A/N: Sorry for the delay. Once I got into this chapter it was a bit difficult to write. The good news, however, is that I already have the next chapter started. If you have a tumblr follow me and come talk to me there at losemyselftoyou. Anyway, this chapter starts and ends with flashbacks.
A few weeks after he turned fifteen Guy Germaine sat on the floor of his bedroom while his girlfriend sat crisscrossed on his bed looking at him. They had been discussing the latest drama within the Ducks- Charlie broke up with Linda (Connie thought he was a moron), Jesse and Terry were moving back home (Guy was thankful), and Dwayne invited everyone to Texas for the break (Connie was excited at the thought of being on a working ranch. Guy, not so much).
"D'you ever seen think about running away?" She asked suddenly, looking at the open door nearly in front of her. Guy knew she was watching to see if his sister, Natalie, would run in and yell at them. Natalie had a habit of eavesdropping and getting the couple in trouble.
Guy looked at her curiously. "Why, do you?"
"Maybe not forever but just for a bit." The brunette teenager sighed. "Like, just press pause in life until I'm ready to come back to it, you know?"
Guy was ready to question what would cause her to run away, even for a little while but he chose not to. If she wanted to share what was going on in her head she would. So, instead, he nodded and said, "I guess, we all need an escape sometimes."
Connie got off of his bed then and crawled in front of him on the floor. "If one of us ever wants to get away we should text RUN in all caps and meet somewhere. The other person must text back RUN too so we know for sure to go."
"But where? And do what?"
She thought for a second before remembering her dad saying that when he took a train across the country after high school it was a life-changing event, "The depot. First train after 10. We'll go wherever it takes us. Maybe for a full week even!"
"Okay. Deal. No matter when and where if both of us sends RUN we drop everything and go to the train station." Guy told her adding to the unofficial rules.
"Absolutely."
The idea of running away with Connie was exciting to him. Just the two of them alone on a cross country adventure would be fun Guy thought to himself. "Kinda makes me want to text RUN now." Guy smirked.
Connie laughed at his attempt to be sexy but kissed him anyways.
There was always a degree of spontaneous and reckless behavior that came with being in Connie's orbit. It was both sexy and a bit nerve-wracking. Growing up, Guy thought Connie's rough edges had to do with growing up in their rough neighborhood and being a girl on a mostly boys hockey team but thinking about it now Guy wondered if there was something more to it. Once the thrill of the idea faded after coming up with the RUN plan Guy became worried that Connie would initiate it soon after. After all, his parents would kill him if he ran away. But she hadn't.
A few years had passed before he forgot about the plan then he and Connie broke up and it was pushed further into the back of his mind.
Guy woke up and for a moment he forgot about where he was. He tried to stretch and felt another body next to his, immediately remembering that he had slept with his ex-girlfriend. Guy realized they were spooning, he was the little spoon, and he froze.
"It's okay. I know you're awake, Guy." Connie said and pulled away from him.
Guy took a second to reevaluate his entire life up to that moment before twisting and turning to face her.
"Old habits, huh?" She asked, looking at him, searching for an indication of how he felt.
"Things were always easy with us," Guy commented and then added, "We really shouldn't have done that." While the statement was true Guy knew he didn't care how wrong the situation was.
"When you headed to St. Paul to get on the train what did you expect? For us to just sit across from one another and stare out of the window the whole journey?" She wasn't angry, she was just being honest. They both knew that the moment they texted RUN they knew exactly what was going to happen between them.
"Isn't that the whole problem to begin with? What are we doing? It's not like you're going to uproot your life in D.C and you know I can't just move there." He wasn't annoyed at her for everything but he had to wonder how it was going to end.
Connie made a noise. "What if I could move to Chicago? Then what? Would you want to try?"
He ignored her questions, "Do you remember before we broke up everyone kept bugging us about getting married?"
"Well yeah, Julie already had the entire thing planned. I think that there were bets."
"Right. There were." Guy confirmed for her. "I was going to propose."
Connie sat up, pulling the sheet with her and leaving Guy's skin halfway exposed. "How did I not know this?"
Guy got out of the cot then and began rummaging in his bag for clothes to wear. "Things got weird with us and then we broke up three weeks later. So, it never came up." After stepping into a pair of jeans, he said, "But, that's my point. We're never in sync. When I just want us you want freedom."
