The Hockey Life
Happy New Year
PART SIXTEEN: HAPPY NEW YEAR
When I got home I immediately changed into work out clothes. Tess and I hadn’t gone to the gym in a while, but we wanted to spend the last day of the year feeling strong and healthy. We took her car and got a good cardio and weights workout session in. By the time we got home, it was time to start getting ready. Tess called dibs on the shower before I could, so I ate a snack of apple slices and peanut butter while I waited for her to get done. When she got out of the bathroom we switched places and she finished off my snack.
“You ate the rest of my apples?” I questioned her, walking into the kitchen in a towel.
“You weren’t eating them,” Tess replied.
“I was in the shower! I wasn’t going to eat in there!”
“Your loss, then.”
“Well, you finished them, so you get to wash the plate,” I decided. It wasn’t a very good punishment, but it would have to work.
Tess and I crammed into the bathroom together, attempting to get ready at the same time. Our tiny bathroom didn’t make the situation very easy, but we had gotten used to the small size of it. While she did her hair, I did my makeup and vice versa. When we were done with that, we put our dresses on. We had to zip each other’s dresses up and once we had all our jewelry and our shoes on, we looked at ourselves in our mirrors.
“Damn, we look good,” Tess decided. “Look at you! You look so tiny in that dress!” she said. She was right. Both of our dresses hugged our bodies and made us look amazing.
“So do you!” I told her.
“There’s going to be trouble tonight!” she answered.
“What do you mean?”
“You’ve got two guys after you already. With the way you look tonight, they’re going to be fighting for you for sure,” she explained. As appealing as that could be, I didn’t even want to think about it.
“I’d rather they didn’t. I’d like to end the year on a good note.”
“Whatever. Are you ready to go, then?” she asked. I nodded, so we grabbed our purses and headed out.
*******************************************************
Jonathan Toews lived in a spacious apartment on the other side of the city. When we got there, we were amazed at it. I think we had forgotten how much money athletes earned a year until we saw where he lived.
“Hey, welcome to the House of Toews,” Patrick Kane said, greeting us at the door.
“Stop answering the door for me Kaner,” Jonathan scolded him, pushing him out of the doorway. “Hey guys, sorry about him. He’s just naturally that annoying. Come on in,” he said to us. Tess and I walked into the apartment and he closed the door behind us. We had arrived on time, but it seemed like the party had been going on for a few hours. There were a lot of people there already, including most of the team and possibly some of Jonathan’s friends. No other interns had arrived yet.
“Do you guys want a tour?” he asked.
“Sure!” Tess answered for the both of us.
“Alright, let’s go then. Corey’s on door duty,” he said.
He gave us a quick tour, showing us the kitchen, bathroom, bedrooms, etc. I decided that I wouldn’t mind moving in with him, but I knew that was Tess’ job, so I didn’t say anything.
By the time we went back to the main living room area, a lot more people had showed up, including the rest of the interns. I said hello to all of them, even Puck Bunny, who gave me attitude like always.
“Is that the Puck Slut?” Tess asked, not even trying to be quiet.
“Yeah, that’s her.”
“She’s lovely,” Tess laughed. She sent a glare her way as soon as she saw Jonathan embracing her, though.
“That’s nothing, Tess. Please don’t kill her,” I warned. I then introduced her to Dylan, who came up to me. Tess was impressed by him, it seemed, but she had decided before she even got there that her main target was the Captain.
“You look really nice. I haven’t seen you dressed up since the first day at the United Center,” Dylan commented. I thanked him and then we all took drinks from Jonathan, who had offered them to us.
It didn’t take long for the party to get started. Soon everyone had arrived and the music was blasting. We helped ourselves to the appetizer-style foods that were in the kitchen and we danced too. We even played games on the Wii that someone had apparently brought. I had never been very good at video games, but I did beat almost everyone at Just Dance, which was fun.
“How’d you get so good at dancing?” Patrick asked me.
“A lot of practice,” I told him. “But you would know all about that. I’m sure it took a lot of time for you to create the Kaner Shuffle.”
