You Should've Come With A Warning

Ch. 4

“Anna! Anna open the door!” They weren’t necessarily screaming to wake up the other guests but they were being loud enough. I crawled out of bed and opened the door slowly.

“What do you want?” I asked with the best pretend toughness I could.

“What the hell happened? Are you okay?” Sidney pushed his way through the door and into my room.

“Yeah, I’m fine. I just felt really sick. I needed to get home and lay down.” That wasn’t entirely a lie. I did feel sick and I did need to lay down, but it wasn’t entirely the truth.

He sat down on the bed and let out a deep breath. He hung his head as I stood nervously in front of him. “Are you sure? Did I cross the line…did I make you uncomfortable?”

He didn’t. I made myself uncomfortable. “No. It wasn’t you.” And that was the truth…it wasn’t him. It was Jordan.

As soon as I answered him Jordan came strolling through the door. He didn’t say anything, he just looked me and since I didn’t know what to say to him I just kept my mouth shut.

“It’s so sweet of you guys to come check on me, but I’m okay, really. I just need to sleep.”

Jordan looked up and me, and when I looked in his eyes I just felt annoyed. I never really felt anything like that towards Jordan before…we were friends and we were close friends, but right now I didn’t want to be around him. I didn’t know who I wanted to be around, but these two weren’t on the top of my list right now. I looked away from Jordan quickly and walked over to my bed and sat down. Sidney turned to me and I could tell he actually looked nervous. We weren’t joking around; nothing was funny.

“If you need anything call…one of us.” I nodded at him to assure him I would. “We’ll see you in the morning for breakfast and coffee, right?”

“Of course.” I noticed Sidney fumbling with his hands and Jordan unsure of whether or not he should look at me. I think deep down he knew he was the reason I ran off. “Just, let me go to sleep, I’ll feel better in the morning,” and I prayed that was the truth.

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I had breakfast with the boys like I promised I would but things were different. Sidney knew that something was up and Jordan and I barely spoke. Ordinarily we’d be joking around and spitting out sarcastic remarks at each other, but it just felt like something wasn’t quite right. Something happened but I didn’t know what it was.

I thanked the boys for everything, awkwardly hugged them and told them I still didn’t feel good so I was just going to get a head start back to Pittsburgh.

That was three days ago.

To be fair, they had an away game Monday night, but Sunday night I stayed home. They were gone Monday and I didn’t really have an excuse for Tuesday or now Wednesday. I didn’t really answer my phone. I guess I was in a weird funk but whenever I thought about what happened that night I just couldn’t explain it and the worst part was I knew there was actually something worth explaining. Christmas was in a few days so I knew Sidney would be leaving, as would the rest of the guys-except Jordan, but considering we were the two barely speaking I didn’t think it would be that big of a deal.

I was watching tv on my couch wrapped in a blanket when I heard a knock at my door. I lazily got up and opened it to see Sidney, Kris and Jordan at the other side. Kris grabbed me and lifted me up in a huge bear hug. He squeezed so tightly I let out a laughing yelp. “Well if you won’t come to us…”

He placed me down and I greeted Sid and Jordan.

“What’s up? You can’t possibly still be so sick that you haven’t answered our phone calls,” Sid said timidly.

“I had school work…finals,” I partially lied.

“Oh come on. We aren’t stupid. We know you’re angry about something,” Jordan threw back at me.

“It’s not that, I just didn’t know what to do. You guys were weird with me the other day and it confused me. I thought you guys might not have wanted to talk to me.” Sidney’s eyes got huge and Jordan swallowed nervously.

“Well there was no reason to be so bitchy about it,” Jordan spat out.

“Woah there. Down boy.” Kris was just as surprised as I was to hear Jordan say that. He never spoke that way to me.

My mouth opened in shock. Hearing him speak that way to me felt like taking a bullet. I was momentarily paralyzed trying to figure out what to say. I just pursed my lips together and turned away from him.

“We didn’t want you to feel that way. Don’t avoid us anymore; we’re your friends. We miss you.” Sidney actually seemed genuine. “Whatever happened lets just forget it and go back to normal….I’m sorry,” he whispered.

“Okay let’s stop being so faggy and get back to normal,” Kris yelled. He came over and padded me on the back. “You good now?”

I glared at Jordan who glared back at me. “For the most part, I guess so.”

“Okay good.” Kris made his way into the kitchen to make a snack.

“You know we have a game tomorrow. You’re going to come right?” Sidney asked.

“Yeah, don’t worry Sid,” I tried to lighten the mood. “I’ll be there.”

“Okay because it’s the last game before Christmas. I want to give you your gift.”

“Well, I have to give you yours too, so you want to go out after the game or meet at your place?”

“We’ll figure it out tomorrow. Let’s watch a movie. What do you have here?”

I laughed, “Well, I have a lot of rom-com’s so I doubt that’s what you’re into.”

“Oh whatever we’ll just find something on tv,” Sid sighed. Kris walked out with a snack and Jordan just stood in the shadows, which irritated me more and more by the second.

