Chapter 23 - Aftermath
Chuckling soft when the drunken mess of Ryan was handed off to her by a surprisingly sober Luke, Emma gave her boyfriend a light kiss then shook her head, still grinning all the while. “You are such a lush; let’s get you into bed.” But before she took him out of the kitchen, she offered him some ibuprofen and water, murmuring softly, “That should help the hangover.”
Nodding his head appreciatively, and leaning on her far more than he normally would, Ryan let Emma lead them off to a bit of a stumbling walk towards the bedroom, not even protesting when she sat him on the edge of the bed to start stripping him down. He leaned into her hand when she stroked his face, turning his head slowly to kiss her palm and give her a tired smile.
“You boys had fun tonight,” she noted with a chuckle, finally getting him completely undressed and tossing all his clothes into the laundry bin before following and stripping as well. Nudging and almost tugging him up the bed, Emma finally got Ryan settled against their pillows and turned towards him, brushing her lips against his, feeling him respond immediately in a slow kiss that found their tongues exploring each other’s mouths.
She knew he was too drunk to get into anything too serious but that didn’t stop her from returning his kisses, nipping at his lower lip at one point and only a bit surprised at the taste of copper on her tongue. Luke’s story in the locker room one post game about his cousin liking to try to open bottles of beer with his mouth when he was particularly plastered came to mind. Chuckling again, she eased her tongue over the split skin, continuing to trade kisses with him until she could feel him falling asleep, waiting until he finally drifted off to place one extra gentle kiss against his forehead.
“What am I going to do with you?” Emma whispered, running fingers through his hair and watching him restlessly sleep.
There was no doubt he was going to be feeling this night come morning light!
~*~
Just a little past noon, after Ryan had disappeared upstairs, mumbling something about needing to have a conversation with his cousin, Emma got a text from Trent, asking if they could chat somewhere. Curious, but willing, she advised that she’d head over to his place, and made the few minute trek over, finding that her wary-eyed friend had returned, leaving her to wonder why.
“I’m sorry.” Were the first words out of his mouth, and when she only raised an eyebrow curiously in his direction, he groaned soft, mumbling, “Please tell me he told you.” And when she only continued to peer at him, Trent stood and began to pace the confines of his living room, soon turning and telling her softly, “I kissed Ryan last night.”
Laughing immediately, the mental image from the hockey game still fresh in her mind, Emma teased him, “How many brain cells did that concussion rattle, you goof? I saw your not-a-kiss last night, remember?” But when Trent’s only response was to lower his eyes, Emma stared at him, asking after several long beats, “You’re not talking about that kiss, are you?”
“No, I’m not, and I thought by waiting this long, he’d have told you himself.” Sighing, and dragging his hand down his face, but turning to gaze at Emma, shoulders squared back just a bit, he continued softer, “Last night, at Luke’s party, we kissed in the bathroom. I didn’t mean for it to happen, but I couldn’t stop it, either.”
Staring at Trent for the longest time, the fury building but not yet evident on her tongue, she asked, “You’re telling me that you, and my boyfriend, cheated on me, with each other? Am I understanding this correctly?”
Taking a deep breath, Trent nodded, whispering to her, “It was only a kiss. A hard one, fighting for control that left us both with split lips - but it was only a kiss. I never meant for you to be in the crossfire, for you to get hurt.”
Snorting as she rose to stand, Emma couldn’t keep back the venom from her voice, “You’ve shown yourself to be pretty good at hurting me, so why stop now? Anything else you want to tell me?”
Shaking his head but leaving it hung a bit, Trent merely told her again, “I’m sorry.”
“Yeah, well, I’m sorry that I made friends with a flaming asshole. You can stay the fuck away from me, you prick. At least now I know why you weren’t interested in me.”
And before Trent could even utter a word, Emma had stomped out of his apartment, heading back to her own and who knows what awaited her there.
~*~
Ryan had just arrived back at the apartment when Emma stomped in and he stopped dead in his tracks at the fiery, angry look on her face. “Babe?” He asked questioningly, “What’s wrong?”
“Wrong?” Her voice was eerily calm even though her eyes were glowing almost silver. “What’s wrong is that I found out that you spent last night making out with your teammate. And you didn’t even have the balls to tell me yourself. I had to find it out from him. Deceitful bastard.”
Mouth agape at realizing that Trent had obviously come clean to Emma, Ryan couldn’t even summon words immediately, couldn’t even try to explain that he’d been trying to figure out just how and what to say to Emma about the situation before she was lacing into him again.
“Get out. I don’t want to see hide nor hair of you in here when I come back. In fact, I’d be content if I never saw you again. And to think I thought I was starting to fall in love with you, and this is how you treat me? I hope you and he have a wonderful life together. Two assholes that deserve each other.”
And much like she had done to Trent some minutes earlier, Emma stomped out again, this time heading for her car, with no set direction in her mind. All Ryan could do was watch as her car peeled out of the parking lot, a solitary tear rolling down his cheek.
~*~
Though it for sure wasn’t her intention, Emma soon ended up at the Malone household. Sometime over the course of her drive the tears had started, and by the time she pulled into their driveway, her eyes were so swollen she could barely see. Still, she stumbled up to the front door, pressing the doorbell and hoping and praying one of them was home.
She was lucky – within a minute, a sleepy looking Devin took one look at her tear-streak disheveled appearance and tugged her inside without a word, wrapping his arms around her tightly. “It’s okay, little one, you’re safe now.” He assured her, and that was all it took for whatever fragile hold Emma had on her emotions to dissolve.
Clinging to him, Emma sobbed like she couldn’t remember doing since that horrible day she’d found out her Grandpa had unexpectedly passed. Except this was almost worse. She knew someday she’d lose her Grandpa, but she’d never expected Ryan or even Trent to betray her like this. Still, Devin held her tightly, periodically rocking her a bit, just trying to soothe her.
When the sobs finally started to subside to hiccups and gasping breaths, Devin asked softly, cautiously, “What happened, little one?”
Taking a deep breath, Emma prayed for the strength to keep her voice steady long enough to explain. Still, her voice was raw with emotion when she answered. “He kissed someone else.”
Emma was grateful that Devin didn’t ask her which he she meant, and instead just ran his hand down her back for quite a while, thinking through on her words. When he finally did speak again, he surprised her by asking more questions. “Was it a teammate? Some random guy he met at rehab? Who do I need to kill?”
And the way that Devin was presuming that Ryan had cheated on her with another man made the last penny finally drop. While she’d all but accused Trent of being gay when she laced into him, it never occurred to her that the same could be true for Ryan. Which meant…
The last cognizant thought she had before her world blacked out was wondering if this ordeal could get any worse than it was.