“Oh yeah, definitely. But I’m sure you can do that too,” he decided.
“She’s a champion at the Kaner shuffle!” Tess joined the conversation. “And I’m not too bad at the Tazer Moonwalk, either,” she added, looking directly at Jonathan.
“Oh really?” he said.
“Yes, really. If you don’t believe me, I’ll prove it. Lena can do it too. She’ll do it with me,” Tess decided for me. Jonathan crossed his arms and watched as we did his dance perfectly. “I’ll Kaner shuffle with you if you want to prove that point, Lean!” Tess then added. We did Patrick’s dance too, and the guys seemed pretty impressed.
“I definitely liked the second performance better,” Patrick said.
“We all know whose dance is better, though,” Jonathan said. They were bickering like brothers, as usual. Tess and I just laughed at them.
An hour later, it was almost midnight. The huge, flat screen TV was on so we all could keep track of the countdown. It had been on for a while, but I had stopped paying attention to it. I tried not to hang around Patrick all night, because for some reason I was overly concerned about the possibility of triggering Dylan’s jealousy. Maybe it wasn’t actually a big deal, but I had no way to be sure. I tried talking to him a lot and moving from intern to intern and player to player, getting in conversations with everyone. Even so, Patrick still had a way of finding me again. He had just done so when I headed out onto Jonathan’s balcony. The winter air was cold. Piercing, actually, but I didn’t care. I loved seeing the city lights, and there was a great view from where I was standing.
“Aren’t your legs freezing?” he asked me, noticing that my arms were covered with sequined sleeves but my legs were bare.
“My everything is freezing,” I admitted, crossing my arms to try to keep warm.
“Do you want my jacket?” Patrick immediately began to take it off. I would gladly take his jacket any day, but I didn’t want him to be as freezing as I was.
“No, I’ll be fine. Thanks, though.”
“If you’re so cold, then why are you out here?” he wondered.
“I don’t know, I guess I wanted to get away for a second. I haven’t really been into any of the performances that have been on TV. Plus, this is an amazing view,” I explained.
“That’s fair.”
“Hey guys, one minute left!” a voice yelled to us. It was one of Jonathan’s friends, most likely, because he wasn’t a person I recognized.
“Well, do you at least want to go in for the countdown?” Patrick asked me. I had started to like what we had going there, but I was getting too cold, and it would be nice to celebrate with everyone else.
“Sure.” We headed inside and there were forty-five seconds left. I started to move towards Tess, but then I saw that she was standing close to Jonathan. Of course. She wanted to try to get a New Years kiss out of him. I wouldn’t get in the way of that. Thirty seconds left in the year and I realized that I was still by Patrick. Oh no. He probably thought I was mingling to get a kiss out of him! I couldn’t look that desperate. I had never had a New Years kiss before, so it would be nice to get one finally, but I didn’t need one. Twenty seconds. Should I mingle somewhere else? Should I stay where I was? Where could I go? I didn’t want to seem suspicious, and guys and girls seemed to be purposefully next to each other everywhere in the apartment. Fifteen seconds. I awkwardly moved around a little until I realized that I had nowhere to go. It didn’t matter. Nobody would kiss me. I decided to just stay where I was and watch the countdown and see the others kiss like I had every year previously. Ten, nine, eight. Tess was definitely going to get her moment with Jonathan. Seven, six. Dylan was preoccupied with a girl that I didn’t recognize, maybe just one of the player’s friends that I didn’t know. Five, four, three.
“Hey.” I felt a hand on my arm. It was Patrick, grabbing my attention. I looked over at him. Two, one. He pulled me in and I felt his lips collide with mine. He was kissing me. I could barely believe what was happening. I almost wanted to open my eyes, just to make sure it was real, but I decided not to ruin anything. It almost seemed to last forever, probably because I couldn’t help but enjoy the moment, maybe a little too much. But at the same time, it seemed like he pulled away in a millisecond. When he did, I felt myself smiling like an idiot. I wanted to be embarrassed by how ridiculous I probably looked, but when I saw a matching grin on his face, I no longer cared. “Happy new year,” he said.
