Chapter 33: Mistakes

Lily told me a story once, that happened not too long after I met Ted for the first time. When she and Marshall were about to get married, she ran away to San Fran for the summer to go to art school. I asked her why she did it, and she explained that while it was a mistake, and she knew it going in, she also knew that it was a mistake that she had to make so that she could realize that she really did love Marshall, and really wanted to marry him. That was sweet, I guess. I tried to run this theory past Juno, but it was in one ear and out the other. This was after I knew that she had made a mistake with Louis. This was one mistake that she should have known going in.

"I'm so glad that you're finally letting me meet Louis, Juno." I said.

"He's great, he's really nice, and I just know you guys will hit it off."

I was helping set up a night at Juno's apartment for the three of us. I didn't realize until at least two years later, but this part of my life, both 2012 and 2013, was filled with a real ton of turning points and milestones. This was one of them. I ended up taking a lot of mental notes by the end of it, remembering a lot of what I thought about Louis by the end of the night.

Louis came about a half hour later. A nice looking guy, a little taller than me, but around the same build. As he walked in, he gave Juno a lilac.

"Okay. This guy already knows she likes lilacs. I'm gonna guess he's possibly a little sensitive." I thought.

"Honey! You remembered my favorite!" Exclaimed Juno.

"Remembers something like this about Juno. Clearly listens more than most guys." I noted, again.

"Anything for you, sweet thing." He grinned.

"Oh! And Louis, this is Ollie." She pulled me over and introduced me. "We've been neighbors and best friends for 9 years."

"Nice to meet you, Ollie." We shook hands.

"Hmm. Calls me Ollie already, instead of Oliver. He's got my respect, I'll give him that." I noted. "Firm handshake. That's impressionable. It's quite firm, in fact. *Too* firm." I tried to get out of his grip, but I wasn't expecting this guy to be that strong. I couldn't see this coming, because as common courtesy, you're supposed to let go when you shake a person's hand. Just a pro tip.

"Nice to meet you, too." I finally said.

Most of the night was talking about how me and Juno met, and what we did for a living. Louis started off okay when I first saw him, but I soon saw that this guy wasn't the nice guy Juno was putting him out to be. He was in finance, and was a regular Wall Street guy. He was the exact person I didn't want to be. He was the kind of person that I hated. But I did my best not to show it, and I thought that they were falling for into fake expression of happiness for Juno. Things looked good, until she realized something.

"We're out of pretzels. I'm just gonna go down to the store and get some more." She headed out the door.

"All right, honey! You do that." Louis called after her. Juno got up, and out the door.

"I gotta say Louis," I said, lying through my teeth, "Juno clearly picked the right guy. You're pretty awesAAAGH!" I cried. Louis had pinned my hand behind my back.

"Listen, punk." He snarled. "I know the kind of guy you are. I don't give a shit about how long you've known Juno. She's my girl, and there's no way that I'll let you have her."

When a guy talks like that about a girl, usually it ends with me planting his ass in the ground. Women don't deserve to be talked about like they're objects to steal. But Louis had caught me by surprise, so I couldn't do anything. I knew right from the start that Louis was an asshole, but I didn't expect it to go this far. Boy, this escalated quickly.

"There's nothing going on between us, Louie!" I strained to reason.

He pushed harder. "It's Louis, asshole! Don't call me Louie."

"Hates being called by his shorter name." I noted in my head. "This guy is the real opposite of me. Not Barney."

"Fine!" I groaned through clenched teeth. "What do you want?!"

"Unless if you want your ass handed to you, I don't want to see you with Juno as much as she tells me anymore. I see you with her too much, and I'll know something is going on."

For a prick like Louis to try to banish me after knowing Juno for only a few months, I knew she had hit rock bottom with this guy. For Juno to find someone so controlling, the only reason that I could find as to why this happened was that something good was happening soon, and this was to balance the scales.

"Juno won't find out about this, either," He said, referring to the current situation."Or things will get even worse for you."

This guy really underestimated me. He didn't think of me as more than a bartender. He would pay for it later.

He let go of me right before Juno walked in with a bag of pretzels. I did my best to show Louis that nothing was going on between me and Juno as the night went on, but it was clear he didn't care. He just wanted her all to himself. He left soon afterwards.

"So?" Said Juno afterwards. "What do you think of him?"

"Hmm." I said. Louis may have thought I was afraid of him before, but he couldn't have been more wrong. "Juno, I got an opinion on him, and I'm gonna try to be nice about it: he's a dick."

"Jeez Louise, Ollie! At least sugar coat it." She was clearly not too thrilled that she was hearing this about her boyfriend from her best friend.

"That *was* sugar coating it. I hate him."

Juno wasn't too happy at that remark. "Well, Ollie, you gotta remember. It's my choice on wether or not he stays. He's nice to me, so he stays. You don't get a say in it. It doesn't matter what you think of him."

I couldn't take this, so I left. I said it over and over again that Juno hit rock bottom with someone like him. Eventually things would turn up, but until then, I had to endure several months of that jackass. Eventually Juno realized that she and I weren't spending much time together, as I was heeding Louis' warning. She insisted that we go back to hanging out, so Louis couldn't do anything about it. All I really did was try to avoid Louis as best as I could, and it worked. I didn't see him that much after that night.