MIA
I've been staring at the package for 15 minutes. I was doing the laundry when the doorbell rang. The delivery man, Austin, a friend from high school, was with a giant box by his side. It was almost his size.
"Someone really likes you" he said as I signed.
"Thanks, Austin" he turned away and I dragged the giant box with ease, which was surprising. After those 15 minutes, I decided to open it. It took me a while but I did. It was a human-sized plush with a Jack print on it. There were three bottles of my favorite champagne, a new jersey from the Devils and 15 bars of my favorite chocolate. I had to smile.
"It was delivered?" Jack said as he accepted the call. He was at practice.
"You're so lucky I am a material girl" I giggled and he smiled. "Now I have a human-sized Jack to punch anytime I want to. Brilliant!"
"I'm a genius" he looked happy. "That's my apology for being an asshole to you at the party"
"Only at the party?"
"Okay, for your birthday too" I was already eating one bar. "What about opening one of those bottles after the game tonight?" I silently looked at him through the screen and his smile dropped. "You said you would come to the game against the Islanders!"
"I'm kidding! I'll be there!" he sighed, relieved.
"You're gonna wear my number, right? Helen is going with Lukey's"
"I'm not sure" I teased him. "Barzal's gonna be there... I have the jersey he gifted me last season... I could cheer for him, he's always so nice to me..."
"Not a fucking chance you're wearing his number, I swear I'll throw a puck on you"
"Chill! I'm kidding, again" I grab the jersey that was right in front of me. "I'm gonna use the new one"
"Thank you" he says, satisfied. Someone shouted in the back. "Gotta go, see ya later"
"See you" he ends the call. I finish the chocolate bar and punch the plush a few times.
After I'm done with the laundry I take a hot shower and get ready for the game. I didn't want to get there too early so I made something to eat. I'm not a fan of the food in the arena. I eat slowly when I receive a text from Helen.
"I'm picking you up in ten minutes" I type "OK" and put my plate on the sink. I brushed my teeth and stared at the mirror. I was fine, I guess. Even so, I decided to put some gloss and a touch of blush on my cheeks. Better.
When we arrived there, the arena was full of girls. Well, it was a Devils and Islanders game after all but I knew damn well we were all here to have a glimpse of Mathew. Who wouldn't?
We walked with our hands tied as we passed through the crowd, finding our sits, close to the penalty box. I hated being this close, it always frightened me when the players went against the wall. It was loud and scary. But I did it for Jack and Luke. Jim and Ellen even came today. We all always try to come watch when there is a game against the Islanders.
"Mia, darling" Ellen tapped the seat by her side and I said 'hi' to her and Jim, who was eating a hotdog. "I brought your favorite brownie"
"Oh my God, I love you" I said as she gave it to me. They were warm. "I'm gonna have diabetes if your family keeps feeding all those treats"
"Which one of the boys is pampering you?" she was curious.
"Jack" I bit one piece of brownie. "It was a late birthday gift"
"Oh, he finally gave you that plush!" she clapped.
"You knew about that stupid plush?" I got intrigued.
"He asked me to buy that a year ago! He wanted to give it to you but didn't know how" she smiled. "He said you would like to have something with his face to punch sometimes"
"He was so right" I offered a brownie to Helen and remembered. "Oh my, you know Helen already?"
"Yeah, Lukey brought her to have dinner with us a couple of nights ago" they hugged quickly. "So good to see you again, darling"
"It really is" Helen sat by my side. "Oh, isn't that Grace?" she was looking behind me. I turned and found a grumpy Grace. I haven't seen her since the costume incident.
"Grace" I greeted her and she gave us a shy 'hello'. "Do you guys know Grace?" Ellen shook her head negatively and Jim said no. Well, now that's awkward. "Uh, Grace, this is Ellen, Jack's mom, and this is Jim, his father"
"Nice to meet you" they shook hands.
"That's Grace, Jack's girlfriend" Ellen wasn't good at hiding her surprised face and Jim was worse.
"Oh, he's dating?" she was a bit red. "If I knew we would meet I would have dressed better"
"You look great, Mrs.Hughes" she sat at Jim's side.
"Well, Jack never mentioned he was dating. That kid" she clicked her tongue, like Jack used to.
"The game is about to start" Jim coughed and she rolled her eyes.
"He doesn't like when we talk about something that isn't the game when it starts" Ellen pointed out. The game did start and we screamed as they entered.
The game was quite tense, Jack and Luke didn't seem to even look at each other, which made it hard to have a harmonious game between them. The Islanders scored two goals in the first period, which made Jim almost jump on the rink.
