A Broken Story

1.2 Aftermath and Aftercare

The wound after would be deep and might take a long time to heal. For some, it would even take months to make the slightest bit of progress.

Now, one would expect the apartment of a 23-year-old undergrad to be a little messy but there is no excuse to have piles of dirty laundry carpeting the floor, a slice of pizza that's housing mushrooms on the table, and absolutely no signs of self respect to be found. The owner of said apartment wasn't in the best shape either and definitely not presentable to meet with anyone. Lying in bed, sporting a scraggily beard, and bags as big as his eyes. Andy wasn't expecting anyone to come, since no one has come in about a month but then the doorbell rang.

"uugghh." He forced himself out of bed and lumbered towards the front door. He peeked through the hole on his door. On the other side was a man wearing a bright pink shirt, skinny jeans, and wearing sunglasses indoors. There is no way he could have mistaken Barney for someone else.

Andy opened the door, "Hey, Barney."

He is eyes were laser focused on the bright screen on his hands, "Hey, buddy. I was just stopping by to see if.... Oh my god!" He finally took off his sunglasses and looked up at his friend, "New looks? Going for the hobo aesthetic?"

"What? No, I just got out of bed."

"At 3 p.m.?" Andy just shrugged and Barney came into his apartment, "And what is this apartment?" He looked around the place while trying to get as much distance between him and pizza.

"Oh, yeah. I just haven't had time or energy or willingness to actually clean up the place. Sorry bout that."

Barney scrounged up some empty tubs of ice cream from behind the sofa, "You were having a pity party I suppose." He carefully put those back, "Are you still hung up over Clare?"

"Psh, Clare? I'm over her already. Don't even know her name." He leaned against the counter and accidently turned on his stereo system, which played 'If you ever come back' by The Script, it's all in the name. He looked at Barney, trying to be nonchalant, "I just really like the band."

"Uhhuh. Tell you want, I'm gonna do you a favor." He started picking up some of his dirty laundry and empty pizza boxes, "I'm gonna clean up your place a bit while you go take a shower."

"Why?"

"Because it's a Saturday and I said so! Now, go!" He went back to picking up all of the clutter and trash around Andy's place while Andy went to the shower.

One look at the bathroom mirror and it was pretty clear that his life had gone downhill. His usually well groomed five o'clock shadow was now a scraggly mess of a beard. His short black hair had grown out of a bit out of control pass his neck. And his eyes were sunken and nested some nasty bags under them. A quick face wash later and it was clear that it wasn't enough to clean that mess, "Ugh, how did it get to this?"

A quick shower and a shave later, the mirror was starting to look half decent. He stepped out with a towel covering him and saw that Barney was actually cleaning up his place. Always nice to have a friend that would lend a hand. He stepped into the bedroom in search of a set of decent clothes before settling with some washed out jeans, a dark blue t-shirt and a black jacket. He stepped out to a considerably cleaner space, "Wow, you clean up fast."

"Yeah, this is an emergency so I had to be quick." Barney snapped.

"Emergency? What are you talking about?"

"Dude," He looked at him straight in the eyes, "You looked like a corpse when I got here and your place was basically an open invitation for cockroaches." He put the last piece of trash in the can, "Alright, let me look at you." He scanned Andy from head to toe, "A bit bland but it will have to do for now. Let's get out of here."

"Where are we going exactly?"

"Does it matter? You look like a vampire after being cooped up in this place for too long, time for a bit of sunshine." He stepped out and Andy reluctantly followed.

It's been a while since he had been outside when the sun was high and the sunlight felt like needles on his skin, "Why did I think this was a good idea?" Andy tried shielding his eyes from the sun

"Well, this is my idea and therefore it is a good one." With a click of a button, he opened up the door to his car, "Hop in."

With a long sigh, he sat shotgun in the car, "You still haven't told me where we're going."

"The mall to get some grub and then the pub by the pier to have some fun, sounds like a good time, right?" His smile was practically brighter than the sun.

"Yeah, I guess so." Andy tried to force out a smile but only a tiny curl on the edge of his lips appeared.

Barney sighed, "Look, dude. I get that you thought she was the love of your life but you need to get a grip or else, you're going to spend the rest of your days feeling sorry for yourself." He put his hand on his shoulder, "So, just for today, stop worrying and try to have fun. Sound good?"

Andy managed a more genuine smile, "Yeah, I'll try." He buckled up his seatbelt, "Let's go then."

"Now that's the spirit!" Barney revved the engine and off they went to a night on the town.

The night mostly went off without a hitch, the Korean BBQ they had for dinner was delicious, they sang every song on the radio, and seeing Barney try and fail to hit on some girls was a highlight of the night. The day was turning out to be a fun one but he couldn't help feeling a pang of regret and sadness every time they pass by a place that reminded him of Clare, her favorite restaurant, the theater where they had their first date, and, of course, Jerry's. He had this feeling of uneasiness the entire night.

"We are now at the final destination of the night, my friend." Barney stepped out of the car ahead, "The Ivory Oak, a personal favorite of mine. Remember that night after graduation?"

"You mean the night where tried to crowd surf but ended up making out with the floor?" Andy couldn't help but laugh at the image.

"Well, I remembered it as the night I played the most amazing game of beer pong of my life but yeah, that night." He put his arm around Andy's neck, "Come on, first rounds on me."

The Ivory Oak was not a random dive bar; it was a pretty classy establishment. A nice pool table in one corner and a dart board at the other, a stage for live music at the center, and the bar had a nice selection of high end liquor, not exactly the place where you'd find college kids casually drinking and the clientele shows it.

The place mostly filled with young professionals, looking somewhere around 25 to 30. The band was playing some jazz mixed-in with some pop and the atmosphere overall was definitely relaxing and welcoming, "Two pints of Weissbier, my good man." Barney certainly wasn't wasting any time getting up to the bar. The pints arrived just as Andy took a seat next to Barney, "Thank you, Cheers. To striving for a better tomorrow."

"Cheers." He raised his glass to meet Barney's and took hearty chug.

The night continued with a couple more pints and a few games of darts; finally ending up with Barney singing karaoke on stage with a couple of strangers. Things were looking up but then a particular song came around in the queue, Clare's favorite song, Back to December by Taylor swift. Ever the sensitive soul, hearing the song was a bit too much for Andy and he had to step out.