A Magical Bond | 14

Somehow, years passed in what seemed like the blink of an eye, and Sione was graduating with honors from Foxbury Institute without being entirely sure where life would take him next. He had now spent so long devoted first to getting into collg and then to getting through it that he could hardly imagine a meaningful existence beyond its walls. He took comfort in the fact that many of his fellow graduates were in the same position, but, still, he couldn't keep his anxious thoughts about the future from crowding his brain, even when he knew he should be celebrating. It was finally time to be an adult, and he didn't know if he would ever be prepared for all that such an ominous pronouncement entailed. To him, it mostly felt like his life as he'd known it for so long was over.

But maybe it wouldn't be such a bad thing to leave all that behind. After the string of failed romantic prospects that defined his first year of college, he'd settled into a safe, boring, but blessedly drama-free routine for the next three, prioritizing his studies so completely that he barely allowed himself to have a social life at all. This time, it hadn't been hard to hold himself accountable. The crushing defeat he'd felt upon Cassie's rejection never went away. He stopped noticing other girls. In his mind, none could hold a candle to her. Instead, he committed to bachelorhood, at least until Cassie finally came running back into his wide open arms (as he delusionally fantasized she would). Now, as he gave Larry the Lobster one final high-five, he suddenly couldn't wait to step foot off that campus for the last time, as long as it meant he could walk away from all that baggage he'd been lugging around, too.

Sure, he didn't exactly have a post-grad plan, but that in itself could be spun into a positive: the world was suddenly his oyster. Limitless opportunities were his for the taking! Besides, he knew he had a safety net in his supportive (and financially generous) parents, who would gladly let him crash back at home while he figured things out. It would be several months, at least, before the prideful glow of having a newly-graduated son wore off.

As they took turns driving the rental car stuffed full with his belongings back to San Myshuno, he could feel his heart accelerate faster the closer and closer they drew to that familiar city skyline, each glimpse releasing an increasingly bigger hit of nostalgia-fueled adrenaline. Being in the city full-time again would be good for him, he decided. It would be bright and busy and loud enough to distract him from dwelling on past memories he was better off forgetting.

He harbored lofty ambitions... at first. He would scour new job listings every day, email his old professors for references and letters of recommendation, call up the classmates he knew had already accepted offers from top tech companies for networking opportunities. But, first, he thought, as he settled comfortably back into his childhood bedroom, he would give himself the weekend to relax. He booted up one of his favorite video games, which had been sadly neglected during the frenzied final weeks of his college career, and indulgently let himself play through to the end in an all-nighter marathon session.

But the weekend quickly turned into an entire week and then into months. The more time passed, the further down the rabbit hole of laziness and procrastination Sione found himself falling, to the point where he could rarely even muster up the motivation to change his clothes or shave, let alone apply for jobs. The most engagement with the outside world he could handle at a time was calling for a pizza delivery every couple of days and buzzing the delivery person up to their apartment for the hand-off. Not even Kit's pleading mews as she rubbed up against his legs, desperate for a good belly rub, could snap him out of his ambitionless haze.

He could tell his parents were beginning to worry. They were too gentle to say it out loud, but he knew they wanted him out of their hair. He was no longer a child, and his grace period was coming to an end.  Both Nani and Noelani had begun cautiously broaching the subject whenever they came back from a long day at the office or the studio to find him lounging lazily in the same sweatpants and hoodie he'd been wearing all week. "So, honey, I'm not trying to rush you by any means, but I was just wondering how the job search is coming along."

"Don't worry," he would always reassure them, his voice booming with false confidence, "I've sent in so many applications. One of them is bound to be a hit. It's just that the job market is saturated with new graduates. Everyone's applying everywhere all at once. I'm sure I'll start getting callbacks any day now."

They would always purse their lips and furrow their brows in concern, their silence speaking volumes. He must've had the same conversation with them dozens of times by now, and he knew that his excuses were growing less believable by the day. The truth was he'd hardly sent in any applications at all. He was suddenly paralyzed by the fear that he wasn't good enough, that no one would want to hire him anyway, so what was the point in even trying? It had been so easy to excel in school. Why was he struggling so much to find that same motivation in the real world?

