Don't Fall Back

“Perhaps, somewhere, some day, at a less miserable time, we may see each other again.” ―Vladimir Nabokov

Four days later, the Leafs celebrated their first preseason win over the Rangers at the ACC. The final score was 4-1, thanks to 40 saves by Reimer and goals from Phil Kessel, Mason Raymond, Dave Bolland and Cody Franson. The boys changed out of their uniforms noisily until Randy came in.

"Alright," he entered with a slight grin on his face. "Good job boys. You're proving yourself out there defensively, physically and mentally. You did good out there and I expect this to continue."

The teammates clapped and patted each other's backs as he left the locker room. It was only a preseason game but it involved many scrums and fights that pumped them up. Colton had dropped the mitts once and served his time in the box. It was an early game; beginning at 1 in the afternoon.

"Hey Phil, nice to see you can still score." Dion said half across the room with a smirk. "Too bad you can't in ping pong."

"Fuck you, buddy." Phil called back. Tyler, Frazer, Colton and Dion started laughing. "You just get lucky." he added.

"I'll bet on you next time." Cody said to Kess. Dion and Phil had been bringing out the table before hockey games, once or twice a week, for over a year and it had gotten competitive between the two.

"Damn straight. Just you wait, when the season actually starts, you're going down." Phil warned the captain.

Dion laughed as he took off his protective gear. "You must've practiced all Summer there, kid."

"Nice dress shoes out there in warmup, loser." he shot back and the locker room bursted into laughter at the memory.

Tyler turned away from the chirping going on and nodded at Colton. "Hey,"

"Hey." he said, sitting down and removing his thick socks.

"So...How's everything?" he gave him a look.

A sigh escaped his mouth. "It's fine."

"Did you search the internet?" Frazer joined in, standing by his stall beside Colton's.

Clarkie also listened in as he dressed back into his suit. Colton had told Frazer, David, and Phil at the buds' apartment that day that he remembered what happened. They all promised to never tell anyone and supported him through it.

"Bobby did the last few nights. He called some other newspaper companies to see if anything was published but he didn't tell them why," he referred to his agent. "And he didn't find anything."

"Oh. Well that's good. That's good news." Frazer said, and Tyler nodded along.

"Yeah.." Colton finished tying his striped blue tie around his neck. "Sure."

"You know it's better if you tell her yourself, Orrsie." Big Mac added.

"I know. Shit, I know.. You just have no idea how scared I am that she'll leave."

Both of his friends sighed, and Tyler replied with, "Don't do anything stupid."

"I know."

"Don't wait too long."

"Okay."

"It's shitty to lie to her like this. She deserves more than that and you know it."

"You're right. I just need some more time." he answered Bozie. They gave Colton an uneasy look, and then the boys began leaving the locker room. Normally they'd hit the showers but chose to do it in their own homes.

Colton checked the time on his phone and glanced around outside the ACC hallway. He couldn't spot her in the crowd of much shorter girlfriends or wives of his teammates. He noticed Scott organizing their game used hockey sticks nearby and walked over.

"Hey, have you seen Mia?" he asked him.

"Uh, Jordan told me she left." he responded, glancing over his shoulder.

He furrowed his eyebrows in confusion. "What do you mean 'left'?"

"She went home halfway through the third. Some personal issues, apparently."

"Is she okay?" he panicked.

"Oh no not like that." he assured. "Just something to do with what she read or something.. Jordan let her off for emotional stability reasons. I didn't have time to ask what he meant by that."

He felt his mouth go dry. "Oh."

4 hours earlier..

"Good luck babe." Mia went up on her toes and kissed Colton's welcoming lips. She did it every night regardless whether the game counted for point totals or not.

"Thanks." he smiled down at her and felt his legs tremble, his mind torturing him with guilt. He took a different path into the team's locker room as she went the other way.

She set her things down in her arguably small office and changed into her Leafs branded medical uniform. She tied her hair back and walled out to the meeting room. Jordan was sitting with his laptop in front of him and a half-full cup of coffee.

