The Hardest Thing

Holy shit I thought upon waking up that morning. I hadn’t had a hangover that bad since college; something happened at Pat Kane’s party though that made me want to drink more. At first it was so awkward, these were all of Jon’s friends and I heard Laurie’s name a few times. They were comparing me to her, sure it was all complimentary “wow, she’s prettier than Laurie,” and “Audrey’s so much more fun than Laurie,” but it still made me think. Laurie was a fixture in Jon’s life for so long; all of his teammates knew her and had spent time with her. This even happened when I was in the picture; it was always her and never me. They were welcoming, but it was going to be hard to forget that I was once the other woman.

My head was pounding when I opened my eyes and looked at Jon smiling at me and I groaned asking him what I drank at the party. He was laughing at me a little bit, but I didn’t find anything funny about my hangover. “Hey Aud,” he said to me softly, I could hear concern in his voice, mixed with a little fear. I looked at him as he added, “do you remember what you told me last night?”

I thought back to the night before and some parts were a blur, but I knew exactly what he was referring to. I remembered my drunken state when we got back to Jon’s after the party; I was acting like a child, like one of those girls in college that I always wanted to throw out a window. I told him about the text messages; Laurie had been texting me every couple of days, it started out as her telling me that she wasn’t going anywhere, then she started to try to put doubt in my mind about my relationship. She would tell me things like “once a cheater always a cheater” and “you were the other woman, how do you know there isn’t another?” I tried not to let them get to me; she hated me for taking Jon from her, other girls would do the same.

Luckily he didn’t push and just left it when I said that she didn’t want us together. He could tell that I didn’t want to talk about it and that I really didn’t need to know. I couldn’t keep my eyes open, but I was too miserable to sleep; Jon had brought me Advil and just left me to spend the day sleeping in his bed. He said that he had some phone calls to make and walked out of his bedroom. I forced myself to go back to sleep so that I could hopefully wake up and not want to punch the sun and any other source of light. As much as I wanted to know who he was calling and if it had anything to do with my confession, I knew that it was none of my business. Jon told me everything that I really needed to know and I trusted him completely. I couldn’t let Laurie get in the way of my relationship and the level of trust I had.

I ended up sleeping away most of the day; when I woke up around 4 in the afternoon, my headache was mostly gone and I desperately wanted to shower. I walked out of the bedroom and couldn’t find Jon anywhere; I saw a note on the kitchen table that said Aud – went to the gym, I’ll be back later. Love you. – Jon. I quickly jotted back Went home to shower, call me when you get home. Love you – Aud.

A shower made me feel so much better, of course it took most of the day to become human again. I really needed to remember that I wasn’t in college anymore and definitely couldn’t keep up with guys like Pat when it came to drinking. At least I didn’t do anything at the party that I was ashamed of though. When I got out of the shower, I threw on jeans and a t-shirt and went to sit in the living room. I walked out and saw Jon already sitting on my couch; he must have come over when he saw my note.

“Feeling any better, babe?”

“Yeah, finally,” I laughed, “I don’t remember the last time I drank like that.”

“I was thinking we could do take out and a movie tonight, what do you say?”

“Sounds perfect, I responded.”

He grabbed some menus out of my kitchen and we decided on Greek food and The Hangover because Jon thought it would be appropriate. I almost forgot about Laurie and the texts as I cuddled with Jon on the couch enjoying a movie…that was until I got another one.

Don’t get too comfortable with my man, I have his parents.

I had no idea what that meant; Jon looked at me when I read the text like he knew who it was from. I put my phone away as if it was nothing and put my head back on his shoulder. She wasn’t going to get to me and she wasn’t going to ruin anything. It was nice to just relax since the hardest weeks were coming up; the semester was nearing an end and I had to do all of my finals and final projects.

The next day on my lunch break, I needed to just spend time with Kylie unwinding from the weekend. We went to our usual café knowing that there wouldn’t be any surprises there this time.

“So how’s the hangover remnants?” she laughed.

“I’m fine, thanks, Ky,” I laughed, “but when I was drunk I told Jon about the texts from Laurie.”

“How did he react?”

“He’s not pushing me for details, but I could tell that he was really upset. I think he called her yesterday, but he’s not telling me anything. She texted me again last night though and it said that she had his parents, what the hell does that mean?”

“She’s back in Winnipeg, isn’t she?”

“Yeah, but what would she do to his parents? I’m supposed to meet them soon.”

“They know everything?”

“Jon told them recently.”

“When did your life get so dramatic, Audrey.”

“I have nooooo idea,” I laughed in response.

“When do I get to spend time with Jon?”

“You were invited to the party the other night.”

“Yeah, but I want to meet my best friend’s boyfriend…not hang out with his hockey team.”

