AUTUMN LEAVES

All Phil Kessel could register now was the complete and utter silence as he paced back and forth in front of Geno’s trophy room. During the party, he noticed Sidney chase after Autumn who was almost running out of the room. To check if everything was alright, he followed them. He had heard Autumn yelling at Sidney and heard his captain shout back from behind the closed and locked door. He couldn’t make out what was being said during what was clearly a conversation the two wanted to keep behind closed doors. That was 15 minutes ago. The current silence did not sit well with him as he kept pacing. He couldn’t shake the feeling of something bad, very bad happening behind that door. He didn’t have it in him to let anyone else know or suspect what Autumn and Sidney were doing for the last 20 or so minutes. He didn’t understand why, but he couldn’t make himself leave.

As the silence grew longer, he almost knocked at the door, only to stop and tell himself that it’s none of his business. However, upon hearing a commotion in the living room where everyone else was, he moved from his spot towards the noise. His eyes widened at the realization that Mario has arrived unexpectedly at the party. Her husband was here, shit, Phil thought. No one seemed to notice the absence of Sid and Autumn in a busy party, but that was about to change as Mario was bound to wonder where his wife was at some point. It’s better that he walks in on them rather than her husband, Phil reasoned. He returned to the door and took a deep breath before knocking, frightened of what he may see.

*****

“I hate this sweater”, Sidney whispered with clear disgust, as they laid on their sides facing each other, still naked on the large pool table, their fingers intertwined and their faces a breath away from one another. “What’s wrong with my sweater? You mean it’s too conservative for your liking?”, she asked teasingly. He hummed in deep thought. “Well yeah it is. But orange and black, really?”, he asked only half-joking. “Pumpkins are orange not yellow, silly”, she playfully replied as she traced his lips with her finger. He bit her finger lightly and sucked it in his mouth as his eyes stayed on her. He watched her bite her lip and felt himself harden again. Oh the things she did to him without even trying.

A strong knock on the door jolted them both back to reality, effectively bursting their bubble. They looked briefly at each other with the same terrified expression. They couldn’t get off the table any faster than they did. Each fetching their discarded clothes. As they hastily got dressed, there was another knock. Sidney whispered to her that the door is locked. “What do we do? Oh my god Sidney! Whoever is knocking will be suspicious if he sees us both here. Oh god the door is locked. It’s gonna look bad. Oh god your hair...”, she rambled with a shushed voice full of panic.

Sidney was trying his best not to freak out as well and instead try to think fast, to find an excuse as he miserably failed at fixing his unruly hair and wrinkled shirt. “Go behind that desk!”, he ordered. “You want me to hide?”, she asked stupefied. “Yes! Go! The longer we wait, the weirder it’s gonna look! After I leave, wait few minutes before leaving. Now go hide!”, he spoke fast, trying not be too loud. Doing a last second check of his looks on a glass display of Geno’s hardware, he took a deep breath, looking behind him to make sure that Autumn was not within sight before unlocking and opening the door.

“Hey Phil, man what’s up?”, Sid said awkwardly, trying to act normal, but his flushed face and wavering voice easily gave him away. Phil entered the room and closed the door behind him without saying a single word, forcing Sidney to take few steps back. Phil looked around with Sidney desperately trying to block his vision, but Phil seemed to know that he was not alone in this room. “I know she’s here, Sid! I don’t know what you two were up to, but you need to know that her husband is here. Mario just arrived, and if you don’t want him to be suspicious, I suggest you leave this room now, both of you, and go back to the party”, Phil said with a stern look on his face that made Sidney turn into a million shade of red.

Autumn could no longer keep quiet and both men heard her crying and sniffling. Sidney bent down behind the desk to find her sobbing uncontrollably. He was not going to be selfish, he will not let her face this situation alone. They were both in this together.

