How To Ruin A Friendship

Monday, March 25th, 2013.

Olivia sighed and kicked off her Nike's. She made herself a coffee, two creams and two sugars. She sat in the living room and turned on the TV. It was her sister's apartment downtown, on the eleventh floor. It was a pretty big size. She'd been living with her older sister for a few months, until Olivia could afford her own place. She was still in her first year of University, getting her degree in Accounting.

She'd just gotten home from a long day of lectures. She heard the door unlock and watched as her sister entered.

"Hey," Olivia said. "You're home early."

"Yeah, I'm on call for the rest of the night though," she replied, referring to the hospital. "You doing something today?"

"Yeah I'm meeting Jake's friends in a bit," she answered.

"Ah."

"Why?" she asked, sipping her coffee.

She sat down beside her and placed the house keys on the table. She put a strand of her black hair over her ear. "Don't you feel a little.. guilty?"

"No," she shrugged. "I was drunk and it didn't mean anything. Besides, me and Jake aren't in a serious relationship. I'm sure he's already cheated on me too. It's been like two weeks and he's a hockey boy. I mean c'mon."

She cringed at those words. "He's letting you meet his teammates, though."

"Boys just wanna show off, I'm not nervous," Olivia looked at her phone. "I should get going. It's only a few of his friends and we're just hanging out at his place." She stood up and grabbed her purse on the ground. She sighed. "It was just a one-night stand," she murmured. "I just wanted to have some fun."

"This type of 'fun' could lead to big problems. Don't hurt him."

"Ava," she said, pausing to look at the ground. She sighed once more. "It's not like I'm gonna see him again, anyway. I don't even have his number. I promise." She opened the front door. "I'll be back, okay?"

Ava nodded and sighed.

Olivia carefully took her phone out of her jean pocket while keeping her eyes on the road ahead of her and looked at who the caller was. "Hey," she answered.

"Olivia!" Jake smiled through the phone. "On your way?"

"Yup, just a couple blocks away," she spoke.

"Okay, see you soon babe," he said before ending the call.

4 months earlier.

Olivia put her hands under her armpits of her wet jacket. She sniffed as she waited for someone to answer the door. An older lady had let her into the apartment, so she didn't buzz in. She felt as if she should have, though, as she stood in her soaked boots before the apartment of her older sister. She only came with one suitcase.

The door opened. Ava opened her mouth wide and furrowed her eyebrows, "Olivia?"

Olivia burst in tears. She sobbed until her sister reached out and pulled her into a tight hug.

"Come," Ava rushed her inside, grabbing her luggage. "What's going on? Why are you here? Mom and dad?"

She wiped at her nose. "They don't know I'm here. I was with Trevor. We went to New York."

Ava gulped and put her hand on top of hers. "What happened?"

"He," she clenched her fist. "He was drinking. A lot. These past few weeks, especially. I don't know what happened to him. First we were just travelling, but, he started going out without me. I was alone in the hotel and he'd come home angry."

"Did he.." she paused. "Hit you?"

"No, no. He would just yell things. I grabbed my stuff yesterday and I waited in the airport for a flight. I'm sorry it's late. I'm sorry, I know you're busy and you have a career and--"

"Shh," she hushed her and hugged her again. "I'm glad you came to me. You can stay here for as long as you need."

"I'm not going back," she pulled away from the hug and stood up, walking over to the large window with the downtown view. It was 4:03 AM, and she was not tired.

"I understand you're upset--"

"You left me!" Olivia turned around. "You just hugged me goodbye and a month after my graduation you left. I needed you. You knew I had problems with Trevor!" She replied, referring to her slightly older ex-boyfriend.

She rubbed at her temples. "I had to make a decision about my future. I needed a fresh start. I had multiple offers after I got my degree. I decided to move away from the memories in that place."

"Why? You were already living alone," she said. "Was it because of that guy you were dating?"

"Stop."

"The one none of us ever met?"

"I said stop! You do not come into my home and lecture me!" Ava stood on her feet, making her sister go quiet. She sighed. She rarely ever raised her voice. "My relationship was none of your business. I never asked about any of yours. What--"

"But we're sisters--"

"--what happened, is what happened," she responded. She bit the inside of her lip. She had avoided this conversation for four months, but the wound was still fresh. "I don't want to talk about him. I want to move on."

Olivia crossed her arms. "I'm sorry. I'm just upset. I shouldn't have brought it on you."

"If you want to stay with me," she said. "You will follow my rules. You will register for school here. No more breaks. I'm tired of kids thinking they can take all the time off in the world--"

"I'm 18," she interrupted.

