Stacey’s heart dropped. She could barley gather her thoughts. Moving? He was going to be moving? she thought. To Switzerland. Roughly 3,696 miles away in Switzerland?
“Stacey? Are you there?” he asked
“Yes, I’m here…” she replied, swallowing hard
“I’m sorry…I should have told you earlier. When I leave tomorrow, I’ll be going there to sign papers for my apartment…I’ll be back late when you should get there…can we meet up that next day?” he suggested
“Can we meet when you get back? I don’t care what time it is…I want to see you.” Stacey countered
He paused for a minute before replying “Okay.”
“Okay…I have to go, Tyler. I’ll see you when you get home, okay? Call me tomorrow?” she asked hopefully
“Of course. Have a good night.”
“You too.” with one last good-bye, she hung up the phone and the tears started to fall. She wanted things with him to work out more than anything, but how could things possibly work when he’d be thousands of miles away for god knows how long. The lockout could last anywhere from days, to weeks, to months, to, at worst, all season! She didn’t want him to go, but she knew that hockey meant a lot to him and this was a last resort thing, since the lockout was, for now, indefinite. She laid her head on the pillow and sighed. She quickly decided that she should get some sleep. Stacey curled up with her blanket and fell fast asleep.
Sleeping was almost worthless when she tossed and turned all night. She couldn’t understand why him moving meant this much to her. Why the thought of him being on the other side of the world was such a big deal. She looked at her phone not expecting any messages, but she was happy to see the small asterisk by her text messages.
Tyler-Again, I’m sorry. I should have told you earlier, but it wasn’t for certain until two days ago. I hope you’re not mad at me…Landed in Switzerland a few minutes ago. Have a good day…I’ll call you later.
Stacey couldn’t even bring herself to reply, so she put her phone in her hoodie pocket and headed downstairs. The one time she wanted someone else in the house with her, everyone was gone. She found a note on the fridge from her dad:
Stace,
Went to work. Your brothers are out with friends, I left the car for you to drive if you need to. Help yourself to anything in the fridge and have a good day. Love you.-Dad.
Stacey sighed and looked into the fridge, fetching out some eggs and making herself a quick omelet. Just as soon as she sat down to eat her phone rang. “Hello?” she answered, without even knowing who it was.
“Hey, is everything OK?” Sammie’s familiar voice asked
“Sammie! It’s so good to hear you. Yes, things are OK.” she lied, hoping Sammie would notice.
“You are a horrible liar. What is it? Is Kevin okay?” Sammie asked
“Yes Kevin is ok…it’s Tyler…he likes me.” Stacey started
“What’s wrong with that? I thought that you liked him.”
“Sammie…he’s going to be moving. To Switzerland...” Stacey blurted out as tears came falling out her eyes.
“What? Why? Are you crying? Oh my god…don’t cry please…” Sammie pleaded
“The lockout…he’s going there to play…and yes I’m crying…I don’t know why…every time I think of him being that far away…I just…I cry…and I don’t understand it, Sammie!” Stacey got out in between sobs
Sammie snickered “Excuse my laugh, but Stace…I think you’re in love!”
“What?!” Stacey exclaimed
“You, mon amie, are in love with Tyler Seguin.” Sammie repeated.
Could this be the reason? Was she really in love with Tyler? Did she even know him enough to love him? Was Sammie just teasing her or was she really in love with Tyler Seguin? Stacey couldn’t even respond to Sammie, she just dropped her phone onto her omelet in shock.
“Stacey! Stacey! Hello?!” Sammie called “Ugh…Stacey answer the damn phone. I know you’re there. Don’t you ignore me!”
Stacey snapped out of her trance and picked up her phone “I’m sorry, Sammie, but I got to go.” she said, hanging up before Sammie could argue. Stacey finally realized why him moving meant so much, why just hearing his voice caused her heart to race. Why getting a text from him made her smile bigger than the Cheshire Cat in Alice in Wonderland. Stacey Summers was falling madly in love with Tyler Seguin.