Phil stood awkwardly as he listened to Sid comfort her. “Hey look, we’ll just say that we were chatting about some trouble you had at work. That’s why we were here all alone all this time, okay?”, he told her, not caring if Phil was hearing his fabricated lie. It was too late anyways. Phil was not stupid and obviously knew what they were doing. She nodded from where she hid uncomfortably under the wooden desk, too embarrassed to face Phil. Sidney sensing the situation asked her to stay put.

“Phil go back to the party. If someone asked, tell them that the three of us were here talking about her work situation”, he asked Phil, fully aware that he was asking his friend to cover for them. Phil hesitated, he didn’t want to be caught in this mess. He did not want to be the person who encourages a potential affair a married woman was having with his friend. He looked at Sidney, ready to refuse, but what he saw deterred him. Sidney was almost shaking, his eyes were wet and he had a pleading look on his face, his whole stance begged for Phil to reconsider. Everything he witnessed in the recent past came flashing back to him. How miserable his friend was the night Mario and Autumn got engaged, despite having the Stanley cup on his side; how he had a panic attack and passed out then lashed out at Mario after Autumn’s accident; And now the way he comforted her and was ready to lie to everyone for her, including Mario.

When Sidney’s tears made an appearance, Phil put both of his hands on Sidney’s shoulders to calm him. “Please”, Sidney whispered, not caring if he had to beg his teammate and friend to help them out of this situation. “Hey man, it’s okay. I’ve got your back. Don’t worry”, Phil said sympathetically. Sidney nodded and thanked him without meeting his eyes, too embarrassed of the mess that Phil caught them in. “We will talk about this later though”, Phil added firmly. His captain needs to understand that what he was doing was very wrong.

When Autumn heard the door close, she let out a sob. “What do we do now? He knows! He fucking knows!”, she cried out. Sidney started pacing, trying to calm his nerves.
“He may show up any second. Get out from there. You need to make up something, he will know that you’ve been crying”, he said monotonously, his voice hoarse as he spoke about her husband. She stood up and fixed her clothes as best as she could. “I’ll tell him I had a fight with Tiff at the hospital. It’s not even a lie”, she whispered between sniffles. Realizing the likely reason of her argument with Tiff, he squeezed his eyes shut and released a shaky groan.

Both looked at the door as it swung open and the tall Pens owner walked in with a frown on his face. “Phil said you were upset about work?”, Mario asked with concern. It hurt him that she would confide in Sidney and not him, her husband. He thought back to how disappointed she was because he didn’t accompany her to the party. Guilt consumed him because he also failed to notice how distressed his wife truly was to the point that she went to cry on his protégé’s shoulder rather than his unavailable one.

She hiccupped, unable to speak as Mario swiftly gathered her fragile form in his long arms bumping into Sidney’s shoulder on his way to her, ignoring his son completely. “What happened?”, he questioned. Instead of answering, she hid her face in his shirt, not wanting to look at him. Sidney feeling that Mario was ignoring him for some reason, and Autumn was unable to talk, he tried to diffuse the situation. “She, um. She had an argument with Tiff”, Sidney said as he scratched the back of his neck, flustered as he was standing behind the man whose wife he had just slept with, the same man he looked up to, the man that was a second father to him. He wanted so badly to leave but he wanted to make sure that Autumn was okay first.

Mario did not even acknowledge Sidney’s words, he simply looked down at his wife instead and asked her, “is it true? What happened? Why didn’t you say anything earlier?”, Mario asked as he stroked her messy hair. Still no response. He sighed heavily and decided that it would be best if they just went home and talked in private. It surprised him that she would have what appears to be a very serious argument with Tiffany. They were very close.

“Let’s go home, honey. Goodnight Sid”, he said briefly as he steered Autumn towards the door, squeezing her shoulders affectionately. Sidney glanced at her one last time as she breezed by him, their sad eyes meeting for a split second, before she disappeared, leaving with the man she married.

