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The Hockey Life

Just A Little Headache

PART EIGHTY-TWO: JUST A LITTLE HEADACHE
Lena’s P.O.V.

Darkness. All I could see was darkness. Everything was pitch black and silent. But slowly, I began to hear what sounded like voices. They were muffled at first, and quiet. I couldn’t understand what they were saying, but they gradually got clearer and louder. Wait…they were familiar. As they adjusted to a normal volume and clarity, I slowly forced my eyes open, and the contrast between the darkness behind my eyelids and the real world was harsh. Now I could see white, and it was brighter than I had anticipated. I realized I was laying down, so I propped myself up. As I scanned my surroundings, I realized that I was in a hospital room. In a hospital bed. What…?
“Lena! You’re awake!” Patrick, who was sitting in a chair to my left, got up and rushed to my side
“Why am I here? What happened?” I asked.
“You don’t remember?” he questioned me, concerned.
“I know I was playing hockey…did I get hurt?”
“Yeah, you got slammed into the boards pretty hard. It knocked you out, actually. You’ve been unconscious for a few hours,” he explained.
“Do you know who did it?” I wondered.
“Number nine - I don’t remember her name…but don’t worry about that. Tess beat the crap out of her as soon as she had the chance.” I got a good chuckle out of that. I didn’t expect anything less from her.
Soon a doctor came in and began asking me questions and explaining the situation. I had to take a few tests. They were pretty sure I had a concussion, but they wanted to be absolutely positive.
Oh, the joys of concussion tests. I had to take one two different times during high school - not because of suspicions, but just because it was mandatory for all players. It was the same both times, and I remember passing it but thinking how tricky it would probably be for someone who wasn’t healthy. I was right. I was getting a lot more questions wrong than I had in the past, and many of the questions seemed like tricks to me. I was just happy when it was over with.
The results came back quickly and the doctors confirmed that I definitely had a concussion from my nasty head collision. I wasn’t allowed to play hockey for a while, not that it mattered - I never played anyways, other than the reunion game. I was supposed to get a lot of rest too. My job could complicate that a bit, but hopefully not too much.
“So, who won the game, in the end?” I wondered when I left the hospital with Tess, Jonathan, and Patrick.
“We did. It was really weird to play without you, especially when we didn’t even know if you were okay, but we wanted to try our hardest to win it for you. I guess you could say we succeeded,” Tess assured me.
“Good,” I decided. “It would have been really depressing to hear that I have a concussion AND we lost that game.”
After a few days of rest, I went back to work. I wanted to go back the next day, but since I had never had a concussion before and Patrick wanted to make sure I healed in a decent amount of time, he made me stay home for a while. It felt good to go back, though. What was a day without a little bit of teasing from Patrick Sharp?”
“Thanks for abandoning us, Lena,” he harassed me as I entered the locker room once they had changed for practice.
“Wow, I’m so sorry that I accidentally got a concussion!” I retorted sarcastically.
“Oh, come on. It’s just a little headache, you’ll be fine,” he laughed.
“Alright, well, I’ll make sure it doesn’t happen again,” I said, shaking my head at him.
Practice went well, but it did make my head hurt a little. I took some Tylenol and I felt better after I got home where it was quiet. That was how it went for a few weeks - I had spurts of my head hurting and fatigue and there were a few random things I would forget or get confused about. The worst was my headaches, but I went back to the doctor and I was told that things were getting better. I just tried to avoid games, for the most part. That, and Patrick and I didn’t have very exciting birthday celebrations, but we were old enough for it to not matter that much anymore if we had huge parties or not.
It took about a month for my symptoms to completely fade away. By then, it was the first week of December already. Patrick and I had decorated the apartment and I had already been singing along to Christmas songs for a few days. I had gotten a lot accomplished as far as wedding planning, so I was able to focus on Christmas for the time being. Well, almost. I did have a final dress fitting to make sure everything would fit right (given that my weight didn’t fluctuate all that much). I was both excited and nervous for it. I loved the way I felt in the dress when I first tried it on, and I knew it was the one as I looked at myself in the mirror. Of course, it didn’t fit perfectly then. Now it should, but what if it didn’t? My weight hadn’t really changed, but the alterations could be wrong. Or I could put it back on and not love it as much as I did when I first wore it. I was terrified of anything about the dress not working out or being right. It was one of the most important details of the wedding in my eyes, and I wanted it to be perfect. If I was going to get married, I wanted to feel beautiful. I wanted the guests to be blown away at my look. I wanted Patrick to really feel something as I walked down the aisle. My expectations were high - maybe too high - but it was my wedding, after all. I only planned on having one.
“Can I come with you?” Patrick pleaded as I put on my coat and boots. Chicago winters were harsh sometimes. Actually, more like all the time.
“Of course you can’t! You still have to wait a little over a month to see the dress,” I turned him down.
“I’ve waited a year. I feel like that’s long enough,” he whined.
“Not quite. Just be patient.”
“You know, I could just look at it when you bring it home,” Pat said, winking at me.
“I’m not bringing it here for that exact reason. You aren’t going to know where I’m keeping it, but nice try!” I laughed. I knew he wouldn’t actually try to find it and get a sneak peek, but he could find it accidentally if it was at our apartment. Because of that, I was going to take it to Tess’ apartment. I knew I could trust her and Jordan to keep it clean and safe and intact. Patrick could probably guess that it would be there, but he would never pay them a visit just to see it, and they would never let him get a hold of it.
“Alright, fine. I’ll just wait, then,” Patrick settled.
“Good. I’ll be back in an hour or two,” I hollered as I headed out the door.
Tess came with me to the fitting, but nobody else did. I didn’t ask my mom or other bridesmaids to come along, since they had already seen me in it. Sure, this bridal appointment was much more official and final, but everyone else could wait until January. The only support I needed was my best friend. The one that I wasn’t marrying.
As soon as we got inside the bridal store, I felt a nervous feeling in my stomach. There were a million things that could go wrong, and I was terrified that they would go wrong. But I couldn’t delay this appointment any longer to avoid those possibilities. I had to just get it over with now. So, a bridal consultant brought my dress into a dressing room and I took a deep breath. It was definitely my dress on the hanger. It looked good hanging up, but that didn’t mean much. It was taken off the hanger and I stepped into it. I pulled it up and my consultant began to zip the back. I held my breath, hoping that it would zip up all the way. It felt fitted at the top for sure, but it was supposed to fit my body perfectly. But was it too tight? I felt the zipper stop and the consultant struggled a little. Oh no.
Zip. A couple seconds later, she got it, and she assured me that the zipper was just being problematic, which was a common issue with dresses. Thank god.
“Alright, I’m going to grab the veil. If you brought your shoes and jewelry, feel free to put those on!” She left and I stepped into my heels. I put my jewelry on as well, and by the time I was done, she was back. She put the veil on me, and the suspense was killing me. I hadn’t glanced in the mirror yet, and I was dying to know how I looked.
“You can turn around now, if you’re ready,” my consultant told me. I slowly turned and I smiled as I gazed into my reflection. I looked better than I did when I first tried on the dress. It was even more perfect than it had been before. It felt amazing and it looked gorgeous. I had been really worried about things not going right, but I wouldn’t have changed a thing. I couldn’t have asked for anything more.

