Summary:

When Shane collides with Cliff Marlow during the Montreal vs Boston game in April of 2017, Ilya has to get through the evening not knowing how he's doing. He eventually confides in his roommate Cliff, who subsequently invites himself onto Ilya's trip to the hospital the next morning.

 

“Ask,” Ilya said flatly, trying not to admit to himself that he probably knew what he was about to be asked.

“What is your relationship with Shane Hollander?” Marlow asked. 

He didn’t ask ‘are you and Shane Hollander in a relationship?’. If he asked that, Ilya might have laughed and told him everything. As it was, he considered lying. He was pretty sure that at this point, Marlow would believe whatever Ilya told him. It was apparently clear to Marlow that something was different about Shane and Ilya, so if Ilya told him they were friends and that Shane had been reaching out to him about his father, Marlow would believe him. It technically wasn’t untrue.

It also wasn’t covering the part where they’d been fucking since they were nineteen years old.