New Year's Resolution

Chapter 1: A Talk at Twilight

Ray was sitting at the bar side once more drinking his problems away. Like most nights this week he was drunk out of his mind. Everything was going in and out of focus and the buzz in his ears wasn't going anytime soon. His lush brown hair was wild and unruly from how many times he ran his nimble fingers through it and his dark green eyes were shadowed with tiredness and bags.

He took another gulp of his beer and swallowed hard. Everyone around him was cheering and being happy while Ray was the only one to sulk. Probably the only one sulking on New Year's Eve. He rested his head on the bar and tried to block out all the cheering. It was thirty minutes to midnight and January 1st.

Ray grabbed his bottle and took another chug to find it empty. He took a moment to comprehend that it was empty and went to grab another bottle. The bartender grabbed his hand and pushed it away. Ray looked at him with angry unfocused eyes.

"I'm cutting you off. You've been drinking your ass off since six. Get outta here." The bartender said flatly.

With one last glare Ray wobbly got to his feet and stumbled out into the cold night. Snow fell gracefully around the uncoordinated drunk. He pushed on through the snow and the city that was peacefully quiet. He crunched through the streets and found himself at a small community park.

It was an almost perfect view.

A small pond was frozen over, the ground was covered in a thick sheet of white and the leafless trees stood tall and silent. The moon cast a beautiful silver glow on the place and it wouldn't look out of place in Frozen. Perhaps this was Elsa's backyard.

The only imperfection with this sight was the girl curled up on the bench crying. Her blonde hair was in a messy bun and her face buried in her knees. Ray twenty feet away and she hadn't noticed him yet but he stood there awkwardly. He wasn't sure of what to do. Walk away? Go up to her? Throw something at her?

His Rational side of thought won the fight for once in decisions. He awkwardly stumbled over to the girl and quietly took a seat next to her. She still didn't notice his presence. He tapped his fingers on the arm rest and looked around awkwardly.

Why am I doing this? He thought as he licked his chapped lips.

Am I the guy she really would talk to? A drunk who frankly doesn't even know what he's doing at this very moment?

"What happened?" Ray asked making the blonde jump. "Did the church not raise enough money?" The girl snorted at his comment and wiped the tears out of her baby blue eyes.

"No."

"Okay let me think here." The drunk said screwing up his face into a thoughtful expression. "A relative got stepped on by an elephant? No! A friend licked your mother? No! Not that! Your father put on a dress!"

The blonde burst into fits of soft laughter. Ray felt better that she at least was no longer crying. After a few minutes the girl was able to regain her composure and looked directly at Ray. Her beautiful and gentle face held a sad smile. Ray, for a moment felt a twinge of optimism in his broken life. A bit of light in the dark. A state of sobriety.

"No. Not that." The girl said in response to his guesses.

"Then what? I'm kinda going on nothing here."

"It's a long story. One you probably wouldn't care for."

"I've got a few minutes. Just say your story in five words or less."

Okay then. My boyfriend cheated on me."

"See that wasn't a long story. Who'd he cheat with?"

"My friend and my cousin." Ray let out a low whistle.

"Now that, that's just being evil. Evil and a man whore. An evil man whore."

The girl pushed a stand of hair out of her face and shrugged. She shivered in the cold as she was only wearing a sweater, sweat pants and boots. Ray once more being irrational but generous took off his jacket and threw it over the girls' shoulder. She gave him an unsure look but accepted the generosity and pulled it around her.

They sat there in silence. A comfortable silence in Ray's drunken mind. There was no awkwardness present unlike their initial meet. The unfocused man watched the snow gently fall to the ground. He could feel the blonde's eyes linger on him from time to time.

"Don't you have somewhere to be?" She asked breaking the silence. Her tone was obvious she was just curious not angry. Ray simply shrugged.

"I always find that a silly question. Aren't we all supposed to be somewhere? Just because we have to be somewhere doesn't mean we ever get there. I mean I should be in bed but I'm out here talking."

"I like your philosophy." The blonde said. "I think I'll follow that."

Ray checked his phone for the time and saw it was 11:59. He stood up and let out a foggy breath. Running his fingers through his hair which had a fine layer of snow covering it, he looked at the blonde he had spent the last twenty five minutes with. He blearily spun in a circle with a silly grin on his face. A grin he hadn't worn in a long time.

"Time to make the resolutions." He said aloud.

"What yours?" The girl asked.

"I don't make resolutions." Ray said flatly.

"It's a way to move on. Don't you want to move on?"

12:00

"Happy New Year's."

With that the drunk walked away into the silent streets. He didn't notice he had given the girl his jacket and hadn't taken it back but he didn't care one bit. He didn't care he was walking home alone. He didn't care that he was drunk and hadn't been completely sober since he was 17. He didn't care about his family.

He didn't care about his life.

But something had begun to pulse inside him. A flutter making him shiver. A spark he hadn't had ever in his life. Nothing his few friends or family ever brought into his life. Something Ray guessed very few people had ever felt in their lives. The one thing that made those people move. Perhaps the blonde was right.

Ray, right there in the middle of a snow filled street made his resolution:

Try.

Hello!

This book will be released soon! 

I do not have enough chapters to be able to keep up with updating if my mind decides it needs to be come a desert of ideas (As seen like my other books). The next chapter will be posted most likely before June cos then I'll be back to a crappy slow running computer again.

And Haha! I posted this on new years for 2017!

I'll hopefully will see you then,

Wolf out

-Wolf