These Days

Karen was sitting quietly on an airplane, her headphones in her ears. She let the Felice Brothers croon their melodies softly in her headphones as she lolled her head to the side and looked out the window. Brett was fiddling with his own ipod next to her. She hadn’t spoken to Sidney in a week. He nudged her after a minute.

“Tell me about Montana.” Brett said. Karen closed her eyes and nodded, pulling out her ear buds. This would take her mind off of Sidney.

“Well we live in Missoula County in this town called Frenchtown. There are a lot of only children and non-married parents. It’s like bum-fuck County, I’m not joking. That’s why my brother Evan and I are so close.” Karen took a breath and continued. “I was one of the few girls who did not know how to ride a horse because I’m allergic-”

“Whoa! Hang on! How come you never told me that?” Brett asked laughing. “You’re allergic to horses? I’ve been your best friend for three years and you’ve never told me you were allergic to horses!”

“Why would I? It’s like you were begging me to go to a farm with you and ride them!” Karen laughed too. “Now let me finish! I learned how to shoot a gun when I was nine…um, we have a ghost town?” Brett’s eye brows shot up. “Yeah, it’s called Hell Gate. It was abandoned in like 1865 practically overnight. A lot of people were lynched there, so we tell our little kids that the lynched ghosts haunt it. Some rancher owns most of it now…but like the graveyard and some buildings are still there so on new moon nights we used to go out there and get drunk. And…that’s it for the interesting stuff. Most people move away after their kids go to college, like my grandpa lives in Pittsburgh now and Evan's looking for jobs in other placeslike the Burgh or New York.”

“Big change,” Brett nodded. Karen sort of chuckled and nodded her head too. Brett furrowed his eyebrows at her. “Hey, what's wrong.” Brett wasn't really perceptive of emotions but he caught the breif sadness on Karen's face.

“No, I’m fine.”

“Karen,” Brett said, putting his hand on her shoulder. Karen bit her lip and looked at him for a minute.

“Sidney thinks I’ve been fooling around with you.” Karen said after another minute. Brett’s eyebrows shot up again.

“That’s ridiculous. Why does he think that?”Brett asked, semi-disgustedly.

“First of all, thanks for the that." Brett rolled his eyes. "He stalked my facebook, apparently. And you and I touch each other too much.”

“That’s absurd. I touch you a normal amount.” Brett scoffed. Karen rolled her eyes.

“Tell that to Sidney.”

“I will! Give me your phone!” Brett held out his hand. Karen hugged her pocket where her phone was protectively no.

“No! We’re on an airplane! We’ll die! Besides, I think it’s a bad idea.” Brett took a turn at rolling his eyes as Karen finished her sentence. Brett was secretly making a decision to steal Sid’s number and call the man himself.

Meanwhile Jordan was pacing in front of Sidney. Sidney watched his teammate nervously wringing his hands. Flower was sitting next to him watching Jordan pace with a hard look on his face and his arms folded.

“If this is like the time you got arrested it doesn’t really matter to me as long as you can play.” Sidney said, watching Jordan stop and face him.

“No, I can still play. I wasn’t arrested.”

“Pourtant,” Marc-Andre snorted. Sidney shot him a look and then turned back to Jordan. “Tell him now.” Flower said. Jordan gulped. Sidney was all ears now.

“I…” Jordan started. He stopped, took a deep breath and started again. “I’ve been sleeping with Taylor.”

“Taylor…” Sidney trailed off before his chest constricted. “Not…my Taylor. Not my little sister Taylor Crosby!” Sidney said slowly staring at Jordan. His blond friend didn’t respond and Sidney knew the answer was yes. “Well fuck!” Sidney shouted. Flower and Jordan sharply inhaled. “This isn’t what I needed right now, Jordan! What with being on the rocks with Karen and play offs coming up and you’ve been sleeping MY LITTLE SISTER!” Sidney stood up and rubbed his eyes. He took a deep breath and started shaking his head.

“No, no, no, no. This will not happen. You will not ruin this run for the cup for me. You end things with her now.” Sidney said quietly, vehemently. “Otherwise I’ll do it for you.” Sidney shook his head and walked out of the apartment and all the way down the stairwell. Once outside of the building he paused and looked up into the gray Pittsburgh sky.

His phone rang.

“Hello?” Sidney asked unsure, not having recognized the number.

“Sidney Crosby? This is Brett.”

“Oh, what do you want?”

“I wanted to tell you that what ever assumptions you’ve made about me and Kar, or Karen’s sexual escapades is wrong. She’s only wants to do you.” Brett said in a low voice. Sidney heard rustling and a door closing. “The only reason she hasn’t called you is because she’s stubborn and you hurt her feelings.”

“Oh,” Sidney said, taken aback.

“Yeah, but I’m here in Montana with her and there’s nothing to do here so I’m going to try and get her to call you. It shouldn’t take long, I’m here for 8 days and the closest town was abandoned in the 1860s. So please, just don’t say anything stupid and you’ll be together for a long, happy time.” Brett said. Sidney opened his mouth to reply but heard Karen’s muffled voice asking Brett where he was on the other side. “I have to go, Kar didn’t know I called. Bye.” Brett hurriedly whispered before hanging up.

Sidney pulled his phone away from his ear and looked at it. Then he looked up the side of Jordan’s building wondering what the hell was going on in the universe.