Summertime Sadness

Nicole:

I had just gotten home from being out with some friends and headed up to my room. I walked in and turned on the light. I almost had a heart attack when I saw Nate sitting in the chair in the corner. "Nate! What are you doing here?" He quickly woke up and shook his head. "Oh hey." He stood up and stretched. "Oh hey? What the hell are you doing here? And how did you get in?" I walked over and gave him a hug. He smiled and laughed. "Training camp ended yesterday silly. And you really need to lock your windows." I laughed and gave him a smile back. I sat down on my bed and my smile faded. "What is it?" Nate sat down next to me and I looked up at him. "You know we have to talk about it." "I know." "Why'd you leave like that?" He stood up and paced back and forth. "Look, I know I didn't want to go, and I know you wanted me to. And I thought about what you said to me at the draft a lot. And I realized you were right, I could play in the NHL. But when you told me to stay, I knew you were lying, you were just trying to save our relationship. But I love you so much, and that's why I had to go. So I could prove to you that I could be away from you, and I wanted to make you proud by making the team." I gave him a faint smile and held his hand. "Nate I'm already proud of you. If you didn't make the team, I would still be proud of you for going and trying. And, I'm glad you realized you could be away from me, but next time don't ever leave like that again." I gave him a kiss and we both laughed. "I know I'm sorry. But I couldn't say anything that night, I didn't want to leave saying anything stupid and have you end up hating me." "Well I came close to hating you, but that phone call made it a little bit better." I gave him a kiss then left to go grab some snacks for us.

Nathan:

I was so happy Nicole didn't hate me and she was willing to work things out and talk about it. I really do feel terrible about leaving the way I did, but hopefully we can move past it. I sat down on her bed and waited for her to come back. I looked over at her bedside table and saw a picture from the memorial cup, but it wasn't us. It was her and Zach Fucale. Why would this be on her bedside table and not the one of us? "Okay, so I grabbed Gatorade, your favorite, and just any kind of food I was able to find." I set the picture down and her smile faded. "What's wrong?" She set the food and drinks down on her bed. "Zach gave this to you?" "Yeah, I was over his house a few days ago. He said he was holding onto it for me." "What does he have a thing for you or something?" "No, Nate he kept it in case I wanted it." "So you keep it on your bedside table? Where's the picture of us?" She looked at me confused. "Nate, I just put it there the other day, I haven't moved it yet calm down. Our picture is downstairs where it's always been." "Nicole, I'm serious. What happened while I was gone?" She scoffed and shook her head. "Nothing, Nate. Nothing happened." "You know I think I'll pass on the snacks and stuff tonight." "Nate" I pushed past her and walked out to my car. I don't want to believe that anything happened between her and Zach, but why would she put the picture of them there? And if something did happen, why would she do that with one of my best friends?

Nicole:

After Nate walking out the other night, I really don't know where we stand. I can't believe he thought something happened between me and Zach. I would never cheat on him, even though we were on a somewhat break. But still, and I would never do that with one of his closest friends.

Tonight was an 'end of summer start to the new season' party and it was going to be mostly Nate's teammates from last year, but some of my girlfriends would be there too. Even though a bunch of guys weren't playing for Halifax this year, they want to have one last chance to hang out and say their final goodbyes. I offered to have it at my house because we have a big backyard and our house is a decent size. I wasn't sure if I should still have the party because my dad passed away a few days ago. But I thought it would be a good way to distract myself from that. I wasn't too excited about having Nate and Zach in the same place because of how Nate reacted to the picture the other night, but I'm crossing fingers and hoping for no drama.

