Love Remains The Same

Half the time the world is ending
Truth is I am done pretending
I, never thought that I
Had any more to give
You're pushing me too far
Here I am without you
Drink, to all that we have lost
Mistakes we have made
Everything will change
But love remains the same
——Love Remains the Same, Gavin Rossdale

March 29, 2018

Grayson staggered down the stairs and found two of his teammates in the kitchen. "Yo, you should call Rae, man," Javin told him.

But Grayson just shook his head. He'd be damned if he was going to voluntarily talk to anyone right now. "Nope. But you guys can help me pack."

"Where y'goin', mate?" Jack frowned.

"Moving back in with J-Rob," Grayson said simply. "I'm not staying here, even for a few weeks."

"G," Javin frowned now. "Maybe you should give it some time."

"Look, she left. She told me to find someone else," Grayson snapped. "If that's what she wants, fine."

"Maybe when the hangover is better-" Jack started.

"I've been sober for twelve hours," Grayson growled.  "She shut her phone off, she left with no trace.  It's over."

*****
Rachel Sullivan looked across the Birmingham, Michigan apartment that she shared with her boyfriend. "Why hasn't he called?"  she sighed.

"Maybe he's busy," Luke Kennard snapped. "He's gotta sign with an agent and get ready for the draft.  He doesn't have time for this shit."

"I know you did not just refer to his relationship with the girl he loves as shit," Rae glared at her boyfriend.

"You know what I mean," Luke sighed. "Look, we don't know where she is, we can't contact her.  You sent her an email but she has yet to respond.  I really don't know what else we can do."

"Talk to him, Luke," Rae pleaded.

"And say what exactly?" Luke frowned. "I don't even know why the fuck she left, since you won't tell me. I have nothing to offer him right now."

"Just try," Rae pleaded.

But the conversation didn't change anything.  Luke was too mad to do anything other than tell Grayson that he was doing the right thing. But Luke did try to find out what happened and, even though he didn't want to talk about it, Luke finally wore him down and Grayson told him.

"She knew she couldn't have kids for a month.  She didn't tell me.  She waited until the worst possible time to drop it on me and then left when I needed time to cool off," Grayson told him.  "That's at least three strikes by my count. I'm not gonna chase her to God knows where."

Luke sighed. "G, you have every right to be pissed. But this is just weird. It's not like Cait to ever run away from a fight."

"Whether it is or isn't, she did," Grayson huffed. "I've got enough to worry about without tracking her ass down. It's time to move on."

*****

Jack Callahan frowned at his phone. He'd expected Grayson to call by now, but he hadn't heard from him. He debated calling him, but there wasn't much he could tell him without running the risk of his only child never speaking to him again.