Finally, when he had nearly succumbed to the probability of a bleak future flipping burgers for minimum wage because those were the only jobs he could work up the courage to pursue, the universe decided to throw him a bone. One morning, he unexpectedly got a call to set up an interview for one of the few legit engineering positions he had applied for, so long ago now that he'd nearly forgotten all about it. He was lucky he was up early enough to catch the call. He'd gotten into the habit of sleeping until noon. But, now, all of that would end. He was determined to nail the interview, nab the position, and steer himself back onto the right path. After all, his parents weren't the only ones dying for him to get out of their apartment. He was ready, too, to be out on his own for good.

The next week passed both too quickly and too slowly at once as he nervously waited for the day of the interview to arrive. He passed several sleepless nights imagining scenarios in his head that ranged from ideal to disaster. That morning, as he pulled a wrinkled button-up and tangled tie he hadn't worn in years from the pits of his wardrobe, he was already sweating profusely. He decided to splurge on a cab so that he wouldn't risk showing up completely soaked.

After pulling himself together with a few deep breathing exercises in the bathroom, Sione breezed through the interview more smoothly than he anticipated and walked out feeling good about his prospects. The position seemed like a perfect fit for his skills and experience, which he had to keep reminding himself he possessed in spades - what else had been the point of the last four years of his life? He knew everything he needed to know to succeed. The hardest part was getting himself to consistently believe that was true. During the interview, at least, his answers had finally been convincing enough to win himself - and hopefully his interviewers - over. He didn't think the last-minute decision to get a haircut hurt either.

A few weeks, a mountain of paperwork, and hours of new employee training later, just as the trees lining the San Myshuno streets were shedding their last few leaves in anticipation of the approaching winter, Sione was officially beginning his first day on the job. While his new workplace wasn't one of the flashiest or buzziest tech startups, it was a solid company in the heart of the city with a large portfolio of work for an impressive array of businesses to its name. It wasn't somewhere he saw himself spending an entire career, but it was a more than respectable initial stepping stone on the road to bigger and better things.

He quickly built a rapport with his fellow employees, who all seemed eager to greet a new face. There was even a pretty blond woman in a skirt that seemed right on the borderline of being too short for the workplace who he didn't think he would mind getting to know. It'd been so long since he'd thought about dating that the sudden frisson of attraction startled him.

But that thought came to a screeching halt when he saw who occupied the final desk in the office. He had to do a double take to make sure his eyes weren't deceiving him. But, no, it was exactly who he thought it was: Britta - and she looked just as miserable to see him as he was certain he looked to see her. "What are you doing here?" he asked, the question coming out more rudely than he'd intended. "You're not even an engineer!"

"Yeah, well, turns out engineering firms have human resources departments, too," she replied gloomily. "Don't worry. I won't be here to make you feel bad about yourself for too long. I'm just counting down the days until my master's program starts in the spring."

"Britta," he began apologetically but cut himself off when he realized she'd already gone back to skimming documents and clacking away at her keyboard. She didn't want to hear an apology from him, forced or genuine, and he had to admit she'd earned that right. He hardly deserved the easy way out after the way their relationship had ended.

He tried his best to pretend he didn't notice her, but he couldn't help glancing anxiously over his shoulder every time he heard even the slightest hint of movement behind him. At a certain point, he watched her shuffle dejectedly away from her station for her lunch break and felt a lump form in his throat at the thought that he could ruin someone's day simply by unknowingly showing up to work at the same company. What were the odds of the two of them ever running into each other again after college? He hadn't even known she was in San Myshuno!

The rest of the work day dragged on interminably as he tried his best to be productive while simultaneously wallowing in self-pity. No, he refused to allow himself to be dragged down by this woe is me bullshit. That was the old Sione, the selfish and oblivious Sione who never considered other people's feelings. The new Sione was better. He was man enough to admit now when he had no one else to blame for his fucks-up but himself. He had no right feeling sorry for himself when he was only uncomfortable because he'd been confronted with a reminder of his own shitty behavior.