“Happy new year.”
When I got home I immediately changed into work out clothes. Tess and I hadn’t gone to the gym in a while, but we wanted to spend the last day of the year feeling strong and healthy. We took her car and got a good cardio and weights workout session in. By the time we got home, it was time to start getting ready. Tess called dibs on the shower before I could, so I ate a snack of apple slices and peanut butter while I waited for her to get done. When she got out of the bathroom we switched places and she finished off my snack.
“You ate the rest of my apples?” I questioned her, walking into the kitchen in a towel.
“You weren’t eating them,” Tess replied.
“I was in the shower! I wasn’t going to eat in there!”
“Your loss, then.”
“Well, you finished them, so you get to wash the plate,” I decided. It wasn’t a very good punishment, but it would have to work.
Tess and I crammed into the bathroom together, attempting to get ready at the same time. Our tiny bathroom didn’t make the situation very easy, but we had gotten used to the small size of it. While she did her hair, I did my makeup and vice versa. When we were done with that, we put our dresses on. We had to zip each other’s dresses up and once we had all our jewelry and our shoes on, we looked at ourselves in our mirrors.
“Damn, we look good,” Tess decided. “Look at you! You look so tiny in that dress!” she said. She was right. Both of our dresses hugged our bodies and made us look amazing.
“So do you!” I told her.
“There’s going to be trouble tonight!” she answered.
“What do you mean?”
“You’ve got two guys after you already. With the way you look tonight, they’re going to be fighting for you for sure,” she explained. As appealing as that could be, I didn’t even want to think about it.
“I’d rather they didn’t. I’d like to end the year on a good note.”
“Whatever. Are you ready to go, then?” she asked. I nodded, so we grabbed our purses and headed out.
*******************************************************
Jonathan Toews lived in a spacious apartment on the other side of the city. When we got there, we were amazed at it. I think we had forgotten how much money athletes earned a year until we saw where he lived.
“Hey, welcome to the House of Toews,” Patrick Kane said, greeting us at the door.
“Stop answering the door for me Kaner,” Jonathan scolded him, pushing him out of the doorway. “Hey guys, sorry about him. He’s just naturally that annoying. Come on in,” he said to us. Tess and I walked into the apartment and he closed the door behind us. We had arrived on time, but it seemed like the party had been going on for a few hours. There were a lot of people there already, including most of the team and possibly some of Jonathan’s friends. No other interns had arrived yet.
“Do you guys want a tour?” he asked.
“Sure!” Tess answered for the both of us.
“Alright, let’s go then. Corey’s on door duty,” he said.
He gave us a quick tour, showing us the kitchen, bathroom, bedrooms, etc. I decided that I wouldn’t mind moving in with him, but I knew that was Tess’ job, so I didn’t say anything.
By the time we went back to the main living room area, a lot more people had showed up, including the rest of the interns. I said hello to all of them, even Puck Bunny, who gave me attitude like always.
“Is that the Puck Slut?” Tess asked, not even trying to be quiet.
“Yeah, that’s her.”
“She’s lovely,” Tess laughed. She sent a glare her way as soon as she saw Jonathan embracing her, though.
“That’s nothing, Tess. Please don’t kill her,” I warned. I then introduced her to Dylan, who came up to me. Tess was impressed by him, it seemed, but she had decided before she even got there that her main target was the Captain.
“You look really nice. I haven’t seen you dressed up since the first day at the United Center,” Dylan commented. I thanked him and then we all took drinks from Jonathan, who had offered them to us.
It didn’t take long for the party to get started. Soon everyone had arrived and the music was blasting. We helped ourselves to the appetizer-style foods that were in the kitchen and we danced too. We even played games on the Wii that someone had apparently brought. I had never been very good at video games, but I did beat almost everyone at Just Dance, which was fun.
“How’d you get so good at dancing?” Patrick asked me.
“A lot of practice,” I told him. “But you would know all about that. I’m sure it took a lot of time for you to create the Kaner Shuffle.”
“Oh yeah, definitely. But I’m sure you can do that too,” he decided.
