These Days

Tyler was pacing in front of Kris. Kris was staring at his hands. Neither was speaking. They had to leave for the airport for the next road trip in a half hour.

“Fuck it, I’m confronting her.” Tyler pulled out his cell phone. Kris sighed. Tyler snapped his cell shut and looked at Kris expectantly. “Are we ready to talk about it?” He asked, slightly agitated.

“I just feel so guilty.” Kris hung his head. “Maybe if I spent more time with her and wasn’t always playing hockey-”

“Hockey is your job, numnuts.” Tyler and Kris exchanged a look. Kris chose to ignore Tyler.

“I bet if I didn’t travel so much she would’ve been happier.”

“You can’t control that, Tanger. Snap out of it! SHE’S DONE WITH YOU.”

“Yeah but I never spent any time with her. I feel horrible, it’s my fault. I never listened to anything she said-” Kris signed and buried his face in his hands. Tyler shook his head. Now wasn’t the time to talk to Kris about the dreaded ex. He muttered fuck it again and dialed Kayla.

She picked up.

“Hey, Tyler,” He heard her muffled voice, like half of her face was pressed into a pillow. Her breathing was a little labored but Tyler had a mission and didn’t address it. “Aren’t you supposed to be on the west coast?”

“We’re leaving in fifteen minutes. You lied to me.” Tyler said, cutting to the chase pretty quickly. He heard Kayla sputter. “Karen Frick told me all about you and Evan Frick. I just want you to know that we’re done. I thought we were exclusive.”

“Whoa, back up honey, we never talked about being exclusive.”

“We never said anything about not being exclusive.”

“Tyler, what the fuck? Why do you believe Karen Frick? Maybe she just wants to fuck you herself!”

“She’s with Sidney.” Tyler said flatly.

“Doesn’t mean that they’re exclusive. She could be with you right now, fucking you, and I’m just retaliating.” Kayla snorted.

“So that noise I hear in the background IS someone fucking you right now, isn’t it?” Tyler growled. Kris’s head shot up. His eyes were red and this new alerted him back to reality. Kayla didn’t reply.

“We’ve very, very done with each other,” Tyler said. He hung up the phone and looked at Kris. Kris blinked and rubbed his eyes.

“Wow.” Kris shook his head. “Do you want to talk about it?”

Tyler stared at Kris for a moment, shook his head and walked into his bedroom. Kris rubbed his chin. “I should shave.” He got up and walked into the bathroom. Looking at himself in the mirror a wave of something pushed over him.

He wasn’t sure what it was but the guilt had temporarily ebbed away. He didn’t exactly pity himself but he thought he looked pathetic. He lathered up his face in white shaving cream and grabbed his razor. As he dragged the blades down his cheeks he couldn’t believe he had let himself become such a mess. While splashing water on his face once the deed was done he heard Tyler banging.

That was enough to send him right into the sea of guilt, his teensy progress vanishing. He walked out of the bathroom to see Tyler throwing their bags by the front door.

“We have to ship off for the airport.” The baby faced Penguin said. Kris nodded. He got up and followed Tyler outside, shouldering his bag. The two met their taxi in silence and sat the whole ride to the airport without speaking. Kris would look at Tyler sideways every now and then.

When they finally reached the airport and boarded the plane with their other team mates they chose not to sit next to each other. Kris got up before he had to buckle himself in. He made his way to Tyler, who was sitting with one of the athletic trainers.

“You okay?”

“Nope,” Tyler shook his head. “And you’re not either.” The friends glowered at each other. “I’m not talking to you about this until you come to terms with your split.”

Kris turned on his heel muttering in French. Max, sitting one seat in front of Tyler, spun around with a huge grin on his face. Tyler shook his head, glaring at Max. Max smiled and turned around. Tyler folded his arms and tucked his head. He meant what he said.