Counting Stars

“That’s all of it,” Jon drops the last of Avery’s things on the bed and looks around his room. It’s a different condo than the one she knows; he’d moved only a few months after their break up, she knows.

“Thanks,” She smiles up at him hesitantly. Avery knows that in order for this to be plausible, they have to live together. She just wasn’t really expecting it to be this weird. They’d moved most of her stuff over the day before and gone to grab the last few boxes before Jon left for his road trip that afternoon. He’s headed to Calgary, the start of the long Circus trip, and she knows he’s managed to convince, despite their confusion, his parents to come meet him in Edmonton on Saturday, where he’s going to drop the bomb.

Meanwhile, she’s made plans with her own parents for Saturday to share the same news. To say that she’s nervous would be an understatement; she’s terrified.

It must be obvious to Jon, who presses a kiss to her forehead after he picks up his luggage to leave. “It’s going to be fine,”

“If you say so,” Avery doesn’t bother hiding the skepticism in her voice.

“Fine,” Jon repeats, squeezing her hand gently. “We’re going to tell our parents, I’m going to come back from this road trip, you can end it with James, and that it.”

“Then we plan the wedding,”

Jon freezes. “Right. That.”

Avery laughs at the look on his face. “I’ll make it as painless as possible for you,”

“Knew I could count on you,” He squeezes her hand again. “I have to leave now.”

“Fine.”

“No hug?”

“Fine,” She wraps her arms around him, only moving closer when he squeezes gently. “This is weird, right?”

“Little bit,” He says. “But we’re going to have to get used to it,”

For all that it’s weird, it’s comforting and familiar to be back in his arms and she can’t deny she’s missed him. They’ve completely ignored the break up since she’d come to him, but unlike all the nights they’ve slept together since then, it’s easy and light, much more like things had been before. “Yeah,” She says, realizing a hug is the least people will be expecting from them. “Guess so,”

“I’ll call you tonight,” Jon promises, pulling away. “Once we get there,”

Impulsively, she leans up and presses a kiss to his cheek. “Have I said thank you yet?” He shrugs. “You’re the greatest,”

“We’ll talk when I get home,” It must be eating away at him too. “A real talk, about everything, ok?”

She nods, wrapping her arms around herself. “Ok,” He gives her one of his captain stares. “Okay,” Jon continues staring. “Don’t you have a flight to catch?”

“They’re not going to leave without me,” But he picks up the rest of his stuff and after a quick good-bye, heads out the door.

“Finally,” She huffs, flopping back on the bed and pulling her phone out to make one last attempt. Her other calls today have gone unanswered and she’s not exactly expecting this one to be picked up either, until,

“You better be on your goddamn death bed to be calling me 10 times on game day,” Avery can’t hide the smile the flickers on her face as her brother finally, actually picks up the phone.

“Jon and I got married last summer,”

A loud horn comes through the phone and she winces, just as Sid swears loudly. “Shit!”

“Are you driving?”

“It’s game day Avery, you know that!” She did; Pens against Islanders. She always knows that he would be driving to rink at this time. Sid doesn’t change his routine, not ever really, but especially not on game days and it’s possible that she planned her final call for this time specifically because it’s the only time he might change his schedule.

“Whatever,”

“When the fuck did you get married?”

“Shattuck booze cruise,” She can practically hear his wince through the phone. The cruise is an annual event, with all their Shattuck-St. Mary’s friends getting together once a year for a cruise through the Caribbean. This year’s had been bumped up, with the presence of Absinthe. It explains both the memory loss and the stupid ideas.

“Fuck,”

“Really, be a little less eloquent,” Avery snaps.

“I’m not the one who has to divorce their ex-boyfriend so they can get married again!”

“About that,”

“About what?” Avery hesitates; she’s not surprised Sid keeps pressing. “About what, Avery?”

“We’re um, we’re going to stay married,”

The forthcoming pause is so long Avery actually pulls her phone away from her ear to make sure Sid hasn’t hung up. “What?”

“I don’t want to marry James!”

Sid sighs. “Aves,” She waits patiently for him to continue. “Things have gotten that bad?” This time, she just doesn’t respond, knowing he’ll take her silence for the answer that it should be. There are only three years between them, and despite him leaving home early for hockey, they’ve always been close. So when she’d started feeling uncertain about James, he’d been the one she’d gone to originally. “Aves,” This time there’s much more pity in it. “I—I don’t want you to be unhappy,”

“I know,” It’s times like this she wishes phones had a cord; she’d kill to twirl it in her fingers right now. She settles for twirling a lock of hair.

A horn honks through the line. Unlike the last one, it’s a friendly tap. “I’m at the rink, Aves,” Sid says apologetically. “What—what do you need me to do?”

“I’m coming out there this weekend when Mom and Dad are down.” She says. “And I’m going to tell them then. So could you just like, be there? And back me up?”

It really doesn’t need to be asked; she already knows he’s going to. “When’s your flight get in?”

“Tomorrow, around noon,”

“I’ll come pick you up,” He promises. “I have to go now Aves, but I promise I’ll come pick you up tomorrow and we’ll talk more then, ok?”

“Yeah, alright,” She says quietly. “Thanks, Sid, I love you,”

“Love you too, Aves,” Sid’s car door slams in the background. “I’ll talk to you more tomorrow,”

“Okay,” Avery agrees. “But no contact with Jon until I say it’s ok,”

“Damn it, Avery,” Avery laughs as they end the call. She knows her brother well enough to know that’s exactly what he was planning on doing after the game that night.

Sometimes, his protectiveness is sweet; most of the time it’s a pain in her ass.

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Jon recognizes that Shawzy’s speaking in the background, but considering that at least 90% of what comes out of the Mutt’s mouth is gibberish, he’s not too concerned about it and opts to keep typing a response.

Should I be at all concerned?

Avery’s response is almost instant. Nah, I’m breaking out the golds tonight at dinner. Soon as Sid see those babies, he’ll remember you’re still important

Good to know my worth is now being measured by Olympic hockey

“See!” The only reason Jon even bothers looking up is because Shawzy’s enthusiasm ends with him throwing his hands out and whacking Jon in the face.

“What the fuck.” It isn’t a question at all as he glares at Shawzy.

“Whoa,” Sharpy says. “He didn’t even punch you,”

“It was an accident,” Shawzy whines.

Sharpy waves him off. “Whatever, Old Tazer still would have punched you,” He nods solemnly. “Alright Mutt, I believe you,”

“Believe what?” In the end, Jon’s curiosity wins over his fear of what they’re talking about.

Sharpy blinks. “Were you not paying attention?” Jon hesitates, because, well, no he wasn’t, but it’s never safe to admit that to Sharpy. It seems his silence is answer enough because Sharpy grins and claps his hand on Jon’s shoulder. “So there is a new girl,”

“There’s no new girl,” Jon says flatly.

“We really don’t believe you,” Shawzy says.

Jon shrugs, standing up with his phone tucked deeply into his pocket—Sharpy is not getting another chance to tell him Avery is pregnant. “There’s no new girl,” He repeats and immediately follows Crow out of the locker room to head to the bus.

It isn’t until he’s safe in his seat that he deigns to pull his phone out again. Avery’s responded with a selfie (she absolutely will not let his Convention selfie go) of her wearing both of Sid’s medals.

Jon bites back a smile and types an unrelated response. They’re onto me

Avery responds back instantly. My stars, whatever are you going to do

God she is the worst.