The Hockey Life

PART THIRTY-FOUR: LET’S GET AWKWARD
The next day Tess and I made sure to watch the Hawks game. It was an important one. In fact, if the Hawks won, they would get a spot in the playoffs for sure. Our neighbors probably hated us for yelling and cheering so much, but we didn’t care. The Hawks ended up winning and getting the spot.
It was April now, so they only had a few weeks left of regular season games and then the playoffs would officially begin. To some, it almost seemed like the regular season didn’t even matter anymore. They had their spot reserved, so why would it matter if they won or lost at this point? Well, the Hawks were in a very good spot so even if they didn’t do their best, they still wouldn’t have to worry too much. But to them, the last few games of the regular season were everything. They wanted to play their best games of the season then so they would be prepared for the most anticipated time of the year for hockey.
Because of how important it was to do well now, Patrick was putting a lot of pressure on himself. He practiced harder, he mentally prepared himself more than ever, and he was focused purely on hockey. I was glad that he was trying so hard and that he cared so much, but at the same time, I now knew how he felt when I would turn him down. He never made any promises that we would go out anymore, because he knew there was a chance he would have to break them if he did. We mostly just had quick lunch dates or hangouts at my place or his that only lasted for about an hour. It was a little upsetting to me that we barely had time for each other anymore. I wanted to be able to spend the whole day with him doing whatever we wanted like we used to be able to. I knew going into this relationship that it was going to be difficult to be with each other, though. I knew I had no reason to feel let down.
As much as it hurt sometimes to say goodbye after only an hour or less of free time, I really couldn’t complain, though. I enjoyed my time with him. It was always the highlight of my day when I got to be with him. It seemed to be the same way with him. The longer we were together, the closer we got emotionally. I trusted him with more things and I realized how important he was to me. I would get mad at him for stupid little things, especially since we were both stressed out and we made ridiculous mistakes because of it. I never stayed mad at him though. I couldn’t. I liked him too much. Way too much. I wasn’t the only one who was having this epiphany, though.
On one of the last weekends of April, I went to Brian’s place to visit him. We used to hang out all the time, mostly during my first two years of college, but now that rarely happened. We had to stick to Skype dates mostly, so we could multitask. We finally got a chance to actually hang out, though, so we decided on me coming to his apartment. His place was a lot nicer than mine, and more spacious too. Plus, he had a cute roommate. Brian lived with his childhood friend David, who I used to have a crush on when I was little. Of course, I grew up and realized that he wasn’t my type at all, but he still wasn’t bad looking. I wasn’t disappointed that I got a glimpse of him when I first arrived at Brian’s place. David was leaving so he wouldn’t interrupt our brother-sister bonding time, I guess.
“You’re still crushing on him, aren’t you?” Brian asked once David had left.
“No, I’m not crushing on him. I just think he’s attractive. There’s actually a difference, Brian. You can think someone is good looking without having an interest in dating them,” I explained. Besides, I was perfectly happy with my current boyfriend. I’d take him over David any day.
Speaking of Patrick, he became a topic of conversation. Neither of us brought him up for a while, surprisingly. We played a game of darts, ate a meal, and had a Wii bowling tournament before he ever came up. When he did, though, I almost wished he hadn’t. Things actually got very awkward.
“So, I hear you and Patrick are getting pretty serious,” Brian said as he made a bowl of popcorn.
“Yeah, you could say that. I really like him, and things are going very well.”
“I know, I’ve heard. Me and him are besties, remember?” I couldn’t help but giggle at the fact that my brother was using the term “besties”.
“Yeah, I remember.”
“Well, we talk a lot, and he seems to be just as into you as you’re into him, but I just want you to be careful, okay?”
“Be careful? What do you mean?” I watched my brother pull a handful of condoms out of his pocket and place them in my hand.
