One More Night

“What’s such a big deal that you had to flip out and make us all get on here at the same time Marc?” he had all three of his brothers on Skype; Eric and Jordan were at Jordan’s house, Jared on his laptop from Charlotte. He wanted to speak to all of them at once, as much as he didn’t want to have to do this. Their reactions would be painful, but he knew that they would have to hear it from him. God only knew what the story would turn into once Robyn started telling it.

“Look, I don’t know how to say this…” he paused, trying to find the words. It was going to be even harder than he’d originally thought, because he was afraid of what his brothers would say or think. Obviously they weren’t going to think the best of him, but the complete and utter fear of them wanting to all but disown him suddenly gripped Marc hard. His pause lasted too long, all of his brothers getting nervous and uncomfortable as they waited for him to speak. Moments later realization dawned on Jared’s face, and he shook his head.

“No, don’t you dare say what I think you’re gonna say,” Marc swallowed hard, wishing that he could tell Jared what he wanted to hear.

“I told Robyn that I want a divorce,”

Dead silence was on both lines, disbelief on Jared’s face, shock and confusion all over Eric and Jordan’s. They had no idea where this was coming from. But Jared was quickly putting the pieces together.

“But… why?” Jordan asked, his blue eyes piercing even through the computer screen.

“You didn’t,” Jared’s accusation came in loud and clear, Eric and Jordan’s confusion growing. Eric was watching Marc, who was all but squirming with how uncomfortable he was.

“It’s… well, yeah. But it’s not just that,” he sighed, and Jared’s jaw actually, physically dropped.

“You what? Somebody tell us what’s going on,” Eric demanded, and Marc took another shaky breath.

“We’re getting a divorce because things really weren’t working… and both of us cheated,” the looks on Eric and Jordan’s face were almost comical; the extreme reactions would have been enough to bring a smile to Marc’s face had he not been the cause of it.

“You… what? Why?” Eric demanded.

“Because she was avoiding me Eric! It’s kind of hard when your wife won’t hardly look at you, let alone talk to you or act like you mean anything to her and then you find somebody who does,” he explained, knowing his oldest brother wouldn’t understand. Eric and Tanya had always had a ‘fairytale’ relationship – they’d fallen head over heels in high school and stayed that way. Eric had no concept of what it was like to have a relationship fall apart.

“So instead of fixing it you started sleeping around?”

“It’s not just that simple! I’ve tried to work on it, Eric – I have. You have no idea… this was during the summer, okay? Robyn was everywhere except with me and didn’t want to be around me… and there was somebody who did. It wasn’t the right thing to do, I know, but I did it,” he admitted, and Jared froze.

“Jesus Marc! How… I picked you up from her house! And you couldn’t even tell me what had really happened? I’ve been covering your ass for you because I thought you were being honest with me!” Marc had expected an adverse reaction out of his little brother. He just wasn’t prepared for the way it sucked the air out of him at the disbelief and pain written all over the youngest brother’s face, with outrage quickly taking over.

“What?”

“When I picked him up after that night at the bar… he wasn’t at Danny’s house,” Jared explained to them, and Jordan shook his head.

“You’re kidding, right? You’ve got to be kidding; this is all some sick joke. Marc you’d never do that,”

“No, I’m not kidding. We didn’t mean for it to happen; when I realized you guys left she did just offer her couch. She hadn’t been making a move or anything, and neither had I. We just sat and talked and really clicked, and then… it just happened,” he knew that his explanation wouldn’t help. It wouldn’t matter to his brothers that he hadn’t had any intention of sleeping with Bree, just the fact that he had done it would be occupying their minds.

“So you slept with her and then lied your ass off to everybody? Made Jared go and get you and told him you’d just slept on the couch so he’d cover your ass?” Eric was moving past shock and getting angry.

“I didn’t know what else to do Eric; I was too ashamed of it to have said anything at that point,”
“That doesn’t make it okay Marc! You fucked around, that’s not what marriage is about. Didn’t you even think about what it would do to Robyn?” Jordan asked, trying but largely failing to control his growing-anger as well.

“She didn’t think of what it would do to me when she started cheating on me a year ago Jordan,” the cold comeback flew from Marc’s lips before he could filter it at all. All three of his brothers sat back in shock, leaving Marc breathing hard as he tried to get a hold of himself. He wasn’t sure whether he was about to break something or start to cry.

“She’s been sleeping around since last season; I caught her with him yesterday, and told her I want a divorce,” he explained, and saw Eric’s expression changing as he struggled to comprehend all of this new information.

“I’m sorry Marc,” was finally what he came out with. Nobody had had any idea of what had been going on, so Marc knew that it would take a while for them to comprehend the whole situation. Hell he hadn’t known, but at least all of Robyn’s odd behavior and complete and utter lack of interest for him made it make sense. His brothers hadn’t really seen that, they only knew that Marc and Robyn seemed a little distant and got into some arguments. Marc had never let on to them just how bad things had got.

“It doesn’t make what I did any better, and I know that… but I’ve been doing everything I can since we got back to try and fix it, and Robyn gave me the cold shoulder every time I turned around, so I’m done with it. I can’t keep doing this, and I wanted you guys to know what was going on. I wanted you to hear it from me,” Marc told them, hoping that they would understand to some degree.

“I…” Jordan started to speak, but realized he didn’t know what to say, so instead shut his mouth and ran his hand through his hair. Jared still looked angry, and after making an odd noise in his throat gained the attention of the three brothers.

“How long? Were you screwing around with her all summer?” he asked, and after a long moment Marc nodded.

“Not just sleeping together… we went out a few times,”

“So you didn’t just sleep with somebody else, you had a girlfriend on the side?” he asked, and Marc swallowed hard.

