The Friend Zone

Chapter Fifteen: No Regrets

 We stayed the night at Aunt Linda's that night before heading back to Buffalo around noon the next day. That afternoon Taylor and I went to a Buffalo Beauts game and went out to dinner with Rachel afterward. Tonight, we were heading over to the Canadian side of the border to go out with a few of Taylor's buddies from last season. We'd gotten a hotel room for the night, we knew there was no reason to try to drive back home, especially now that I could legally drink in Canada and would probably end up just as shitfaced as Taylor would that night.

"Ready to go Tess?" Taylor asked as he knocked on the bathroom door.

"Yup," I replied, checking my makeup in the mirror one last time.

"Here's your coat," he said as I opened the door, handing me my jacket.

"Thanks," I smiled as he held it out for me to put my arms in.

As much as he could be an absolute asshole sometimes, Taylor actually had great manners and was very chivalrous when he wanted to be. Occasionally I had to remind him that he did, in fact, have manners, especially when he was drunk, but he was a good guy nonetheless.

"Bye Dad!" I said as we walked down the stairs and to the front door.

"Are you two coming back tonight?" he asked, walking in from the living room.

"Probably not," I replied.

"Stay safe," he said, "Don't do anything too stupid," he added, looking at Taylor out of the corner of his eye.

"I'll make sure he doesn't," I smirked, "Bye Dad."

"How come he always looks at me when he says that?" Taylor asked as we walked out to the car parked out in the driveway.

"Because he knows you," I laughed as we got into the car and made the short drive to the border where we were held up for quite some time.

"Passports please," the border patrol officer said as we pulled up to the gate and rolled down the driver's side window.

"Here," Taylor said, handing him our passports and the registration papers for my car. The officer then left and returned moments later.

"Thank you," he said, handing us back our papers before letting us through the gate.

"That was easy enough," I remarked, "Normally they'd stop us and ask us if we're planning on drinking if we're 19," I laughed.

"I've lied my way through that one a few times," he laughed, "They let me through though because I'm Canadian and they really can't do anything about it. They probably just think I'm taking you home with me after going to a bar early," he laughed.

"Sure, Tay, sure," I laughed.

###

Half an hour or so later, we had made our way to the club that we were meeting a few of Taylor's old teammates at for the night. Before that, we checked into some shitty hotel that we'd rented a room at so we wouldn't drive home drunk. We'd hung out with a few guys from the team so far over break, but we hadn't gotten to see these guys yet over break.

"If it isn't the man himself, Taylor fucking McCarthy," Chase remarked as we found the group in the corner of the club at a table. Chase was the loudest loudmouth ever when he was drinking and he was even chatty when he was sober. I swore I'd never heard him be quiet for more than two minutes at a time.

"How's it going?" Taylor said as they did their little man hug thing. I swear men had the dumbest way of greeting each other, like they have to make up some kind of manly hug to make themselves look tough and bro-ish or some weird shit like that.