Sky Full of Stars

After a long grueling practice, Jamie decides the boys need an afternoon to just decompress a little bit. Most of the older marrieds go home to their wives and children which leaves all the younger single guys to make their way across town to Jamie and Jordie's apartment. Tyler texts Calista to let her know that that's where he's heading so once she finishes her editing for the day, she goes to wash her face and change into something that doesn't have a coffee stain on the front before heading upstairs herself.

What Tyler neglects to mention is that Dillon is going to be there. Of course she can't fault him for it because he doesn't have the slightest idea anything's wrong. But if she'd known in advance, she probably would have feigned having too much work left to do or made up some other excuse not to go. It's not that she doesn't want to see him; it's just that he obviously doesn't want to see her. He hasn't said as much, but it's apparent enough to her when he avoids her like the plague on purpose and stopped answering her texts weeks ago. The other guys have no idea because the two of them haven't been in a room together since she and Tyler started dating, but she just knows that it's going to become glaringly obvious now that they are.

She was expecting it to just be Tyler and the Benns there so she's immediately thrown off by the several other people spread out across the living room. Tyler is stretched out over two sofa cushions and he sits up just long enough to let her plop down in the corner before he leans back against her but the first thing she sees when she looks up is Dillon sitting directly across from them, posture stiff and purposely avoiding eye contact. She frowns and shoves her hands into the pocket of her hoodie but Tyler asks her if she finished what she was working on and talking to him luckily distracts her for the moment.

He casually drops his hand onto her thigh at one point and normally she wouldn't think anything of it but she's super aware of Dillon right in front of them and, sure enough, when she glances up, his eyes are on Tyler's hand. Tyler is too busy talking to Roussel on his other side to really notice that she gently picks up his hand and places it back into his own lap but Dillon obviously doesn't miss the gesture and when she looks back over at him, he's watching her carefully. It's the first time he's actually met her eyes in weeks and, feeling instant guilt, she swallows hard and looks down from his stare, shoving her hand back into her hoodie pocket and getting up from the sofa.

She goes to the kitchen like removing herself from the room is actually going to make that feeling go away, gets a glass from the cupboard to fill with water so at least she can make it look like she went in there for a reason. She stays there in front of the sink for awhile, her back to everyone, dreading going back into the living room and having one of her best friends continue to blatantly ignore her for the rest of forever but then suddenly someone clears their throat behind her and when she looks over her shoulder, Dillon is standing there. His arms are crossed over his broad chest and his expression is serious so she knows this isn't going to be good and she's honestly not prepared for most of the possible outcomes of this talk. She turns around to fully face him, leaning back against the counter behind her and tucking her hands into her pocket but he doesn't speak right away and she doesn't know how to even begin to approach this. Besides, neither of them seems to even be able to make eye contact, Dillon looking off to the refrigerator on his right and Calista staring straight down at her purple toenail polish.

"I'm sorry," they both say at the same time and then look up at each other in surprise. "What are you sorry for?" he asks in disbelief.

She frowns. "I didn't mean to make you hate me, Dills. I just-"

"God, Calista, no, I don't-....I don't hate you. I could never hate you."

"Then what would you call whatever the hell it is you've been doing for the past month?" That question comes out very bitter and she immediately regrets it when she sees him wince a little.

Dillon pushes a hand through his hair and glances over his shoulder to the living room where everyone is still joking and laughing while they watch whatever dumb movie is on in the background. "Look, he's a decent guy-- he's my friend even. But you're you and I just can't-...I don't want to see you with him."

A sudden wave of guilt and hurt and sadness hits her all at once and she nods slowly, willing herself not to start crying because she can feel it coming on already, her eyes stinging. She can understand where he's coming from, obviously; she watched Jordie go out with other girls for years and years and she knows first hand how much that sucks. But this is starting to sound like more of an ultimatum situation and that really fucking scares her. He's just straight up admitted that he doesn't want to be around her and Tyler together but (as far as she knows) they're not going to be breaking up anytime soon so the only possible outcome of this now is that she doesn't get to see Dillon anymore. And that really sucks because he's one of her best friends and she's missed him the whole time he wasn't around for the past month.

"So now what?" she asks quietly, voice trembling.

He has a pained look on his face and he opens his mouth to speak but after a brief moment, he just exhales heavily and shrugs his shoulders, shaking his head. It's obvious what that means and she has to look away because she knows her lip is quivering and the tears pooling in her eyes are now slipping silently down her cheeks. She quickly swipes her face with her too long sleeve and sniffles but nothing else is said between them and they just stand there across from each other, neither of them really wanting to move because once they do, that's pretty much it.

