The Hockey Life

PART SEVENTY-NINE: MAKING A SCENE
Patrick’s POV

It was supposed to be a normal morning - just another flight to Dallas for our first game of the regular season. I was excited to begin another season with the Hawks, and I knew it should be interesting to play against Tyler Seguin to start things off. I was happy to have patched things up with Lena. It felt good to be going on a road trip knowing that we were okay again. It wasn’t until we got to the airport that all of that changed.
I met up with my teammates and Lena was with the trainers and other staff. Not everyone had arrived yet, so we were waiting around both for them and for our plane to arrive. I had it in my head that when I saw Dylan, I would be the better man and leave him alone, maybe even pretend nothing had happened. But as soon as he started walking towards us all, I threw that theory away. My happiness and excitement and optimism all went away when I saw how he was walking joyfully and confidently towards his team. He looked straight at me and nothing about his expression changed. Did he really think that I was fine with what had happened, or had he assumed that I didn’t know? Either way, he needed to be informed that Lena had told me and it was not okay.
“What’s your problem?” I asked as he attempted to walk right past me. I stopped him with my hand on his chest, holding him back.
“What do you mean? I don’t have a problem,” he answered.
“Well, I do,” I told him. “I don’t know if you forgot what happened yesterday, but I haven’t and I’m not happy about it,” I growled. I knew I was making a scene. I was sure it would get to the media and everyone would be talking about it - it was another way for the press to bash me - but I didn’t care.
“Look, Patrick, I’m sorry about that, okay? I didn’t mean to…“ Oh hell no. I pushed him hard against the nearest wall and held him there.
“Don’t tell me you didn’t mean to. You weren’t drunk; it wasn’t an accident,” I corrected him. Our teammates surrounded us when they saw that I was truly angry. I didn’t usually pick fights with people, so the situation was a surprise to them.
“Pat, what the hell are you doing?” Jonathan breathed in my ear. “The season hasn’t even started yet, are you really going to beat the sh*t out of a new player?” I breathed deeply and heavily. I knew he was right, and I needed to calm down. “Come on,” he prompted me.
“Fine,” I huffed, “but don’t you dare do anything like that to her again,” I glared at Dylan before releasing him from the wall and walking away.
“No more big conflicts, guys. Let’s not be idiots. Today is NOT the day for that. Right now, we all need to focus on hockey. Live, breathe, eat, and sleep hockey, because that’s all that matters right now. Leave all your problems in this airport when we get on the plane and don’t pick them back up again until we get back,” Jonathan lectured us. I had never been so annoyed at the fact that he was captain. Normally he would just talk to me, and he’d be on my side. Now, he didn’t even understand that I had a reason to be so mad, and he didn’t care enough to talk to me and figure it out.
Our plane arrived shortly after all that excitement, and I knew my teammates were still buzzing about it. As soon as I found a seat, I put my headphones on, turned on my iPod and blasted my music as loudly as I could to shut the world out. Johnny, was right; I needed to live, breathe, eat, and sleep hockey, but I couldn’t do that while my frustration was eating away at me. I needed to simmer down, forget about everything, and relax.

