Love Rivalry (A Gabriel Landeskog and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins Fanfiction)

Chapter 37 - Reaching at Air

Ryan's POV

I walked into the kitchen, grabbing a water from the fridge, joining Jordan on the couch. 

"You get to start playing again tomorrow." Jordan said, trying to start a conversation. It's been really weird since I saw Ashley in Denver. 

"Yup." I said, taking a sip of water. 

"You okay?" He asked me.

"Yeah, I'm fine." I said, plainly. 

"Alright." I was getting sick of this. This was just too awkward. Something had to be done. I got up and walked to the front door, putting my shoes. 

"Where are you going?" Jordan asked from the other room. 

"I need to go and right a wrong." 

***

I pulled up to the house and knocked on the door. 

"Hey, Nuge!" Nail answered the door. 

"Hey, Yak, is Taylor here? I need to talk to him." 

"Yeah, he's been staying upstairs, second room on the left." I thanked him and walked upstairs. I arrived at the closed door. I very hesitantly knocked on the door. 

I was getting nervous. I didn't know how Taylor would react to seeing me. 

"One sec!" Taylor called from behind the door. I heard footsteps and Taylor opened the door. 

Our eyes locked for the first time in what feels like forever. 

"Ryan." Taylor said, dully. 

"Taylor." 

"What are you doing here?" He asked in a demanding tone. 

"I need to talk to you." I said. 

"So you just come here hat in hand and think everything is okay? Do have any idea of the magnitude of the situation that you created?" 

"I get it, but I just want a chance to explain." I said. He was hesitant. 

"Fine." He let me into the room and closed the door behind me. 

"Look, the whole thing with Natalie was all her. I wanted nothing to do with it and she forced herself on me. That's the truth." I explained. 

"Is your little sob story supposed to make me feel better?" 

"I'm trying, Taylor." 

"I already know that you aren't here for the whole Natalie thing, so why don't you tell me what you really came to me for because my patience for you is running out." I decided to get to the point.

"What do you know about Ashley?" I asked.

"Nothing." Taylor dodged. 

"That's not what I heard from Jordan." 

"You wanna know about your ex? Go talk to mine." 

"What aren't you telling me?" I demanded. 

"Nothing that you can't find out from Natalie. And by the way, don't send her back to me because you wanted her out of your hair." 

"How were you and I going to coexist if Natalie and I were dating?" 

"You know what, you managed to piss away your relationship and mine all within two damn days? How the hell do you even sleep at night." 

"Why, you didn't even give a damn about Natalie half the time you were with her." 

"Like Ashley cared about you so damn much that she went to Denver to hang out with another guy." 

"That was different." 

"No it wasn't, because she didn't sleep with him!" Taylor yelled. The room went silent.

"And how do you know this?" 

"Because I talked to Gabe. Natalie recorded the whole damn conversation. I tried to explain it to you, but then you decided to start sneaking around with Natalie." 

"You talked to Gabe?" 

"On your behalf, Ryan. She didn't do anything wrong. She didn't cheat on you." Taylor explained. 

"It was all there, Taylor." 

"He wouldn't lie about something like that. Neither would she. Se cared about you. And you threw it away. You have no one to blame but yourself, Ryan." He turned away from me. I shook my head. 

"You're serious?" 

"I wouldn't mess with you when it comes to something like this. This was a serious situation. I wanted to find out before you did anything to drastic. That's the truth. She didn't lay a hand on him, Ryan." We stood there in silence. What have I done? I threw away the greatest thing to ever happen to me. 

"I really fucked this up, didn't I?" 

"That's how I see things." 

"There's no way I can get another chance, she's gone for good." 

"I wouldn't go that far, but you have a lot of work to do, Ryan." 

"Yeah, I guess you're right." 

There was an awkward pause. 

"Look, I'm sorry about everything, Taylor. How about you come back to the house with Jordan and I and we'll start over?" He gave it a thought. 

"Alright. I gotta pack everything up. I'll be at the house in a few hours. In the meantime, I would try and get in touch with Ashley. I heard you two ran into each other at the Colorado game the other day."

"I'll see what I can do. I'll see you in a few hours then." I said, turning to the door. 

"Alright, Ryan."

"And Taylor?"

"Yeah?" 

"Thanks for everything." 

"No problem, what are friends for?"