“Nice to see you again,” Sara greeted me when I finally arrived home later that day. “How was Kris?” She asked me, pulling a jacket on. I glanced at the clock, realizing that she was about to head off for class.

“His parents were there when I left. Apparently he’ll be allowed to leave later today, but the team’s medical staff wants to keep an eye on him,” I answered, falling onto the couch with a thud, my body aching from how tired I was.

“So, he’s not dead?” She asked, nodding softly as she fixed the collar of her light jacket. “Good to know. And good for you, not having a mental breakdown,” she paused, frowning a bit before adding, “Although, I guess if you’re going to have one, a hospital is the place to be when it hits you.” She sighed, pulling on a pair of shoes. “Were you at the hospital all day? That’s a long time to stay with someone you’re not that fond of.”

I shook my head, yawning before voicing a reply. “No, I had a piano lesson at ten, and the kid actually showed up this time.”

Sara nodded, gathering her books in her arms. “You know, it might be dangerous for you to spend time with Kris when he’s all drugged out. What if the drugs enhance his French charm and you end up liking him?”

“Sara?” I asked, waiting as she hummed in response. “Leave.”

She laughed, muttering a goodbye to me before she finally headed out of the apartment and off to her class, leaving me to drift in and out of sleep for a couple of hours before I hauled myself off of the couch and threw myself into the shower, letting the blast of water shock me into a stronger state of awareness.

I emerged a good twenty minutes later, throwing myself into a pair of jeans and light, long sleeved black Vneck, rubbing my eyes tiredly as I made my way through the apartment and towards the kitchen, forcing myself to eat something.

There was something tugging at the back of my head, trying to remind me of a previous commitment. The fatigue pulsing through my body was drowning it out. I staggered back towards the bathroom to throw some mascara on and try to tame the waves in my hair. I had just managed to smooth down my bangs, making a mental reminder to have them cut sometime in the next few days.

From somewhere in the living room, I heard my cell phone begin to ring, causing me to drop the mascara brush that I had been using and bolt back into the room, digging around the couch to try and find the phone. It was hidden nicely inside of one of my shoes, for a reason I couldn’t seem to grasp at the time. I pushed the accept button and held the phone up, almost panting from how fast I had been digging around for the phone. “Hello?”

“Kaitlin,” Marc answered on the other end, and by the tone of his voice, I knew that a frown accompanied my name. “You forgot.”

I felt my eyebrows knit together. “Forgot what?”

Marc let out a long, long sigh on the other end of the phone. “You agreed to meet me for lunch today, I can’t believe you’d just forget that!”

I smacked my forehead, apologizing to him. “I am so sorry, I’m on my way right now,” I swore, hanging up and applying mascara to my other eye before I booked it out the door, almost forgetting to put on a pair of shoes in my rush.

Marc was already sitting at a table outside, frowning at me as I sheepishly approached, taking a seat across from him. He huffed at me once I seated, acting more annoyed then he really was. “Vero went to order us some drinks.”

I smiled at the mention of his girlfriend, relaxing a bit into the small chair. “Vero’s here?”

Marc looked at me silently for a moment, his face being overtaken by how obviously unimpressed he was with my question. Finally, he let out a long stream of air through his nose and replied, “That was kind of the whole point of this lunch, Katy.”

I pursed my lips, trying to remember when Marc had even suggested us having lunch together, and was hit with the reminder of his text to me sometime before I left the hospital to head off to my piano lesson. As soon as the realization sunk in, I started laughing. The lack of sleep from the night before made the hilarity of my embarrassment seem even more comical then it truly was, and in a matter of seconds my giggles had escalated from soft hiccups, and then into an unstoppable thunder of laughs, the hilarity being so intense that I could no longer make room for the air my lungs so desperately desired, the space being occupied by the sounds of my laugh.

Marc stared at me, completely confused the first moment of my laugh attack, before he couldn’t help himself and joined in, first simply chuckling, and then the laughter growing just as mine had. By the time Vero rejoined us with the drinks she had ordered for us, the two of us had our heads on the table, Marc’s fisting hitting the table top as he finally sat up, his other arm clutching his stomach. “Oh, Kaitlin. You kill me sometimes.”

Vero carefully set down the three cups, an amused smirk on her face as she slid my cup of iced coffee across the table to me. “Katy, I’m glad to see you again.”

I nodded, wiping away the tears of laughter that had trickled down my face. “Yeah, it’s nice to see you, too.”

