The Hockey Life
Paparazzi
PART TWENTY-SIX: PAPARAZZI
The next week passed by quickly. It was more of the same that always happened. Tess and I went to classes and practices, she and Jonathan flirted back and forth constantly but still hadn’t even gone on a date yet, and I worked out some time with Patrick. Everything that happened seemed to go smoothly, but by the end of the week I realized that my new relationship wasn’t going by unnoticed.
On Friday night, Patrick took me to Harry Caray’s, which was well known as his favorite restaurant in Navy Pier. Because of that, I expected it to be a date he’d be more interested in than me, but I was pleasantly surprised. It was a really nice restaurant. It was beautiful inside and the seafood fettuccine that I ordered was top notch. The fact that it was in Navy Pier made it even better, because afterwards, we walked around the pier, all bundled up in our coats, hats, and scarves. It was seemingly perfect. However, I got a big surprise the next day.
It started off with the looks. I got a few in public when I was with Tess, getting lunch. People didn’t usually pay much attention to me, so I found it a little odd. Then later, at hockey practice, my teammates were asking me all about my date and commenting on it, even though I hadn’t mentioned it to them.
“Tess, why do you keep telling them everything before I can?!” I asked her.
“I didn’t tell them anything, Lean. I swear!” Tess confessed. I didn’t want to believe her but her eyes looked honestly into mine.
“Then how do you guys know so much about my date?” I wondered, looking at all of my fellow hockey players surrounding me.
“It’s everywhere, Lean. There are articles and pictures online,” Captain Carly said.
“Yeah, all you have to do is look up Patrick Kane and the latest posts are about you and him. If you type in Patrick Kane girlfriend, even more stuff will come up,” Jordan added. Practice was over by then and we were in the locker room, so she took out her phone and showed me. There were pictures of Patrick and I walking out of the restaurant and some of us just walking the pier as well. I honestly couldn’t believe that neither of us had really noticed the photographers at the time. They must have been dedicated, because they had managed to be sneaky.
“Wow. How’d you guys find this stuff in the first place?” I asked.
“By looking up stuff about the Hawks. I saw it on Tumblr first. Not all of us know the players personally like you do, so we still fan girl on occasion,” Jordan explained.
“Oh…well, what do the articles say?” I wondered. I knew I’d probably just get mad at the words I read, but I was too curious.
“They’re all pretty much the same. They just talk about how Patrick Kane was hand in hand with an unknown girl and that it appears that they were on a date. Some say they saw you two kiss or something and they’re all basically putting it out there that it seems like he’s got a girlfriend now. Rumors about your relationship are now becoming public.”
I read a few of the articles and looked at the pictures for a moment before getting back to changing out of my hockey gear. I should have expected this, but I often forgot how famous my boyfriend was. I didn’t even think about the fact that everybody would know about us soon enough. Now that we had made one appearance on the Internet, I knew that paparazzi would be sure to catch us again and again every time they saw us. We couldn’t escape them now.
I texted Patrick as I walked out of the locker room. It was partially to see how things were going in Buffalo, since he was currently there. The team had to be there for a game, but he also found time to visit his parents and sisters. Mostly, though, I wanted him to know that the paparazzi were on to us.
>Good, I’m hanging out at home right now
>Yeah. It’s the same as always, tho. They want me to stay longer and I have to tell them I can’t
>Nah, they see me enough
>What?
>Great. There aren’t any bad things about you, are there?
>Yeah, well just try to ignore it. That’s the best thing to do.
>Ok, good
>They don’t care that I’m texting you, ya know.
>Okay, I will
>Bye
In Patrick’s P.O.V:
“Who are you texting? Your lady friend?” Jacqueline asked when she noticed I was on my phone. I was sitting in the kitchen with my whole family, munching on some chips.
“Maybe,” I answered, putting my phone down. I jacked my sister’s laptop to check for the pictures and articles Lena had just told me about.
“Hey! I was using that!” Jacqueline scolded me.
“I’ll give it back in a second and I won’t close any of your windows,” I promised. “Really? Akira? You’re shopping online right now?”
“Duh!”
I rolled my eyes at my youngest sister before I did some basic Google searching and sure enough, there were all the pictures and articles. I felt my mom looking over my shoulder as I scrolled.
“The whole world gets to see her before we do? How is that fair?” she commented.
“You’ve seen her. You all have. I’ve shown you pictures!” I said.
“Well I’d rather meet her, you know,” she said.
“Yeah, when do we get to meet her?” Jessica wondered.