"What's wrong with Luke and Jack?" Helen whispered to me. "I don't understand anything about hockey but I understand about siblings being mad at each other. Believe me, my brother and I have a degree on this"
"This isn't normal" I say back to her. "Something's off"
The Devils just scored after the coach pulled Jack and Luke aside, arguing with them, and then they played together. Hischier scored a goal in the first seconds of the second period but Horvat scored right after him. We were losing by one at this point. Luke scored only in the third period, with Jack's assist. The third period started and it was 3x3. No one scored in this period and it went OT.
"They better put in practice what I worked so hard to teach them" Ellen was foaming. I was going to say something but Jack scored. We started to jump and to hug each other, screaming.
We all waited as everyone went away and the arena was almost empty then we went to the parking lot, where we usually waited for them to leave. After a few minutes, Luke came out, running to kiss Helen. He started to talk to Jim and Ellen about the game and I looked at Grace. We were both waiting for Jack. It took a while and I looked around, finding Mathew. He waved and I did a little run to get to him.
"Great game" I complimented and he shrugged.
"For you" he squinted his eyes and I laughed.
"Right" he put his hands on his pockets.
"So, didn't know Luke had this much fire"
"What do you mean?" I was ready to throw hands.
"He and Jack fought right before the game. They had to hold Luke back" my heart stopped.
"They fought?" I turned around, seeing Luke with his arms locked with Helen's. He was so happy. I turned back to him. "Why?"
"I don't know the reason, so I'm not gonna assume," he started. "But they said your name a couple of times" he made an uncomfortable face. "I have to go. If you find out what happened, please, I would love to know the gossip" he got into the bus and I stared as it turned, disappearing from my view. I went to Ellen's side, looking at Luke suspiciously.
Jack finally appeared and didn't look nearly as happy as Luke. He didn't even look at me and just kissed Grace. I looked away.
"Great game, boys" Jim said. "But this old man needs to sleep"
"So do I" Ellen added as she gave me a kiss on the cheek. "See you at the lake house, next Friday, darling"
"See you" I nodded and watched as they said their goodbyes. I was holding my tears at this point and I could feel Luke's gaze. When Ellen and Jim left, the vibe got weird between Luke and Jack, both ignoring each other.
"Uh," I coughed. "I brought a bottle of champagne to celebrate..."
"That expensive one?" Luke gasped and I confirmed. "You're the best"
"We could go to my house, order something and open it" Helen suggested.
"Yeah" Grace agreed and I shook my head positively.
"I'm tired" Jack said dryly. "I'm going home, see you guys other time" he didn't let us say anything and just got away, leaving Grace behind, with us. Her face was burning red.
"You know, you still can come" Helen said.
"No, it's fine. It would be weird without Jack..." she was biting her lip. I felt sorry for her and mad at Jack for being an asshole. She said goodbye and went to her car. I looked at Luke.
"What happened in the locker room?" I was straightforward.
"Just Jack being an idiot" I knew he wasn't telling everything. "I got fed up with his bullshit, okay?" he scratched his head. "Honestly? I don't know how you're still friends with him. He's a bitch to you 50% of the time"
"Hey, it's not like that" I felt protective over Jack.
"You know he doesn't deserve you defending him, right?" Helen whispered and my eyes went wide.
"He isn't a bitch to me," I started. "Yes, he is annoying and loves to bother me, but no one ever cared about me as much as he does"
"That's not true" Luke folded his arms. "Even though we don't have the official best friend post, Quinn and I care for you more than he does" I fell silent, feeling the guilt creeping over.
"I–"
"No, don't say anything if you are gonna defend Jack. You don't even know why we are mad at him"
"We?" I gasped. "Who are we?"
"Quinn is not talking to him. He was even thinking about not going to the lake house this month" he said bluntly.
"What could have Jack possibly done to be so serious that Quinn would break the lake house tradition?" I was incredulous.
"Ask Jack" he said. "I think is better to call off the celebration"
"You two are being nonsensical" Helen stepped between us. "But I agree with Luke" traitor.
"Fine! I'll go home and open that stupid champagne bottle and drink it all by myself!" I hold my purse tighter. "I'll call an Uber, you two can have fun together"
"Wait, I'll take–"
"I'm good!" I'm typing on my phone. "Done! See you two tomorrow, I guess" I'm whispering at the end. The tears are back.
"But, Mia–"
"No," Luke interrupts Helen. "There's no way to force sense into her when she's like this. I keep forgetting that she's just like Jack. She'll be fine" I heard them walking away as I can't hold the tears anymore. My uber was already here.
When I get home, I don't even bother to open the damn bottle. I just took a shower and went straight to bed. I cried for an hour before I fell asleep. I have this thing where I get angry and start to cry and can't stop until my chest hurts. I hate it but it happens a lot.
I woke up with puffy eyes and my face swollen. I decided to have a cold shower before going to uni, where I would face Helen and probably Luke. I put on a Devils sweatshirt and a pair of old jeans. I wasn't feeling like getting all dressed up. I had a bowl of cereal without milk (I ran out of it) and a giant cup of black coffee. When I arrived at uni, later than usual, I accidentally bumped into Helen, who was identical to me, wearing a Devils sweater with Luke's number. She sniffled as we gathered our things from the ground.
