Little Baby Pines

After Kim told Jon what happened she rested her head on his chest. She told him everything that transpired except for being blackmailed. If she told him that Jon might explode. He was already growing with rage, hiding it behind a serene expression, as the events unraveled in her story.

He calmly brushed her hair with his hand. “He did that? I want to punch him in the face, Kim.”

“You can’t. You promised me. So you can’t. Seriously, you can’t.” She kissed his chest. “Can we talk about your game now? You guys won! Yay!” She smiled brightly up at him. Jon was expressionless because he saw the game as something trivial compared to Sullivan roughly handling her. It wasn’t trivial. It helped their survival in getting to the playoffs this year. Kim’s smile drooped. “I don’t want to talk about Sullivan anymore. I am done with him. It is in the past. I dealt with it, Jonathan. I just wanted you know that I had a shitty night and am no longer friends with him.”

“What about Mindy?”

Their bodies shift around as he pulled back to look at her face. Her make-up was washed off by then. She looked baby faced and angelic. “I’ve lost her. She obviously doesn’t want to be my friend anymore. I fucked up somehow. Somehow. I fucked up by not being there when she needed me. She ran off when I needed her last night. I’ll get over it. Mindy can be friends with who she wants. She is a much stronger woman than I am.”

“Now that isn’t true.” He kissed her cheek. “And I would say you can have my friends, but you know they suck so that won’t help.”

A kissed is placed on the top of her head. “I love you, Jonathan.”

“I love you, too. You know what be great right now?”

“Sitting by the window in the living room with a cup of coffee and watching the town in its serene darkness?”

He chuckled. “That actually does sound great. I’ll go get a pot of coffee going.”

“Awesome. I am going to change clothes.” She leaned over him and crawled off the bed. He rose from the bed and headed into the kitchen. His half dressed body lazily leaned over the counter after he changed the coffee grounds, poured in fresh water, and turned it on. What he wanted was sleep. But he would take Kim’s happiness over a few extra hours of sleep.

Clicks on the ground caught Jon’s ear. He turned around to find Kim in stockings, heels, and his jersey. It was his favorite outfit to see her in. No matter how many times he has seen her wore it, he still found it undeniably attractive. “Goddamn it, woman. Why do you do this to me?”

“Because I love you so much.” She clicked over to him and poured their coffees. He buried his face into the crook of her neck. “I love you,” she said again.

The couple crossed over to the window and sat down on the floor. Jonathan grabbed Kim by the leg and swung them over his lap. She curled up closer to him and rested her frame against his. “I like this. Thanks Kim.” He sipped on his coffee, barely drinking any of it. “I do love you.” Her fingers danced on his shoulder.

----------

Jonathan sighed deeply and shifted the weight on his feet. Yet again, he was dragged to the bar by Kaner. It was late, later than Jon would prefer to stay out on a weekday. The men were celebrating their win over the Panthers. There were other Blackhawks running around the bar. Jonathan was standing idly by the bar with his last beer for the night. He was waiting for Kane to finish pulling in a pretty girl before the two left for the night. Jon was playing den mother to Kane in making sure that he got home without doing anything stupid. He would have been at his girlfriend’s watching her write 3 essays in one night if the team lost. But since they won he had to celebrate with them while Kim stayed cooped up in her bedroom tapping on her computer. She was probably at his place now asleep. She promised that if they won and went out to the bar that she would spend the night as his place. So at least he had the satisfaction of going home to her.

A clap on the shoulder nearly startled Jon out of his shoes. “Hey doofus. That girl is engaged, happily. Nothing I said could her to loosen those jeans.” Jon raised an eyebrow. “But I did get her number. That relationship is going to break fidelity very soon.” A drunken grin was all over Patrick’s face. The glimmering look in his eyes made Jon feel sorry for that woman and her fiancé.