“You should invite her over here the next time you come!” Erika added. I loved my mom and my sisters, but sometimes they were overbearing. Having four women in the house got crazy. Luckily, my dad was relatively laid back and he knew how I was feeling.
“Quit bothering him and maybe he will invite her over,” my dad said.
“Honestly, I’d love to invite her over right now. I don’t want to push it, though. Maybe you guys can meet her in a few weeks. I want to make sure she’s okay with it first, though,” I decided.
After hanging out with my sisters for a while (which consisted of playing Just Dance and me getting badly beaten), I had to head to the Harbor Center. I had a game that night. My family was coming to support me, but they opted to leave a little later than me.
The game went well. We stayed pretty dominant and won 5-2 against the Sabres. I never scored but I got a couple assists, which was fine with me, even though I knew I probably could have done better. When I got back to my parents’ house, AKA my old home, I passed out almost right away. It had been a tiring night, but I got the best sleep I had gotten in a long time. There was something really comforting about being back in Buffalo.
***************************************************************
When I woke up in the morning, I immediately realized that I had made a mistake. My eyes slowly opened and my phone was the first thing that came into focus. Crap. I had fallen asleep before I could text Lena and I had told her that I would talk to her after the game. I grabbed my phone and managed to send her the most sleepy Snapchat ever. I probably looked high or something in the picture, but I added an apology and sent it without caring. It didn’t take long for me to get a reply. It looked like Lena had woken up recently too; she had no makeup on and she appeared to be lounging in bed. It was a good look for her, honestly.
After a couple more sleepy Snapchats, I got out of bed and let the smell of eggs and bacon waft into my nose. My mom was at it again, cooking a big breakfast. She always did this when the whole family was reunited. I definitely wasn’t complaining; I loved home cooked meals with my family, and I didn’t get to enjoy my mom’s cooking that often anymore.
Even though I was enjoying my time there, I didn’t stay for very long after breakfast. A few hours later, I was packing up and heading back to Chicago. We had a few days off without games, but I did have practice the next morning. Traveling in the afternoon was better than traveling at night, and it would allow me to get more sleep before the morning skate. It honestly sucked to leave Buffalo. It was harder than I expected it to be. It had always been my home and it always would be, even though I loved Chicago. Chi-town had become my second home, though, so when I got back, I didn’t have all that much homesickness. Everything felt pretty normal once again.
The next week passed by quickly. It was more of the same that always happened. Tess and I went to classes and practices, she and Jonathan flirted back and forth constantly but still hadn’t even gone on a date yet, and I worked out some time with Patrick. Everything that happened seemed to go smoothly, but by the end of the week I realized that my new relationship wasn’t going by unnoticed.
On Friday night, Patrick took me to Harry Caray’s, which was well known as his favorite restaurant in Navy Pier. Because of that, I expected it to be a date he’d be more interested in than me, but I was pleasantly surprised. It was a really nice restaurant. It was beautiful inside and the seafood fettuccine that I ordered was top notch. The fact that it was in Navy Pier made it even better, because afterwards, we walked around the pier, all bundled up in our coats, hats, and scarves. It was seemingly perfect. However, I got a big surprise the next day.
It started off with the looks. I got a few in public when I was with Tess, getting lunch. People didn’t usually pay much attention to me, so I found it a little odd. Then later, at hockey practice, my teammates were asking me all about my date and commenting on it, even though I hadn’t mentioned it to them.
“Tess, why do you keep telling them everything before I can?!” I asked her.
“I didn’t tell them anything, Lean. I swear!” Tess confessed. I didn’t want to believe her but her eyes looked honestly into mine.
“Then how do you guys know so much about my date?” I wondered, looking at all of my fellow hockey players surrounding me.
“It’s everywhere, Lean. There are articles and pictures online,” Captain Carly said.
“Yeah, all you have to do is look up Patrick Kane and the latest posts are about you and him. If you type in Patrick Kane girlfriend, even more stuff will come up,” Jordan added. Practice was over by then and we were in the locker room, so she took out her phone and showed me. There were pictures of Patrick and I walking out of the restaurant and some of us just walking the pier as well. I honestly couldn’t believe that neither of us had really noticed the photographers at the time. They must have been dedicated, because they had managed to be sneaky.
“Wow. How’d you guys find this stuff in the first place?” I asked.
“By looking up stuff about the Hawks. I saw it on Tumblr first. Not all of us know the players personally like you do, so we still fan girl on occasion,” Jordan explained.
“Oh…well, what do the articles say?” I wondered. I knew I’d probably just get mad at the words I read, but I was too curious.