"Hi," she smiled, grabbing a mug from the cupboard and pouring herself coffee.

"Evenin', Ms. Stone. How's everything?" he asked nicely.

"Great, how about you?" She grabbed two packages of the creamy liquid and added it along with two sugars.

"Good, good. Ready for some action?" he winked.

Usually they would make jokes about how rarely they'd get to perform anything since injuries weren't normally severe. Thankfully, of course, but they would still crack a laugh now and then. Last season involved twelve of their players getting hurt in the first few months of the season--so it was a busy 2013.

"Definitely. They sure love their stitches." she rolled her eyes. She took a seat near him in front of the three big screen TVs on the wall ahead, and sipped the hot beverage.

"Hey guys," Randy walked in wearing just his white dress shirt and velvet tie. He grabbed his suit jacket off one of the leather seats. "Gonna need this."

"Don't forget you need 5 players at a time." Jordan cracked.

Randy laughed aloud. "I consider Dion two, so."

"Get him some shorter skates." Mia giggled, grabbing the nearby remote and flipping to LeafsTV.

"Or no skates at all. Make him glide around in his dress shoes." He laughed heatedly again.

"I dare you," she joked around with her boss.

"For warmup. I'm doing it." he pointed at her with a big grin on his face.

She had no doubt in her mind that he meant it. "This is gonna be brutal."

They chuckled as he left the room to head down to the boys for his pre-game speech and lineup call out. Mia and Jordan then followed as well, and watched as the players walked out with large grins on their faces and fist bumped with the nearby fans.

Then there was the captain. Behind them with his protective gear underneath, uniform, buckled helmet--and shiny black shoes. They followed behind with the laughing coaching staff. They stood behind the bench near the tunnel and watched.

"Are you being serious, Randy?" Dion called back, looking down at the ice.

"Want me to bench you?" he replied, but jokingly.

He sighed and carefully went out onto the slippery surface. The jumbotron zoomed in and the filling crowd of Leafs fans erupted. Cody stayed by and pointed at him laughing as he tried to stay up.

"Don't slip, there might be an earthquake." Phil yelled from center ice.

He heard him loud and clear. "You're dead buddy."

Randy scratched his head laughing. "Alright get in there and change into your skates."

Dion sighed and carefully turned, just a few steps away from the ground. He shook his head and grinned down the tunnel once more. Mia and Jordan stayed out for the anthems as always and then returned to the staff room.

She opened up one of the other laptops and turned it on when she was seated. She sipped her warm coffee and looked up at the screen as Bozie took the faceoff. The relaxing part of the job was that until an injury occurs she could do anything.

"Anything new?" Mia asked, logging onto her Twitter and scrolling through her timeline.

"Not that I've heard of." Jordan sat down on one of the three-seated black sofas, crossing his arms behind his gray hair.

She sighed. "God I hate Toronto Sun. They never have anything good to say about the boys."

"Bunch of nobody's." Jordan rolled his eyes.

Mia continued scanning her eyes through the tweets. One of then caught her attention. Nik Richie had been retweeted onto her timeline by one of her followings. She knew he was the owner of the insanely lawsuit threatened website TheDirty. It read, Leafs Clubbing Gone Wrong- #TheDirtyArmy #exposed followed by a link.

She clicked it. It was posted the day before, but the date on the article was September 15th. Mia scrunched her eyebrows remembering that that was the night Colton hadn't returned. Her heart began to pound faster. TheDirty was known for exposing people doing illegal things, seen in awkward places, or sleeping around. Her palms were sweaty, she swallowed a gulp in her throat and looked through the four pictures when they loaded.

The first one was a blurry photo of Cody and JvR taking shots around a crowded booth. Their eyes looked lazy and she could tell they were completely wasted.