"Hey babe?" Tyler calls from the living room and they both look over to see him holding her phone up in the air. "Your brother's calling."

"Answer it, I'm coming," she responds, and she and Dillon share one last long look before she walks over to the sofa to get her phone from Tyler but when she glances back to the kitchen, he's already gone.

--

Tyler notices her mood change but with another flight to Anaheim and a Game 5 to play, there's not much he can do about it. This is his chance to prove himself to everyone back in Boston who thought they were better off without him; this is his chance to help his team, who haven't come this far since 2008. He has to stay focused on his game, keep his head out of his ass as Coach Ruff had so delicately put it. They're tied 2-2 in the series, having won the last two, and they need to keep their momentum to get to round 2. Unfortunately that leaves zero time for anything else, but at least he'll be able to try and fix whatever it is when they get back to Dallas.

But then game 5 happens and it's practically a fucking blowout and he's too busy beating himself up for his performance to even think about anything else. He'd had more shots on goal than the rest of his teammates but just couldn't get anything to go in and the team had spent way too much time in the penalty box while also not even being able to capitalize on their many many power plays. He sulks the entire flight home, and he's definitely not the only one, and when he shuffles back into his apartment at nearly five in the morning, he has nothing on his mind but sleeping to try and forget about how badly they blew it.

She's there though, curled up on the couch with Marshall like they both fell asleep waiting for him to come home. He considers just letting her sleep, knows he's not going to be the greatest of company when he's feeling sorry for himself like he is, but that's outweighed by how much he just wants to be near her and he knows that if he wants to be a brat for a little bit because they lost then she'll forgive that. He dumps his bag on the floor and goes over to crouch down next to the couch, gently scratching his blunt fingernails behind Marshall's ears and the dog startles awake before bounding right off the couch out from under Calista's head to jump on him. She groans and cracks one eye open but when she sees him on the floor under the mass of dark brown fur, she just smiles sleepily and slowly pulls herself up into a sitting position.

Tyler's in slightly less of a bad place now that he's come home to this but he still says nothing when he finally gets the dog off of him and stands up from the cold floor, just reaches for her hand, and she grabs it to get up and follow him up the stairs to his room. He toes out of his shoes in front of the closet, curses under his breath when he opens the door and something from the top shelf falls on him, but then he feels her slip her arms around his waist from behind, hugging him tightly and the frustration and irriation from tonight's suck fest just kind of moves to the back burner instantly. He turns around to face her but she keeps her arms where they are and he carefully brushes her long hair back off her shoulder before resting his huge hand there.

"You played hard tonight," she says reassuringly but he immediately shakes his head in rebuttal.

"It wasn't enough."

Calista frowns and grabs the back of his neck, pulling him down closer to her level so that she can kiss him because she knows there's nothing she can say to make him feel better about the game but this doesn't involve any talking and it's guaranteed to at least take his mind off of it for a little while. He responds eagerly anyway, which is a good sign, slipping his hands under the hem of her worn grey tee shirt to hold her bare sides and tug her closer into his body. She quickly untucks his shirt before she hooks a finger in his tie and tugs to loosen it so she can pull it off over his head but it's obviously not loose enough because it gets stuck halfway and he yelps, causing her to let go immediately and pull back to look at him. She chokes out an apology through her laughter when she sees it around his face, stuck under his nose, and he starts laughing too as he pulls it (carefully) the rest of the way off before kissing her again.

This isn't as feverish or heated as before though, just easy and languid and playful, yet still just as enjoyable. She takes her time undoing each button down the front of his shirt before pushing it back off his shoulders and running her hands back down his chest. He drops the shirt to the floor once he gets his arms completely out of it and just watches her, keeps his eyes on her face even though she's not returning his gaze at first. After a long moment, she licks her lips and glances back up to meet his eyes, smiling when she does and coaxing one out of him in return.

"You're exhausted," she says softly, pressing her hand to his jaw and brushing her thumb over his cheek. "Come on."

He follows her over to the bed, carelessly removing his dress pants before he climbs in under the comforter next to her and immediately rolls onto his side to throw an arm over her body and drag her in as close to him as possible. He closes his eyes and inhales deeply, the scent of her shampoo filling his nostrils, and the feeling of her slowly running her fingertips up and down the arm that's draped over her is the last thing he remembers before he falls asleep.