"--go back to school. You will pick up a part time job, just like I had to do after moving out, and work. I will always support you financially if you need it. You can stay for as long as you'd like. We are family. I am here for you. But you need to focus on you now. Yes?"

Olivia was silent for a moment. "Yes."

"Okay," Ava sighed. "Okay.

She parked her 2004 Mustang in his driveway, beside the other expensive cars parked up and down the curb, including blue and red Ferraris, two black Range Rovers, a gray BMW, and Jake's black Audi R8. She got out and slowly made her way to the front door. She rang the doorbell.

**

"Don't be embarrassing, don't go anywhere, don't say anything stupid, don't DO anything stupid, don't make awkward eye-contact," Jake walked from left to right in front of them. Joffrey, James, Nazem and Phil sat closely to each other on the couch, almost squished. Tyler and Dion sat on the other smaller couch and they all listened to Jake give his lecture. "Don't touch her, don't stare too much, don't--"

"What is this?" Tyler laughed.

With his elbow on the side pillow of the sofa and his fingers on his cheek, Dion mumbled, "He's worse than Ron Wilson."

They all laughed aloud before Jake yelled, "Shh, she's gonna be here any minute now."

Joffrey grinned and added, "Gards you need to just relax. She's just a girl."

Nazem knew that there are more than plenty of Olivias in the world, but the odds of it being the same girl he slept with two weeks ago, with his luck, were bad. After all, she had told him that her boyfriend is a hockey player, and that they'd only been dating for a short amount of time. Naz didn't want to ask Jake what her last name is because he wanted to avoid possible suspicion. He crossed his fingers and hoped that it wasn't who he thought.

Nazem swallowed hard and put his hands on his forehead and rubbed it. He could already feel the stress building as the doorbell rang.

"Okay.." Jake gulped and walked toward the front door. Everyone stared as it opened wide.

She stood there with a weak smile on her tanned face with her hands clasped together. She made a small up-do with her brown and blonde-streaked hair but kept most of it down, and wore tight dark jeans with a blue top.

Nazem's facial expression immediately dropped.

"Hey," Jake hugged her. She took a step inside and he closed the door behind her. She looked at the big men sitting on the couches. Her eyes made her way over to Nazem's. Olivia's smile instantly faded.

They both knew.

"Have a seat," Dion patted the cushion beside him gently.

Once she sat down, she glanced at Nazem again.

"It's nice to finally meet the girl Jake has been talking about," Joffrey said nicely although Jake sighed since he was already nervous they would embarrass him. Nazem shook his head slowly since no one seemed to remember who she was. It was dark at the bar and they were all so drunk, so it made sense.

"Awh," she blushed and looked over at Jake who took the empty seat beside her.

"Olivia, that's Joffrey-- or Lupes as we like to call him.. that's Phil the thrill," Jake went in order. "James vanDreamsdyk.. Captain Dion.. Tyler Flowzak-- who we call Bozie.. and nifty-mittens Nazem."

They all smiled kindly and nodded their heads, except for Nazem.

"So tell us something about yourself?" Phil broke the silence.

As she said some things that everyone paid attention to, Nazem didn't open his mouth once and kept his eyes directly pointed to the rug in the center of the living room. He was fiddling with his thumbs. He was nervous. He knew he messed up real bad. Tyler's question immediately woke him up.

"Do I know you from somewhere?" Tyler said. "Maybe I'm wrong," he furrowed his eyebrows slightly.

"I.. don't think so," she began, smiling. He didn't look familiar at all to her.

"Who wants beer?" Nazem stood up, changing topics.

"Me," Joffrey raised his hand, along with Dion and Phil, as they turned on the TV.

Naz went to the kitchen and put his elbows down on the counter, running his hands over his head. He didn't think he could possibly tell anyone. He made a huge mistake, unknowingly, but he knew Jake would be livid if he knew. He paced around the kitchen, biting the nail on his thumb.

"Naz, what's up bud?" Tyler spoke, startling him. He gave him a weird look, noticing that he was just standing there, not near the fridge, and no beer bottles out on the counter. "What's going on?" he asked him quietly.

Nazem looked at him with a worried face. He tried to act normal but his voice cracked in midst of his sentence. "Nothing, I'm just getting the drinks."

They were both quiet as he took the bottles out of the fridge. Tyler stood in the same spot staring him down. He knew his friend well enough to know he was hiding something. He decided to shrug it off, thinking maybe he was just in the middle of daydreaming when he walked in.

