Somewhere between Carrot Top and Brad Pitt, I guess. I decided i'd give her a call the next day and see what she wanted to do. If I had known we'd be on my bed, half naked and making out within two weeks, I probably would have called as soon as I got home.

... and if I knew what kind of situation i'd be flung into five months later, i'd probably have torn up her number on the spot.