A/N: Hey all! Sorry for the long wait. I had a ton of stuff to do these past few weeks. Okay, so this chapter is in Chase's POV so don't get confused! Enjoy!
My palms were sweaty as I gripped my suitcase in my hand and stared out onto the horizon, watching as Waffle Town slowly turned into a speck. There was nothing left for me there. I had no house, no job, and no friends except for Angela. I would write her, definitely, but I just couldn't stay.
My heart thumped as I thought of Angela, how all of this started. It was that kiss… my God, that kiss might as well been the death of me. Admittedly, I had begun crushing on Angela even when I was still courting Maya. She was just so… different. Cynical. Hilarious, but also had the decency to know when to stop. Sure, I regret leaving her in that good-for-nothing hellhole, but… it had to be done.
And then there was that freakin' thorn in my side, Toby. Ugh. Just thinking of him makes me feel tingly with anger. Especially when he uttered those words that changed everything:
"I wanted to talk to you about… the proposal."
I had scrubbing a dish at the time, and he was so obliviously loud that I still heard it! Without warning, the pot slipped from my grip and toppled onto the floor, along with some dishwater and suds. But I didn't care. Stepping over the mess, I approached that smug bastard and Angela, who was coughing and turning red (from embarrassment, probably).
"What?" I asked, digging my fingernails into the palm of my hand. Toby smiled unknowingly at me.
"Hm?"
"What proposal? What is this about a proposal?" I asked frantically, about ready to tear my own eyelashes off. This couldn't be happening! She couldn't be getting married to this half-lidded, nap-taking, fishy-smelling loser!
"Oh, I… well, I asked Angela to marry me! Isn't that great?"
Angela kept sputtering and pointing to her throat but I had no time to get her water right now. How could he possibly think that Angela was going to marry him? He had some serious issues.
"No, that isn't great!" I retorted, "You can't be marrying Angela, she likes me! Not you!"
"What are you talking about?" He asked, looking at Angela and then me again.
"We are on a date right now. What are you talking about?"
I could feel the steam blowing out of my ears like smoke billowing from a train. This guy was really making me angry! Who did he think he was, anyways?
After a few minutes of mindless back-and-forth insults, Angela finally intervened.
"Will you two just shut up?" She screeched. We both immediately stopped glaring at each other and looked over at her with open jaws. When she explained the situation, I felt a little bit better, but something was just unsettling. How could I have not known this was going on behind my back? Sure, Angela and I had only been 'seeing each other' for a little while… but a proposal? That was ridiculous.
Eventually, she let him down as nicely as she could, which was pretty disappointing. I was expecting something like, "Get out of my face! I never want to see you again! I'm with Chase now, and I don't need a bumbling idiot like you!"
But… that didn't happen. Oh well.
There was a catch, though. Now, she wanted me to help her get him together with Maya. I don't know if she was aware that these people were the top two on my 'Most Hated' list, but she probably wouldn't have cared. Damn her good conscience.
After we successfully set them up, there was that whole deal with the 'Couple's Night'. I have no idea how Angela got me to agree to that (must have been those puppy dog eyes), but somehow I ended up in Julius' house, pulling at my tight collar as he thrust a cocktail in my direction and led us to the couch. The night actually started out pretty fun; I had never played any board games before. But I just couldn't kick that funny feeling in the back of my head that Toby was staring at Angela just a few seconds too long. I had to do something.
But Angela beat me to it! Slapping Toby was probably the best thing I had ever seen her do, and I honestly believe that at that moment, my feelings for Angela became one hundred percent serious.
And then came the conversation that ruined my life. And it all started with one little misunderstanding that escalated into an argument that ultimately got me fired.
"Jake, where are the onions?" I had asked as I melted some butter on a skillet. He was sitting at one of the many tables, reading a book. He didn't even bother to take his eyes off the text. Instead, he just flitted his wrinkly hand about.
"I have no clue." He retorted. I rolled my eyes. Couldn't he get off his saggy ass and try to help me find them? He wasn't that old. He still had perfectly good use of his legs. I sighed.
