What's The Name Of The Game

The next morning, Pat busted into the room and flipped the lights on.

“Yo Jon wake up we gotta-holy shit!” Pat exclaimed once he saw Jon on top of his cousin.

“What? What?” Kara wondered, poking her head in. The both exchanged a sly grin as Jon and Tianna groggily woke up.

“Unnngh Kaner turn off the lights man!” Jon ordered as he buried his face deeper into Tianna’s neck. Suddenly Jon froze as he realized his surroundings. He tilted his head up at Tianna, who threw one arm over her eyes to block the light and the other arm Jon felt on his back.

“You did use a condom, right Tazer?” Patrick teased. Kara slapped his arm again. Jon grabbed an extra pillow and chucked it on their general direction before collapsing on top of Tianna again.

“Go away,” he murmured into her skin, causing her to giggle slightly.

“We were gonna go out for breakfast. You guys coming or are you gonna continue your sex-capades?” Patrick remarked.

“Please make him go away,” Jon requested of Tianna. She laughed lightly and ran a hand through his hair.

“Patrick Timothy Kane I swear to God if you don’t shut this door right now-” Tianna was interrupted with a quick ‘bang’ as the door was swiftly shut. Jon looked up at her in bewilderment.

“How did you do that?” He asked, amazed.

“He knows from experience that when I break out the middle name I mean serious business,” she answered with a smirk. She was still running her hands through his hair and he put his head back down on her. He loved the feeling of her fingers gently massaging his scalp, and it was all he could do to prevent himself from jumping her right there.

Although, if he did decide to, its not like he would have to move much. He was practically at third base with her already. He let out a contented sigh and he felt her laugh.

“Comfortable?” She remarked.

“Very,” he answered. After a few more moments, his head shot up to look at her. “Are you comfortable? I’m not crushing you, am I?” He pushed himself up on his arms to alleviate some of his weight.

“I was fine before,” she said. “Now I’m cold.” She tugged on his necklace to bring him close to her once more. He kept his face hovering above hers this time, and they just gazed into each others eyes. He began to lean down, but before anything could happen Jon’s cell phone started to ring. He groaned in frustration and reached over to the nightstand to grab it. He looked at the caller ID and shook his head.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Jon stated.

“Who is it?” Tianna asked softly. Jon showed her the screen, which read ‘Kaner’. She laughed out loud, causing Jon to smile.

“Hello?” He said into the receiver.

“Hey,” Pat answered. Tianna could hear him due to her proximity to Jon, and she could also hear his muffled voice outside, meaning he hadn’t left the apartment yet. “Uh, so are you guys coming to breakfast or…?” Jon chuckled and looked at Tianna . She nodded and Jon rolled over so she could get free.

“Yeah we’ll be out in a minute,” Jon answered. He and Patrick hung up and he looked over at Tianna who was digging through her bag. He liked it when they got along.

He really liked it when they got along.

Which is why he made the goal of staying on her good side.

Breakfast was going by relatively smoothly, and everyone seemed to be getting along just fine. But there was stuff that they all needed to discuss, and they were all purposefully avoiding it.

“Okay,” Patrick finally sighed. “We can’t all just sit here and pretend we have nothing important to talk about.” Everyone nodded in agreement. “T, what exactly are your plans?”

“I don’t know,” she said, glancing at Jon and then giving Pat a meaningful look. He shook his head, answering her silent question. Jon and Kara had no idea what was going on, so they just sat back and watched. “I need to get the rest of my stuff.”

“When were you planning on doing that? Christmas, right?” Patrick asked.

“Psh, yeah right. Like I’m going home for Christmas,” Tianna scoffed.

“T-Bag, I know it’s been tough there, but everyone’s gonna be there. Even my family’s coming down,” Pat reasoned.

“Pat, I left for a reason, you know. I-”she cut herself off, noticing she was getting choked up. She took a deep breath before continuing. “She doesn’t want me there.”

“Oh, sure she does. She can’t honestly not want to see you. It’s Christmas!”

“Okay, does someone want to explain to Kara and me what’s going on?” Jonathan finally butt in

“Oh, I already know,” Kara announced. Jon just stared at her for a moment, comprehending what she said.

“Okay, does someone want to explain to me what’s going on?” Jon corrected. Pat and Tianna just looked at each other, shifting uncomfortably. Tianna finally shot Patrick a look that said ‘tell him,’ but Pat shook his head.

“Not my place,” he shrugged. She glared at him before turning to Jon. She tried starting the story numerous times, but she kept tripping over her own words and making herself frustrated.

“I…I can’t,” she finally whispered with tears in her eyes. She got up and walked out of the restaurant, and Kara got up to follow her.

“I’ll go get her and meet you guys back at the apartment. Tell him,” she said to Patrick.

After Kara left, Jon looked at Patrick expectantly.

“She had a bit of a falling out with her mom,” Pat stated vaguely. Jon nodded for him to continue. “Things got pretty bad, and she basically kicked Anna out.”