“I don’t know what you guys are doing, and it’s none of my business, but I just don’t want anything bad to happen, okay?” I stared at my brother in awe. It was starting to feel as awkward as it had felt when my mom tried giving me the sex talk in middle school.
“What makes you think I need these?” I asked, letting them fall onto the couch so I could push them back towards Brian.
“Don’t think anything bad, okay? It’s not like Patrick has said anything about anything like this, but he’s my age, Lean. I don’t care how nice of a guy anyone is, all guys are the same in that they all want sex. As much as you’re my little sister and my protective instincts make me want absolutely no guy to ever lay a hand on you, I can’t control your relationship. You’re old enough to do whatever you want, but I just want to make sure you protect yourself,” Brian told me.
“Okay. Well, thanks, I guess,” I answered, quickly shoving a few of his awko taco gifts into my purse. “You keep the rest. Trust me, I don’t need this many. Right now I don’t even need one,” I assured him.
“Good to know,” he said.
“Can we talk about something less awkward now?” I asked.
“Yeah, I guess if you really want to change the subject. But I mean, I thought it was a really great, comfortable, stimulating conversation.” Oh how I had missed my brother’s sarcasm. We definitely needed to find more time to hang out, even if it did mean that we’d have such weird moments.
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After a day with Brian, I came home to a lonely, bored Tess who would do anything for entertainment. I guess it was her lucky day that I had such an interesting story to tell.
“Thank god you’re back, I’ve been so bored all day without you,” she told me.
“Don’t you have other friends to hang out with besides me?” I wondered as I hung up my coat and took off my boots.
“Everybody’s busy. The TV is my only friend right now,” she answered. She appeared to be watching a Real Housewives of Orange County marathon.
“Well I’m here to save you from your boredom then, even though I’m the one who really needed to be saved today.”
“From boredom?”
“No, from awkwardness.” Tess made room for me on the couch and turned down the volume on the TV. If it was an awkward story, she was all for it. “So you know how me and Patrick are a lot closer than we used to be, right? And Patrick and Brian are friends, so they talk to each other pretty often, right?”
“Yeah, so?”
“So today Brian mentioned that and then he was telling me that I needed to be careful and stuff and I was like, ’Wait, what?’ And then he pulls a bunch of condoms out of his damn pocket and gives them to me.”
“Seriously? Did Patrick tell him something?” Tess asked.
“No. Brian said that he doesn’t know what we do and Patrick doesn’t say anything like that but he was basically saying that guys his age are going to be looking for sex and he just wants me to protect myself, no matter what we choose to do,” I explained.
“Wow. Awko taco.”
“I know! It was so weird.”
“So did you take his donation?”
“Not all of it. I only took these, but I swear to god he tried to give me like ten of them. Who the hell does he think I am?” I wondered, tossing the three condoms that I had accepted from him onto the coffee table. It wasn’t like I was going to need them in my purse anytime soon.
“Apparently he’s mistaken you with some girl who has a way better sex life than you do,” Tess laughed.
“Oh, shut up. I’m sure if I was ready it would have happened by now, but I don’t want to do it yet.”
“Wait, did you just say you don’t want to? I cannot be speaking to the same girl I knew in 2010 who claimed she was no puck bunny but that wouldn’t stop her from giving Patrick Kane the best Stanley Cup celebration he’d ever have…”
“First of all, let’s not mention that I said such a fangirly, slutty thing and second of all, I don’t mean that I haven’t thought about it, it’s just that I’m not committed to it. For me that’s a huge step that I just want to make sure I’m completely ready for, that’s all.”
“Okay, fine. Well, if you don’t think you’re going to be needing these, I guess I’ll use them.”
“Tess!”
“Oh please, I’m kidding. It’s been forever since I’ve needed one, you know that. I’m still waiting for Jonathan to make a move, and I’m pretty sure you’ll get laid before he asks me out. I’m just going to put these in one of the bathroom drawers for when you do need them,” Tess decided. As we ended the day with the rest of the reality show marathon, I couldn’t help but realize that it had been the most awkward day of my life, without fail.

Notes

Well, I did a double update today. I hope you guys liked the chapters! Let me know what you think as usual :)