Head Games

Dave went back into the kitchen, but he couldn’t bring himself to eat his lunch. Too many things were running through his mind, and he didn’t know what to make of it all.

After what seemed like forever, Mia timidly came out of their her room. She entered the kitchen, frowning at Dave’s untouched food.

“If you don’t like it-”

“No, I do. I just still haven’t started it yet,” he said, looking at her swollen eyes. “Sit and eat with me,” he requested, motioning to her plate on the counter.

“I’m not really hungry,” she told him, putting away the ingredients she had used. She wondered if they were really just going to ignore the conversation they had just had.

“I was thinking, I should probably leave,” Dave stated, causing Mia to freeze. Now that he wanted to go, she didn’t want him to. “It wasn’t fair of me to ask to stay here. I’ll go stay with a teammate until I can get this all sorted out.”

“Dave, listen. Really, you staying here is fine. I’m still just, dealing with all of this. I don’t want things to be awkward; I want to be your friend,” Mia said.

“Really?” He asked, rising from his seat. She nodded and he closed the gap between them and hugged her. Mia savored the feeling of his arms around her, because she pretty sure this was going to be the last time it happened.

Dave pulled away and looked down at her, brushing the hair out of her eyes. She didn’t pull away this time, and Dave had to remind himself they were done.

“You wanna watch a movie or something?” He asked her.

“Sure,” she softly agreed, allowing him to pull her by the hand out of the kitchen. As he was looking through their movie collection, Dave’s cell phone rang again. Much to Mia’s dismay, he answered it, but once she heared him greet his teammate Brent Seabrook on the other line, she immediately relaxed. Brent must have asked him something, because suddenly Dave was glancing at Mia and telling Brent he wasn’t sure. She heard Dave say he was busy at the moment, so she got up and motioned to him that it was okay and he could go do whatever Brent wanted.

“Hang on a sec,” Dave said to Brent, then covering the mouthpiece and looking at Mia. “He wants me to come over,” he told her.

“Go ahead,” she nodded, forcing a smile and walking away.

“He said for you to come too,” Dave added, grabbing her arm.

“Oh,” Mia sounded, unsure of what to do. “I don’t think so. You go ahead.”

“Why don’t you wanna go?”

“It would be awkward,” she shrugged.

“No it won’t,” Dave argued. “Please?”

Mia sighed, knowing she wasn’t going to say no to him.

“Fine,” she agreed. “Let me go get ready.” Dave smiled at her and watched her walk away, and he started to feel confident that they could pull this friends thing off.

About a half hour later, Dave and Mia found themselves knocking on Brent’s door and then being ushered inside.

“Mia! Long time no see!” Brent exclaimed, pulling her in for a hug.

“Er, yeah,” she sounded, hugging back. Dave grabbed her coat for her as Mia looked around the living room and waved at various players and their girlfriends. As she spent more time in Brent’s house that day, Mia noticed something was off. Everyone was acting really weird, but Mia chalked it up to Dave telling them to try and not make things weird around her.

A little while later, the guys were all huddled around the TV, loudly engrossed in a video game tournament. Their girlfriends/wives were all sitting next to their respective man, or were on his lap. Mia was sitting kind of separate from everyone, at the kitchen island. There was no wall in between the kitchen and living room, so technically she wasn’t really in another room. She was just distant enough to not feel like part of the group anymore.

“Hey,” Andrew Ladd said, sitting next to her suddenly.

“Hey,” Mia smiled back, slightly startled. “Why aren’t you over there?” She nodded toward the loud group of people.

“Why aren’t you over there?” He countered. Mia just shrugged and looked down at her glass of lemonade. She heard Dave laugh loudly, and couldn’t help but glance over at him. Andrew noticed, and looked at her skeptically. “What’s up with you and Dave?”

Mia looked at him skeptically this time.

“What do you mean?”

“You are the only girlfriend not on her boyfriend’s lap,” he chuckled. Was he trying to pour salt in a wound here? Of course she noticed that. She didn’t have a boyfriend’s lap to sit on.

