In Case of Heartbreak

18 | confront

"What do you say?" Matt asked, noticing my hesitance as a smirk pulled at his lips, "If I remember correctly, you used to have quite a lot of fun at our parties." His eyes shifted towards Katie, who until now had gone seemingly unnoticed by the rest of the guys. "And of course, this little cutie is welcome to come too."

Ignoring how he was immediately clapped on the back by a few of his teammates, I turned towards Katie, leaning down slightly, my breath fanning the side of her face as I whispered, "We don't have to go if you don't want to."

Pulling back, awaiting her response, there was a small part of me that hoped she just wanted to go home and end the night here. Instead, a small smile tugged at her lips, a contradictory action to the blank look in her eyes as she shrugged. "I'm not gonna be the buzzkill here Dean," she replied. "If you want to go, we can."

I wanted to tell her that this wasn't what I really wanted. I wanted to get out of here and shut off the conflicting voices in my head, but at the same time, I also didn't want to look like the bad guy and reject the invitation.

Forcing back a sigh, I smiled. "Just tell me where it is and we'll be there."

−−−−−−−−−−

Half an hour later we were parked a block away from Dallas's house. I'd taken the keys out of the ignition but hadn't moved to get out, clasping my hands tight around the steering wheel as I watched people I only vaguely remembered passing by in a hurry as they tried to escape the cold.

From what I remembered, Dallas's parents were workaholics, often leaving him alone for days at a time. They knew about the parties he threw, but as long as nothing of theirs was broken when they got back, they didn't really mind.

"You know, if we were going to be sitting in a car tonight, I might've thought about bringing a jacket," Katie mused, causing my attention to turn to her in surprise, not having realize how long we'd been sitting here.

"Sorry," I muttered, dragging a hand stressfully through my hair, "I guess we can go."

Reaching for my door handle, I was pulled back as Katie's hand wrapped around my arm. "Are you sure this is what you want to do tonight?" she asked, a blend of curiosity and skepticism glossing across her features. "Because if you'd rather just go see a movie or something, I'd be okay with that."

"This is what I'd do almost every weekend before my accident. It's what brought the team closer together, because we didn't just see each other at practice, we spent a lot of our free time together," I revealed. I left out the part that was eating away at me the most – that what I'd come to realize over the past couple of months was that the guys and I had partied together because we'd had nothing better to do. "So maybe, if I can get through tonight, it won't be as awkward as I think it'll be when I get back into the game."

This was something I believed to be untrue, because I knew that if I got clearance to play again, there was sure to be a shift in the dynamic that the team had built up over the course of the season.

"Okay then," Katie said softly, and because she recognized that I needed it, she squeezed my hand encouragingly, "Let's go."

The house was easy to spot, a mass of guests crowding the porch and doorway as the bass from the music reverberated all the way out to the street. It was surprising the neighbours weren't doing anything to shut the party down, but I guess having lived next to Dallas for a while, they'd grown to expect the antics.

Holding Katie's hand tightly in my own as we stepped into the house, I glanced around, failing to recognize anyone, but that didn't stop others from greeting me as we made our way towards the kitchen. There were less people there, and I was surprised as Katie was pulled into a conversation with someone she'd known from her program, introducing me quickly before they begun discussing the lab they'd completed earlier in the day.