These Days

“Wow, he’s really not doing well.” Max said, watching Kris skate off the ice, his head hanging.

“I think he was crying last night.” Tyler said. Max and Tyler watched Kris trudge to the locker room. They heard someone clear the voice next to them. Evgeni Malkin had skated up to them.

“Tyler, the girl you sleep with, she talk other guys.” Geno said. Tyler looked at his team mate and furrowed his eye brows. Tyler asked him what he meant. “Was at bar with Violet. She talk all night to one guy. Kept touching, flirty,”

“For how long?”

“Don’t know. Violet sick. Had take home.”

“Violet got sick?” Max asked, and then he smirked. “Tyler’s sleeping with someone? This is too good to be true.”

“Tyler’s sleeping with someone?” Jordan Staal skated over to join the group.

“And Violet’s sick,” Max said, nodding, filling Jordan in. Tyler rolled his eyes.

“Oh no! With what?” Jordan asked turning to Evgeni. Tyler scoffed as Evgeni informed them all how Violet had suddenly started vomiting and he found her wrapped around the toilet this morning. “Send your little flower my love.” Jordan said seriously. Tyler cleared his throat, gathering the attention back to himself.

“Who was she flirting with, Geno?”

“Some guy. Lots flannel. Curly hair. Blond.” Evgeni shrugged and then glanced at the jumbotron. “Now need leave. Check on Violet.” Evgeni followed the same route Kris did leaving Tyler and Max standing together.

“Don’t go all crazy on her now. She may just be trying to get tips.” Max patted Tyler’s shoulder before skating away. Tyler threw his head back and walked into the locker room. Evgeni was getting dressed in his regular clothes.

“Did you hear anything she said?” Tyler asked him. Geno shook his head and told Tyler the same thing for the third time. He also told Tyler just to talk to her about it. Tyler did just that. He drove straight to her apartment and knocked on her door. She answered after a minute.

“Oh, Tyler! What are you doing here?”

“Geno told me something interesting and I wanted to ask you about it before I freaked out.” Tyler said. Kayla pulled her door shut and stepped into the hallway with Tyler.

“Yeah?”

“He said he was at the bar last night and saw you getting pretty flirty with some curly haired blond guy in flannel.”

“Oh, Evan!”

“Evan?”

“Yeah,” Kayla smiled a half smile. “He’s my ex and was in the city for like, a night because he had a job interview. He’s the one I…like, you know, left after I slept with you the first time.” Kayla said. “But, like, I wasn’t flirting with him.”

Tyler stared incredulously at her. “Alright,” He shrugged. “So I don’t have to freak out?”

“Not at all,” Kayla shook her head. “Like, want to come visit me at the bar tonight?”

“Can’t, we have a game. I actually have to be preparing. Will you keep it on in the bar?”

“Sure.” Kayla leaned in and captured his lips in a kiss. “Bye.” She said when she pulled away. She walked slowly back into her apartment, slipping the door shut. Tyler sighed, ran a hand through his hair and started walking away.

Kayla leaned her back against the door door and rolled her eyes. She walked back to her room and picked up her phone where she left it. “Sorry, Ev, salesperson at the door….I can’t believe you’re already heading back to Montana.”

Kayla lay back down on her bed with her scrapbook in her lap. She hadn’t just left even because she’d slept with Tyler, but because who wanted to stay in bumfuck Montana? It seemed like Evan still wasn’t over her leaving. She still liked Evan, she really did. He’d made the scrapbook for her. She was on a page of them at their winter formal at college. She remembered having a really good time with him that night.

“Yeah, home sweet home,” Evan said. “I’m a little mad though. I just found out my sister was in Pittsburgh the whole time I was and I didn’t even get to see her.”

“Sister?” Kayla asked. She had met her…or was it one of two or…?of them when they visited Evan at school.

“Yeah, you remember Karen, don’t you?” Yup, she’d met Karen. She was a little thing with strawberry blond frizzy hair and blue eyes like icebergs. Karen was boring, though. Or at least that’s what Kayla thought.

“That’s….cool, like what was she doing in Pittsburgh?”

“Visiting a sort-of boyfriend…ah, I have to go now. Good to hear from you Kayla.” And like that Evan hung up, the exact same way Kayla had ended their relationship, which, at the moment, she couldn’t remember the reasons besides sleeping with Tyler for doing so.