Either You Do...Or You Don't

Allison’s POV:

I pulled on my hoodie and put some lip gloss on. I was heading to the Pens’ morning skate to see the guys. It had been a while since I had been to the arena and had seen the team. Despite everything that had happened, I knew some of the guys were still my friends. I was surprised by Deryk being nice to me, I had always assumed he never liked me after the thing with Geno…
I threw my hair in a messy bun and grabbed my purse before heading out to my car. I didn’t live to far from the arena, but I was leaving early enough so that I could spend time with the guys before they had to skate.

I arrived at the arena 15 minutes later, heading in the main doors. “Allison! Good morning. What brings you here?” Dan Potash asked

I smiled, “I came by to see the guys. Deryk and Geno invited me.”

“That’s great. Well it was good seeing you. You know your way to the locker rooms.”

I waved and headed down to the Pens’ dressing room. A walk I had made many times after games, before games, and after practices…but it didn’t feel the same. I sighed and knocked on the door, not wanting to walk in on anything. “Yes? Oh! Allison! Hey.” Sidney Crosby smiled,

“What’s up?”

“Let her in, Sid! I invited her to come.” Deryk piped up from somewhere

“Well, I guess you can come in.” Sidney laughed, motioning me to follow him. “Guys, we have a visitor!”

“Hey, Allison!” Beau Bennett said waving

I waved back, “Good to see everyone.”

“Come on and sit down. We still have like 20 minutes before we gotta start getting dressed for the ice.” Sidney said, pulling a chair up for me.

“Thanks, guys. So you guys ready for the Canada tour?”

“Hell yeah. We’re confident we’ll do good.” Deryk laughed.

Just then, the door opened up and James walked in…You’ve got to be fucking shitting me…” he mumbled. “Why is she here?”

“I invited her.” Deryk replied, standing up

“Seriously, Engo? Why?” he was pissed.

“Because she is my friend and we all wanted to see her.”

“Oh really? You mean like last month when you were trying to convince me to leave her?!” he yelled, stepping closer

“I never fucking said that!” Deryk yelled back

“Guys, cut it out!” Chris Kunitz said, trying to step in between them

“Stay out of this, Kuni!” they both yelled at him

“You’re just pissed because she dumped you!”

“No I am not!” James argued

“Oh yeah? Then what is it? Why does it bother you so much that she is here with us? Why does it make you angry that we remain friends with her?!”

“Because you’re my friends! And friends don’t do that to each other…”

“You mean like you made Melanie do to me!?” I yelled. I couldn’t stay silent any more

“What?” James said, turning towards me

“You fucking heard me! You want to come down on Deryk for just being nice to me when you made my best friend betray me! You ruined our relationship. You lied to me and cheated on me and kept things from me. You ruined my friendship with someone who is like a sister to me! And the worst part is, you’ve convinced her and yourself that you’ve done nothing wrong! You don’t even realize how many times I cry at night because I have no one left. Because I actually did love you and you don’t even care!” I was screaming

“I didn’t make her do anything she didn’t want to do, Allison.”

I shook my head and started crying, “You don’t even care. You don’t even care about how much you’ve hurt me.”

“What about how much you hurt me! You cheated on me too, stop acting so innocent! I’m not saying I’m perfect. I never have said that. I know I’ve fucked up, but with Melanie, I didn’t…until the last time.”

“It didn’t matter if it was cheating or not, James! She’s my best fucking friend!”

“Well, she’s my girlfriend!” he snapped back

“What?!” half the locker room stammered

“Melanie and I are dating…” he repeated

I shook my head, “I can’t believe this…where is she? Is she here with you?”

“She doesn’t want to…” he started, but before he could finish, I slapped him across the face.

“Do not answer for her. I am going to talk to her, whether you like it or not!” I yelled, storming out the door and up to the lobby. Melanie was standing beside Vero by the doors.

James’ POV:

“Nealer?” Paul called, following me. “James please stop for a minute and talk to me.”

“Why should I?” I asked

“Because you’re my friend and I didn’t know she was going to be there. You know that if I did, I would have called you. I don’t like Allison and you know that.”

“Why did they bring her here then? Do you know that?”

