Sky Full of Stars

23

Just hearing the knock on the door makes Calista groan. It's nine in the morning but she's nursing a bit of a hangover and she knows Jamie will have a major one too when he wakes up; visitors are the last thing either of them needs. She sets her coffee mug down on the counter and slides out of her chair at the bar to shuffle over to the door, letting out a little groan when she opens it and sees Tyler on the other side. He only looks more apologetic at that and she sighs in resignation, moving aside to let him into the apartment.

"What are you doing here?"

"I just thought I should come by and check on him. On both of you."

She quirks a brow at him but ignores the second part of his statement, nodding her head toward the hallway that leads to the bedroom. "He's still sleeping. Last night, he drank until he passed out."

Tyler winces, knowing it's all his fault. "I'm sorry, Calista."

"Why couldn't you just keep your mouth shut? I tried to tell you it would be a bad idea."

"I just didn't want to lie to him anymore. He's my best friend here."

"Yeah, well, he's mine too," she shoots back with a glare. "And I didn't want to tell him because I knew he'd react like that!"

"I didn't mean to-"

"You should've taken a hint."

"Well, I didn't, and I'm sorry, okay?"

She lets out a heavy sigh, pushing a hand through her hair, and he immediately starts to apologize for snapping at her but she just shakes her head dismissively and turns to go and sit down in the living room. He stays where he is in the kitchen until she looks over at him expectantly from her position sitting cross legged in the middle of the sofa so he walks over to join her, sinking down into the lone chair.

"Can I ask you something?"

"If I say no, is that going to stop you?" she counters, already knowing where this conversation is about to go and 100% fully dreading it.

"What happened in Boston?"

Calista bites down hard on her lip, trying to decide how she's going to answer, and the question hangs there heavily for a long few moments before she finally speaks. "I don't really like to talk about it so-....but it wasn't....it's not important."

"Jamie said it's my fault," he presses, leaning forward to rest his elbows on his thighs. "You almost died and it's my fault. I have to know."

"He shouldn't have said that because it wasn't. It was my idea, my choice."

"To do what?" he asks quietly, his brows pinching together with concentration as he focuses on the light blue patterns of the rug beneath his feet and tries to keep himself in check. Him getting emotional is the last thing either of them needs right now.

"I'm kind of surprised you don't already know."

"Why?"

"Because that'd be the first time Brad ever listened to me."

"Brad who?.....Wait, Marchy? Why would he know?"

"He was dating my roommate at the time," she shrugs simply. "He was with her when she found me."

"Found you?"

She barely meets his dark eyes before she looks down at her lap, chewing on her bottom lip. She hadn't meant to say that and it's probably only going to cause him to have more questions. Luckily, he just sits there processing that and before he can find his next words, Jamie calls her name from the bedroom. A moment later, he emerges from the hall and his brows furrow when he sees Tyler sitting there but he says nothing as he rounds the sofa and sits down next to Calista, rubbing his hands over his face. The silence that ensues is painfully awkward with Calista and Tyler glancing between each other and Jamie avoiding looking at either of them.

Tyler cracks first, as expected.

"I'm sorry about yesterday, man. I didn't know it was going to cause this whole big thing. She told me not to say anything, but I just didn't expect-"

"You should've told me," Jamie interrupts, but he's addressing the girl beside him because he's going to ignore Tyler for the moment to let him sweat it out a little longer.

Calista just gives him a disapproving look. "You know I couldn't."

"How can you stand being around him after what he did to you? How have you even been sitting in the same room with him all this time? Fuck, Calista, I invited him to come when we were hanging out just because I wanted you two to get along. I had no idea he was the prick from Boston who hurt you so bad."

"Jamie," she chides softly because she can see Tyler's expression and how the hope of being forgiven drains out of him with every word his friend says. "Think about what would have happened if you'd known. You would have hated him because I hated him. And you would have told all your teammates what he did and then they'd hate him too and the team would've been dysfunctional from the first day of training camp. You two are such good friends; you play so well together. He was a perfect fit for this group of guys but we never would have known that if I'd opened my mouth. I've already fucked with your personal life, Jamie. I'd never forgive myself if I screwed up your career too."

His face falls when her voice cracks on her last sentence and he reaches up to rest a comforting hand on her shoulder, brushing his thumb across the back of her neck. "Liss, I told you, I don't blame you for that anymore."

"But I do."

"Well you shouldn't," he retorts immediately. "But you should've told me about him."

"I did the right thing, Jamie. It's not what you want to hear, but rationally you know it was best for everyone." He scoffs at that but says nothing in rebuttal and she knows he knows she's right. "Look, Tyler and I talked about it, okay? And I forgave him. If I can, then you can."

The two friends silently stare each other down for a few moments before Jamie gives up and shakes his head. "I'm gonna go," he finally decides, pushing a hand roughly through his hair. "Go work out or something. I just need some time to-...." He waves his hand around dismissively and gets up from the sofa, walking right past Tyler without so much as looking at him on his way out the door.

"He'll come around," Calista sighs once the door clicks shut behind him. "He just wants some time to pout about the fact that he was kept out of the loop, but he'll get over it and everything'll be fine again."

Strangely, that's not even what Tyler's brain is choosing to focus on at the moment. His face is all twisted up like he's thinking hard about something and he rubs his palms against his thighs nervously because he isn't sure how she's going to receive his next question. He doesn't want to push her too hard but all this new stuff that's popping up only confuses him, makes him feel like he really might not even know her at all. "Something happened with you and Jamie?"

