Page 65 of Goaltender Interference

October

Ever since Aiden had gone to New York and then come home again, he’d been acting funny. Matt had watched the media availabilities the Libs had posted after the game, seen everything Gabe Walker had said about Aiden.

Whatever Aiden had said or thought about his relationship with Gabe, it was pretty clear that the kid was in love with him. To be honest, Matt couldn’t really blame him. He’d known Aiden when he was young and dumb and pretty; Gabe had gotten to know him when he was old and sad and hot. And basically his teacher. So it wasn’t really surprising.

But whatever had happened there, it had really messed Aiden up, like all of the progress he’d made with Matt had just evaporated into thin air. He was quiet for most of that night, didn’t even say anything when they got into bed together. Instead he lay still on his side of the mattress for a few minutes before he rolled over and wormed his way into Matt’s arms, a worried little frown creasing his forehead.

“Are you okay?” Matt asked.

Aiden mumbled into his chest, “I’m fine,” and shuddered a little when Matt ran his fingers through Aiden’s hair.

They fell asleep like that, and every time Matt woke up overnight, Aiden was still clinging to him, like a particularly anxious koala.

“Everything cool?” Matt asked, over breakfast the next morning. Aiden usually cooked for them, but he had taken a while to get out of bed, so eventually Matt put together bowls of coconut yogurt and fruit and granola and scrambled some eggs.And then Matt had had to go back into the bedroom, haul him out of bed and drag him into the kitchen.

“It’s fine,” Aiden said, but he was clearly still a million miles away. He swept his spoon through the yogurt, frowning.

“I have to go to Brossard for morning skate,” Matt said, after a bit. “You gonna be okay here?”

“Yeah.”

It wasn’t convincing, but Matt had to go to practice, so he left it there. By the time he came home, Aiden was still on the couch, head tucked low against his chest, the TV blaring in the background while he scrolled through something on his phone. He looked fucking terrible, that sad downturn at the corner of his mouth, dark circles under his eyes. The fingers of his free hand twisted around each other, one of the anxious, repetitive motions he made sometimes and were a clue that he was either upset or overwhelmed.

“Aiden,” Matt said, pausing the TV, “seriously, what’s going on?”

“What’s going on?” Aiden’s mouth seemed frozen halfway between a smile and a grimace. “Nothing.”

“You’ve been in kind of a strange mood since you got home from New York, and I was... I don’t know, I was just worried.” When Matt looked down at Aiden, Aiden licked his lips, and Matt had a second where he thought briefly about kissing him and just forgetting the line of questioning. It was easy to do that, but he needed to stop doing the easy thing.

Aiden laughed, although there wasn’t much humor in the noise. “You really don’t need to be concerned, all right? Not really your business, I’m totally fine, just, you know. In case you didn’t notice. Not exactly the world’s most cheerful person one hundred percent of the time.”

“So it’s okay for my business to be yours but not the other way around?”

“Matty...that’s not fair.”

“What happened totalkingto me?”

“Yeah, well, I don’t want to talk about this.”

“Clearly something’s wrong and I—don’t want you to be unhappy.”

“News flash, Matt, you really don’t have much control over that.”

“All right,” Matt said, and pulled himself away.

They sat on the couch, watching each other. Aiden still had that deer-in-the-headlights wariness in his eyes and Matt knew that even though it wasn’t visible, he was frowning. His mouth twitched. There was something strange happening on Aiden’s face, worry that flickered across before he could stop it, and Matt wondered whether the other shoe would finally drop.

Whether the thing he was waiting for all of this time would happen and Aiden would finally say,I’m going back to New York for good.He wondered whether Aiden was feeling that same strange combination of worry and sick relief. But Aiden was just curled in on himself, looking miserable, and Matt thought about all of the times Aiden had freaked out on him when he’d really just needed—

“Aiden.”

“What, Matt?”

“Get up.”

“What?”

“You heard me. Get. Up.”

---