THE DOMINO EFFECT.

[ twenty-two: "if you go down, I go down too!" ]

IT WAS MID AFTERNOON, the sun was shining and the music was cranked. Everyone was outside, either sitting by the pool, in the pool, playing golf, or playing cards.

"We should really get out the house more and go do something fun," Andre stated suddenly.

This brought Dylan to sit up from her lawn chair, lifting her sunglasses to the top of her head. Before she had a chance to speak, Carey beat her to it. "Like what?"

"We could go shopping! Lets go to the mall!" Tyler exclaimed, pulling himself out of the pool and grabbing a towel.

"No!" Alex yelled, not wanting to go to the mall with the group.

Dylan smiled happily, "I think I have a coupon for Victoria's Secret!"

All the boys turned to face her, horrified expressions on their faces, "no! We are not going to the mall!"

The young girl scoffed, "oh c'mon, let me see if I have a coupon."

Pulling out her phone, Dylan logged into her email, trying to find her coupon, but instead landing upon something else. Her eyebrows furrowed together, "holy shit."

Drew tried looking over her shoulder from his spot beside her, "what?"

Dylan reread who the email was from multiple times before saying anything. "W-we got an email. From Gary Bettman."

The boys all ran to gather around Dylan, squishing in to get as close as possible. "Well? What it say?" Geno asked, shoulders brushing against Quick and Patrick.

Dylan clicked the email, opening it to reveal a paragraph. Taking a shaky breath, she recited the email back to the boys.

Hello... everyone,

I just wanted to give you all a little update because I know how... invested you all are. We are all meeting again today to discuss what we will do about the Olympics. You may see this as a good thing, however I'll you know that although the stunt you pulled may have affected how others see this situation, my vision is still clear, and you or anyone else will not change my perspective on this. The way I see it is, if you don't play for us, and you go on strike, you aren't doing your job, so why should you get paid? Ask yourselves that as I'm in my meeting today. Like I said, you've most certainly convinced some people to allow you to go to Korea, but myself is excluded from that group.

Thanks,

Gary Bettman.

"That asshole."Tavares spat, a look of dismay on his face.

Patrick blinked from beside him, "is he really saying we won't get paid if we fulfil our promise to not start the season if this isn't cleared up?"

"They can't just not pay us, can they?" Sidney asked, his expression a mix of confusion, hurt and anger.

"No, isn't that up to our teams?"Mark asked, just as stunned as the rest of them.

Dylan clicked her phone off, letting it drop on her chair, "this is all my fault." Her eyes glazed over as she stared straight ahead, her jaw slacked.

"Hey," Toews put a hand on her shoulder softly, "this is not your fault."

Dylan turned to face him, "you guys are here because of me! I-I'm not even in the NHL so I'm not affected by this, but you guys, you guys could lose your jobs!" She put her hands on the side of her face, "oh my god, you guys could lose your jobs."

Andrew kneeled in front of Dylan, meeting her gaze with a serious expression on her face. "Hey. We would not be here if we didn't want to be."

"Geno made Sid come here. He could've been in Mexico, away from all this shit."

"I am so glad I came here. This has been the best summer I've had in a long time. Yes, we're here for a reason, but living in the same house with all these guys has been fun and exciting. And we owe that to you Dylan." Everyone nodded in agreement.

"We're here, and we've made it this far. We aren't backing down, and we're not backing out." Steven declared, trying to get the girl to relax.

"Plus, they're meeting today, this could all be over tomorrow," Corey said gently.

"Or it could be worse-" Quick mumbled, getting cut off by a sharp jab from Drew.

Dylan looked up from the ground, meeting Patrick's gaze. She maintained his eye contact as she spoke, knowing he'll know what she means. "If you go down, I go down too."