“They’re all pretty much the same. They just talk about how Patrick Kane was hand in hand with an unknown girl and that it appears that they were on a date. Some say they saw you two kiss or something and they’re all basically putting it out there that it seems like he’s got a girlfriend now. Rumors about your relationship are now becoming public.”
I read a few of the articles and looked at the pictures for a moment before getting back to changing out of my hockey gear. I should have expected this, but I often forgot how famous my boyfriend was. I didn’t even think about the fact that everybody would know about us soon enough. Now that we had made one appearance on the Internet, I knew that paparazzi would be sure to catch us again and again every time they saw us. We couldn’t escape them now.
I texted Patrick as I walked out of the locker room. It was partially to see how things were going in Buffalo, since he was currently there. The team had to be there for a game, but he also found time to visit his parents and sisters. Mostly, though, I wanted him to know that the paparazzi were on to us.
>Good, I’m hanging out at home right now
>Yeah. It’s the same as always, tho. They want me to stay longer and I have to tell them I can’t
>Nah, they see me enough
>What?
>Great. There aren’t any bad things about you, are there?
>Yeah, well just try to ignore it. That’s the best thing to do.
>Ok, good
>They don’t care that I’m texting you, ya know.
>Okay, I will
>Bye
In Patrick’s P.O.V:
“Who are you texting? Your lady friend?” Jacqueline asked when she noticed I was on my phone. I was sitting in the kitchen with my whole family, munching on some chips.
“Maybe,” I answered, putting my phone down. I jacked my sister’s laptop to check for the pictures and articles Lena had just told me about.
“Hey! I was using that!” Jacqueline scolded me.
“I’ll give it back in a second and I won’t close any of your windows,” I promised. “Really? Akira? You’re shopping online right now?”
“Duh!”
I rolled my eyes at my youngest sister before I did some basic Google searching and sure enough, there were all the pictures and articles. I felt my mom looking over my shoulder as I scrolled.
“The whole world gets to see her before we do? How is that fair?” she commented.
“You’ve seen her. You all have. I’ve shown you pictures!” I said.
“Well I’d rather meet her, you know,” she said.
“Yeah, when do we get to meet her?” Jessica wondered.
“You should invite her over here the next time you come!” Erika added. I loved my mom and my sisters, but sometimes they were overbearing. Having four women in the house got crazy. Luckily, my dad was relatively laid back and he knew how I was feeling.
“Quit bothering him and maybe he will invite her over,” my dad said.
“Honestly, I’d love to invite her over right now. I don’t want to push it, though. Maybe you guys can meet her in a few weeks. I want to make sure she’s okay with it first, though,” I decided.
After hanging out with my sisters for a while (which consisted of playing Just Dance and me getting badly beaten), I had to head to the Harbor Center. I had a game that night. My family was coming to support me, but they opted to leave a little later than me.
The game went well. We stayed pretty dominant and won 5-2 against the Sabres. I never scored but I got a couple assists, which was fine with me, even though I knew I probably could have done better. When I got back to my parents’ house, AKA my old home, I passed out almost right away. It had been a tiring night, but I got the best sleep I had gotten in a long time. There was something really comforting about being back in Buffalo.
***************************************************************
When I woke up in the morning, I immediately realized that I had made a mistake. My eyes slowly opened and my phone was the first thing that came into focus. Crap. I had fallen asleep before I could text Lena and I had told her that I would talk to her after the game. I grabbed my phone and managed to send her the most sleepy Snapchat ever. I probably looked high or something in the picture, but I added an apology and sent it without caring. It didn’t take long for me to get a reply. It looked like Lena had woken up recently too; she had no makeup on and she appeared to be lounging in bed. It was a good look for her, honestly.
After a couple more sleepy Snapchats, I got out of bed and let the smell of eggs and bacon waft into my nose. My mom was at it again, cooking a big breakfast. She always did this when the whole family was reunited. I definitely wasn’t complaining; I loved home cooked meals with my family, and I didn’t get to enjoy my mom’s cooking that often anymore.
Even though I was enjoying my time there, I didn’t stay for very long after breakfast. A few hours later, I was packing up and heading back to Chicago. We had a few days off without games, but I did have practice the next morning. Traveling in the afternoon was better than traveling at night, and it would allow me to get more sleep before the morning skate. It honestly sucked to leave Buffalo. It was harder than I expected it to be. It had always been my home and it always would be, even though I loved Chicago. Chi-town had become my second home, though, so when I got back, I didn’t have all that much homesickness. Everything felt pretty normal once again.
@hockeygirl07
Thank you so much! :)
11/1/14