“Okay…why?” Jon asked, confused by the entire situation. Pat pursed his lips and looked around the restaurant.

“Remember last year when my Uncle died?” Patrick recalled.

“Yeah,” Jon nodded.

“That’s why. My Aunt, she hasn’t really been the same since, and she kind of blames Tianna for everything,” he explained.

“She blames her for all the changes or for your uncle dying?” Jonathan tried to clear up.

“Everything, Jon. They never had a good relationship before anyways. Anything Tianna ever did, it wasn’t good enough. Nothing could please her mom. And then when her dad died, it all just got worse. She blames Tianna for my uncle dying, she blames Tianna for the fact that she’s spent so much money over the years on her, she blames Tianna when she burns dinner, even though T was no where near the kitchen. I’m talking, everything, Jon. That’s why T finally left. She couldn’t take it anymore.”

"I thought you said she was kicked out?"

"Well, it was kind of a combination of Tianna leaving and my Aunt telling her to never come back," Patrick said.

Jon just sat there in silence, taking this all in.

“Wait, didn’t you want me to stop by with your family for a night before I went back home for Christmas?” Jonathan remembered.

“Yeah…”

“Dude, forget that! I’m not going to be around that lady! No offense, but she sounds crazy!” Jon argued. Patrick shook his head.

“She’s not like that with everyone,” Pat stated. “And I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or a bad thing. But anyway, she’s a really nice woman. Unless you’re Tianna.”

“Kaner, I don’t know,” Jon said, shaking his head.

“Hey man, I’m not gonna force you,” Pat laughed.

“What exactly is the game plan?”

“Well,” Patrick started, taking a deep breath. “We all always celebrate Christmas a few days early because everyone has other places to go on Christmas, and this is the way we’ve worked it out. So, the day before the party I’m going to help, because I promised my aunt I would, and then the next day, the night you leave, is when the family comes over and they stay over and stuff.”

“And what’s Tia going to be doing this whole time?” Jon inquired.

“Tia?” Patrick teased.

“What?” Jon sounded defensively.

“Nothing, nothing,” the younger man smirked. Suddenly the smile wiped off his face. “Actually Jon, maybe you shouldn’t call her that.”

“Why not?”

“It’s her favorite nickname, besides T-Bag, of course," Patrick said proudly. Jon rolled his eyes, because everyone could see that Tianna barely tolerated it. "But her dad was the only one who used it,” Patrick explained. Jon nodded, understanding. “But uh, as for what she’s doing, I don’t know. I thought the plan was to go there and try and work things out with her mom one last time. And if things still didn’t work out, we’d get the rest of her stuff. But now that she’s refusing to go, I’m not really sure what’s happening. I guess I just get all her stuff anyways?” Jon just nodded absentmindedly. “So, are you coming?”

“I guess. It’s only one night,” he shrugged. The two men sat around for a little longer, paid the bill and left, heading to practice.

Tianna was already subconsciously heading back to the apartment when she heard Kara call her name. She turned around, and let Kara engulf her in a big hug.

“Did you guys tell him?” she whispered. Kara pulled away and they started walking.

“I told Pat to before I left,” Kara answered. Tianna nodded.

“It’s not that I didn’t want him to know, I just couldn’t…”

“I know, Annie. Don’t worry about it,” her friend soothed. They reached the apartment and Tianna collapsed on the couch while Kara raided Pat and Jon’s kitchen. She got everything they’d need, like drinks, ice cream, and of course, chocolate.

A few hours later, Jon and Patrick came back from practice. Patrick greeted them both with a kiss on the forehead, but Jon just entered his room wordlessly.

“Is he mad at me?” Tianna asked.

“What?” Patrick replied, confused. “No, of course not. Why?”

“I dunno, he just seems upset,” his cousin shrugged.

“He is, but not because of you. Practice was rough today,” he explained. Tianna nodded and turned her attention back onto the screen. “You should go talk to him though, after everything that happened this morning.”

“Should I wait until he cools down? Or just go in now?”

“Whenever,” Patrick shrugged. Tianna rolled her eyes and got up.

“Gosh, PK, you are so helpful,” she muttered sarcastically. Kara and Pat just laughed as she walked away. She went down the hall to Jon’s room, and knocked on the closed door. She waited a few moments, and then it was suddenly yanked open.

“What?” Jon asked shortly, startling her. “Sorry,” he amended, once he realized how sharp he had been. “What’s up?”

“Um, I just wanted to talk to you about earlier…but if this is a bad time we can talk later,” she told him.

“What exactly do we need to talk about?”

“Um…I dunno, Pat just said to talk to you, so…” she trailed off.

“Well I can’t think of anything, so, you can go,” he said, slowly stepping back into his room. She nodded, and he shut the door. Tianna stood there for a moment, kind of upset. She was hoping she’d be able to talk to Jon, because she hadn’t really opened up to anyone about it before. Not even Kara or Pat.

But obviously, he didn’t care.