“This is my last beer of the night, Kaner. Do you want to leave now or when I finish this?” The two had a rule. Jon had a three drink max. When he hit the third beer it was time to go. Jon was courteous enough to extend it to 3 drinks; it used to be one and he would drink it as fast as he could without belching. If he could do it without burping then Kaner had to leave when he left. The two finally worked out a system they both could agree on. The three drinks max system left Kaner enough time to have fun since Jon drank them slowly.

Patrick let a puff of air. “We’ll leave after it. I am going to get an Incredible Hulk.” He slipped over to the bar to get his drink. Jon walked off to the side where it was less crowded. He found himself off near the entrance of the bathrooms.

“Seriously. My favorite pair of satin heels. Fucking ruined. This is just like fucking Clueless and I am Cher.” The girl talking was staring down at her shoes, hobbling trying to blot them with a paper towel from the bathroom.

Jon watched the girl lean against the wall still trying to clean her pink satin high heels. Her blonde head bobbed up and down until she gave up trying to fix her shoes. She finally straightened out her body and ignored her feet. Once her face was visible Jon panicked. It was Mindy. He didn’t want to be rude and ignore her, but he wasn’t sure what to do since she and Kim broke their friendship.

The two caught eye contact. Mindy, like Jon, panicked. The girl kept throwing glances to her left until she finally power walked up to Jon. She gripped his arm. “Hey Jon, you need to leave.”

“What? Why?”

“Just go before he comes, okay? Don’t tell Kim about this. Just go. I will explain later, but you need to leave now.”

The grip on his arm loosened. Jon looked around cautiously. What had Mindy freaking out? What was scaring her? She tried to push him towards the crowded bar but the man wouldn’t budge. “Mindy, what is going on? I haven’t seen you in a couple of weeks. What happened between you and Kim?”

“I WILL EXPLAIN LATER,” she said in a hoarse whisper, but it was too late. Jon moved too leisurely and what Mindy was trying to avoid happening happened.

“Hey babe, are your shoes damaged? I can buy you a new pair. Who is this guy?”

Jon’s mouth opened, but Mindy abruptly talked louder so that his words were lost in her cadence. “My shoes are pretty much ruined. It is cool. I don’t need a new pair of these. Thanks anyway, babe.” She leaned over to Sullivan and kissed his cheek. Sully kept an eye on Jon. Mindy bit on her lip. “This is Jon. We are friends through friends. He was just leaving.”

Sully was intently scrutinizing Jon. For some reason, Jon looked familiar to Sully and he couldn’t place why. He couldn’t remember why this man looked familiar. “Hey Jon,” he took Jon’s hand in his. “I am Sully.”

“Hi Sully.” Jon wanted to pull on Sully’s arm, yank him to the ground, and then kick the shit out of him. But Kim made him promised he wouldn’t. He tried to not let it slip up on his face the intent he held for wishing ill on Sully.

Mindy squeezed in between the two men. “Yeah, so, see you later, Jon! Tell Kaner I said hello.”

“Wait, did you say Kaner?” The words stopped Jon from turning around to leave. The words caused Mindy to have rapid heart palpitations that almost dropped her to the ground in a slump. The words made gears shift in Sully’s brain. “Like that hockey player? Wait, don’t tell me. You play hockey, too?”

Cute little Mindy put her hand against her boyfriend’s chest. “Sully, we should go. Justin probably needs us since he and Sunshine just split up again.”

“Yeah. Again. For like the hundredth time. He can deal. Wait up, Jon.” Sully brushed past Mindy shooting her a look. One of his eyebrows was cocked. He didn’t know what Mindy was up to, but he didn’t like it. “Are you some famous hockey player, Jon?”

Jon looked around Sully for Patrick but couldn’t spot the blonde bushy headed man. “Uh, I guess. Not too famous though. I’m no Sidney Crosby. Hey, sorry, but I think I see my friend.”

As Jon walked forward a force pushed him backwards. “Actually, I would appreciate it if you could hang back for a second.”