"Well, I need onions to make my dinner." I said, feeling like a little kid arguing with his dad. He clucked his tongue at me.
"Chase, you know how I feel about you using up our supplies to make your own meals." He said nonchalantly, chewing at a pinky nail. I rolled my eyes.
"It's not like I have too much at my own house to work with, you know." I said. He slammed his book shut.
"Oh, I'm sorry, would you like me to give you even more money in addition to the house funds and your weekly pay?" He asked angrily, setting the book down onto the table. I narrowed my eyes.
"You act like you're so noble!" I yelled, "Just because you paid for my house doesn't mean you get to treat me like shit!"
"I'm sick of these outbursts!" He exclaimed, standing from the table.
"Outbursts? What outbursts? Can you blame me for being angry at you?" I asked, rubbing my fingers along my temple tentatively. Thus began the long conversation that would eventually end my career as a chef at the Sundae Inn. After some insult-slinging and angry glances, I was out the door and heading home. At that moment, I was 99.99% sure that I was toast. But I couldn't let anyone else know that.
A few moments later, Angela was knocking on the door. I swear, that girl always knows when I'm feeling down. When she asked me what was wrong, I just couldn't tell her. I knew her too well. She would probably march to the Sundae Inn, knock Jake unconscious, and drop him down a mineshaft. So I kept my mouth shut.
Of course, when it was official that I was fired, I told her. I had to. Who else could come up with a foolproof plan to pull me out of this slump?
Okay, maybe not foolproof. But it was better than nothing.
She suggested that I try applying somewhere else. At first, I thought that idea was pretty clever, until I realized that I have no other useful skills or attributes. Needless to say, everywhere I applied turned me down in a few seconds flat. Hanna was polite about it, Craig insulted Angela and me at the same time, and Elli fake-smiled at me and shook her head as Gill eyed my body oddly.
Not only was I not able to get a job, but some bozo took my old job. His name was Jean-Pierre or something French like that… and he was a total weirdo. He wore tight leather pants and he had a spiraling mustache that was thin and creepy. I didn't even bother to introduce myself to him.
Long story short, I had to get out of this town. Little by little, I had to start selling my stuff for money. My mind was made up. I was going back to my hometown.
There was no way I was going to tell Angela, though. She would follow me, or worse, she would ask me to live with her. Not that I didn't want to… but I hated pity. I hated that just because I was poor and unemployed, people would look down on me.
So here I was, feeling the salt spray of the ocean dance on my tongue as I sighed. Waffle Town was no longer visible behind the fog, and my destination was slowly becoming visible. I let my suitcase slip from my grip and land on the wooden boat floor as I shoved my hands into my pockets. This was just another new chapter. Maybe someday I would visit Angela in Waffle Town, but for now, I would write to her.
Finally, the tip of the ferry brushed against the dock. I was home again. I gathered my things and stepped off the ferry. I walked towards the town, passing a sign that read "Welcome to Lincolntown, Home of the Largest Pudding Cup! Population:" And after the colon was a bunch of crazy scribbles, and below those were the words, "Who the f*** cares?"
Ah, it feels so nice to be home.
As soon as I got into town, I decided to find a place to stay for a few nights. Maybe a cheap motel or inn would do. At around four, I checked into an old, rundown motel that was drippy and probably disease-ridden. But it was a roof over my head, at least.
That night, I sat in my dim lit room and tried to scribble down a letter to send to Angela. But everything I wrote came out wrong.
Angela,
I'm sorry I left, but I had to leave. There are probably a lot more jobs here in the city, and I really don't like a lot of people in Waffle Town. And a lot of them don't like me, and…
Angela,
I'm sorry I left, but it is better than receiving pity from you and everyone else…
Angela,
Do you ever get the feeling that you just need a change of scenery?
Boy, I was bad at this kind of thing. Finally, after having a cold plate of macaroni and cheese and some tap water, I fell asleep.