"Guy William Germaine, that was years ago! Don't you think we've grown since then?" The brunette countered.
He slipped the Minnesota Moose shirt he tried to give Connie the night before on. Before Guy could answer suddenly the roomette was filled with the voice of Christina Aguilera.
If you wanna be with me
Baby, there's a price to pay.
Guy let out a curse and scrambled to find his phone as the ringtone continued to play.
I'm a genie in a bottle
You gotta rub me the right way.
"Why is Genie in a Bottle your ringtone?" Connie asked amused. Guy shot her an embarrassed look. "Check under my clothes."
If you wanna be with me
I can make your wish come true.
Sure enough, somehow the cellphone ended up on the floor. He quickly answered it, "Hey!" Guy gave Connie a look before he slid the door open and stepped into the hall leaving Connie alone.
On the other end of the phone, Lizzie said, "Good morning babe, I know you're probably driving right now but I was thinking we should go on a vacation before the pre-season!"
Guy wanted to scream but instead, he cleared his throat and answered his girlfriend. "Sounds good. We just stopped at this little gas station so Jesse could use the restroom. Gettin' to an area with bad service soon though. Where would you like to go?"
He walked into one of the other cars trying to get further away from Connie. The separation between his worlds was beginning to unravel and he wasn't sure how he was going to get through this. Guy heard Lizzie say, "Maybe we could go to Yellowstone? I'd like to see the buffalo and it would be neat to see a bear. Anyway, I just wanted to run that by you."
"Okay, well here comes Jesse so I better go." Guy felt disconnected from the words he heard himself say. When did lying become so easy?
"I love you."
On the overhead speaker three chimes rang out before a voice came on "Next stop, Grand Forks please gather your belongings if you're detraining at Grand Forks."
Guy started coughing in an attempt to cover up the announcement. "Bye love you too!"
Turning off his phone as he walked back to the sleeping car Guy looked up and discovered Connie dressed in his clothes waiting on him outside of the roomette. "How was your phone call?"
"I'd rather not talk about it."
Connie shrugged. "Gonna have to eventually."
They left the car and sat down across from one another. Guy realized that she didn't brush her hair, because how could she with no brush? And yet, she was still gorgeous.
"Have you ever asked one of the Ducks about me?"
"Once." She shook her head and grimaced just a little, as if she didn't want to talk about it, but did anyway. "I made the mistake of reaching out to Adam after you played against each other three years ago. I was curious, ya know? I figured you'd have the chance to hang out when you were both in the same city. In typical Banksie style he left no detail out, unfortunately for me."
Adam Banks had been traded to the Kings that year from Tampa and that was the first time they'd seen each other in several months. After the game, which the Kings won, they went out with some of their friends. Guy was partying heavily then and thinking back about that night specifically he couldn't describe what happened if you held a gun to his head. He could only assume the night included drinks, a strip club, and a party favor or two.
"Oh."
"So, never again after that." Connie bit her lip. "When I saw you play in D.C…it hurt. Seeing you after all of that time."
They sat in silence while Guy imagined if the roles were reversed and he saw her how he would have felt. With the way, things ended between them Guy mostly figured she avoided him out of awkwardness not out of pain.
"I have a girlfriend. Her name is Lizzie and we live together." Guy admitted. "I lied to her and told her Jesse and I are on a fishing trip."
"…And she bought that, Guy? I mean, that doesn't even sound believable."
"You're not upset?" Guy questioned in surprise.
"That you have a girlfriend? So what, and I have a fiancé."
If he would have had a drink he likely would have spit it out then. "What?"
"Okay, so not technically. He proposed and I said I needed time to think then I went to work. I quit my job and texted you." She explained like it was no big deal.
"Shit, Connie."
"I panicked, okay?"
He said slowly, "So there's a guy who is probably worried sick about you back in D.C?"
"Hey, don't judge. Besides I don't know what he'd expect after I told him I needed to think about it."
"Connie…"
"Don't." Connie said sharply. "Do you love her?"
"I thought I did." He replied and looked out the window. "She's a nice girl."
"Are you happy?"
"No, not anymore. Things were good for a long while. I thought that we… well, I dunno what I thought. It's like we've got this routine and it's just not enough anymore."
