Things Aren't Always What They Seem

"How was the wedding?" Pat asked Jon already knowing the answer as they were getting their pads on for practice. It was the first they had seen each other since they'd come home from their respective trips and Charlotte had already told Pat about the fight between her and Jon.

"Fine," Jon replied shortly without looking up at him.

"Charlotte said you, uh, that you guys got into a bit of a tiff." Pat wanted the whole story. He knew there was more to it than met the eye-- he knew Jon would never treat Charlotte that way without some kind of explanation.

"Yeah, I guess." Jon still hadn't looked at Pat as he tied his skates and stood up to make his way onto the ice.

"Woah," Pat grabbed him by the shoulder and stopped him. "I sacrificed the weekend with my fiancee so she could spend it with you and go to this wedding with you so you didn't have to go alone and you're a dick to her without any good reason? You're going to have to do better than that Toews." Pat was good at manipulating situations and he thought he might be able to guilt Jon into saying whatever he needed to say.

"What do you want me to say?" Jon finally looked at him and Pat saw how much anger was in his eyes. Jon was cold and distant, and even to Pat-- someone who Jon had had plenty of disagreements with over the years-- it was unusual territory.

"I want to know what the fuck your problem is," Pat spat back pissed off. "Charlotte's all bent out of shape about it."

Jon swallowed and felt the guilt inside him grow. He hadn't spoken to Charlotte the entire trip back or since they got home. It killed him to do it but it was what needed to be done for now. "Well I guess it's between her and I then. None of your damn business."

"Did something happen that I should know about?"

Jon shook his head. "No. What would happen?"

"You tell me. You're the one who has their panties in a twist and won't tell anyone why."

"Rest assured Charlotte didn't do anything wrong." Jon was borderline sarcastic with his response. He was annoyed he had to say it because to his dismay it was true, he just didn't want Charlotte to deal with anymore shit from Patrick on his behalf.

"I didn't think she did," Pat murmured under his breath. "So," Pat ran his hand through his hair and then ran it back over his face. "What? You're not friends anymore...what do I tell her?"

"Don't tell her anything."

"Well, she already asked me if I'd be okay letting her and you spend the night together. She reminded me that you guys had plans for a few months for tonight..." Fuck. Jon dropped his head as soon as he heard those words escape from Pat's lips. He remembered now that Charlotte had begged him to keep this night open back a few months ago. She said she had made plans for them-- set up a surprise for him and he promised he'd oblige her.

"I'll deal with her." Jon's answers were short because he liked to deal with his personal stuff on his own. He was used to being called 'serious' and 'focused' but the truth was he just liked to keep his private life private. Now he was stuck with the task of calling off his plans with Charlotte and trying to figure out how he would go about doing that without completely creating a shit storm.

"Dude. Whatever," Pat sighed out visibly angry. "You being a dick just works to my advantage." Pat had always been somewhat threatened when it came to Jon and he liked feeling victorious-- like he was the one that had the upper hand when it came to Charlotte.

Jon's jaw tightened and he clenched his fists as he thought about turning around and throwing Pat into the locker-- Pat had no idea how close he'd come to awakening the beast as both of them had their backs to the other.

It was pretty obvious to the rest of the team during practice that Jon was in a bad mood; that something really had him worked up. He didn't say much, but he didn't have to. He skated hard and worked his ass off until the coaches told them it was quitting time. He kept to himself and got dressed trying to figure out how to cancel with Charlotte. He didn't know what to tell her. He knew he was hurting her but he didn't want to make it worse. He just wanted space and hoped that she'd realize she needed space too...if she was going to marry Kane, she'd need the space eventually.

Jon started to head out of the arena when he walked by Patrick talking casually to a few of the other guys. Pat laughed with them over whatever they were discussing, "Yeah I bet you assholes wish you were in Cancun too then," Jon heard Pat say and paused for just a second. It struck him as odd but he let it go and completely forgot about it the second he walked outside.

He spent the better part of the rest of the day figuring out what to say to Charlotte without it erupting into a huge thing. If he were actually going to go through with it, he needed to grasp for straws and make it believable, so he grabbed the longest straw in the jar. He would tell Charlotte that he needed to take a step back from their friendship in order to work on his relationship with Rose. The truth was actually far from it, but it was the most convenient excuse he could come up with. He didn't really know why he wanted to do this so badly, maybe he just wanted to assert his own freewill, whatever the case he just knew it was something he desperately needed if he were ever going to really move forward with his life.

He drove over to Charlotte's with his heart beating hard against his ribcage. He had text her that he'd be over at six like he had promised but he was going to tell her in person he needed to cancel. He planned on doing it as nonchalantly as possible this way she couldn't misinterpret it like she undoubtably would if he said what he needed to say via text or over the phone. When he parked his car he took a second to mentally prep himself before walking in and knocking on her apartment door.