"Luke and I had an argument" she whispered as I was walking away and I almost stumbled on my own feet as I turned back in her direction. "I made him talk what happened between him and Jack and I ended up by your side"
"What happened?" I caressed her back.
"He said the three of them got in a video call that afternoon and were just chilling when Jack said he would take Grace to the lake house" my jaw dropped. None of them ever took a girl to the lake house. It was a thing just between our families. "Quinn lost his mind and Luke too because, you know, he's not taking me with him and we've been dating almost as long as Jack and Grace. He didn't say much more but Quinn is not talking to Jack," she paused for a second, breathing. "and when they got in the locker room before the game, Luke asked if he would really take Grace and Jack said he would and then he didn't want to tell me what he said after, but it was something that made Jack try to punch him" I was in shock.
"Jesus Christ" I murmured.
"I said both were wrong and that they shouldn't have fought," she sniffled again. "And that it wasn't an excuse for both of them to treat you like they did but he said I didn't know everything"
"What an idiot" I couldn't believe Luke had said this to Helen. The boy is head over heels for her. "I'm sorry you got in the middle of all of this"
"It's fine" she wiped some tears away. "He already apologized a thousand times but I told him we were on a break. Just until I calm down" I hug her.
We went to class and she spent the whole morning with me. Luke did appear and tried to talk. She said everything was fine between them and that she just needed some time. He pulled me aside and said sorry. I said there was nothing wrong and that we were okay. He still apologized a few times. He hadn't had the ability to stay angry at others for a long time. He never did.
Helen dropped me off at work and I forgot all my problems while there. I was too busy because some parents disagreed with their son's grade and wouldn't leave me alone until they made me agree to let him take another test. The poor boy was a straight A student who got an A-. After the expedient, I stopped by my house just to get my small suitcase for the trip to the lake and went to my parents house. My mom was preparing a three course meal with Ellen and my father and Jim were watching the news.
After dinner I went to my old room and just layed in bed, scrolling through Twitter. I was almost dozing off when I heard something on the window. I got up and opened the curtains. It was Jack, asking me to go down. I put on an old sweater and went down. It was freezing.
"What are you doing here?" I whispered, not wanting to alarm my mom, who had an excellent hearing. "I thought you were going to meet us at the lake house"
"I was," he shivered. "I was going to take Grace," he huffed. "But she doesn't like humidity" I held my laughter. "It's not funny, we had a fight"
"Wow, so you had your first real fight?" I said as we walked to the swings my father had built when we were little. He pulled my back, swinging me.
"It wasn't our first fight" he sounded tired. "It wasn't even the second"
"But tell me," I decided to be brute. "Why did you fight with Luke? Why is Quinn so mad at you?"
"We're brothers" he stopped swinging me and sat on the swing by my side. "It's natural"
"Not for you three" I kicked a rock. "You're so close to each other" he closed his eyes and sighed.
"They're mad because I'm dating Grace" he whispered. "They say it's not fair to her"
"Why?" I frowned.
"They think she's too nice for me and that she deserves someone who treats her better and who likes her"
"You don't like her?" I was confused.
"It's not that I don't like her," he was so anxious, fidgeting with the zipper of his jacket. "The thing is that I don't like her enough"
"Ah" I didn't know what to say. It wasn't my business. We keep silent, just swinging. It started snowing at some point.
"I bet the lake is gonna be frozen" he murmured.
"We can skate, like when we were little" I suggest, wanting to cheer him up.
"But you suck at skating"
"Oh, shut up" he laughed. "I'm trying to be nice to you"
"Sorry" he said in a more serious tone. I looked at him and he was staring at me. "Sorry for that night after the game"
"It shouldn't be me who you should be sorry for" I said, stretching my arms. "It should be Grace. She had just met your parents, who didn't even know you were dating"
"I screwed that, right?" he smirked and I punched his arm.
"Don't smirk. This is serious" I was feeling sorry for Grace. "She tried hard even though you didn't help"
"She's a nice girl"
"You know," I said as if thinking out loud. "I kinda agree with Quinn"
"On what?"
"She is too nice for you"
"Traitor"
"Hey" I said timidly and he looked at me. "You still haven't told me why you fought in the locker room"
"Uh" his cheeks blushed a bit, catching me off guard. My heart fastened. "It was nothing"
"Then tell me" I insisted.
"It's late," he stood up. "We should sleep a little before we hit the road in the morning"
"You don't fool me," I stood up, following him to the door. "You're just trying to escape. I will keep asking until one of you answer me"
"Luke won't tell you" he seemed certain of it.
"There's always Quinn"
"He wouldn't" he sounded betrayed.
"I think he would" I got inside the house before he could say anything.