“You know what’s weird?” Marc asked, wiping at his own face. “You spell your name, Kaitlin, with two I’s,” he began, leaning forward in his chair to look closely at me, “but you spell Katy with a Y. It’s confusing.”

I shrugged, “Yeah, there’s no logic behind it. But I don’t care,” I answered, turning my attention back to Vero and ignoring the pout Marc shot me. “What have you been up to in the last year and a bit?” I asked her.

Vero launched into a recap of her last year, telling me about how she finally finished her schooling, but couldn’t find any work with her new Bachelors degree, so she was busy working in the office of some company, taking phone calls and making coffee runs. Marc would interrupt occasionally to remind her that he made “a lot of money” and she should just move in with him, all arguments that she completely ignored, making me smirk a bit at the two of them.

“What about you?” Vero asked, taking a sip of the lemonade she had ordered for herself. “What have you been up too?”

“Oh you know, the usual,” I replied, smiling at her slightly. “Therapy, piano lessons and sleeping. Basic Katy stuff.”

Vero shook her head at me with a small smile. “I’m glad that you went to counselling to deal with Evan’s passing. It’s a step Kris wasn’t willing to take for a long time.”

Marc shot her a look that was meant to go unnoticed by me, but I picked it up, eyeing the two of them for a second before asking, “What was that?”

They exchanged another look, Vero turning to shrug at me. “What?”

I sighed, “Guys, come on. What am I not supposed to know?”

Marc hesitated before scratching the top of his head and sighing. “Okay, it’s like this,” he began, “Kris was unstable. I don’t even mean emotionally, I mean… did you watch any of our games last season, or before now?”

I shook my head. “I couldn’t handle it,” I admitted.

He nodded, seeming to understand. “Well, Kris was nuts. He was breaking his stick every time the other team scored, he tried to fight anyone who checked him. Sid told him that he was putting the team at risk, and he almost punched him in the face. Coach finally benched him for a few games to try and calm him down, but then he threatened to demand a trade and-” he stopped, having to let out another long sigh. “He was out of control. He wouldn’t accept that Evan was gone, and he wouldn’t take any time off to deal with it.”

“How did he end up in therapy, then?” I asked.

“He was forced,” Vero answered. “Well, I mean, he could have not gone. But Shero sat him down and told him that he was too much of a risk. If he wasn’t willing to at least admit that he had a problem, he was going on waivers, or they were buying out his contract.”

“He took a week to think about it, talked to his parents, and signed up for therapy,” Marc finished. “I guess he didn’t realize just how out of hand he had gotten.”

I thought over what he had shared for a moment. “Is that why he just snapped at Chris Neil? He looked like he was almost in a daze for a moment, and then he was just nuts.”

“Probably,” Marc answered, taking a drink from his cup. “He’s already calmed down a lot, just in the last couple of weeks.”

I nodded, staring down at the table top. Vero reached across the table and placed her hand on top of mine, causing me to look up. “He misses you, Katy. He probably won’t say it, but he does.”

I sighed, leaning back in my chair. “Kris needs to learn how to say things for himself.”

She nodded, smirking at me a bit. “True, but if I remember correctly, aren’t you at fault for the same thing? Evan always spoke up for you, that’s why you loved him so much. That and many other reasons, I’m sure.”

I wanted to reject the accusation, tell her that I was always willing to fight my own battles or share my own feelings. But Vero was right. Kris and I had gotten along in high school because we were both soft spoken and quiet, awkward and afraid of all of the attention. We were both drawn to Evan because he was loud, confident, easy to talk too. When Kris and I would bicker, Evan would stand up for me. When a teacher called on me in class, if Evan was there, he whispered the answer to me. It had been what had attracted me to him in the first place, the fact that he never made me step out of my comfort zone.

“Give the boy some time,” Marc said, waving a hand through the air. “He did just get himself a concussion from trying to be a tough guy, he can take a few more days before actually talking to you about everything.” He took another drink from his cup, eyeing me and taking note of how nervous the subject of talking to Kris made me, still. “I’m sure you both hate to admit this, Kaitlin, but you both lost the person closest to you. A big step in moving forward and being okay is being with people who understand.”

I groaned, rubbing my face. “Lunch with you two is just like a therapy session, you know?”

“How much did you pay your counsellor?” Marc asked cheekily, laughing as both Vero and I turned to glare at him. “What? I’m funny. Come on, I’m funny.”

I only shook my head.