Who: Hal Patton and Rhea Bennett Where: Rhea's apartment When: Wednesday, June 2, 2010, evening What: Hal tries to sneak Rhea some chocolates only to get caught...by Rhea.
Hal hadn't really even gotten back into the swing of things in New Orleans, not that life would by any means be the same again once he moved back. He had last been there at 15, the place was still sort of home then. Back before Hurricane Katrina. He still felt some sort of ties to the land, to the buildings, to the streets that he could so easily navigate through thanks to his father's many lessons on the subject. Now...now it just felt so strange. But he had moved back for a reason. As stupid as it sounded, after all these years, he still wanted more than anything else in the world to be close to Rhea. He couldn't, not really, not with all that had changed. For all he knew, she didn't even think about him anymore. Why would she? He was just some kid she grew up with and then became this sad distant boy when his dad died only to disappear when his mother abandoned him too. He didn't have many options then, he was 15, he couldn't afford the house on his own and there was no way in hell he was going to leave things up to the State to figure out where he would live and who would be responsible for him. He had always been responsible for himself, so why would now be any different? So he left without so much as a goodbye and assumed that Rhea would be better off without him. Hurricane Katrina should have been a testament to him that he really couldn't deal with all of the distance between them, but he stayed away until he had a "reason" to come back. A job.
He never would have assumed he would have been a chocolatier. He didn't even know that those even existed until a few years ago. And now it was probably the only thing he could do in his life with his head held high. It kept him busy, it gave him a drive, and it paid the bills. No one really asked questions about a quiet guy who worked with chocolate, they just kept on going, and that was just what he needed. An inconspicuous job, a life to lead alone. Only, he didn't quite like that he was all alone. In fact, he hated it a little bit. Most days he just sat in his apartment writing away, scribbling in his journal or writing yet another letter that he would never send to Rhea. He had been back in town for two months now, and still had yet to gain the courage to so much as approach her despite having seen her from a distance without her noticing on several occasions. He knew where she was living, he had her address, and when he was forced to quit work early he knew what he wanted to do. His boss's sons had been feeling awful, as had many of their customers, and with one of them in the hospital, everyone's mind had been off work the whole day. So they got off work early. Hal had been largely ignoring what was going on around them, the thing falling from the sky, the viral videos, the apparent increase in his ability. He just wanted to block it out, pretend his life was insignificant, and that nothing was going on. He was very very good at staying in denial.
It took two hours of standing at the edge of her university's campus before he even made the relatively small trek to her apartment. The only thing he was going to do then was slip the box of chocolates into her mailbox if he could or leave it at her doorstep and go. He had sent her some before, a few boxes over the years, never with his name, never with a return address, so he figured she would just assume she had a secret admirer and not think much of it at all. It wasn't like the box of chocolates would hold her when she was scared or make sure she was alright every day, it wasn't like chocolate could do anything at all, but it was the only thing he felt he had a right to do. Stay away and think about her. Of course, he was being a little too careless today, so as he entered her apartment building, he didn't even think about looking around to see if there was anyone there who would notice him. Such a careless and fatal flaw of his, he just assumed that he was just as invisible as he felt.