She looks over at him with wide eyes, caught off guard by the question though not surprised that he'd want answers for the conversation that just happened in front of him. "That was, um....I did something really selfish once, not really caring how it affected Jamie or people we loved."

That only confuses Tyler further and he scratches his blunt nails against the scruff along his jaw, taking a few seconds to mull over that, but he just ends up shaking his head. "What?"

"Jesus, I'm gonna have to tell the story, aren't I?"

"Please," Tyler nods.

Calista pushes a hand through her hair and takes a couple of shaky breaths before she looks back up at him and when she does, he can see that her eyes are already watery just in anticipation of what she's about to say. "Corinne was Jamie's....childhood sweetheart. They were born within a few weeks of each other, next door neighbors, same friend group in school-- it was kind of always expected that they'd end up together. They started dating when they were, like, thirteen and Jamie's mom always made Jenny drive them on their ridiculous preteen dates to the movies. Everyone at school was jealous of them, what they had. They were young but, like, even adults could tell they were kind of the real deal, ya know?"

He's a little confused at what this has to do with what happened between Calista and Jamie, but if she's willingly volunteering information, then he's certainly not going to complain so he kind of just nods along a little.

"When he started playing in Kelowna I didn't know if they'd be able to make it work, but somehow they did. I mean, two teenagers in a long distance relationship is kind of unheard of, but they were fine. Then he made it to Dallas and I was sure that would just be too much for them. They'd only just turned twenty and going from three hundred miles away to over two thousand miles away was a huge adjustment. But it just made them stronger. He was gonna propose, but he wanted to wait until after she moved to Dallas."

Tyler's brows shoot up in surprise at hearing that Jamie had ever been so seriously involved in a relationship, especially when he was so young. The Jamie he's gotten to know is far different than the one being described to him.

"She couldn't wait to get here-- to finally get to be back with Jamie after two years of them being apart. But I was selfish. I knew all that, but I didn't care because all I wanted was to get out of BC and go to college in the US. So that's what I did. I went to Massachusetts for school and left her at home to help Mom take care of Dad. He was pretty sick at the time and our brother was living far away in Toronto so...."

So far, this story is just one surprise after another for Tyler. He knew Calista had to have known this girl Jamie had dated because Jamie is her best friend, but he definitely didn't expect her to say it was her own sister.

"She resented me," Calista says regretfully, staring hard at the short stack of magazines on the coffee table in front of her. "She tried not to, but she couldn't help it. Because I was getting to do exactly what I wanted and that was what was keeping her from being able to move here and be with Jamie."

Pausing to take in an unsteady breath, Calista glances up at Tyler but he's just sitting there literally on the edge of his seat, watching her carefully.

"It was the middle of April and I'd just started writing my final paper for my English class when my mom called to-....to tell me about the accident. Jamie's season had just ended and he'd just gotten home so he got there. He was at the hospital. He got to-....he got to see her before she-"

She doesn't finish the sentence, instead breaking off into quiet snivels, but it doesn't take a rocket scientist to infer the rest. Tyler doesn't hesitate getting up from his seat and moving to sit down next to her on the sofa to rub her back soothingly.

"She asked him to take care of me, to watch out for me. She was laying there dying and she was thinking about me. Her selfish, undeserving little sister." Calista blinks and the tears that were clinging to her eyelashes fall down her cheeks. "That's why Boston is such a touchy subject for him. He feels like-....like he let her down."

Now Tyler feels bad. He had no idea that telling Jamie what he did would have been such a big deal but now that he knows more of the story, he understands it. "I'm so sorry," he mutters. "I didn't know. I should've listened to you." Calista glances over at him and nods weakly, sniffling, and before he can really decide whether or not it's a good idea to push more, his mouth moves faster than his brain. "What happened after that?"

She frowns deeply and brushes her hand across her cheeks to wipe away the tear tracks. "He hated me after that. He wouldn't return my calls, he wouldn't answer my emails, he wouldn't even acknowledge me when we saw each other. He didn't speak to me at all for almost a year. Then St. Patrick's Day happened."

"St. Patrick's Day," he repeats. "The night you almost died because of me."

"Tyler, I told you, Jamie was wrong to say that."

He shakes his head, wanting to argue against her, but he doesn't because there's something more important he wants to talk about now that she's brought it up. "What happened that night?"

Calista licks her lips and, after a moment's pause, shakes her head. "I think I've had my fill of emotional storytelling for one day."

"Okay," he relents and he can see her shoulders sag in relief that he's not going to keep digging for more information. He reaches into her lap to grab her hand and when he does, she looks over at him kind of surprised. "I'm sorry about your sister," he says sincerely.

She gently squeezes his fingers with hers, both thankful and relieved that he's being so great right now because she really needs it. "Thanks."

"C'mere," he mumbles, and then he's pulling her into his side, wrapping his arm around her and rubbing his hand back and forth over her shoulder. She's definitely not used to the affection but he's acting like it's the most natural thing in the world so she eventually relaxes into him and enjoys it way more than she probably should. This is as good as she's felt in a long time.
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Short, but there's some more enlightenment for you guys so hopefully that makes up for it! Of course the rest is coming in the next chapter, but I wanted to go ahead and get this posted.

Let me know what you think!!