She scrolled down to the second one; she recognized Colton with his dirty blond hair and broad shoulders. Dancing figures blocked most of his body but she squinted her eyes and made out a woman who was arguably too close to him. He had a drink in one hand and the other was hard to see from the angle of the photo.

She forced herself to go to the third snap. Whoever took the photo had shifted across the club to the other side to capture Colton again, but much more clearly. He didn't have a drink in his hand anymore, but instead had both hands on the same girl's hips as she bit her lip near his neck.

Mia felt herself fuming. She was breathing angrily through her nose. She closed her eyes and opened them sharply again to scroll to the fourth last picture.

"Is everything..alright?" Jordan questioned slowly, sensing the tension.

Her stomach completely dropped. Her bones felt weak and she slouched back against the chair while staring at the picture. A mere sadness washed through her. The brunette with red-dyed tips was walking up the stairs with Colton following behind--their hands clasped together.

It hit her like a bullet. She put her hands on her heated face and shut her eyes into darkness. Her head was spinning out of control, entering a new world that had never been discovered, but for the good of the geniuses on Earth, since her mind pictured it as corrupt, broken and torn into unfixable pieces.

"Oh my god." she said quietly in her hands. "Ohmygod. Oh.." she moved her fingers over to rub her temples.

Her coworker stood up as a commercial came on. He walked over behind her and glanced at the laptop screen. His mouth popped into an 'O' in shock. He put his hands on her shoulders lightly.

"Go home." he said.

She stayed stone still for a moment. It all made sense now. Why Colton didn't return her calls, why he didn't tell his friends because he didn't want to risk it, why he didn't come home until the morning after. Then she couldn't stop shaking; her lips were trembling, arms twitching, and knees bending. She slowly stood up.

"You can't drive like this. Mia? Mia?"

She completely blanked his comments out as she grabbed her clothes and her purse and walked out. She was going extremely slow, her mouth had gone dry and she hadn't blinked her eyes since standing up.

She made it to the parking lot and started her car. She drove right through a few red lights while ignoring the flash that caught her license plates. Mia parked in the driveway and opened the front door. Her body floated upstairs and she began taking off her work clothes and nametag.

She changed back into the sweater and leggings she had on earlier. Then, she went into the walk-in closet and pulled out her suitcases. She had a large red one and another smaller but fairly big one. Her teary eyes weren't helping her eye vision at all. The room seemed to be spinning.

She grabbed a handful of hung clothes and took the hangers off and threw them on the ground. She folded them quickly and grabbed more. She noticed her phone vibrate on the bed. She glanced at Lana's text asking if she could hang at her place after work.

Mia pressed her contact number and collapsed when she heard her best friend's voice answer. It was her only taste of comfort at the moment.

"Are you crying!?"

She put her elbow on one knee and held her forehead with one hand. "Lana.."

"Mia. What is going on?" she asked. "Are you at work?"

"He cheated on me." she sobbed. "He fucking cheated on me."

"A-Are you serious?" Lana had concern and shock in her voice. She immediately grabbed her purse and stood up during the T.V timeout with five minutes in the third period. "Where are you?"

"I'm ho--" she paused, her heart breaking apart. She did not consider this place a home anymore. "I'm at Colton's."

"Oh god. I'm coming over, honey." she said.

Mia hung up and sniffed, wiping her nose and face with her palms. She stood up again and continued piling clothes into the large suitcase. She then zipped the full red suitcase up and began on the second one. She opened her nightstand drawer and grabbed the phone cases and large collection of makeup and makeup bags. She added most of her purses in as well and forcefully shut it.

Mia glanced behind her shoulder at her nightstand once again. The framed picture of her and Colton grinning happily against each other's bodies at Elisha and Dion's wedding. She began crying into her hands once again. She angrily stood up and grabbed the picture and threw it against the wall beside the large windows. She watched the glass shatter and the frame break.

She heard the unlocked door open and Lana's voice echoing through. Then, her best friend made it up to the master bedroom and quickly rushed over to hug her. Mia sobbed into her shoulder.