*****************************************************

A couple hours later, we arrived at our hotel in Dallas. Jonathan and I headed to our room and I prepared myself for another lecture from him. We had a tiny bit of time to get settled in before we had a team practice to attend, and I knew he would be able to squeeze a speech in before then.
“Are you alright, Kaner?” he wondered as we set our bags down on our beds. I was a little taken aback by his question.
“What, you’re not going to yell at me?” He just rolled his eyes.
“I talked to the whole team, and I know you were listening,” he said. “Besides, I’m sure Dylan must have done something to really piss you off for you to do something like that.” I hadn’t expected him to treat me like his friend instead of his teammate, but this was a pleasant surprise. He must have known that him scolding me would probably only make things worse and possibly sacrifice good hockey on my part.
“He kissed Lena,” I told him.
“When did he have time to do that?” Johnny inquired, confused.
“Yesterday, when Lena and I were fighting. Tess was busy, so she went over to his house. He was trying to tell me that he didn’t mean to, but I asked Lean a million questions so I could get to the bottom of it and they hadn’t had anything to drink. He was in his right mind, and he meant to do it,” I fumed.
“Well, that’s really shitty, and I get why you’re pissed, but you can’t let things like this get in the way of our job. Until you get over it, you need to just deal with it, or pretend you’re fine, or something. I know the Stanley Cup Final is far away, but the fight for it starts now. I don’t know about you, but I want it back,” he said. I knew he was right, and I could afford to talk to him more, but I hadn’t spoke to Lena yet. I grabbed my bag full of my hockey gear and located the room she was staying in. She was sharing a room with Melanie, who was fitting a quick phone conversation with her boyfriend in before practice. When I walked in, she left the room to give us some privacy. She took her camera with her, so I knew she wouldn’t be coming back in.
“Are you calm now?” Lena questioned me. I was sure that she was annoyed with the scene I made at the airport.
“Yeah, pretty much,” I confessed.
“I thought we agreed that you weren’t going to beat him up,” she reminded me.
“I didn’t.”
“You would have, if you had the chance.” Okay, maybe she was right about that…
“I’m sorry, Lean. I know that was stupid of me and I get that he’s your friend and you don’t want him to be hurt, but I don’t know how I’m supposed to get over this whole thing. I don’t even want him anywhere near you.”
“Well, other than for work purposes, I don’t think you’ll have to worry about that. I’m not sure that I want to be his friend anymore,” Lena admitted. I was a little bit amazed by that. They had been close since the internship. Sure, they had their ups and downs, but they seemed inseparable, especially lately. I could hardly believe that she would throw that all away over this, no matter how big of a deal it was.
“Really?”
“Yes, really. He made a big mistake, and just like you, I don’t know how to get over it yet. He could have potentially ruined our whole relationship. I’m sure he wasn’t trying to, but still. I need to just stay away from him for at least a while.”
“I’m glad we’re on the same page, then.”
Practice went well, and afterwards, everyone had some free time. My teammates and I went out to lunch together, and Dylan and I didn’t speak at all during it. In fact, we sat as far away from each other as possible to avoid any conflict. Lena and Melanie went out to see Dallas, since the latter of the two wasn’t used to traveling and being able to see new places, so I stayed in with Tazer.
It was obvious when it was close to game time, because I was ten times as energetic as I had been before. The first game of the season always gave me a rush, and I knew the first home game in a couple days would do the same. I always enjoyed my summers, but it felt so good to be back on the ice doing what I love. Plus, summers were always better when I got a day with Lord Stanley, so I wanted to earn that.
We beat Dallas. Somehow we almost always managed to win the first one, maybe because the thought of starting out the season with a loss was a little depressing. It was a nice trip to Texas, but it was a tiring one, too. I got a bit of a nap in on the plane, so when it landed and I had to wake up, some of my energy was restored. Lena didn’t look dead tired like she should, so I figured she got a little sleep too.
“Taking a nap at midnight is a terrible idea,” I laughed when we got home.
“I feel ya,” she replied. “Maybe we should stick to only napping on REALLY long flights.”
“Maybe. Do you think we should try to go to sleep anyways?”
“Well…” Lena hesitated.
“What?” She had something else on her mind; I could tell.
“I mean, you did just have your first win of the season. Don’t you want to celebrate a little?” she smiled seductively.
“Good point,” I agreed.
“So, how do you want to celebrate?” she wondered.
“I think I want to start by doing this,” I said before pulling her close for a kiss. When she kissed back roughly, I knew exactly what she wanted.
“Let’s go in the bedroom,” I suggested. I grabbed her hand and pulled her along until we got there, closing the door even though we were the only ones in the apartment.
Neither of us went to sleep until about four in the morning. I knew that waking up early for practice was going to be difficult, but I could deal with the lack of sleep. I had dealt with it many times before, and this time was definitely worth it.

Notes