Sidney found the nearest chair to sit down. He was still shaken from the whole thing when he saw Phil take a seat next to him, noticing that he closed the door behind him. He buried his face in his hands, his shoulders shaking with silent sobs. He completely broke down, tired of loving a woman he can’t have, tired of having no control over his emotions and actions, and tired from pretending that he was okay when nothing in his life was.

Though he was mostly tired of envying Mario. It made his blood boil whenever he pictured her with her husband in their bed happy and in love. The knowledge that she loved Mario deepened the stab in his heart. I care about my husband, he’s the best man I know. Her words from earlier resonated in his mind. Sure, she was hurt when she said them, but that doesn’t mean she didn’t mean them. He knew she cared enough about him, but she never reciprocated his feelings, not out loud.

Phil was not sure how to proceed as he silently watched Sidney fall apart. Seeing how distraught his friend was, he decided to let him be. Clearly now was not the time to talk. As he stood up to leave, he heard Sidney faintly call him. “Sid, it’s okay man, I’m not gonna tell anyone, if that’s what you’re worried about”, Phil spoke reassuringly. As Sidney straightened his back and uncovered his tear-stained face, he looked at his friend and gestured for him to sit back on the chair. “You don’t have to say anything, man. I don’t know what’s going on and it’s none of my business. I just don’t want you to get in trouble, Sid. She’s Mario’s wife for god sakes. You can’t be affected by her this much”, Phil said calmly. Sidney almost laughed at the “affected by her” part. “It’s too late for that Phil. It’s too late”, he said with a small voice and a shake of his head.

Phil’s eyes widened as his suspicions were confirmed. “You mean, you and Autumn are like, um… you slept with her?”, Phil asked, trying not to sound judgmental. Sidney nodded, feeling like the jerk he was for sleeping with a married woman. Phil gulped not knowing what to say. “Twice, if that’s what you’re wondering”, Sidney said, not getting a response as Phil was still digesting the truth. Sidney thought that if he told someone, if he heard himself say it out loud, the horrible truth of this affair may finally hit him, maybe it will make him stop every time he wanted to touch her, kiss her or worse.

“What about Autumn? I thought she was in love with Mario, she just married him. For her to do something like that means she doesn’t care about her husband. I guess I never thought she would be that type of woman. …”, Phil said but Sidney cut him off with a hard look that was enough to scare him. “Careful there, you don’t want to say something you will regret, Phil”, Sidney warned him with an angry undertone. “Sorry”, Phil mumbled, not wanting to upset his captain by insulting the woman he clearly cared too much about.

Sidney was lost in his thoughts as was Phil for few moments. “Have you ever loved someone, Phil?”, he whispered as he looked at his feet, breaking the heavy silence. “You… Oh wow, you love her?”, Phil asked bewildered. When it started to sink in, Phil did not wait for an answer as he realized that it was not very shocking news after all. “Of course you do, it’s kind of obvious”, Phil reiterated. “Badly, I can’t stop myself Phil. I don’t know what to do anymore”, Sidney said defeated as he hung his head low with his hands on the back of his neck, trying to massage the tension in his muscles.

“I need to date someone, distract myself. That’s my only option, maybe eventually I can get over her?”, Sidney said as a question more than a statement. “I don’t know if that’s gonna help you or not, but at the same time you can’t be with her again, like never again, Sidney. I say do what you gotta do to stay away from her. If Mario knows, he will literally kill you man”, Phil said.

Sidney swallowed hard at the mention of Mario knowing about his betrayal and disloyalty. He couldn’t even picture having this conversation with his mentor of 12 years. Would Mario even speak to him again if he knew? He will disown me, kick me off the team and likely ruin my career, he thought bleakly. Autumn was his love but she was also his doom, the same way Juliette was to her Romeo.

Notes

Hola!

I'm feeling productive these days my friends. Hence the 2 chapters in 2 days. That's 1.0 chapter per day :D

So now Phil knows, Mario has no idea and as usual, Sid and Autumn are fucked (maybe too literally, oops!).

Let me know what you think!
Happy Sunday!

Charlie :)