Melt With You

Chapter 5

Hey, it's Jonathan. Sorry I can't answer your call, I'll get back to you as soon as I can. You know what to do, leave a message at the beep. Jonathan's voice said, calmly speaking to Peyton through the recording on his voicemail. She rolled her eyes and sighed, knowing he wouldn't answer her call.

"Hey, Jonathan. It's me. I just wanted to let you know that while you're hanging out on the beach in South Africa, it's a shitstorm back here. Everyone in Chicago is freaking out about your disappearing act, and I think you need to give your GM a call. Better yet, give me a call. Bye." Peyton spoke, very salty indeed.

She didn't expect a call back for a while, due to the time zone difference, and the fact that he never answered the phone. She had arrived back from the emergency room, Hannah sitting across the room from her, browsing Netflix titles.

"No answer?" She asked, already knowing Peyton's response.

"Yeah, he hasn't answered any of my calls since I can't remember when."

"I think he's still hurting." Hannah offered, clicking the remote.

"I think he just doesn't care." She said back, pressing the bag of ice to her hip. When they went to the emergency room, the doctor said she didn't fully dislocate her hip when she fell, but it still hurt like hell.

"Now, we can't know that for sure. Let's see if he calls you back, first."

"We'll see how far that takes us." Peyton answered, then picking The Proposal for them to watch.

Later, still on the beach, Jonathan heard his phone vibrate, so he dug it out of his bag to see what caught his attention. He had a text message from Patrick Sharp, and a few missed calls and a voicemail. He held the phone to his ear to listen to the voicemail; it was Peyton.

He took this as a sign that he should really get down to business and take care of things before he could fully relax. He sat up and paced the beach and waded in the surf as the phone rang.

"Hello?" Peyton answered.

"Hey Pey. It's Jonny."

"Oh. Hey." She said, sounding angry, disappointed and irritated all in the same sentence. She had every right to feel all of those things, and more.

"So I listened to your voicemail."

"Yeah, everyone back here is trying to figure out how to wrap up the media and the season without you, the fucking captain. You can't disappear like that, but knowing your history with leaving, I really shouldn't be surprised."

"I just needed some time to myself."

"I've heard that one before, too. Anyway, want to know what happened when I heard you were halfway across the world? I fell off the balance beam and partially dislocated my right hip. I can't do gymnastics for almost a month, now, all because of your selfishness, Jonathan."

"I don't know what to say, Peyton."

"I expected you to say that. Sharp tried to set things straight back here, letting everyone know you're not dead in a ditch somewhere. You owe basically everyone a sincere apology-"

"Peyton, just as long as we're setting the record straight, I never meant to hurt anyone. Especially you. I didn't mean to be a disappointment to an entire city, I never aimed to be the one everyone looks up to, to always be strong, just to end up as a failure. Back there, I felt like I was suffocating, drowning in my own mistakes. So I know I deserve everything headed my way when I come back, but I needed to leave. I hope you understand that. And I'm sorry about your hip."

"I'm sorry too."

There was silence on the other end for a long time, and then Jonathan heard the dial tone. Peyton was gone, which didn't give him much incentive to return to his life. Especially after he called his GM, everything seemed incredibly terrible.

The afternoon was moving into late evening, and the girls were beginning to get a fire started. Behati grabbed a cooler from the back of the Jeep and Farai was setting up their camping supplies for cooking. Santana was slowly adding sticks and brush to the fire, then tossing a big log on top of it, creating a slow burning fire.

Jonathan put his phone back in his bag and continued the work on his royal sandcastle.

"Everything alright, Jonny boy?" Behati called to him from beside the fire.

"As alright as they're going to get, yeah." He answered, shaping a tower with his hands.

The girls then gravitated towards Jonathan, helping him build his sandcastle as they talked. They were all aware of his situation, so this time was his to say whatever he wanted to let out.

"My fiancé and I had a bad breakup. We haven't talked in a long time. Today she called me, very irritated. I didn't take that too well, since she's so angry at me and I never meant to make her feel that way. Then I called my general manager of the hockey team I play for, and he was furious. They're dealing with a lot of damage control and cleanup of my mess right now, which also makes me feel really shitty."

"Jon, I'm sorry to hear about you and your fiancé. But I think that you two have a lot more to talk about, you just have to give whatever you have left to give into that relationship. That way, if things still don't work out in the end, you'll know that you did everything you could to make things right." Santana offered.

"Your efforts may feel like they're for nothing right now, but you have to try anyway. In the end, it's never for nothing." Farai added.

"And people remember the people in their lives who have left. Even if it's just for a short period of time to take a sabbatical, it'll follow you around for a long while. You'll constantly get asked why you left, and every question you can think of that varies on that same theme.  Just take it one step at a time when you deal with it back home, and all you have to tell them is the truth. Tell them that you needed to figure things out, and now you're fresh and ready to go for the new season. Even if you don't feel fresh, you will. It'll all turn out alright, Jonny. You'll be fine." Behati advised, and then there was a period of silence.

By the time they were all finished with the sandcastle, the fire had built up beautifully and they were ready to start making dinner. Jonathan felt better.