Connie sighed, "I guess now you know how I felt back then."
"Ouch."
"It wasn't as if I stopped loving you, Guy. Coming to the conclusion that we couldn't stay together was fucking hard. I cried so damn much. I think we just got too comfortable, you know? We were so young, Guy, and we were already so settled. Even as kids! We would have ended up hating each other."
"Where would we be if we stayed together?"
"Hmmm, we'd likely be in the middle of a nasty divorce. There'd be many fights over who gets the dog. Our two kids would grow up to hate us both. You have a career-ending injury, gain fifty pounds, and begin balding. I remarry and become the stepmother to a teenager who also hates me."
"That's pretty grim, Connie." He ran his hand through his hair, thankful that it's still there. "I guess you did us both a favor by breaking up with me back then if that's what life what have been like."
"Trust me, neither of us what have been happy if we stayed on the path we were on." Connie reaffirmed. "I think we could be now, though."
"And what's different now?"
"Us."
They had never argued as much as they had in the past month. Guy wondered if the pressure of finals and the meetings he was having with teams was getting to them both. It seemed like he and Connie could not get on the same page about anything anymore.
The frustration was more of an annoyance than anything. Guy figured that the strangeness would pass. However, it didn't. Connie began making excuses not to come over to Guy and Jesse's house. They hadn't had a ton of alone time in weeks and Guy was getting irritated. How can you miss someone that you're with?
"I've got this term paper due soon and I haven't gotten past the introduction! Besides I work later."
Guy's response to that had been, "But you don't need to pass the class! I'll support you when I'm America's favorite hockey star."
He got a lot of curse words back in response.
Guy just wanted to be with her and it was like she was pushing him away until Connie showed up to his house one day. Her hair was thrown into a messy bun which was unusual and her eyes were puffy but he figured it was allergies.
"This isn't working out, Guy."
"What isn't?" Guy asked confused, wracking his brain trying to remember what their last conversation had been over.
"Us. Our relationship."
His heart sank. This was his worst nightmare coming true. "Where is this coming from?"
"Connie and Guy. Guy and Connie." She stated, "When was the last time your name wasn't connected to mine? When we were kids? It's like there's no me anymore. No, Connie. Just…us."
"Since when is that a bad thing, Connie?"
She shrugged. "I think it's best if we break up." If his heart wasn't beating so fast that it was all he could hear he might have heard her sniffle as she began to cry. He was going to be sick."Maybe give each other space."
Jesse walked in the door at that moment, oblivious to what was taking place, "Yooooo! Connie, You're here! Wanna watch Troy? I heard it's tight! Ash is coming over later. What do you think of her?"
The two people formally known as ConnieandGuy turned to their friend and stared. Guy had his mouth open in disbelief at the timing.
"What?" Jesse realized he'd walked into something.
"I've gotta go." Connie shot Guy one last look before she nearly ran out of the house.
When the door slammed shut behind her Guy yelled while knocking a lamp off a table before he flipped the table too.
"Shit, Guy! What the hell, man?"
"Connie broke up with me."
"I'm sorry, I think I heard you say Connie broke up with you but that can't be right."
"You heard right."
"SHIT."
There was a knock on the door. Jesse rubbed his face and said, "Please tell me that's Connie and she's going to say that you two were pulling a stupid joke on me?"
Guy shook his head.
Jesse opened the door revealing Ashleigh Taylor. "Hiya! I know I'm early but I had to get out of my apartment. My roommate is driving me nuts." Ash noticed the state of the living room "What happened here?"
"Connie broke up with Guy, apparently," Jesse told her. He glanced at the clock across the room. "I know we were gonna have a movie night but maybe we should go out?"
"Yeah, you two do that."
"Oh no, you too. I'll call some of the guys and we can go to a bar." Guy was pacing around the room and Jesse knew he needed to get his best friend out of there. Jesse moved closer to Ash, "I don't know what the hell is wrong with Connie. Shit. This is bad. They've been together their whole lives."
"Well, maybe tomorrow it'll be a different story?" Ash offered.
"No, no, they don't break up. Ever. In high school, Connie spoke maybe ten sentences to him in four months but they were still together!" Jesse replied.
"Okay, got it. Take a deep breath." She told him. "We'll get Guy through this."