“I guess, to put it that way. Just… just try to understand this for a second Jared. Robyn didn’t want anything to do with me; everything was wrong, she wouldn’t even speak to me except to get into a fight, let alone have anything else to do with me. Half the time Robyn didn’t even come home at night, but if I was gone late she was all over me about it. I wasn’t ever good enough, and Robyn put me down every chance she got. She wasn’t like that; she treated to me like she really cared about me, and I… I really have feelings for her,” he admitted, knowing his brothers were so far gone into shock that this news wouldn’t be too hard for them.

“And you aren’t gonna tell us who ‘she’ is?” Eric asked. Marc groaned, wishing his brothers had missed that little fact. He didn’t really want them to know, because they would judge her and make assumptions about her, ones that Bree didn’t deserve to have sitting on her head.

“I don’t know… she didn’t know I was married, guys. You can’t hold this against her; as far as she was concerned I’m just some guy she met at the bar and had a thing with over the summer,” he sighed, and got a few looks of disbelief.

“Sure. Some girl from Thunder Bay just ‘doesn’t know you’re married’? Marc, the whole damn city knows who you are,”

“She’s not from Thunder Bay originally Eric – she moved there at the beginning of the year. She didn’t have a sniff who I was,” he insisted, and finally his older brother nodded.

“Okay, okay I get it. So are you gonna tell us who she is?”

“I... ,” Marc answered. She’d put her last name into his cell phone, and while Marc had felt like an ass about it he hadn’t included his. He wasn’t a hundred percent sure if Bree even now knew what his last name was. They saw each other all the time and it wasn’t like they talked about their relationship to other people, so he’d been able to keep that, and the chance of being found out, from her.

His brothers seemed to notice his hesitation, and after a moment Eric jumped in and saved him.

“Do you still talk to her?” he asked.

“No; I haven’t talked to her since I told her I was leaving and broke things off,” finally a question that his brothers would approve of his answer.

“I don’t know what else to say Marc… I mean, you said you really have feelings for her?” Eric asked once more, just for confirmation. Marc nodded, not trusting himself to talk about it right now. He was sure that his feelings went above and beyond what they should have been; he was afraid he loved her.

“Why do you have that look, Marc?” Jordan’s voice caught his attention, leaving him stuttering to try and answer.

“What look?”

“That look. Jesus Christ you’re in love with her, aren’t you?” Jordan’s question had Eric and Jared off-guard too, and stutter and stumble and flounder as he might, Marc was so sick of lying that he couldn’t come out with anything.

“I think I might be,” he finally mumbled, and heard Jordan and Eric groan.

“Jesus Marc…”

“Only you would manage something like this…”

“It doesn’t matter guys,” he sighed, fiddling with a pen on McDonagh’s coffee table. “She isn’t going to want anything to do with me. If I see or talk to her again I’m coming clean to her about the whole mess. And she’s probably going to hit me or throw shit at me and then never speak to me again. She’ll hate me.”

Marc’s soft, sober tone told his brothers just how heartbreaking that thought actually was. As angry as Jordan and Eric were, it was clear to see that Marc had got himself in a bad situation. Granted, cheating on Robyn was the worst possible thing he could have done, but it was obvious to them that this Bree meant a lot to their brother. Even after only seeing her sporadically over the summer.

“She might not hate you Marc. I mean, for a while, definitely, but if you’re seriously divorcing Robyn and you wanted to be in a relationship with her she might eventually understand,” Eric hoped his words would soothe Marc, even though he didn’t quite believe himself.

“She isn’t going to want a cheater, Eric. Nobody in their right mind would,” he shot back, making Jared wince. He was so unbelievably pissed off at his older brother. Marc had always seemed so perfect; the way he talked, held himself, acted, played hockey, treated his wife… Jared could hardly comprehend that Marc had led a double life that none of them had known about, for an entire summer. Not even that, for an entire year; he hadn’t said boo about how awful things had actually got between him and Robyn. Jared and Marc had always been close, and that Marc hadn’t been able to trust him – any of them – with the truth made Jared feel like he’d just been insulted. Worse than that, Marc had basically used him to make sure nobody would find out, and that was the worst betrayal of all.

But now, to hear how broken Marc sounded over all of it was starting to melt the ice a little bit. Jared had no idea how awful Marc must feel, considering he was sitting on a teammate’s couch – where he was no doubt staying – and nearly in tears talking to the three of them. But that wasn’t going to ease his anger toward his older brother any time soon.

“No, they wouldn’t,” Jared finally sighed Marc nodded, eyes glued to the floor and sniffed once. Jordan and Eric were about to cut in when he held up his hand, hoping they’d keep their mouths shut. “But you aren’t just some cheater Marc. Yeah, you fucked up. Big time, but it’s obviously more than just cheating on somebody for the sake of sleeping with them. You really like her?”

“Yeah, I really, really do. You have no idea,” Marc softly replied, not lifting his gaze.

“Then she’ll get it. If she’s as great as you seem to think she is she’ll understand you were in a shitty situation and even though you made a mistake, it was because you cared about her. That might make a difference,” Jared continued, feeling like a god-awful hypocrite comforting and giving his brother advice about the girl he’d cheated on his wife with. He really wanted to give his head a shake and snap some sense into the usually sensible Marc, but that wasn’t possible.

“Even if she understands she isn’t going to want to be with me Jared. Hell, I wouldn’t want to be with me. Not to have lied to her that whole relationship. It might nullify the whole thing to her,”
“Marc—”

“Just… don’t, okay?” Marc pleaded, finally raising his gaze to meet that of his brothers. The absolute despair in his hazel orbs frightened all three of his brothers. Marc was absolutely falling apart, and he didn’t seem like he was going to let any of them help keep him together.