"I can't believe this is happening." she screamed.

"Shh.."

"I need to go. I need to leave." she said through her shaky voice. Then, it hit her. "Where the hell will I even go!?"

"You'll stay with me." she suggested.

She shook her head, wiping her nose. "I need to go far away. Far away from here."

Lana sighed. "Stay with me for a bit until you decide."

Mia accepted and watched as she went over and grabbed Mia's red suitcase and rolled it down the hall. She took it downstairs and returned for the black one to do the same.

"Kabby?" Mia called out, walking around the hardwood halls. She couldn't stand seeing the pictures that she had bought, or ordered, and watched as Colton drilled them to the dark purple walls. The memories tortured her.

Then, she saw her cat laying on the second bathroom floor asleep. She picked him up, waking him as she carried him to his carrier and placing him inside. Lana brought it downstairs as well as Mia put her carry-on bag over her shoulder.

She folded her Leafs uniform slowly and neatly inside and placed her MCC and ACC entry keys on top, watching her future slip away. She zipped the bag up. The memories flashed through her mind like a slideshow.

The first time she had stepped into his room was the day after they had returned from Ottawa, after officially becoming a couple. She had woken up that morning to make him breakfast. She remembered their lazy, tired eyes every sunrise when he'd kiss her soft lips and fall back asleep again.

She heard footsteps behind her. "I'll put your things into your car and wait out there, okay?" Lana glanced at the back of her head, sighing, and going outside. She knew her best friend needed a moment.

Mia looked at every inch of the bedroom. The gut-wrenching feeling of knowing that this was the final time she would ever step foot in it. She slowly turned around with her head down and closed the door. She walked down the stairs while brushing her fingertips along the railing where she had once wrapped Christmas decorations.

As she stood in the silent living room, she heard quick footsteps rush through the already wide open front door. She turned around with teary eyes.

Colton's mouth was slightly open, his eyebrows lowered, his shoulders slouched. He dropped his gaze to the handbag she was holding, and forced himself to look at her again. They just stood there staring at each other. Her eyes had reddened from crying. Her lips clasped together, trembling. With her arms crossed helplessly she shook her head slowly.

Colton watched the most beautiful thing he had ever known completely break apart before his eyes. And he was at fault. "I..am so..so sorry."

"How could you?" she said quietly.

He shut his stinging eyes. "I didn't know what was happening.. I was drunk and.."

"So this happened every time you went out with the boys?" she assumed, tears rolling out.

"No." he replied quickly. "God no. Mia. Please. Just.." But nothing would come out. He knew this was inevitable. There were no excuses.

"You promised me so much." her voice turned into a whisper in the last word as she closed her eyes momentarily. "A happy, faithful life together."

He scrunched his hair at the back of his head stressfully. His eyes were tearing up just watching her cry in front of him. He thought of the engagement ring he bought for her. How he was supposed to be commited to her. How he had ruined such a great relationship in so little time.

She sobbed, dropping her carry-on and putting her hands over her face and pushing the wetness to the hair above her forehead messily. "Is this really happening?"

He didn't dare make eye contact with her. He was weak. He wasn't even man enough to look at the once-confident woman he had destroyed. "Please don't leave me."

He watched as she picked up the bag and walked towards him. She brought one hand up and slapped him hard. He flinched this time, feeling the physical pain. He straightened his head only to receive another hit.

"You never changed." she said. "You were still the same, weren't you? This entire time."

"Mia.. I changed for you. I really did I-I fucked up. I'm sorry. I'm so fucking sorry. I hate myself for it. But please give me a chance." The long waiting tears escaped his eyes. "I love you. Only you. Always you."

"You did this to us." she sniffed, looking down as she took her spare house key out, that he had made for her when he asked her to move in, and placed it in his hand. "It's over." He closed his eyes. "It's all over."

And with that, Mia walked out the front door with most of her items, but she knew she truly left everything behind.