The Right Kind of Wrong

Dressed in simple jeans and a long-sleeved, knitted top with a rather wide neck as well as regular sneakers and a warm jacket, Emily found herself walking down the familiar streets of St Paul with a paper cup filled with coffee from Starbucks in her hands. The same morning she’d been woken up by a text from Tanya, one of the few people she really kept in touch with since leaving UofM behind.

She wanted to meet up to just chat and Emily hadn’t found a reason not to go, she actually found herself looking forwards to it as she was having breakfast down in the hotel restaurant.

Leaving the hotel they’d been staying at, promising her friends that she would be back with enough time for them all to go shopping and for her to give them a bit of a sightseeing tour of the malls at the outskirts of the city, she’d made her way to the Starbucks where she’d agreed to meet her friend.

That was almost an hour ago and they were now walking around at a leisurely pace, talking about everything that had happened to them since before the summer…it was a lot that was for sure.

“How does it feel to have all this being enemy territory now, after three years of living here?” Tanya asked smiling, sipping her coffee as they walked along the street.

“It’s weird,” Emily shrugged honestly. “Walking around here it feels like nothing changed, that it’s all the same,” she admitted. “It’s like I'm still living here, going to school here, and then it just hits me that I'm not…”

“Grand Forks treating you good?” Tanya wondered seriously. “You need me to come out there and kick some ass?”

“No, that’s not necessary,” Emily laughed slightly. “I learned my way around pretty quickly,” she smiled. “I got new friends, lovely dorm neighbors and I'm on the softball team,” she revealed.

“You're on the softball team?!” Tanya exclaimed surprised, that she hadn’t expected. “I didn’t even know you could play.”

“I was just goofing around one day and someone suggested that I should go to the tryouts, which were just a few days, almost a week later,” Emily explained. “And I did, apparently I was good enough cause I've been practicing with them for a few weeks now and I'm in the lineup for the first series of the year, in the beginning of February,” she continued, sipping her coffee as they crossed yet another street, slowly approaching one of the campuses.

“Wow, that’s amazing,” Tanya gave her a sideways hug. “You have to text me and tell me how it goes,” she instructed her. “I mean, I can’t really be seen logging on to the Sioux website,” she winked.

“I’ll text you,” Emily promised smiling. “So what has changed since I left here?” she asked carefully, they had avoided any talk about what happened between her and Erik as well as what was happening at the school at the moment, neither of them really wanting to be the one who dug up those bad memories again. But Emily knew that she had to live without regrets and worries, especially about Erik and seeing as several of her friends still went to the school she would have to face it head on. No matter how much it might end up hurting.

“Not much if I'm completely honest,” Tanya shrugged slightly. “I mean, you're not here so things have obviously changed, but for the most part they are just like they were last year,” she smiled slightly, not really knowing what to say.

“It’s so weird,” Emily smiled amused. “I leave and everything in my life changes and then when I come back here and find that things has barely changed, it's really weird,” she laughed slightly, finishing off her coffee before throwing the empty cup in a trashcan.

“I'm sorry that you couldn’t…” Tanya began, feeling rather uncomfortable about where the conversation was heading.

“Don’t say anything,” Emily stopped her. “I don’t really want to talk about it,” she admitted. “I had to leave, so I moved to Grand Forks, that’s more my home now than this place ever was,” she said seriously. “Sometimes we get curveballs we couldn’t prepare for and we have to live with that, no need to dwell over the past or what could have been,” she stated.

“I get that,” Tanya nodded. “So I guess you’ll be back on the enemy side tonight then?”

“You can bet on it,” Emily smiled widely as they walked across the large square. “My love for that sport didn’t lessen just cause I moved away.”

“I never thought it did,” Tanya smiled knowingly. “You have any idea what you're going to do when you graduate now?”

“No,” Emily shook her head, her thoughts wandering off for a second. “Much less so now than before actually, but I've been hit with a realization during the past months,” she admitted. “I can’t worry about that, I have to just live life right now, and worry about that later. What about you? Boston still your next stop?”

“Yeah, I think so,” Tanya nodded slowly, burying her hands deeper in the pockets of her jacket. “I mean, if I can get in that is,” she pointed out. “The requirements are high and right now I can just hope that my grades are enough, or I have to write one hell of an essay,” she rolled her eyes, noticing that Emily wasn't listening any longer and she’d stopped. “What are you doing?” she asked, walking back to her friend.

“I…” Emily trailed off her mouth suddenly going dry.

“Oh,” Tanya breathed as her eyes landed on what had her friend in such a state.

Walking towards them across the square was Erik. Wearing the usual attire of jeans and a Gophers sweatshirt beneath his open jacket, he wasn't looking half as uncomfortable as he realized who he was heading straight towards.

Not saying anything, Emily just watched the realization wash over Erik’s features and he slowly continued towards them, stopping just a few feet away, looking about as uncomfortable as she currently felt.

“Erik,” Tanya stated evenly as she looked between her two friends. She hadn’t really talked to Erik that much since finding out what happened between him and her best friend, everything that went down after she found him cheating on her.