“Sully, Justin just texted me. He is like going nuclear in the parking lot. We really should go to him, babe.”

“If he has the time to text you, he can control himself.” Sully glared daggers at Jon. “Dude, who the fuck are you?” Jonathan stood there calmly not saying a word. Had he not promised Kim he would said who he was, told Sully to fuck off, and then punch him. But he didn’t say anything. “I am sorry for not understanding, but what friend do you two have in common? I know my Mindy and her friends are either mathletes or drug pushing bitch faces. So how would a good girl like Mindy know a hockey player?” Jonathan looked Sully in the eyes.

“I really should be going.”

Sully pushed Jon back. “Are you him?” The venom in Sully’s voice made Mindy’s body go numb. She crept up behind Sully. Her finger lightly touched his arm. “Get off, Mindy! You fucking knew it was him and you tried to keep it a fucking secret from me?”

“Don’t talk to her like that.” People were starting to look in on their confrontation.

“Don’t tell me how to talk to my traitorous girlfriend, prick.” Sully took his hand off of Jon, peeling it backward like Jon was contagious. “So tell me, Jon. Who the fuck are you?”

“I am Jonathan Toews, okay? That is who the fuck I am. And you need to fuck off. Just stop being a complete fucking asshole. Don’t treat women the way you treat them.”

“Actually, he is never like this and—”

“Mindy. Don’t explain anything to this fuckhead. You know what, Jonathan, you don’t know me. You don’t know happened between me and Kim, who you are obviously fucking. I am a smart guy, okay? So I can fucking tell that the way you two know each other is through Kim. And Mindy was protecting you for some fucking reason I will never understand.” Sully gripped Jon by the front of his shirt. “Listen, I don’t even give a fuck if she told you what happened. I doubt she did though because she doesn’t tell anyone what goes on in her head besides Mindy. Why? Because Kim is fake ass bitch. And whatever she did tell you is skewed. You don’t know my side.”

“Do you even know hers?”

Sully’s widened eyes and he bared his teeth. A forceful knock sent Jon to the ground on his ass. “Fuck you! I know she is a selfish bitch. I know you two are not going to stay together. I know that you will mean nothing to her because I didn’t, so why should you?” Without motioning to Mindy to follow him, he spun around and stormed into the crowd. Mindy looked down at Jon with a surprised look plastered on her face. She shamefully ran after Sully.

Jon didn’t know what to do. He didn’t care about Sully and his obvious anger issues. He cared about what his girlfriend was going to say when he told her he ran into Sully and Mindy. When Jon got off the ground he made the conscious decision to tell Kim everything that happened.

“What the fuck was that?” Patrick broke past a small wall of people with a luminescent green drink in his hand. “Why is Broken Nose and Sullivan in this gin joint?”

“Why the fuck do you have bad timing? Drain the drink. We are leaving.”

The blonde boy did exactly what he was told and set the now empty glass on a nearby table. “Alright. Let’s get out of this place. Are you going to tell me what happened?”

“No.”

“Okay. Then maybe you shouldn’t tell Kimmy either. You said she and Sully have broken their ties. She’ll probably be upset. She probably won’t be happy that you and Sully had a tumultuous meeting in a bar.”

The men were making their way through the bar. Once they hit the pavement outside the bar, Jon stopped walking and turned around. Patrick, who wasn’t paying attention, walked straight into Jon’s chest. “I am sorry, but did you just use the word ‘tumultuous’ correctly in a sentence?”

“I think I did.”

“Who are you?”

Kaner only smirked at Jon and walked down the street towards Jon’s apartment that was a few blocks from the bar. “Your girlfriend is at your place right now passed out, right? You should probably keep your mouth shut, Tazer. I will.”

“When the fuck did you decide to have the smarts in our relationship?”

“Don’t say relationship, Tazer. It makes me think of couples and we aren’t in a domestic relationship or anything. Surprised that I used the word ‘domestic’ and didn’t say ‘violence’ after it? Because I am.”