He slipped into the break room, hopeful that a piping cup of tea would set his mind right again. But tea wasn't the only thing he found there. He bumped into the woman who'd caught his attention earlier. In all his hand-wringing over Britta, he'd nearly forgotten about her.

"Hey, I don't think I properly introduced myself," she said, smiling jovially. "I'm Asia."

"Oh, hey," he muttered, surreptitiously wiping an unbecoming stream of liquid from the corner of his lip. "Sione."

"I don't mean to pry, but you seem a little down in the dumps. Is everything going okay?"

"Oh, yeah, I'm fine. It's just..." He trailed off, wondering if he should skirt around the truth or come out and admit everything. He decided to rip the band-aid off before he chickened out. "I didn't realize an ex-girlfriend of mine worked here until I ran into her, and it was a nasty shock for both of us. To be perfectly honest, I was kind of an asshole to her, and I never really got a chance to say I was sorry."

Asia cringed in sympathy. "That's definitely an awkward foot to start off on."

Sione laughed. "Tell me about it."

"Well, a few of us are going out tonight if you'd like to celebrate the new job without being reminded of your failed relationship." She found a scrap of paper and scribbled down the time and place. "Feel free to join us."

Weekly bar nights soon turned into a regular occurrence in Sione's life. After losing touch with so many of his college friends or only speaking to them sparingly via text or social media, it was nice to have a crew of people to reliably hang out with again. He grew especially close to Asia, though not in the way he expected. She was even more beautiful out of her work clothes, of course, especially when she freed her curls from the tight bun she always kept them in, but as pretty as she was, he found he was more attracted to her friendship than anything else. Above all, he enjoyed talking to her, and she didn't seem to expect anything more from him either, which freed him from the usual pressure to immediately make a move simply because he felt like he should. That was probably a good thing, considering he still wasn't totally convinced he was ready to dip his toe back into the dating pool quite yet.

Before he knew it, winter was in full effect and he'd managed to save up enough from his new job to finally afford first and last month's rent on his own apartment. He loved his parents, but he would be glad for the privacy and independence. Living under their roof, he felt more like a perpetual teenager than a grown man with a steady paycheck. On the weekends, he excitedly pored over apartment listings, braving the nearly constant snowfall to scope them out in person until he found the perfect fit.

The apartment he finally chose was cramped and cookie-cutter, like it had come ready-made off an assembly line of thousands of other apartments just like it. It was hardly much to look at, but he was proud to be able to soon call it home anyway. It made up for what it lacked in character or spaciousness in the fact that it was clean and tidy and functional and, most importantly, his.

Sure, it looked bare and lifeless now, and he was no interior decorator, but all he had to do was add a few personal touches to make the space come alive. It was the perfect starter apartment, and just like his job, it would surely be a solid launching pad for bigger things to come.

After spending a weekend moving in, he christened the place by cracking open an ice cold bottle of beer, the first of many now that he no longer felt the unconsciously judgmental eyes of his parents burning a hole into him every time he so much as took a sip of alcohol, despite being well past the legal drinking age.

It didn't take long for the entire apartment to become cluttered with empty beer bottles and greasy, half-eaten bags of stale chips and for Sione, when he wasn't working, to all but glue himself to the sofa for days at a time, but, hey, wasn't that what having a bachelor pad was all about? What good was finally laying proper claim to a place of your own if you didn't allow yourself the freedom to be a little messy or lazy sometimes? What was the point of having a grown-up nine to five job if you didn't occasionally blow your paycheck on the hottest new video game releases and an entire weekend's worth of overpriced takeout?

Soon, the apartment felt like the only place in the world he'd ever called home. At the same time, his job had very quickly overtaken almost every semblance of a non-work-related lifestyle he might want to maintain. Other than his weekend video game match-ups with faceless online competitors and his weekly bar nights with his coworkers, he spent nearly ever other second of his waking hours glued to a computer screen, poring over lines and lines of programming until he could barely keep his eyes open. He'd known the work would be tedious and time-consuming, but he hadn't anticipated it'd be so tedious and time-consuming he'd end up taking half of it home with him every single night.