I stepped out and showed Tess and she couldn’t believe how great it fit me. There weren’t any mistakes from what we could tell. So, after I walked around in my gown for a few minutes, I took it off and changed back into regular clothes. I left the store with a heavier load than the one I had arrived there with, and Tess and I headed over to her place so I could hide it in her closet. Of course, we showed Jordan first. I wanted so badly to put it back on, but I didn’t want to risk ruining it, so the three of us just looked at it for a few minutes. I almost wished I could keep it at home, just so I could stare at it everyday. I was so in love with the thing, and it was just a piece of clothing. Sure, it had a lot of meaning, but the reality was that it was just a dress, and I was obsessed. It honestly was hard to leave Tess and Jordan’s apartment without it, but it was what I had to do. I just told myself that I would be wearing it all day in a month and some odd days, and I was able to get over it. It wouldn’t be long before I would get to feel like the most beautiful bride in the world, but more importantly, it wouldn’t be long before I would get to feel like the happiest bride in the world, with the best husband I could ask for.

Notes

Comments

@hockeygirl07
Thank you so much! :)

MrsKaner MrsKaner
11/1/14

I just love this story...been reading it right from the start!!! Love your writing and the plot ;) keep up the great work

hockeygirl07 hockeygirl07
11/1/14

Awe. this is so cute, but sad.

Psquared91 Psquared91
5/29/14

AWE! So Cute!

Psquared91 Psquared91
5/10/14

@MrsKaner
HAHA. my BF and I are the two people in the whole school who don't get sick, but when we do Its not as bad as every one else, and we always get each other sick.

Psquared91 Psquared91
3/24/14