I assured her that she would get to spend time with Jon eventually. He had actually been asking about getting to know her too, especially since I had finally met his team. I really like Pat Sharp, he seemed like someone who not only was a good friend to Jon, but also a good person. Pat Kane just seemed like a frat boy with way too big of a paycheck, but Jon had already warned me about him, so none of it was really a surprise. We decided that Jon was going to be too stressed during the playoffs, but once that was over, they could spend time together. Jon promised me that he would spend at least part of the off season in Chicago and I was going to be taking my summer classes online, so we would have a good amount of time together.

Tuesday night was the last game of Jon’s regular season and he was in Detroit; by the time I got home from class, the game was almost over and I only watched the last couple of minutes. He called me afterwards and was in a great mood because his team finished first in the conference and in the division, although they were only second in the league. He said that he couldn’t wait to see me the next night; he had off until the playoffs started on Saturday afternoon and his parents and Dave would be flying in on Friday. I promised that I would go to his games when I didn’t have class, but it stressed me out to think of how busy my schedule was.

In one of my classes on Wednesday, I was assigned my final project which I had two weeks to do. It was going to take a lot of work and a lot of research and it was completely on my own. It was going to be hard to finish the project and go to hockey games, but I had to play the role of the perfect girlfriend. When I got home that night, Jon was waiting for me in front of my door.

“You still have my spare key,” I said.

“Yeah, but I wanted to see you get home, so I could do this,” he said standing up, putting his arms around me, and spinning me.

“What was that for?”

“I have the next two days off other than a couple of hours of practice; call in sick to work tomorrow, spend it with me.”

“Jon, you ask me this all the time, I can’t just skip work,” I said opening my front door and walking into the house. He followed closely behind.

“I know, but it was worth a shot.”

“I don’t even know how much free time I have, to be honest. I have a huge project to do for school and between work and class, I’m going to have to spend my nights and weekends working on that, plus studying for my finals.”

“But you’re still coming to my game Saturday, right? My parents and Dave are coming and you have to meet them.”

“Yeah, I’ll be there, Jon.”

“Don’t sound too enthused.”

“I’m sorry, babe, I’m just stressed.”

“So am I; playoff season is the most important time of the year, especially for the defending Stanley Cup champions.”

“We both have a lot going on.”

“Yeah, but I still want to make time for us to be together; I want to see you other than when we’re asleep.”

“We will be together. I told you that I would go to your game and Kylie’s excited to see live playoff game.”

“What about Monday night?”

“You know I have class.”

“Blow it off.”

“Jon, finals are coming up.”

“So? What is missing one night going to do?”

“I could miss material that will be on the exam, instructions for something, assigning a project, I don’t know.”

“I’m sorry that school’s more important to me tan you are.”

“I never said that.”

“Are you going to be with Kevin?” he asked, the tone of disgust dripping off his tongue.

“He might be, he’s in all of my classes.”

“Great.”

“Jon, stop it.”

“What?”

“This jealous thing; you even acted jealous when Kane was hitting on me and you told me that he hits on everyone.”

“Well you’re not everyone, I’m sorry that I want you to myself.”

“I don’t want to fight about this anymore.”

I looked at Jon and it was obvious that he was pissed. I knew that he had quite the temper, he would never be violent like Kevin, but he definitely punched a few walls in his time. His eyes were filled with rage; I thought he was going to run out the door, slamming it behind him. Instead, he grabbed me and pulled me close to him, kissing me with a violent passion. His tongue forced its way into my mouth and he held me so tightly that I couldn’t move. On one hand, I was incredibly turned on by the force, but on the other hand, I felt like he was marking his territory.

He separated his mouth from mine and looked me square in the eye, “I’m sorry, Aud, we’re both stressed and I don’t want it to get in the way. I love you.”

“I love you too, Jon, but that doesn’t fix everything.”

“Why not?”

“Love’s not easy.”

He let go of me and looked me in the eye saying, “I know, but you make me feel like it could be,” he said. “I should go get my place ready for my parents, I’ll see you tomorrow?”

“I’ll be home at 9.”

The next night was completely normal; it was almost as if the fight didn’t happen. I had it in the back of my mind though and I was terrified of meeting his parents. We decided that it would be best if we waited until after the game on Saturday; I was happy that I would have Kylie with me for backup in case it went badly. Jon kept telling me not to worry, that they would love me as much as he did. He didn’t think like a mother though; his mother would see me as the girl who seduced her son away from the perfect hometown girlfriend.

On Saturday morning, I looked at my phone as I was getting ready to meet Kylie and head to the UC. There was a text message and it didn’t surprise me at all, this one said “Good luck with Andree and Bryan, I’ll always be their favorite.”