The next morning, I packed up and left once again, in search for a place that was a little less dirty. I'm pretty sure at least four bugs crawled into my ears in the night, and I wasn't too keen on that fact. So as I searched for a new temporary home, I ran into something better. And cheaper.
A boarding house.
Basically, it was just a large house that many people lived in as if it was an apartment complex. I would pay the rent to the owner for a roof over my head and some free food on the table. Awesome.
"What do you want?" A tall, stocky man asked me when I knocked on the meager wooden door. I gulped, staring the man up and down. He was lanky and gigantic, probably at least six feet tall, and his head was shaped like a pinto bean.
"Um, I saw the sign outside…" I said, pointing to the white sign outside the door. He grunted.
"Do you have the money?" Bean-Head asked. I nodded. "Okay, come in and find a room."
He stepped aside and eyed me oddly as I passed through the threshold and into the dumpy building. It wasn't much better than the motel; it was old, the lights above me flickered uncontrollably, and the ceiling dripped a mysterious mixture. However, there were no bugs in sight. That was a plus.
"Who's the new guy?" Asked a short man with a gruff voice. He had a neck as thick as a tree trunk. I shuddered.
"I don't know. What's your name?" Came the nasally voice of Bean-Head.
"Chase," I replied quietly.
"Hm," Grunted Trunk-Neck, "Interesting."
He picked his teeth with a toothpick as he headed towards a room that I suspected to be the kitchen. Unsure of what to do, I wandered about the hallways, trying to find a room that might suit me. Unfortunately, there really wasn't much to choose from. Almost every door I entered, there was someone in it.
"Do you mind?" Asked a woman in curlers who was sitting at the vanity, applying a thick layer of lipstick that could only be described as "cotton candy pink".
"Woah, woah, buddy, you can't just go barging into rooms like that, eh?" Said a man with a goatee, dark sunglasses, and a beret resting on the side of his head. How did those things stay up? I would never know.
"Ugh, for the last time, I don't have your money! Oh. Sorry. Thought you were someone else." Commented an old man in a robe, undershirt, and boxers. I shielded my eyes and ran.
Finally, I found a room. It was small, cramped, and rather dusty. A bed sat in the middle of the room, the only real piece of furniture that adorned the small area, unless you counted the wilted plant in the corner. I dropped my suitcase on the floor and sat on my bed for a while, trying to think up something that I could write in a letter to Angela. A knock came to the door.
"Hey, Chad, I'm going to need the rent today, if you don't mind. You pay buy the month, got it?" Said Bean-Head as he burst the rickety door open and stared at me with beady eyes. I sighed.
"All right." I replied as I kneeled on the floor and rifled through my suitcase. He leaned on the doorframe, crossing his arms as if he was fed up with waiting. Jeez, what a weirdo. I thrust some money at him and went back to sitting on the bed. After a few minutes, I grabbed some paper and a pen.
Angela,
I just found a place to live. It's pretty nice. It's a boarding house, so I live with a lot of different people. They're all really nice and they have welcomed me as their own. I think I might try to find a job tomorrow.
I set the pen down on top of the paper and sighed. Why was I lying to her? Who knows. At this rate, I'm never going to end up sending a letter. Restlessly, I crumpled up the note and, after searching the room for a trashcan, decided just to throw it on the ground.
Dinner that night was interesting. Apparently, people in a boarding house eat dinner together, so Bean-Head, Trunk-Neck, Curler-Girl, Beret-Boy, and Robe-Guy all sat down at the dinner table with sour looks on their faces and their forks in their hands. A sad excuse for a stew was shoved under my nose and all at once, people began to dig in. No conversation was exchanged for the first few minutes. No one even bothered ask who I was.
"What is this shit?" Asked Robe-Guy. His voice was unusually loud, as if he wasn't sure how to control his own volume. He coughed and sputtered uncontrollably as he spooned more of the concoction into his mouth.
"It's stew, Joe, it's what we have every night." Bean-Head replied, snorting. I stirred the 'stew' around in the bowl until it was smoother than milk, and then I stood to dump it down the sink.