“Andrew-”

“And it’s not only today,” he continued, not letting her explain. “You guys have been weird for the past like, month or so.”

“Yeah, about that-”

“Listen,” he interrupted again, lowering his voice and glancing at Dave to make sure he wasn’t looking. “I know it’s none of my business, and I shouldn’t hang a teammate out to dry like this, but I think you deserve to know. Lately, Dave’s been…flirty with other girls. He’s never done anything, but he’s gotten a few numbers.”

“I know,” Mia nodded sadly.

“Oh,” Andrew sounded, confusion evident in his features. “You do?”

“Yeah.”

“And you’re okay with that?” Andrew asked, bewildered.

“Well it’s not like I can do anything about it,” Mia shrugged, causing Andrew’s face to screw up in even more confusion. “We broke up,” she finished, as if reminding him. Dave had told them, right?

“You what?!” He exclaimed, startling her and everyone else. Now it all made sense though, regarding everyone’s behavior.

They weren’t acting weird, they were acting normally because they didn’t know any better.

By now the videogame was paused and everyone was looking at Andrew and Mia.

“When?!” Andrew continued, not caring. Mia glanced nervously at Dave, who had just realized what was going on. Neither of them spoke, so Andrew addressed the rest of his teammates. “Did you all know they broke up?!”

Everyone’s gazes shifted between Dave and Mia as they bombarded the two of them with disbelieving comments and questions.

“You didn’t tell them?” Mia asked Dave as he stood next to her.

“Uh, no. Not yet,” he answered, nervously rubbing the back of his neck.

“When did this happen?” Patrick Sharp piped up.

“About a week and a half ago,” Dave informed.

“And you guys have still been living together?” Brent asked, remembering how Mia was there when he had called Dave.

“Yeah…” Dave told him. “I’ve been looking for a new place, but Mia’s letting me stay with her until I find one.”

“Why?” Adam Burish voiced.

“Well, we wanted to stay friends,” Dave shrugged. Adam narrowed his eyes, not satisfied with that answer.

“How did this all happen?” He dug.

Mia turned to Dave, wondering what he was going to tell them.

“It’s complicated,” was Dave’s reply. The room became awkwardly quiet, and all of Dave’s teammates glared at him, knowing that he was the one who was at fault for whatever happened.

“I should go,” Mia offered, walking toward the coats.

“No, wait,” Dave called out, grabbing her arm.

“It’s fine, I’ll get a cab,” she told him, grabbing her jacket and pulling it on. “You should talk to them.”

Before Dave could protest again Mia walked out of Brent’s house after mumbling a goodbye to everyone.

Dave stared at the shut door, and could feel everyone’s eyes boring into the back of his skull. He turned around slowly, and saw the glares of everyone in the room.

“What. The. Fuck?” Brent Seabrook asked, punctuating each word with a punch to Dave’s shoulder. Dave shoved him off and rubbed the sore spot, glaring at Brent.

“Well?” Patrick Sharp prompted. “What happened?”

“Yeah. How the heck do you let a babe like that get away?” Adam Burish remarked. “You must have fucked up bad.”

“How do you know I’m not the one who broke up with her?” Dave glared.

His teammates all gave him bemused, ‘yeah, right’ looks, causing Dave to get frustrated.

“Because you are the lucky one in this relationship, not her. You wouldn’t,” Duncan Keith added.

“Yeah well, I did,” Dave muttered. Everyone looked at him incredulously.

“So let me get this straight. You didn’t fail at keeping her, you let her go?” Adam interrogated.

Dave nodded, avoiding everyone’s gazes. There was a moment of silence before a collective “What?!” was heard throughout the room.

“Why?” Patrick Sharp sounded.

“It’s complicated,” Dave shrugged, going back to his old answer.

“So un-complicate it,” Brent countered.

Dave scratched the back of his head, not wanting to get into it right now.

“I have to go,” he muttered. Dave grabbed his coat and walked out the door, leaving his confused teammates in the dust.