After a certain point, he felt like he might actually keel over and die if he were forced to examine another frustratingly uncooperative piece of code. If he couldn't find a way to maintain balance now, he would surely end up married to the job forever, and that was the last thing he wanted. Now that he'd achieved stability, he craved the spontaneity of his time at university. He missed having an actual life! One night, he powered down his computer early and dug out his guitar, neglected for so long. His mediocre skills had already grown rusty, but he immediately remembered the rush of catharsis that accompanied coaxing out even a handful of discordant notes. Maybe if he took up practicing again, he would one day be capable of playing an actual song.

In the meantime, since it was proving so difficult to find new adult friends outside of work without the benefit of regularly-scheduled classes and events, he gave up gaming one weekend afternoon to visit the nearby animal shelter instead, where he met the cutest little guy named Cosmo, whose chocolate brown eyes practically begged Sione to scoop him up and take him home. Sione had no problem obliging his request.

As soon as Sione set him down, Cosmo trotted around the apartment, wagging his tail happily, until he finally decided to hop onto one of the sofa cushions and immediately mark his territory. Sione spent the entire rest of the weekend engaged in a frantic effort to eliminate the lingering smell, but he couldn't find it in himself to give Cosmo more than a mumbled, noncommittal talking-to. He was simply too lovable to yell at!

All winter, their friendship deepened. It took all the strength Sione could muster to leave Cosmo behind in the apartment every morning, whining dejectedly from behind the locked door. He soon got into the habit of rushing home on his lunch break, neglecting his rumbling stomach just to ensure the two of them could get in a quick game of fetch before he returned to the drudgery of the desk. It lifted his spirits every time.

When spring finally rolled around, they got into the habit of going for long jogs around the city instead. Even though it meant Sione often came back to the office sweaty and rumpled, he didn't mind. He'd become such a reliable fixture around the place, no longer the latest, shiniest addition, that no one even looked at him twice. Besides, after a few months of jogging daily, he was suddenly in the best shape of his life. Who knew all it would take was a pet with boundless energy and irresistible eyes to get him to finally commit to a workout routine?

In fact, it turned out the secret to actually fulfilling his various promises to himself was simply to suck it up and stick to them for once in his life. Thanks to his regular practice sessions, his guitar-playing prowess improved drastically, to the point where he actually felt comfortable signing up for an open mic night and performing to an actual crowd. While his playing was hardly received with rapturous applause by the bar's distracted patrons, they also didn't seem to hate it, which went down as a success in his book.

By summer, Sione felt like he might finally be getting this whole adult thing down. He had trained himself so that as soon as he boarded the subway in the evening, all thoughts of work vanished from his brain. A few weeks ago, he'd gotten a raise, which reassured him that the company was happy with his performance. Then he was finally able to relax a bit more, no longer feeling the need to take his work home with him to prove his value. He had a lot of good things going for him now, and while he still didn't know precisely what lay ahead, he felt like he had a firmer grip on the direction of his own destiny than ever before.

But there were still some things he couldn't predict, no matter how much control he wielded. If he had glanced out the smeared subway window even once while contemplating these thoughts, he might've seen something odd in the distance, an unassuming but mystifying form swooping across the skyline that, if he squinted in just the right way, could quite possibly resolve itself into the shape of a girl he once knew well defying gravity and dodging skyscrapers on a deceptively normal-looking broomstick. But Sione didn't look up until his stop was announced, and so he never saw her coming at all.

Although he remained oblivious, this girl knew she held the fates of them both in her hands. Her next move would decide everything. It would either blow the tenuous bridge between them up in their faces once and for all or finally reinforce the shaky foundations of that bridge well enough to ensure it remained standing. As these opposing possibilities swirled dizzingly in her head, she took a deep breath and raised a fist to knock on his apartment door.