"Woah, new guy. That sink is busted; you might want to use the one in the bathroom. Third door on the right down that hallway," Trunk-Neck told me, pointing down a dark corridor. I nodded curtly and ventured down the hallway. My shoes squeaked against the floorboards as I approached the bathroom.
A musky, putrid smell filled my nostrils as I stepped into the cramped bathroom and poured my full bowl of stew down the sink. I watched as the sink gurgled and bubbled. It probably didn't like the dinner too much, either. With my empty bowl, I headed back towards the kitchen where Beret-Boy and Joe (although I like my nickname for him better) were engaged in an argument over modern culture. Pfft. People in Waffle Town never argued about such weird topics.
I mentally slapped myself. This was much better than Waffle Town! No Jake, no Maya, no Toby… and when I got a job, I could buy my own place.
"Hey, new guy," Curler-Girl called to me as she attempted to rub some lipstick off of her gigantic front tooth. I gave a look that told her to go on.
"What's up with the bobby pins? You some kind of hair dresser or somethin'?"
"You mean cross dresser?" Someone mumbled under their breath. I couldn't tell who it was, though, so I ignored the comment as much as I could.
"Uh, you know, it's a long story… I should get to bed now. Goodnight." I called very quickly before heading up the stairs. Jeez, these people were obnoxious. As soon as I got to my room, I flopped onto my bed in exhaustion, thinking back to the reason that I had these hairpins in the first place.
I had been living at the orphanage for about a year, and I hadn't had a haircut. No one had. It's not like most of us were concerned with our appearances anyway, but after a year, well… it was getting kind of ridiculous. My hair was past my shoulders, and it was unruly and unkempt. As much as my appearance didn't matter, it was actually becoming a nuisance.
Some of the kids gave each other haircuts, and some of them cut their own hair. At this time, most of the kids still didn't like me. I was the youngest of them all, and they seemed to already have their own friends. They didn't need any more. So, asking someone else to cut my hair would not be a good idea. I took the pair of rusty scissors in my hand and cut away at the pieces.
By the time I was finished, I was horrified. I look like someone put my head into a blender for about an hour. The bangs in the front were too long, and the back was layered in all these different ways. In short, I looked like a freak.
Not only did I get laughed at, but people taunted me, too. Finally, one day as I was helping out in the kitchen, the cook, Sheila, handed me some hairpins. She told me that it might look better if the long part was pulled backwards. And, well… I never really had a desire to change my hair after that. So it stuck.
I laughed to myself as I lay on my bed, fiddling with the pins. The bed was stiff and it had foreign stains on it that I avoided like the plague. The next day, I would be looking for a job. Hopefully, I'd be gone all day. But probably not, knowing my luck.
I dressed in a nice shirt and a tie before heading out the door, not bothering to tell the others where I was going. The first place I saw that was hiring was a small diner with a white-and-red sort of theme. Like the 50's. I pushed open the door and heard a small ding above my head.
"Can I help you?" Asked an older woman at the counter. I nodded.
"I'm looking for a job… I saw a Now Hiring sign outside the door." I told her, stepping in to the fluorescent-lit restaurant. Customers sipping milkshakes eyed me strangely.
"Okay, here," She said, handing me an application. I smiled, thanked her, and left.
By the end of the day, I had picked up six applications and two business cards. Maybe this wouldn't be so hard after all? Being a 'culinary artist' really did have its benefits. That night, I slept soundly. No bugs in my ears.
The next day was the day I would fill out everything and possibly turn a few applications in. Thank the Goddess (or should I say God? Hm.) that Lincolntown was small. Finding all these places was a piece of cake.
However, fate had a different plan for me today. At around two in the afternoon, a knock came to the door. Bean-Head answered it, looking clearly perturbed. He was in the middle of a vigorous chess game with Beret-Boy.
"Why hello there, little lady." He greeted the mystery guest. He must like her, for I had never heard him use that welcoming tone of voice. As I stared out of my room, I saw the unknown woman step into the room. My jaw dropped as I stared at her green shirt, tool pack, and brown shorts. Her eyes were large with worry and her hair was frazzled. It was Angela.