“She’s a champion at the Kaner shuffle!” Tess joined the conversation. “And I’m not too bad at the Tazer Moonwalk, either,” she added, looking directly at Jonathan.
“Oh really?” he said.
“Yes, really. If you don’t believe me, I’ll prove it. Lena can do it too. She’ll do it with me,” Tess decided for me. Jonathan crossed his arms and watched as we did his dance perfectly. “I’ll Kaner shuffle with you if you want to prove that point, Lean!” Tess then added. We did Patrick’s dance too, and the guys seemed pretty impressed.
“I definitely liked the second performance better,” Patrick said.
“We all know whose dance is better, though,” Jonathan said. They were bickering like brothers, as usual. Tess and I just laughed at them.
An hour later, it was almost midnight. The huge, flat screen TV was on so we all could keep track of the countdown. It had been on for a while, but I had stopped paying attention to it. I tried not to hang around Patrick all night, because for some reason I was overly concerned about the possibility of triggering Dylan’s jealousy. Maybe it wasn’t actually a big deal, but I had no way to be sure. I tried talking to him a lot and moving from intern to intern and player to player, getting in conversations with everyone. Even so, Patrick still had a way of finding me again. He had just done so when I headed out onto Jonathan’s balcony. The winter air was cold. Piercing, actually, but I didn’t care. I loved seeing the city lights, and there was a great view from where I was standing.
“Aren’t your legs freezing?” he asked me, noticing that my arms were covered with sequined sleeves but my legs were bare.
“My everything is freezing,” I admitted, crossing my arms to try to keep warm.
“Do you want my jacket?” Patrick immediately began to take it off. I would gladly take his jacket any day, but I didn’t want him to be as freezing as I was.
“No, I’ll be fine. Thanks, though.”
“If you’re so cold, then why are you out here?” he wondered.
“I don’t know, I guess I wanted to get away for a second. I haven’t really been into any of the performances that have been on TV. Plus, this is an amazing view,” I explained.
“That’s fair.”
“Hey guys, one minute left!” a voice yelled to us. It was one of Jonathan’s friends, most likely, because he wasn’t a person I recognized.
“Well, do you at least want to go in for the countdown?” Patrick asked me. I had started to like what we had going there, but I was getting too cold, and it would be nice to celebrate with everyone else.
“Sure.” We headed inside and there were forty-five seconds left. I started to move towards Tess, but then I saw that she was standing close to Jonathan. Of course. She wanted to try to get a New Years kiss out of him. I wouldn’t get in the way of that. Thirty seconds left in the year and I realized that I was still by Patrick. Oh no. He probably thought I was mingling to get a kiss out of him! I couldn’t look that desperate. I had never had a New Years kiss before, so it would be nice to get one finally, but I didn’t need one. Twenty seconds. Should I mingle somewhere else? Should I stay where I was? Where could I go? I didn’t want to seem suspicious, and guys and girls seemed to be purposefully next to each other everywhere in the apartment. Fifteen seconds. I awkwardly moved around a little until I realized that I had nowhere to go. It didn’t matter. Nobody would kiss me. I decided to just stay where I was and watch the countdown and see the others kiss like I had every year previously. Ten, nine, eight. Tess was definitely going to get her moment with Jonathan. Seven, six. Dylan was preoccupied with a girl that I didn’t recognize, maybe just one of the player’s friends that I didn’t know. Five, four, three.
“Hey.” I felt a hand on my arm. It was Patrick, grabbing my attention. I looked over at him. Two, one. He pulled me in and I felt his lips collide with mine. He was kissing me. I could barely believe what was happening. I almost wanted to open my eyes, just to make sure it was real, but I decided not to ruin anything. It almost seemed to last forever, probably because I couldn’t help but enjoy the moment, maybe a little too much. But at the same time, it seemed like he pulled away in a millisecond. When he did, I felt myself smiling like an idiot. I wanted to be embarrassed by how ridiculous I probably looked, but when I saw a matching grin on his face, I no longer cared. “Happy new year,” he said.
“Happy new year.”
@hockeygirl07
Thank you so much! :)
11/1/14