The Hockey Life
Popsicles and the Friend Zone
PART TWENTY-FOUR: POPSICLES AND THE FRIEND ZONE
In Dylan’s P.O.V.
This was it. I had to fix things with Lena. I had been afraid that she wouldn’t want to talk to me anymore, but here I was, video chatting with her. She became clear on my laptop screen and I realized I would have to speak. Wow, this might be more difficult than I had anticipated.
“Hey there,” she said awkwardly to me.
“Hi.” I answered the girl on my laptop who I hadn’t really spoken to in a week.
“I’m sorry about barging into your practice last week. I wanted to fix everything but instead I just made it all worse,” Lena apologized.
“No, I’m sorry. I was being a total dick to you. None of it was your fault,” I admitted. It was nice that she was apologizing and that she cared so much about it all, but I had been way too dramatic about everything. Everything could have been fine if I would have just pretended not to like her. Unfortunately, I wasn’t convinced that I could ever be a very good actor.
“It’s okay. I really wish I would have realized how you felt, though. I honestly would have talked to you about the whole relationship thing before saying yes to Patrick if I had known,” Lena said.
“I know, it’s fine. Don’t feel bad about it, okay? It’s over with, now.”
“And you’re okay?”
“Yeah, of course.”
“No, seriously Dylan. Are you okay with Patrick and I being together?” Lena suddenly seemed so serious. As serious as Jonathan Toews, actually. It was scary, almost.
“Yes, Lena. I’m fine with it. I know he makes you happy, and as long as you’re happy, I’m happy,” I said. I thought I couldn’t pull off acting, but apparently I was wrong, because my voice didn’t crack. I sounded strong, actually, as if I was confident in my answer, but the whole thing was a lie. I wasn’t really fine with it. It would be hard for me to see her with him, I knew it. I did want her to be happy, and I was glad to see that she was in a good place in her life, but I really wished she could be happy with me. I wouldn’t let her know that, though. If I had been able to hide my feelings for her for two weeks without even trying to, then I could definitely hide this.
“Okay. Well, I’m glad we could settle this. Friends?” Lena asked.
“Friends,” I answered, letting the fact that I had been completely friend zoned sink in. We talked for a little longer, though. I knew I should be grateful that we were still talking and that I hadn’t completely lost her, so I tried my best to be just that. When we ended the video chat, I immediately grabbed my hockey bag. A little extra practice couldn’t hurt.
In Lena’s P.O.V.
“Who were you just talking to?” Tess wondered, walking into my room with a box of popsicles in her hand right when the video chat with Dylan ended.
“Dylan. He was ready to talk, so we did. We both apologized to each other. Everything seems to be better now. After we talked things out, we had a pretty normal conversation. It was almost like nothing had happened,” I admitted. It had all gone much smoother than I had expected, so I couldn’t complain.
“That’s awesome, Lean! See, I told you he just needed time,” Tess said.
“Um, actually I was the one who said he needed time. You just agreed with me…” I corrected her.
“Same thing.”
“So what could have possibly compelled you to feel the need to eat a whole box of popsicles?” I asked, still eyeing the box in her hands.
“I’m not eating all of them at once, you idiot. I was only going to have one, but I wanted to know if you wanted to have a popsicle eating contest. You know, like Ladd and Byfuglien or Kaner and Tazer.” Oh god. We had a popsicle eating contest once before, when that Blackhawks Olympics video first came out, and I’m pretty sure we both cheated. We never even came up with a winner.
“Okay, we can have a contest, but we have to take this one seriously. And we have to get out the Aspirin, because you know I’m prone to headaches and we’ll get brain freeze for sure,” I told her.
We made the whole thing completely official. We decided to make a video of the event to show to Patrick and Jonathan. We figured they’d really appreciate it. I put on blue for Team USA and Tess put on red for Team Canada. We set up a camera and we put our twin popsicles of choice on plates at our normal settings at our breakfast bar.
“You ready for this?” Tess asked, unsure about whether she should look at me or the camera.
“I was born ready,” I said. We counted down from three on our fingers and when it was time to start, she hit the button on her air horn app she had on her phone. We had the dialogue from the video memorized, so the whole time we quoted Kaner and Tazer. However, even though we were imitating their outfits and their words, we didn’t eat like them. In fact, we switched roles in that department. Tess took smaller bites and had trouble eating her popsicles quickly while I took the biggest bites I possibly could to get it over with quickly.
“I’m gonna tell you my secret now, since I’m gonna win anyways. You chew it and you swallow it!” Tess yelled with a whole popsicle still sitting on her plate. I took my last bite and laughed.
“I’m pretty sure you didn’t win, Team Canada! The tables have turned!” I said.