"Chad!" Bean-Head called.
"It's Chase." She corrected him.
"Er, Chase!"
Confusedly, I emerged from my room and headed towards the main hallway cautiously. Angela glared at me as I came into sight. Oh, boy, this was going to be quite the episode.
"Can I speak with you outside?" She asked. I nodded slowly and followed her out the door. As soon as I shut the door, she smacked me. My face throbbed as I rubbed the tender spot.
"I guess I deserved that," I commented, looking away. She growled audibly.
"You bet your ass you deserved it." She said angrily, "What the hell were you thinking?!"
I stared at her shaky eyes and sighed.
"You know what I was thinking. That town was no good for me… everyone hated me anyways."
"No, they don't! Everyone has been freaking out since you left!" She exclaimed, throwing her hands into the air, "And you think a place like this is better?"
She pointed to the looming building behind us. I shrugged my shoulders.
"How did you find me?" I asked.
"I ran into that creepy guy at the diner down there," She replied, pointing down the street, "I had been looking for you all day. And after searching, I was exhausted, and all I wanted to do was sit and eat something. He asked me what was wrong, and I told him the spiel, and then he said he knew you."
Damn you, Bean-Head. Damn you!
"I see." I commented, fingering a piece of my hair between my index finger and thumb. She sighed and nodded.
"I'm really angry." She said after a few seconds of silence. Her voice was calm, but her features were rigid. I took her hand, and she stiffened up even more.
"I'm sorry, okay? I couldn't tell you, because then you would have felt obligated to… to ask me to live with you, or something crazy like that."
Her face fell immediately after that statement. That probably wasn't the best thing to say.
"Something crazy like that?" She repeated.
"Well, no… not crazy. I mean, you wouldn't want have me living in your house, would you? I'm obnoxious, and sarcastic, and, and…"
She put her index finger on my lower lip to get me to shut up.
"Yeah, you are obnoxious. And sarcastic. But that wouldn't stop me." She said, her eyes wide. I smiled a little.
"So, what're you saying?"
"I'm saying that I have good news. And bad news. And then some more good news." She said, lacing her fingers between mine.
"What?"
"Well, the good news is that Jean-Claude was fired!" She exclaimed, smiling genuinely for the first time in a while. It made me feel warm.
"Really? What'd he do?"
"Apparently, Hamilton said that he should wear some more 'work appropriate' pants and that 'no one wants to see that when they're trying to eat their lunch'. And then Jean-Claude told him he was going to deep-fry his face, or something crazy like that. Jake had to fire him for threatening."
I burst into fits of laughter, just imagining a terrified Hamilton as Jean-Claude threatened to fry his face.
"Now the bad news," Angela began, "… They already have a replacement."
I sighed, my laughter instantly dying as I felt my shoulders slump. As much as I wanted to get away from Waffle Town… Lincolntown was just awful. The people, the boarding house, and the mediocre jobs that I had tried convincing myself they were worthwhile. As soon as I saw Angela, I yearned to go back.
"Maya is the replacement," She said, looking down at the floor, "You know, after they go through a vigorous four week training session."
I nodded slowly, not sure about where she was going with this.
"Now, the other good news. Maya is still going to work as a waitress during the daytime, but now she will be the cook during the night. But this means she will have no free time for her TV show…"
My face lit up immediately as I wrapped her in a lung-crushing hug.
"You're kidding!" I exclaimed, "The cooking show? It's mine?"
"Yes!" Angela shouted, "I pulled some strings, and, well… it just happened!"
Without thinking, I pulled out of the hug and kissed her hard on the lips. She softened in my grip as I felt myself completely and utterly relieved for the first time in a while. I pulled away, smiling down at Angela, and let go.
"Now, go get your things!" She exclaimed happily, "The ferry leaves in twenty minutes!"
A/N: Yayy, finally a sort of happy ending to a chapter. Woo! Let me know what you thought. Oh, and Blubber Nuggets... you pwn.