When Tyler left with some of the bottles, Nazem closed his eyes and rubbed his forehead. What am I going to do? He asked himself.

"Need help?"

His eyes opened faster than he thought possible. He turned around and saw her standing several feet away from him. He swallowed a big lump in his throat.

"N-No," he answered.

She put her hands together and looked at the ground between them. She leaned back against the wall.

"This isn't good," he stated, trying hard not to sound panicked.

"That's not what you said in bed," she gave him a small smirk.

His expression faded. In that moment, he did not trust her one bit. He wanted to yell at her for acting so careless. But he couldn't. Just as he was about to speak, she talked.

"Relax," Olivia had a more serious look on her face. She sensed how uncomfortable he was. "I'm not happy about this either."

Naz put his hands on the counter behind him and breathed in. "I slept with my best friend's girlfriend."

There was silence as he stared at the ground.

"I slept with my.." he repeated, shaking his head.

"I like Jake, Nazem," she spoke.

He looked up. "Why would you sleep with someone else then!?" he whispered loudly.

"Why did you sleep with me if you knew I was dating someone?" she replied with the same judgmental tone.

Nazem refused to tell her the truth about how it was a game. It was against the rules to tell the girl that you're under a dare. Either way, he was screwed in the game situation since he's now seen her after they slept together. That was still one of the least of his worries, though. He had a bigger problem.

"I was drunk," he cleared his throat.

"Me too," she raised an eyebrow. "We can leave it at that."

He was quiet. "What's the catch?"

She folded her arms. "None."

"He can't find out, alright?" he put his hands on his hips.

"Sounds good to me," Olivia gave him a sneaky wink. She didn't intend to mess around, but seeing his expression made her chuckle. She grabbed two bottles and turned the other way.

"Hey," Naz said.

She stopped and looked over her shoulder.

"You left early, that night."

"Isn't that how it goes? I knew you'd bullshit me with the ''I'll call you'' in the morning, so I left before you could," she replied, chuckling lightly before walking away.

Nazem sighed heavily. He collected himself and went back to the living room shortly, holding a secret that would soon haunt him.

"Heyyyyyy!" Dion threw his hand up. "Look who decided to show up," he joked.

Jake had his arm around Olivia's shoulder but looked up and laughed at his teammate. "I'm gonna have to put maps around this house."

"I didn't get lost dipshit," Nazem grinned. "Just dropped something and cleaned it up."

"Alright," Jake shrugged. "Now shhh we're watching something."

Tyler sat in between Joffrey and Phil, while Nazem sat beside Dion who was next to James.

Naz quickly glanced at Olivia, who had her feet pulled closer to her on the couch with her head on Jake's shoulder area. He wondered how she had the nerve. He was already angry with her and he barely knew her. He wanted his friend to be with someone better, more loyal, and honest. But soon he felt sick to his stomach, because that was the opposite of what kind of friend he was right now to Jake. He could feel her gentle stare on him. She bit her bottom lip and waited patiently, hoping that he would look at her again, and he did.

*

Later that night, Nazem found himself awake at 2 in the morning with a headache. He could not stop thinking about it. He felt so alone, having no one to talk to about it. He stared at the ceiling and put on some music, hoping it would send him to sleep.

"Hey man," Nazem said, looking at his new teammate in the locker room. "I'm Naz."

"Hey. Jake," Gards put his hand out smiling, and shook his. He recognized the center from the NHL draft just a year after his, on TSN.

They were taping up their sticks while the rest of the boys talked. The white board read October of 2010.

"What do you think of the coach?" Naz asked, causing both of them to smirk.

"Not bad so far, right?" he replied, grinning.

"So far huh?" he replied. They both paused and snickered loudly.

Dallas Eakins walked into the Toronto Marlies dressing room with his assistants behind him. "Alright boys----"

Nazem pushed the bed sheets off of him and grabbed his phone. He went through his contacts and clicked on the one person he felt he could speak to right now.

"Naz? What the fuck man, you know what time it is?" Tyler's voice mumbled on the other line.

"Hey Boz, sorry, there's just something I--"

Another voice was heard in the background. "Sorry!" Tyler yelled. "Damn, man, you woke up Phil too."

"What, you two sharing a bed now?" Naz cracked a joke.

"No shut up," Bozie chuckled. He rubbed his forehead. "Alright seriously though, what's going on?"

Nazem sighed. He bit on his bottom lip. "It's her."

There was silence. "You gotta be more specific than that."

He let out a longer sigh. "The girl from the bar. The last time we played Truth or Truth. She's Jake's girlfriend, man."

"Oh.. my fuck," Tyler replied.