The hangover

"Dude, you have to come."

By the third time of asking, Guy Germaine's voice was on the verge of sounding whiny. Adam let out a sigh and swapped the cell to his other ear as he started to fold another shirt in mid-air.

"I don't know, Guy, I mean, I'm two weeks away from training again, I can't really drink heavily," Adam replied.

"You don't have to, you can do other weird things instead!"

"I get drug tested every week, man."

"Oh, yeah. There's that." It was Guy's turn to let out a sigh. "It just won't be the same without you there."

"You'll have the others and... Charlie." Adam made a face at how he said Charlie's name. He set the shirt down on the bed and folded his arm across his chest.

"Is Charlie the reason you're being a dick and bailing?" Guy asked.

"What? No."

Okay, it so was.

Up until they had graduated high school, Charlie and Adam had been practically attached at the hip. It appeared to be this way until they left for draft camp, which resulted in Adam being signed to the Mighty Ducks (He still wasn't sure if that was irony or not) and Charlie being sent back home to Minnesota with no interest or signing from any team. Though he got a spot on the Hartford Wolf Pack in Connecticut, it wasn't the same and their friendship had taken an dive, mainly because Charlie's ego had received a couple of blows to it.

They hadn't spoken to one another in over four years. It was particularly hard for their friends to manage with. If Adam was in town and they had organized something together, Charlie wouldn't turn up and vice versa for Adam.

To say it was a nightmare was an understatement, but aside from that, it was kind of depressing.

Guy's voice broke up the silence. "You can share a room with Fulton."

Adam closed his eyes for a couple of seconds to think everything over. It was Guy's bachelor party and it was in Vegas. He'd be able to catch up with most of the guys and plus, it was only an hour or so plane ride away for him since he lived in Anaheim.

"Fine." Adam finally said.

"YES! Oh, man, Connie is going to be so pleased, she thinks you're the sensible one and won't let us do wild shit."

"Don't make me regret this decision, Germaine."

"Right, right! We can't do shit that could get leaked to EPSN, gotcha."

Adam couldn't help but chuckle. "I've got to go to dinner, man but I'll see you-"

"In one week!" Guy quickly replied, cutting him off.

"In one week, yeah. Alright, later." Adam pulled his cell phone away from his ear and tossed it onto his bed.

Without even thinking, Adam's eyes raised over to the wall in his bedroom, which was decorated with pictures. There was his graduation day, where he was surrounded by his old teammates, grins on all their faces. Amongst them all, Charlie stood out to him. There they were, side-by-side, arms around each other. He'd spent hours debating in his head about whether or not he should draw over Charlie's face, but he could never come to an agreement. He couldn't.

Despite it all, Charlie was the first best friend he'd ever had. The two of them had spent hours at night back at Eden Hall, discussing their futures. Both of the boys had shared secrets with one another, secrets that they hadn't shared with anyone else before. He'd been there for Charlie during and after his relationship with Linda and Charlie had been Adam's wingman when the two of them had snuck out at night to attend parties back in their neighbourhoods.

Adam took another look at the picture and shut his eyes. This was going to hurt.

"Louis Vuitton luggage, are you shitting me?!" screeched a voice. Adam knew that voice.

From where he was sitting in the Caesar's palace lobby, Adam lifted his head to see a grinning Jesse Hall a few feet away.

"Would you believe me if I said it was a gift?" Adam replied with a grin.

Jesse snorted and threw his bag down next to Adam. "Don't just sit there, embrace me, man." Adam laughed and jumped up to his feet to hug Jesse.

Unlike the rest of the ducks, Jesse refused to attend Eden Hall. The thought of even mingling with other preppy cake eaters was enough to make him consider playing in traffic. He, and his brother Terry, both went to the local high school. Despite rejecting the Eden Hall offer, Jesse regularly hung out with the ducks. He, along with Peter Karp and Averman joined the local hockey team in Minneapolis.

"Nervous about Charlie coming?" Jesse asked after their first couple of conversations had died down.

Adam snorted and tried to make it look like Charlie was the last thing on his mind. By Jesse's expression, he had failed that.

"Nah, it is what it is."

"Hey, maybe you two will patch everything up after a couple of drinks and be best friends again by the time we roll out of here."

"Yep and maybe the Maple Leaf's will win the cup this year."

"Way harsh."

Adam grinned and looked away from Jesse. His eyes stopped mid-glance when he saw a familiar face walk through the doors in the lobby. He almost wanted to burst out into laughter at the sight of him. Charlie hadn't changed at all; in fact he was wearing the same plaid shirt he'd worn all throughout high school. The same shirt Adam had drunkenly vomited upon after he'd had too many jello shots at a party and after Charlie had spent a good couple of minutes rubbing his back on some couch on the porch, soothing him.

The same shirt he'd worn the last time they'd spoken to once another.

He knew this was a bad idea. Adam had already broken out into a sweat just at the sight of his old best friend, he was sure his eyebrows were seconds away from swimming off his face.

Adam watched as Charlie finally recongized him. He could feel his stomach turn as their eyes connected. He wanted to run, run far away.

"BANKSIE!" broke out a voice, killing whatever stance Adam had at that moment. Guy practically jumped into Adam's arms, making him stumble back a couple of times as Adam had focused all his attention on the other boy.

Adam laughed nervously and finally looked at Guy, who was grinning from ear-to-ear in front of him. "Germaine. Congrats on your engagement, man!"

Guy wrapped his arm around Adam's shoulder, pausing when he saw Charlie in the same spot Adam had seen him in a couple of seconds ago.

"Don't just stand there, Conway, Jesus!"

Adam could see the change in Charlie. He threw away the tense expression he had and replaced it with a smile.

Charlie approached the group, his hockey bag over his shoulder. "So, you finally manned up and asked Connie to marry you." He grinned and lowered the bag. Adam's eyes flickered down to the logo on his bag; a wolf image stared back at him.

"I know, I'm the first one to be getting married." Guy chuckled.

"You almost had competition, Banskie and that model were getting pretty close at one stage," Jesse grinned.

Adam shifted uncomfortably next to him.

He pulled his eyes away from the bag and finally looked up to Charlie. Charlie had taken an interest in the floor at that very moment.

Before anyone could speak, the rest suddenly joined the group. Averman, Fulton and Goldberg appeared almost out of nowhere. Adam silently thanked the gods for their arrivals.

After they all had loudly greeted each other, Guy checked them all in and grabbed the room keys.

"Okay, so since there's seven of us, there's going to be two rooms of 2 and one room of 3."

"Dibs for Averman!" Goldberg chipped in.

"Dude, don't say it like that, "Averman whined.

Guy chuckled and handed Goldberg his key card.

Guy then eyed the four boys off. "Who wants to share with me?"

"Fulton snores, I'm with you!" Jesse quickly replied.

Guy's eyes widened a little at Jesse's outburst. Jesse made the same face, realizing his mistake.

"I, uh, I mean, Charlie do you want to share with Guy?" Jesse asked.

"You claimed it first, it's fine." Charlie muttered.

Adam wanted to scream. This was not fucking fine.

Fulton, who was clearly unaware of the tension in the lobby, threw his arms around both Charlie and Adam. "Just like old times!"

Adam wondered if he could make it to California by tomorrow if he started to run now.