“T,” he nodded slightly, using her old nickname. “Emily,” he said evenly as he looked over at the blonde he’d loved for so many years.

Not saying anything, Emily simply looked at him. She knew that running into him one day was going to be inevitable; she just wasn't sure what to do exactly, now that that day had apparently arrived.

Soaking in her appearance, Erik noticed that her hair was longer, it was slightly lighter in color and she’d gotten bangs. He also noted that he liked the slight change, feelings he quickly squashed as he cleared his throat slightly. “So how have you been?” he asked as he looked over at her.

Watching him for a second, not really knowing if he was serious or not, Emily reached up a hand and pulled her out-growing bangs behind her ear. “Good, I've been good,” she replied quickly, wanting to be anywhere but there at the moment. “Considering,” she added as an afterthought, feeling him look at her strangely.

Glancing down at her arm, she knew what he was looking at; the three rubber wristbands she seemed to wearing all the time as of late.

“What’s up with all those things?” he questioned, a disproving look across his features as he nodded at the wristbands, as well as the black lanyard with a white print that had escaped the pocket of her jacket.

“I'm a Sioux now,” she shrugged, feeling Tanya’s discomfort from right next to her. She felt bad for her friend, this was probably not how she wanted to spend her Saturday, stuck between two former lovers who more like hated each other at present, at least one of them were close to that feeling… “I transferred to UND,” she told him frankly, almost daring him to say something about it.

“Right,” he nodded slowly, clearly not taking her transfer with delight. “So who was the boy I saw you with last night?” he questioned, surprising her. So he had seen her…

“Just someone I know,” she tried to downplay it, knowing that she was entering very thin ice at the moment.

“On the UND hockey team?” he raised his eyebrow questioningly.

“He’s my boyfriend,” she blurted out, knowing that she was straddling the line between telling truths and telling lies…

“Oh,” he was clearly left stumped by that.

Looking between the two persons before her, Tanya cleared her throat uncomfortable. “Didn’t you have somewhere to be?” she asked, catching Emily’s attention.

“Right,” Emily nodded quickly. “Yeah, I need to get back to the hotel,” she confirmed.

“It was nice seeing you again,” Erik said quickly.

“Glad one of us thinks so,” Emily said honestly as she looked straight at him before looking away and following Tanya as she continued across the square.

They’d known each other for close to a decade, and they could barely hold up a conversation…apparently that’s what cheating does to a relationship/friendship…any relationship really…




Standing on the balcony to the hotel room she was sharing with Charlie and Mary and looking out over the large city, Emily jumped slightly as a pair of hands landed on her sides. Glancing back, she smiled softly as she saw Chris standing there, a concerned look across his features.

“Mary said you were off when you came back from meeting with some of your old friends,” he commented as his arms fully encircled her waist and he quickly kissed her cheek.

“Yeah, it was…melancholic at the best,” she admitted. She hated letting her new friends know that there were times when she really missed her friends, her classmates, everything about University of Minnesota, the twin cities... It always made her feel as if they weren’t good enough for her, knowing full well that that wasn't the truth. But it still left her reluctant to tell her new friends about it. “It was nice talking to Tanya again,” she admitted, “but so much has changed, we’ve both changed,” she continued.

“I don’t think it’s ever going to be like it used to,” she admitted. “Several of my friends from here don’t understand why I left, why I walked away from it all. Others actually took Erik’s side when it came down to it,” she revealed.

“I'm sorry,” he whispered against the side of her neck.

“I'm not,” she said honestly. “It’s probably better that I found out about it now than after years of knowing them, trusting them…”

“You did know them for years,” he pointed out softly.

“I try not to think about that,” she admitted. “So, shouldn’t you be back at your hotel, sleeping or something for the game tonight?” she asked, looking over at him.

“Probably,” he nodded, seemingly not bothered by that fact.

“Right,” she nodded slightly, turning her gaze back out over the city.

“So I heard about your run-in with Erik,” he commented airily. “Boyfriend?” he asked, curiously, watching her cheeks turn bright red before his eyes.

“Ehh,” she hesitated, she hadn’t been thinking when she said that, it sort of just slipped out…

“I like it,” he nodded, his cheek pressed against hers as he wrapped his arms tighter around her.

“You do?” she asked surprised, not able to keep from leaning back against his broad chest.

“Yeah, cause that would mean that you're my girlfriend,” he reasoned. “Now I can really tell off my teammates for talking about you,” he added, laughing softly at the look that appeared over her face. “Don’t worry, it’s only good things,” he assured her.

“That doesn’t make me feel any better,” she admitted. “So I can call you my boyfriend if someone asks?” she tilted her head to the side, glancing back at him.

“You can scream it from the rooftops if you like,” he smirked glancing out over the skyline around them.

“Yeah, I think I can live without that,” she decided, forcing him to loosen his grip on her as she turned in his arms and looked up at him before leaning up and pressing her lips against his.

Somehow, putting a label on their relationship made her feel a lot better about everything that had just happened. Not to mention, it only made her want him more…