“Whatever, Lena. At least I’m probably not in as much pain as you are right now,” Tess said, rolling her eyes at the fact that she was defeated. She was right though; the pain in my mouth was pretty brutal. We both had sensitive teeth.
When we were done with our contest, Tess put the video footage on her laptop and edited it with the software she had. When she was done, it actually didn’t look too bad. It might have even been Youtube worthy, but I didn’t have the guts to post it and neither did Tess. We sent the video to Patrick and Jonathan and got immediate replies from both of them. They both seemed to enjoy our interesting attempt at a competition.
In Patrick’s P.O.V.
“Hey Johnny, come look at this,” I said, stifling a laugh. We were supposed to be packing our bags so we could head back to Chicago after another successful road trip, but I was distracted by a video Lena sent me. Her and Tess decided to have a popsicle eating competition a lot like the one Tazer and I had in 2010. It was pretty hilarious to watch, I had to say.
“If it’s the popsicle video, I just got it. Tess sent it to me too,” Johnny said.
“They have way too much free time on their hands,” I decided, replaying the video.
“Yeah, it looks like they’ve been preparing for this. Or at least, Lena has. She dominated. Unlike you, in 2010.”
“You’re really still going to hold that against me?” I asked, rolling my eyes at him.
“Of course I am!” he answered, a satisfied smile on his face.
“Hey, are you guys coming? We need to get on the plane!” Seabs asked, peeking his head into our hotel room.
“Yeah, we’re coming. Kaner’s just a little distracted by his girlfriend at the moment,” Johnny answered.
“So is he,” I told Seabrook, zipping my bag closed.
“Tess isn’t my girlfriend,” Johnny retorted.
“Yeah, well, she should be,” I told him. He didn’t answer. Instead, he threw his bag over his shoulder and changed the subject as the three of us joined our teammates and left the hotel. Coming and going was exhausting, and I was tired before the plane ride home even started. However, that didn’t stop me from texting Lena as soon as I got off the plane. I would make time to be with her no matter how tired I was. Sure, it was a new relationship, and we had only been together for about a week, but I wasn’t about to screw this one up. I decided early on that I was going to try my best to keep her for as long as I could.
In Dylan’s P.O.V.
This was it. I had to fix things with Lena. I had been afraid that she wouldn’t want to talk to me anymore, but here I was, video chatting with her. She became clear on my laptop screen and I realized I would have to speak. Wow, this might be more difficult than I had anticipated.
“Hey there,” she said awkwardly to me.
“Hi.” I answered the girl on my laptop who I hadn’t really spoken to in a week.
“I’m sorry about barging into your practice last week. I wanted to fix everything but instead I just made it all worse,” Lena apologized.
“No, I’m sorry. I was being a total dick to you. None of it was your fault,” I admitted. It was nice that she was apologizing and that she cared so much about it all, but I had been way too dramatic about everything. Everything could have been fine if I would have just pretended not to like her. Unfortunately, I wasn’t convinced that I could ever be a very good actor.
“It’s okay. I really wish I would have realized how you felt, though. I honestly would have talked to you about the whole relationship thing before saying yes to Patrick if I had known,” Lena said.
“I know, it’s fine. Don’t feel bad about it, okay? It’s over with, now.”
“And you’re okay?”
“Yeah, of course.”
“No, seriously Dylan. Are you okay with Patrick and I being together?” Lena suddenly seemed so serious. As serious as Jonathan Toews, actually. It was scary, almost.
“Yes, Lena. I’m fine with it. I know he makes you happy, and as long as you’re happy, I’m happy,” I said. I thought I couldn’t pull off acting, but apparently I was wrong, because my voice didn’t crack. I sounded strong, actually, as if I was confident in my answer, but the whole thing was a lie. I wasn’t really fine with it. It would be hard for me to see her with him, I knew it. I did want her to be happy, and I was glad to see that she was in a good place in her life, but I really wished she could be happy with me. I wouldn’t let her know that, though. If I had been able to hide my feelings for her for two weeks without even trying to, then I could definitely hide this.
“Okay. Well, I’m glad we could settle this. Friends?” Lena asked.
“Friends,” I answered, letting the fact that I had been completely friend zoned sink in. We talked for a little longer, though. I knew I should be grateful that we were still talking and that I hadn’t completely lost her, so I tried my best to be just that. When we ended the video chat, I immediately grabbed my hockey bag. A little extra practice couldn’t hurt.
In Lena’s P.O.V.
“Who were you just talking to?” Tess wondered, walking into my room with a box of popsicles in her hand right when the video chat with Dylan ended.
“Dylan. He was ready to talk, so we did. We both apologized to each other. Everything seems to be better now. After we talked things out, we had a pretty normal conversation. It was almost like nothing had happened,” I admitted. It had all gone much smoother than I had expected, so I couldn’t complain.