Paul shook his head, “Honestly? I think Engo was telling the truth, but somehow, I feel like Geno is behind this…I heard him talking to Tanger about it…”

“About what?” I asked

Paul sighed, “I heard Geno saying he thought you were making a mistake with Allison…and they planned to bring here her to talk to you so you two could talk and work things out…I don’t know…I thought they were just joking around about it…you know they didn’t do it to spite you. They didn’t know about you and Melanie…only I knew that.”

“And Sid.” I reminded him. I had called Sidney and told him that I liked Melanie and wanted to pursue a relationship with her. Sidney said that he didn’t care, that he and Melanie were just a thing and he wished us the best.

Paul nodded, “James…I think the best thing you can do right now, is to let the girls talk it out. If you really want to be happy with Melanie, let them have at it. Let them yell and scream and fight…otherwise…it’s going to continue to happen. You’ll be happier and Melanie will be happier and if you just talk it out with Allison, don’t blame her or accuse her, just talk to her…tell her that you really do like Melanie and just make amends, things will be much better. Trust me.”
Paul was right. This had to be settled, otherwise, it would only get worse…

Allison’s POV:

“Melanie!” I yelled

Her eyes widened when she saw me and she looked away, “Allison…what are you doing here?” she asked, her voice shaking

“You’re dating him?! You’re my best friend! Why are you doing this to me?!” I yelled

“Not everything is about you, Allison! It has nothing to do with you! Some time after you left for Philly, I fell for him. I…I love him, Allison. He’s a good guy. Yeah, he has some issues, but you know what? He’s a damn good father to his kids, he was there for me when me and Sid split. He makes me smile and laugh and he just makes me feel better about myself. I didn’t want to hurt you…I never did.” she started crying

“Why couldn’t you just tell me about what happened? Why’d you have to keep it from me?”

Melanie sobbed, “Because…I was ashamed of it at first…I mean, what kind of person falls in love with their best friend’s boyfriend…I just…I couldn’t…I couldn’t tell you…I wanted to make sure that you didn’t have feelings for him anymore…I had planned on telling you when you came back, but then you got back with him…and then he proposed to you and then we promised each other we’d never do it again or speak of it again…but when he showed up at my place, when we guys separated…things just happened…I know I should have said ‘no’ to him, but…I just…I couldn’t…I’m sorry…”

“Sorry doesn’t erase what happened, Mel…I just don’t understand why you couldn’t just tell me.”

“I know that, Allison! I know sorry doesn’t make up for what happened…that it doesn’t erase that I hurt you…I’m sorry. I’m a bitch and a slut and I should have said ‘no’ to him, but I didn’t. I made that decision…and it was like…once it happened…I couldn’t stop myself…I found myself calling him to come over so we could have sex…calling him just to come over. Yes, the first time, he came on to me, but all the other times, I did pursue him…I seduced him…” she stopped herself short, sobbing. I hated seeing her like this…even though she had hurt me, she was my best friend…my sister.

“Melanie…” I started, sighing. “Mel, don’t cry…”

“Why?! I hate myself for this…for what I did. I kept on doing it, even when it was obvious that he didn’t really want to, but I convinced him to…because I wanted him to love me…I said horrible things about you…” she was shaking

I looked down, “Mel…please listen to me.” she looked up at me and sniffed, wiping her eyes, smearing her mascara. “James and I had a lot more problems before the stuff with you…I…I didn’t want anyone to know, but things had been falling further apart ever since he proposed to me…I kept on a good face, because I wanted things to work, but they just didn’t…I have a secret too…”

Melanie looked at me, “What do you mean?”

I sighed and closed my eyes, “I knew who the father of my baby was…and it wasn’t James…”

“We know that…I thought we determined it was that guy from the bar…”

I felt my eyes welling up with tears, “There was no guy from the bar…”

“What?” Melanie stammered

I started crying harder, “The guy from the bar, was Geno…”

Melanie’s eyes widened, “Does he know?!”

I nodded, “Yeah…he knows…”

“Does James know?!” Melanie gasped

I shook my head, “No…”

“Does James know what?”

I spun around and James was heading towards us with Paul. “James…we all need to talk.”

Notes