Slapshots {BOYXBOY}✔

Chapter Thirty-Five {I'm Sorry}

He brought me roses - He bought me two dozen roses.

The roses sat on my kitchen counter as Henry sat on my sofa with one arm over the backrest and the other on his legs. We had been sitting across from one another for ten minutes, not a word uttered, but glances passed. Our eyes never locked but we looked each other over every other second that passed. I watched his eyes dance from my feet to my hair while my eyes watched him watch me, then when it was his turn to watch my face I studied him, studied his clothing, the way he sat, the way he looked. He was... beautiful. He wasn't the Henry I knew in high school, no he was a man now. He was everything he had wanted to be in High school, or he was on the outside.

Henry made the move first, taking his arm from the back of the leather couch moving forward, both hands held together in the middle of his lap as he leaned forward. I could feel my breath catch in my chest, our eyes met, my lips bit together. "Matty." That name, that one simple name broke me. My shoulder fell as my hands clamped together, my eyes refused to look up to the man that had left me so broken so many years ago. It was then that one of his free hands reached over and took mine holding it in a tight grip. "I'm sorry Matty." He said in a hushed voice. But I still couldn't do it. I couldn't will my eyes to meet him again.

"I'm sorry about your mom," I said, regretting the words as I said them, I don't know why they had come out, I wasn't the brightest in situations like this.

Henry's mom had completed rehab treatments all those years ago, just to relapsed two years later and die in her bathroom, from what I had read of Wiki her boyfriend at the time, a known Hollywood junkie was the one that found her. I had sent Henry a message at the time, giving him my condolences, I didn't expect a reply back, and I never did.

But Henry's hand only tightened around my own, a grip that I was unfamiliar with, it was only then that I looked up to him and saw his eyes had glossed, no tears shed but you could see his defences falling with every breath we had shared. "God, I missed you, Matty." He pulled me forward, his arms wrapping around me and his head burying itself into my shoulder, and I mimicked the action, hiding my face in the crook of his neck as we embraced. "I'm so sorry I ran away. There's so much to the story that I wanted to tell you." He said in a muffled voice.

I pulled away from him, meeting his eyes once again. "What do you mean? Tell me that."

Henry sighed, interlocking our fingers on both our hands. "There was... A picture." He started slowly. "Someone sent it to my email. It was us, that day kissing in my car. At first, I thought it was harmless, I ignored it. But then your locker got tagged and I couldn't ignore it anymore. They sent me another email after that, telling me that if I didn't break up with you they would ruin any chance you had in the NHL, any college career. They were going to out us, you. And I couldn't let that happen. I had my dads money to fall back on. And you- hockey was everything to you. Dad offered to move mom, and I couldn't say no. For her, for us. At the time I thought it was the only option I had. To let you go and forget about me. So I did it. I ran away and I regret every moment of it Matty. All I've wanted to do since then was call you, text you. We had so much unfinished business. So when the Tasha told me about the ball, I made sure you got an invite. But I wasn't expecting you to bring... him." There was a little bit of a bite to the 'Him' at the end of his explanation. But I didn't focus on that. I looked at Henry in shock, it was like my whole world just blew up in my face.

Henry didn't leave me because he didn't like me anymore, he left me because of some stupid kid blackmailing him.

"Matty." Henry squeezed my hand a little snapping me out of my thoughts.

"So, you invited me to the party because of Tasha?"

"Yeah," He smiled a little. "It was actually her idea."

"Wait, what?" Why would his girlfriend want to invite to a party, where he would be.

Henry just smiled, his thumb tracing over my own. "Tasha and I are good friends, she's actually in a movie I'm writing. We just go out a lot for the publicity, but we've never confirmed our relationship. She actually has a boyfriend who lives in Pakatan. Nice guy, owns a wildlife sanctuary." I blinked at him a couple times. "Matty, I did all this for you. I never left because I wanted to. I want you to know that. No matter what feelings you have for me, if any at all, negative or positive, I just wanted you to know that."

"What happened after the party? I woke up in a hotel room with you." I mumbled, biting down on my lip.

Henry laughed dropping both my hands. "You were shit faced, I was offering the cabby to pay your fair, and you jumped me. It was adorable actually. I took you back to a hotel I knew know paps would be around and you stipped your clothes and passed out on the bed." My face heated up, my cheeks surely a bright shade of red.

"You can't be serious." I groaned covering my face with both my hands.

"Dead serious." He grinned.