Troubled Love

Untitled Part 3

Disclaimer: I do not own the Dallas Stars, Tyler Seguin or anything else. I only own Avery and he plot!

I don't even know how long I've been sitting here for. The minutes turned into hours and the sun disappeared and the moon shined through my window in the living room. I got home after leaving the arena and the argument with my dad and sat in front of my coffee table with 3 Vicodin pills in front of me. I hadn't touched them or even thought about talking them, I just stared at them, angry at them for ruining my life.

I didn't even know how long I had been sitting there when I heard a knock on my door. I ignored it and didn't move from my same spot, but the knocking continued until I said to come in. I hear the door open and in the reflection of the TV I see Tyler slowly coming around the small wall next to my door.

He slowly came around the corner and immediately approached me. "Avery? Avery, are you alright?" He set his keys and phone down on the table. "Ave, what's going on?"

"Why are you here?" I quietly say.

"I hadn't seen you at the arena after your skate session this morning and when I came to get you to bring you home, your dad said you had an argument and you went home early. I went home with Jamie to see if you would still come over and when you didn't we got worried, so he went home and I came here. Now tell me what's going on?" He tells me.

I feel the tears falling down my cheeks, faster then Tyler came wipe them away. "You see those?" I point to the pills in front of me, and his eyes follow "Those ruined my life."

"What are those?"

"Vicodin. I'm a recovering addict to Vicodin." I start to cry again. I felt Tyler wrap his arm around my shoulder and just let me cry until I was ready to talk again. "I took my first pill when I was 17 years old. My dad had moved to Texas when I was 15 for this job with the Stars, leaving me and my mother at home. They were still together but they didn't want to uproot my life at the end of high school and move to Texas so my mom stayed with me while dad came here. Just after I graduated we found out my mom had ovarian cancer. She died a week before I turned 18. The day of her funeral, I found her medicine in the bathroom and took my first pill. Dad wasn't able to make it home for the funeral due to so much here because of the end of the season. It destroyed me. I had to bury her alone and I didn't know how to process it. The only thing there for me was drugs, so I fell into a deep black hole after I felt nothing." 

Tyler got up and grabbed me a bottle of water and resumed his spot next to me and let me continue. "About a year ago, I had gone out with Andrew to a party. It was a usual thing for us. Our relationship was nothing but sex and pills, no love, no affection, nothing. When we were at the party I had taken way to much, way to fast and I had over dosed." I start to cry again and Tyler holds me tighter. "I hadn't felt right all night, like I was sick so I tried to find Andrew so we could go home, but I had found him in bed with someone else. One of my friends from high school actually. I immediately left the party and ran home, decided to take more pills and I don't really remember anything after that."

I wiped my tears with my sleeve and continued "I woke up at a hospital here in Dallas. My downstairs neighbor in our apartment had heard me collapse and apparently take a shelf with stuff on it with me. They heard it downstairs and called the landlord to check on me. He found me and immediately called 911, brought me to the hospital and called my father, who immediately had me flown here. When I woke up my dad was here, and had already arranged a private room at a really good rehab facility in Chicago. I went, got clean and now I'm here." 

Tyler didn't say anything. He let go of me and grabbed the pills off the table and flushed them down the toilet. He made his way back to me and stood me up in front of him. "You are amazing. Completely amazing. You fought like hell to be here today and I am damn sure happy that you are. Those drugs do not define you anymore, and they never will again. Not if I have anything to do with it."

"No Tyler, we have to stop hanging out all the time." I push his hands off my shoulders and slouch back down on the couch.

Tyler looks confused and kneels in front of me "What are you talking about?"

I blink back more tears "My dad doesn't want me ruining you since you are the top star in the NHL, and he doesn't want me to get hurt because he thinks that I will fall back into my old lifestyle if I do. He doesn't want me hanging out with you anymore."

"Well unfortunately for you, he cant control that. And he cant control how I feel about you. I really care about you Avery, and I cant distance myself now."

"I really care about you too Tyler, but we-"

"We will continue to hang out, unless this is really what you want to do?"

"I think not being around you will hurt me more then anything else."

"Then that's what you tell your dad. I'm sure if you talk to him he will understand."

I shake my head, wondering what I did to deserve this man in my life now, when I really need him the most. I wrap my arms around his stomach and he returns by wrapping his around his neck, silently reassuring me everything was going to work out.