****
Stacey could feel her heart pounding as she got off the plane back in Boston in the late afternoon. Tyler had called her earlier to tell her he would be leaving Sweden at 5:30 Boston time and should get there close to 2am. Stacey didn’t care. She had to see him. Sammie’s smile greeted her as she walked out the airport door.
“How was NYC?!” Sammie asked wrapping her in a hug
“Good.” Stacey replied, hugging Sammie back.
“That’s good. I have some good news for you. Guess who was named Alternate?” Sammie grinned
“Who?” Stacey asked, raising an eyebrow
“Lindzey!” Sammie exclaimed
Stacey smiled “Great! That’s awesome!”
“I know. She deserves it.” Sammie smiled and Stacey agreed
“So…Tyler is coming over tonight…”
“I thought he was in Switzerland?”
“He’s coming home. He’ll be home around 2am and I told him that I don’t care what time he lands, I want to see him.” Stacey explained
Sammie nodded “Well, I’m going over to Kassidy’s so we can discuss goalie things.”
Stacey nodded back, hopping into Sammie’s car. She stared out the window and listened to Sammie get her up-to-date on the team and happenings around school. Keith had asked her out again and she said no. Benny had a date with Molly, but she stood him up and Kassidy beat her up in the hall, resulting in her being suspended for two games at the beginning of the season. Mr. Malarkey, the Science teacher, blew up yet another experiment.
After a while, the girls returned home and Stacey put her backpack in her room before heading to the bathroom to take a shower. “Stace…I’m heading out. Call if you need anything…don’t do anything stupid.” Sammie called from the other side of door.
Stacey relaxed in the shower until the water ran cold. She got out, drying off with her fuzzy red towel. She blow-dried her hair and let it fall to its place on her shoulders. She quickly got dressed in a Beatles t-shirt and grey yoga pants. Stacey slid on her slippers and headed to the living room. She plopped down on the couch and grabbed the remote, flipping through the channels.
Stacey wasn’t normally a “TV” person. She hated commercials and infomercials and nothing “good” ever seemed to be on. Sure there was a good movie or TV show on once in a while, but the movies were horribly edited and you always seemed to miss the good TV shows. Stacey did like a few TV shows like “Grey’s Anatomy” and “NCIS”, but she always missed the episodes she needed to see, so she gave up watching them on TV and just waited for the DVDs to be released.
After flipping through what felt like her 100th channel, she came to re-runs of “LOST”. She shrugged and sat the remote down and laid her head on her hand, dozing off to the sounds of Jack and Kate arguing in the “Flash-forwards”. After a minute or two, she fell asleep only to be awoken by the buzzer going off.
Stacey stumbled to the door, pressing the buzzer “Hello?”
“Hi.” his now familiar voice called back
“Buzzing you up.” Stacey replied, pressing the button to let him in the front door before running to the bathroom to check her hair. She smoothed it out and did a quick mouth rinse before Tyler steadily knocked at her door. She opened it and her heart melted as he gave her that smile. “Hi.” she said, leading him inside.
“Hey. How was New York?” he asked, slipping off his coat and shoes.
“Good and how was Switzerland?” Stacey smiled as she sat down on the couch.
Tyler followed her and nodded “Good. My apartment is nice…small…but nice.” he laughed
“Are you going to have a roommate?” she asked
Tyler shook his head “Nope. I’ll be living all by myself.” He looked down for a moment, but then back up at her. “Stacey?”
“Yeah?” she asked, looking into his eyes
“I know that this is horrible timing on my part, but would you be my girlfriend? I know that it is a lot to ask and that long distance relationships are difficult, but I think we can make it work…no I know we can make it work.”
Stacey smiled and grabbed his hand “Tyler, I would be honored to be your girlfriend.”
Tyler smiled “Awesome!”
Stacey giggled and looked up at him “You’re so cute…”
He blushed and smiled “Can I get a hug?”
Stacey nodded and wrapped her arms around him. She felt like she was in heaven and in that moment, everything felt right.