Goodbye Girl

James walked into Paul Martin's house. The scent of bacon wafted through the air and his mouth began to water. He got to the kitchen and sat at the island. Paul placed a plate with the breakfast works on it in front of his friend.

"Up late talking to your girl?" He teased.

James rolled his eyes while chewing. "She's not my girl anymore, Pauly, and yeah. We haven't talked in a while ever since that Seguin guy moved in with her and Benn. We've talked, maybe, twice a month since July. It's now the first of September. She's in fucking Toronto with him."

"Oh, Nealer's jealous." Paul grinned, taking a sip of orange juice.

"Obviously. I've loved the girl since I was seventeen. I'm not too happy that some kid's staying with her." He explained, scooping up some of his eggs.

"You can't be mad. You're off hooking up with girls on the regular. She's just letting the guy stay with her." Pauly defended Emily.

"They're always together, Paul. It drives me insane." James admitted.

"They live together. Get used to it." He shrugged.

James let out a groan while he finished his food. Paul finished his and rinsed his plate. He stuck it in the dishwasher. He grabbed James's plate and did the same. James just stared forward.

"How many years has it been?" Paul asked. "Since the break up?"

"Uh, since I moved here." James crossed his hands.

"And you don't think it's time to go on with your life?" Paul quizzed.

"I know it's time, but I don't think I can." James told him, standing up. "It's like she's the only girl I've known and I don't know how to be in a relationship that isn't with her."

"Then you're gonna have to figure it out because we're all getting really sick of your complaining about her." Pauly shoved his head. James whacked his arm away. "Is she coming down for your birthday next weekend?"

"I hope. I'll wait for her to call me for my birthday and we can talk then." James told him. Paul nodded.

Two days later, and it was James's twenty sixth birthday. He sat and waited for the familiar picture of he and Emily to pop up on the screen. But it didn't. He'd gotten plenty of other calls, but none from Emily. Near five, he decided to start getting ready for the night out he had planned with the guys. After he fixed his hair and got dressed, he say down to check his twitter. He sent out something thanking everyone for the tweets before he scrolled down his timeline.

@jamiebenn14: American vs. Poutine @EmVellucci pic.twitter.com/zUjeg8pAGK

It was a picture of Emily with a wide grin. She was holding up a poutine and you could see the tattooed arm of a guy beside her. James examined the photo more, mostly Emily. She had her hair in a bun on the top of her head. She was wearing a grey T-shirt and was in the booth of a restaurant.

James was furious. She hadn't called him for his birthday because she was too busy with two guys she barely knew. He refreshed his timeline to see and Instagram video she posted. James clicked it

It was Emily in the same outfit she was wearing in the picture Jamie's tweeted. She looked at the person behind the camera before she picked up a fry. She put it back down.

"It's gonna be such a mess." She whined.

"Well, first off, you're supposed to use a fork." Jamie's voice boomed. He was obviously recording.

Emily sighed, still smiling as she picked up her fork. She stabbed at a single fry.

"You're doing it all wrong." Another voice stated.

"How am I eating wrong? Please enlighten me, Tyler." She said to the person beside her.

The tattooed arm in the picture James saw reached out, grabbing the hand she was holding onto the fork with. He lifted her hand with the fork and stabbed it into the middle of the poutine.

"You gotta get a bunch of cheese and gravy." Tyler explained. Emily frowned at her plate as Tyler's hand pulled away. "Go!"

She took a deep breath before she lifted her fork full to her mouth. Tyler and Jamie both laughed. She finished chewing and swallowed. She made a face before she looked at Tyler.

"That's fucked up." She groaned, turning to Jamie.

"Emily Vellucci, an official Canadian." Jamie said before the video ended.

James went to Emily's Instagram and saw she was tagged in another video. It was a video Tyler had posted. He clicked it, reading the caption.

Em won't share

He pushed the play button and it showed a side view of Emily. She was chewing.

"Can I have a bite?" Tyler asked.

Emily shook her head. "Fuck off." She said, a mouth full of food.

"You didn't like it two minutes ago." Jamie's voice interrupted.

The camera turned to him. It was obvious he was sitting across from them in the booth. Alone. Why couldn't Emily have sat with Jamie? The camera panned back to Emily. She stabbed at the poutine on her plate before lifting her fork to her mouth.

"I'll use my own fork." Tyler offered.

"No, Tyler!" Emily cried as she shoved him.

The video ended with Tyler and Jamie laughing. James closed the app before he locked his phone and tossed it on the coffee table. He let out a sigh, brushing his hands through his hair. Paul watched the scene from behind him with his hands in his pockets.

"You know," James jumped at Paul's voice. "Stalking her and her friends' social networks isn't going to fix anything."

"I, I didn't hear you come in." James stuttered.

"Yeah, well I'm glad I didn't come sooner. I probably would've caught you crying over your old pictures with Emily." Paul teased, sitting down beside his friend on the couch. "She'll call you. Don't worry. She always calls you."

"Yeah but she's usually the first person to call me." James frowned.

"Well since she hasn't yet, leave your phone at home and when she calls, she'll feel like shit since she only got your voicemail." Paul nudged him.

James nodded. "And we can see G get totally shitfaced which is always a good time."

Paul laughed. "Nevermind Geno getting shitfaced, you need it more than him." He stated.

The night went on and James returned home near three in the morning. He staggered to his couch, which he flopped onto. He reached for his phone and saw three missed calls, a voicemail, and six texts from Emily. He listened to the voicemail first.

"Hi, I'm sorry I suck and I didn't call you until like nine but I forgot my phone back at the hotel and Jamie and Tyler wouldn't go back to get it. I've actually met two guys who are bigger assholes than you. Kidding! Well, not entirely. Anyways, happy twenty sixth birthday to possibly my favourite person in the world. Besides myself and Patrick Kane." Emily stopped. "I really miss you. It's been a good three months since the last time I saw you, which is bullshit. But I will most definitely reach 'The Burgh' as you put it, for your party next weekend. I think I convinced Jamie to fly out with me too. I'm basically just rambling now, I'm so sorry. I hope you listen to this while you're really intoxicated and you don't remember anything else about the night but this message." Silence again. "Happy birthday, James. I love you and I hope you had a good night."

He smiled at the end of the message. He loved hearing her say that. He knew she didn't mean it in the way she used to, but he could pretend. He checked his texts.

E: Answer your phone!!!!!!!!!!

E: Wait, you're probably out with the guys.

E: I'm an idiot.

E: Okay, I'm talking to myself now so I'll stop.

E: I'm too lazy to leave a huge birthday text :(

E: I'll just leave a voicemail. I forgot we were that equipped.

James laughed at the texts. He went to twitter and saw that Emily had mentioned him in a tweet. It was a collage of a bunch of pictures of them since they first met. The biggest one was the picture she knew he loved most. It was when he was playing for Iowa and dyed his hair pink for Breast Cancer Awareness. He had his arms wrapped around her and was puckering his lips at her while she hid her face and tried to dodge away from him.

@EmVellucci: Happy birthday, shit for brains @jneal_18 pic.twitter.com/jnYmI0xKEY

Notes