The party was going fine and everyone was getting along and having fun. I looked in my dad's office a bit surprised, Nate and Zach were in there talking. I stood outside the door watching and listening to their conversation. "Where did Jonathan go?" Nathan took a swig of some kind of alcohol and shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know, he's probably off drunk somewhere like me." Nate poured a bit of his drink onto the floor and Zach jumped up. "Don't do that man." "Why not? It's a a party." Nate had a big drunk smile on his face. "Looks like Nicole's dad could use a drink huh?" He poured some alcohol onto a picture of my dad and Zach quickly jumped up. "Hey, that's not cool. What's wrong with you?" Nate stopped looking up at him. "What? Don't act like you knew him. You weren't ever around him like I was." "Man stop, her dad is dead. Don't be cruel. Just give the picture man." Nate quickly pulled his arm away as Zach reached for the picture. "You think I don't know man? Look, I'm her boyfriend, not you okay. You didn't know her dad so why do you care?" "Are you kidding me? Nate you're drunk." "Oh come on, I'm just having fun." Zach slowly reached forward. "Just give me the picture man." Nate slammed the picture on the desk and it shattered. Zach took a step back then put his hand on Nate's shoulders. "Alright, you need to calm your drunk ass down." "Do something about it!

Nate pushed him and Zach took a step back. "I'm not gonna fight you." Nate slowly walked toward him and then tackled him to the ground. Before I could run in to stop them, they were on the floor whaling on each other. "What is going on?" I quickly opened the door and ran in. They had stood back up and Nate punched Zach in the face and he fell to the floor. "Oh my god! Nicole, what did I do?" "Nate just stop okay." I put my fingers to Zach's neck and he still had a pulse. "He's breathing, he's just knocked out okay. Calm down." Nate was pacing back and forth. A few minutes later Zach came to his senses and I walked him out to my car. I went back inside to talk to Nathan. "Zach's in my car, I'm gonna take him home." "Nicole, why aren't you yelling at me and ripping me a new one?" "Look, Zach will get over you punching him okay. Just go upstairs and relax a bit, let the alcohol get out of your system and I will be back in a few minutes." I went to walk away but Nate grabbed my hand. "Nicole, that's not what I'm taking about. What I said, about your dad. Pouring the drink on his picture and smashing it. Why aren't you upset about that? And me saying Zach doesn't have the right to care because he's not your boyfriend. Why aren't you upset at me for all that?" I gave him a small smile and wrapped my arms around his neck. "Look, you were drunk, and you made some assumptions just because of the picture you saw in my room. I know you didn't mean any of it. Plus, I just got you back. I'm not gonna loose you because of some bad judgement and alcohol." I gave him a kiss and I went back out to my car to drive Zach home.

I got in the car and Zach was sitting next to me with a water bottle held to his head. "You okay?" "Well, I've taken pucks off the head before." "Yeah?" "That was definitely worse." We both laughed and I pulled out of the driveway and took Zach home. "Thanks for driving me home. And don't worry, I'll be fine. And I don't hate Nate for everything that happened tonight." He gave me a smile and I gave one back. "Well thank you. And I really am sorry. And I'm definitely not letting Nate near alcohol anytime soon." We both laughed and I gave Zach a hug and he got out and went inside his house. I drove back to my house and everyone was getting ready to go. They had all cleaned up and I said goodbye to them all. Once everyone was gone I went upstairs to check on Nate. I walked in and he was lying in my bed. "Hey Nate, how you feeling?" I sat down next to him and played with his hands. He smiled. "I'm not drinking again for awhile." We both laughed. "Sounds like a good plan."

He sat up and his smile faded. "What's up Nate?" "Nothing, it's just. Come to Colorado with me." I looked at him confused. "What?" "I just got a call. I made the team." I tackled him on the bed and gave him a kiss. "Nate I'm so happy for you!" "Thanks. But I was serious. Come to Colorado with me. I mean you're out of school now. We could get an apartment, but most importantly we'll be together." I could help but smile. The fact he wants to live together and wants me with him to experience his first year in the NHL is so touching. I honestly didn't know what to say. "Well, I don't know. I want to, I'm just not sure how the team would feel about it and what my parents would think. But I will come with you for a week and we can figure things out after that." "Okay, I agree. Well you should probably start packing." I looked at him confused. "We have to leave in like 3 days." "Seriosuly! OMG Nate I do have to start packing." I quickly sat up on my bed but Nate pulled me back to lie down with him. "We have time okay. Right now let's just sleep, we've had a long day." We both laughed and he gave me a kiss. I snuggled up to him and we fell asleep. I can't believe I'm going with Nate to Colorado for a week. I will get to see his first game and get to experience that with him and I couldn't be happier. I'm just not sure yet about permenantly living there with him, but we will figure that out eventually.