“That’s awesome, Lean! See, I told you he just needed time,” Tess said.
“Um, actually I was the one who said he needed time. You just agreed with me…” I corrected her.
“Same thing.”
“So what could have possibly compelled you to feel the need to eat a whole box of popsicles?” I asked, still eyeing the box in her hands.
“I’m not eating all of them at once, you idiot. I was only going to have one, but I wanted to know if you wanted to have a popsicle eating contest. You know, like Ladd and Byfuglien or Kaner and Tazer.” Oh god. We had a popsicle eating contest once before, when that Blackhawks Olympics video first came out, and I’m pretty sure we both cheated. We never even came up with a winner.
“Okay, we can have a contest, but we have to take this one seriously. And we have to get out the Aspirin, because you know I’m prone to headaches and we’ll get brain freeze for sure,” I told her.
We made the whole thing completely official. We decided to make a video of the event to show to Patrick and Jonathan. We figured they’d really appreciate it. I put on blue for Team USA and Tess put on red for Team Canada. We set up a camera and we put our twin popsicles of choice on plates at our normal settings at our breakfast bar.
“You ready for this?” Tess asked, unsure about whether she should look at me or the camera.
“I was born ready,” I said. We counted down from three on our fingers and when it was time to start, she hit the button on her air horn app she had on her phone. We had the dialogue from the video memorized, so the whole time we quoted Kaner and Tazer. However, even though we were imitating their outfits and their words, we didn’t eat like them. In fact, we switched roles in that department. Tess took smaller bites and had trouble eating her popsicles quickly while I took the biggest bites I possibly could to get it over with quickly.
“I’m gonna tell you my secret now, since I’m gonna win anyways. You chew it and you swallow it!” Tess yelled with a whole popsicle still sitting on her plate. I took my last bite and laughed.
“I’m pretty sure you didn’t win, Team Canada! The tables have turned!” I said.
“Whatever, Lena. At least I’m probably not in as much pain as you are right now,” Tess said, rolling her eyes at the fact that she was defeated. She was right though; the pain in my mouth was pretty brutal. We both had sensitive teeth.
When we were done with our contest, Tess put the video footage on her laptop and edited it with the software she had. When she was done, it actually didn’t look too bad. It might have even been Youtube worthy, but I didn’t have the guts to post it and neither did Tess. We sent the video to Patrick and Jonathan and got immediate replies from both of them. They both seemed to enjoy our interesting attempt at a competition.
In Patrick’s P.O.V.
“Hey Johnny, come look at this,” I said, stifling a laugh. We were supposed to be packing our bags so we could head back to Chicago after another successful road trip, but I was distracted by a video Lena sent me. Her and Tess decided to have a popsicle eating competition a lot like the one Tazer and I had in 2010. It was pretty hilarious to watch, I had to say.
“If it’s the popsicle video, I just got it. Tess sent it to me too,” Johnny said.
“They have way too much free time on their hands,” I decided, replaying the video.
“Yeah, it looks like they’ve been preparing for this. Or at least, Lena has. She dominated. Unlike you, in 2010.”
“You’re really still going to hold that against me?” I asked, rolling my eyes at him.
“Of course I am!” he answered, a satisfied smile on his face.
“Hey, are you guys coming? We need to get on the plane!” Seabs asked, peeking his head into our hotel room.
“Yeah, we’re coming. Kaner’s just a little distracted by his girlfriend at the moment,” Johnny answered.
“So is he,” I told Seabrook, zipping my bag closed.
“Tess isn’t my girlfriend,” Johnny retorted.
“Yeah, well, she should be,” I told him. He didn’t answer. Instead, he threw his bag over his shoulder and changed the subject as the three of us joined our teammates and left the hotel. Coming and going was exhausting, and I was tired before the plane ride home even started. However, that didn’t stop me from texting Lena as soon as I got off the plane. I would make time to be with her no matter how tired I was. Sure, it was a new relationship, and we had only been together for about a week, but I wasn’t about to screw this one up. I decided early on that I was going to try my best to keep her for as long as I could.
Notes
Hey guys. I have a few apologies. 1. Sorry for the late update. 2. Sorry for the shortness of the chapter. 3. Sorry for the crappy title, I couldn't think of anything better. 4. Sorry for the abundance of P.O.V. switches. Hopefully they didn't take away from the story. Alright, well I'm done apologizing. I'll try to get back to updating relatively quickly again. Let me know what you think of the chapter, as always :) And also, if you want to see that original popsicle eating contest video, here's the link!http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lviy_cvb7l0
@hockeygirl07
Thank you so much! :)
11/1/14