“You can join everyone Jordan. You don’t have to stand there. If you didn’t want to see me than you shouldn’t have come.”

He looked hurt. “Whatever. You have no idea...” he trailed off.

“Then talk to me!”

He shook his head in frustration. “It’s really not that important. I’m over it.”

“Clearly.” There was no use in pestering him. This was ridiculous, if he wanted to be pissed than he could be pissed. I was trying to get back to normal.

We stayed in and flipped through the channels, watching Christmas shows that were playing on tv. It was getting late and everyone was tired as it was so it came as no surprise that we all ended up falling asleep in my living room. Kris was on the floor with his head resting on a pillow against the couch. Sidney was on one end of the couch sitting on the reclining section of it, I was on the other end with my feet extending over Jordan who finally decided he would play nice and join everyone.

When I woke up in the morning the positions that everyone fell asleep in had drastically changed. Kris was still on the floor but he was curled up on his side snoring like nobody’s business, Sid was arranged as comfortably as he could be on the recliner and Jordan and I somehow ended up spooning across the other side of the couch, with his arm draped around my waist.

When I started to peel my body out of the conformation that Jordan and I had made, my movement startled him and he woke up too. For a brief moment he had a smile on his face when he opened his eyes only to see mine staring back, and my heart started pounding a little faster. He reached up and tucked the blonde strands of hair that were loosely framing my face behind my ear, quite a different attitude than I was getting the night before.

“I thought you were mad at me Staal,” I smiled at him.

He didn’t say anything he just got up and walked into the bathroom. Slowly but surely the other guys began to wake up, I had been in the kitchen trying to fix breakfast for them because I knew they needed to go soon. I ended up whipping up pancakes, eggs and bacon and they inhaled it.

“We’ll see you tonight?” Kris asked as he chewed on bacon.

“Yes.”

“Good. Thanks for the awesome breakfast wifey,” he said as they ran out the door.

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That night at the game I sat with Jared who was here to see Jordan since he decided not to go home for Christmas. I’d seen him and Marc while I was in New York but I didn’t really get to talk to him with all the crap that was going on. Everything was starting to feel slightly normal again. The guys were goofing off and messing with me from where I was sitting and I was psyched that the snow-covered city was so electrified for the game. It must’ve been the Christmas magic.

Towards the end of the second period Jordan got blindsided and hit hard into the glass. I jumped up, as did the rest of the arena, horrified at the thought of him being hurt. He wasn’t really moving and it was obvious that he was in pain. Without using an ounce of logic I ran out of my seat, up the stairs and sprinted down to the locker room. After a few months of being acquainted with Sid and the boys, the guards down there really didn’t give me a hard time.

I rushed to be at Jordan’s side and when I saw him I stopped dead in my tracks. He looked dazed and he had a trail of blood exploring the side of his face. I didn’t know how hurt he was or even where he was injured but I slowly walked over to him. As I did, I caught his eye and he did a double take as he saw me approaching, locking eyes with me the entire way. He looked so happy to see me though he never cracked a smile.

I wiped the sweat from his hairline and gently ran my fingers down the side of his face. He closed his eyes and leaned his head into my touch.

“Are you okay?” When I spoke he seemed to snap out of whatever he was in and his expression entirely changed.

“I’m fine. What are you doing down here?”

“I just…I obviously saw what happened and I needed to make sure you were okay.”

He swallowed and seemed to be fighting himself; holding back what he really wanted to say. “Well you should probably get back to your seat. Intermission is coming up and the boys will be back here soon, so will coach.”

“Oh…okay. I’m sorry if I bothered you Jord, I was just worried.”

“Thanks.” He coldly turned his attention back to his gear.

I made my way out of the locker room with my mouth agape and my heart heavy. Why did all that just happen? Why did I leap out of my seat to make sure he was okay? Why did I feel like I would die if he wasn’t? I suddenly gasped as it felt like someone punched me in the gut. Everything made sense now, what happened in New York, why I’d been avoiding the boys, why I cared so much. Sure we were all friends and I had a great time around everyone, but I didn’t just care about Jordan….I was in love with him. I’d been trying to fight it for so long that I didn’t even recognize it. I didn’t know. Now things were going to be really interesting because not only did I realize I was completely in love with him, but I knew that lately he could barely seem to tolerate me.

I made my way back to my seat next to Jared and sat there in complete silence. I didn’t want to talk; I just wanted to be.

“What was that all about? Is he okay?”

“Huh?” His voice ripped me out of my thoughts.

“My brother. I know that’s where you ran off to.”

“No. Well, I did, but he’s fine,” I nervously spat out.

“Are you sure? Are you okay Ann?”

“Yeah. I’m fine Jare,” I quickly responded.

Jared looked at me contently and smiled for about a minute. He then turned his attention back to the ice and, as if he could read my mind, let me be for the rest of the game. I couldn’t believe it…everything just made sense. How could I let myself be so stupid I didn’t realize I fell in love with him? How could I face him? When the final buzzer sounded, I knew I had to pull it together in order to see him and the rest of the boys so that we could exchange gifts.