He didn't know what to expect when she answered. Jon wouldn't have blamed her if she had an attitude after how he treated her and then totally dismissed her after the wedding, but instead of awkwardness and attitudes she opened the door with a huge smiled and pulled him into her. "Hey!" she squealed seemingly completely forgiving of his behavior.

"Hey," Jon replied quietly and unsure. He limply hugged her back and pulled away, taking a deep breath and trying to say the words he came to say.

"I'm so glad that you're here. You have no idea how long I've been looking forward to this, I almost spilled the beans a few times," Charlotte rambled on clearly excited and Jon tried to defuse the situation.

"Yeah, look Char..." Jon tried to start visibly shaken.

"You're going to love this!" she cut off seemingly ignoring his total change in demeanor with her.

"About tonight..."

"I gotta tell you the surprise! Shh! Okay. A couple months ago I was browsing around online and came across," she looked down and pulled out two long pieces of paper from her back pocket. "These!" She squealed as she held up two concert tickets in front of him.

"A concert?" Jon asked completely distracted from what his original plan was.

"I got us Dashboard tickets!"

Jon's anger and initial desire for space from Charlotte completely dissolved and a smile spread across his face. "Dashboard? Are you serious?"

"Yes! Total blast back to our teenage years, huh? I couldn't even believe it when I saw it so I wanted to surprise you. I figured you'd love it."

Jon couldn't wipe the grin off his face and let out a laugh. "Wow, yeah this is awesome. I didn't even know he still toured. That's an incredible surprise." He reached forward and took the tickets from her hand to examine them himself. He looked down at them and then back up at her. Her blue eyes shimmered and her smile warmed his heart. "Come here," he said as he pulled her to him and hugged her tightly. All the anger he'd been carrying had completely disappeared and all that was left were the feelings he always felt when he was around her.

When she pulled back and away from him after a few seconds she tucked her hair behind her ear and went to grab her purse. "What did you want to say?"

"Huh?" Jon asked caught off guard.

"You said something about tonight," she reminded him completely unaware that he was about to cancel on her and make a seriously negative move that would affect their friendship.

"Oh," Jon shook his head. "It was nothing. I just...I wanted to see who should drive. I guess I will," he said covering his tracks as Charlotte locked her door.

"Sure, yeah whatever. I'm just so friggin excited. You sure you're not disappointed? You're happy about this?" she asked as they walked to his car.

"You surprised me, definitely. Char don't even think twice about it. This is the best gift I've gotten. I'm really looking forward to getting there now. It reminds me of when we were younger and we'd drive around at night blasting this in my car."

"Yeah," she smiled totally giddy as she got in. "We had some of the best times doing that. We never really had to do anything important, you know? We'd always end up driving around getting coffee or ice cream or just drive until we came across something interesting...but those are the nights when I think back-- those are the nights I consider to be the best memories."

Jon squeezed his eyes shut and swallowed as he let out a deep breath. "Yeah, tell me about it."

After a few more minutes, before they were about to pull up and park Jon fixated his eyes on the road and inhaled, "I'm...uh, look. Char, I'm sorry about what happened at the wedding..."

Charlotte looked down and took a moment before responding. "I couldn't decide if I needed you to apologize or not. It hurt, pretty bad, actually. But, I get it. I know your family stresses you out. I don't need the details of what happened, I don't want to know whatever it was that made you so pissed that you took it out on me, but it's over now. So let's forget it."

Jon wanted to say something more but he didn't know exactly what that would be. "Okay."

When they got inside and Dashboard came out Jon and Charlotte, along with the rest of the audience, burst out into hollers and applause. They stood there together on the floor singing along to all the songs they'd known for so long. Every song sounded better and brought back all those memories and they were having so much fun. Charlotte would occasionally look back at Jon, who was standing kind of next to her but behind her at the same time, and smile wide out of excitement and because they were genuinely having a kick ass time.

When the set was almost over, Jon's heart picked up a little faster as he heard the cords start to the song that always, always secretly reminded him of Charlotte. It was a song he would listen to in his car, by himself, and no matter what he always saw Charlotte's face in his mind.

As both Charlotte and Jon sang along he felt the emotions building up inside him with each passing word sung.

And I would be there every time
you'd need me
I'd be there every time...

With the way they were positioned, Jon knew that Charlotte couldn't see his face unless she looked back to him but Jon couldn't help himself as he gently put his hands around her waist and held her to him. Her skin against his hands was like fire to him, causing his entire body to tingle and it felt even better that she didn't even flinch at his touch.

But for now I'll look so longingly
waiting...
For you to want me, for you to need me, for you to notice me

She couldn't have known what that song--what those lyrics meant to Jon, but he didn't care at that moment. He was reminded of what he felt for her when they were growing up, what he'd always felt. In that moment, she was his. As he stood there singing along with Charlotte he realized what he didn't want to admit.

He was hands down in love with her.

When she rested her hands innocently on his, Jon smiled and felt the butterflies inside him.

Until he looked down and saw the huge sparkler on her finger that reminded him of why he was pissed in the first place.