How It Should Be

Violet and Matt spent the 26th making two piles of the gifts Violet received the day earlier. The useful stuff and the crap they were going to turn into drinking money. The drinking money pile was considerably larger than the other.

They made Violet's exchanges and went home to watch the Penguins-Devils game and ended up turning off the TV after the second period to avoid a devastating loss.

"I'm SO glad we're not at that game. Walking into that locker room would be the most frightful experience." Matt had checked the score online 4-0 Devils. Just as Matt was saying this Violet's phone began to ring. "Let me guess, a disgruntled bird with a clear eyelid as to swim underwater?"

"You should just say Penguin, its easier." Violet rubbed her head and answered the phone. "Hey,"

"Hi." Evgeni sounded forlorn.

"You played beautifully," Violet bit her lip as Matt mocked her by mouthing beautifully at her. "But I know you don't want to talk about the game."

"Da. Don't come locker room tomorrow. Bad idea." Evgeni grunted. Violet wished she could be there to hug him and make him feel better but alas..

"After the game maybe?" Evgeni confirmed that was a better idea.

"Have go, we leaving now."

"Now? But it's basically the middle of the night."

"Sleep longer tomorrow, later game. See you." Violet said goodbye and hung up the phone. She turned to Matthew who was attempting to balance a water bottle on his nose lying down.

"What would you say if I asked you to that strange Korean market with the mango slushies?" Matthew sat up and looked at her and the water bottle fell on the floor.

"I'd say you're insane because that's in the sketch-ass part of town where a white little Jew-boy is likely to get mugged, raped, and killed by a Korean mobster." Matthew burst out laughing and flopped back on the couch like a fish. Violet herself giggled and jumped and flopped on Matthew herself.

"Ooff! What are you trying to do? Kill me?" Matthew wrapped his arm around Violet's shoulder. They sat in silence for a few minutes staring at the ceiling. "I wonder how long we'll be able to do this." Matt whispered into the apartment. Violet bit her lip. She knew what he was talking about but didn't want to acknowledge it. "I don't want to grow up."

After a moment Violet spoke. "You sound like Peter Pan. What? Do you believe in faeries now, too?" Matthew chuckled and squeezed her arm.

"You know what I meant."

"I know what you meant." Violet sighed and burrowed her head into his side. "I just don't want to think about it. I'm already a mess when we live together, imagine how bad I'll be if we live five minutes away from each other let alone an hour or something ridiculous like that." Violet and Matt stayed like that in silence for about fifteen minutes until Matthew received a text from his girlfriend Julie. He got up to call her and left Vi alone on the couch. She rolled over and lay there thinking about the next chapter in her life.

What would happen with Evgeni? What would happen with Matt? Surely she would continue to live with Matthew...unless Julie wanted to live with Matthew. Then where would she live? Would Matt move in with Julie or would she move in here and kick Violet out and then where would Violet go? Violet bit her lip. This wasn't the type of stuff she should be thinking about before bed. She stood up and found her ipod and put it on and went to her bedroom. All through her usual nighttime routine she let the Kooks ring through her ears.

As she tucked herself into bed an ear-bud fell out of her ear. She heard Matthew bumping around and cursing as he walked into a piece of furniture. She moved to the door and looked out to see Matthew making his way to her room.

"What do you want?" She asked. He shrugged.

"Couldn't sleep." He made her way into her room and crawled onto her bed. "This is okay?"

"Yeah, fine." Violet crawled into bed with her best friend and sighed. It was like a giraffe was in the room. But Matt was the same old Matt she'd known for seven years and he knew how to fix it.

"What would you do if I told you I was going to punch Max Talbot in the balls next time he spoke French?"

****************************************************************

Violet and Matthew were sitting at Mellon arena joking and laughing. Violet and Evgeni had been dating about two weeks now and she still didn't own his jersey. Instead she was comfy in her Fleury jersey.

The Pens played much better today. Violet cringed when Sidney was banged into the glass right in front of them and blushed as her boyfriend skated by after an assist with a smirk on his face. With the win tucked under their belts Matt and Violet made their way down to the locker room with their friend Dane duly following behind them.

"She's acting more fruit-loopy today." Dane commented dryly to Matt and Violet bounced her way down the hall way and into the locker room. Matthew shrugged noncommittally and followed her in.

"Oh, Jesus, Gronk, don't you ever wear pants?" Matt caught Violet laughing at Jordan Staal who was wrapping his towel around his waist.

"I wish you would just announce your presence in advanced so you wouldn't have to see me pants-less." Jordan joked and made his way to his locker. Matt went to go talk to Max Talbot and winked at Violet as Max called out a hello in French.

Violet giggled and made her way over to Evgeni. "Hello,". In response Evgeni kissed her sweetly on the lips.

"You come home with me." He said and kissed her again. As they pulled away from each other he wrapped his arms around her waist. She smiled.

"Was planning on it." Violet kissed his nose and she and Matt went outside to wait. Matt was going out with Tanger apparently.

"Now don't forget to make him wear a condom. We don't need any Geno babies running around here." Matt nudged Violet who hit him. Geno came out before Tanger and took Violet's hand and carted her off toward his jag. On the drive home Violet did something unprecedented and plugged her ipod in.

"What doing?" Evgeni asked. Violet shook her head and scrolled through her playlist before clicking on something. "What this?"

"Shh. Listen." Violet put a finger to her lips. Evgeni pulled her finger away aggravated. "Who?"

"It's Röyksopp. She's Russian! You should recognize this."

"But she's singing in English so you can hardly blame me." Evgeni listened to the song for a few moments. "How did you even find Röyksopp? She's not popular here at all." Violet shrugged.

"Movies I guess. When is your next game?"

"Few days. Practice short tomorrow." Evgeni grunted. Violet nodded and took his hand. "More time spend together." She smiled and kissed his knuckles. These next few days would be great.

She hoped.