Counting Stars

I arrived back home at ten in the morning. My parents came out of the house that I grew up in to greet me. We hug and she complains that she hasn’t seen me earlier. Laughing I say, “I love you too mom.”

A few hours later we are on our way over to my aunt and uncles house. I glance down at my watch, the game will be starting in about an hour, so I send a quick good luck text to Sidney. My cousin’s house is full of our family and they are all extremely excited to see us. I wish my cousin a happy birthday and then settle onto the couch with my closest female cousin, Dana.

“Hey, how is Columbus treating you?”

She smiles shyly, “It’s been good, I have an interview with the hockey team Monday.”

“That’s amazing, working with a professional team so soon after graduation! That’s huge!”

Her brother, CJ, enters the room with a beer for each of us, “Speaking of hockey, I think we should turn on the game so you my dear sister have a little background knowledge.” He turns on the Penguins game and I am secretly relieved. At least I don’t have to ask to turn it on now. CJ is actually a huge hockey fan and could probably help me understand some of the more nuanced parts of the game.

My mom speaks up, “Oh, the Penguins are playing? Isn’t their captain that attractive Sidney boy?”

I glare at my mother and she just smiles. The pregame interviews are still going on the broadcasters are guessing that this should be an easy win for the penguins. They show some footage of the teams warming up and the camera focuses on Sidney. He looks good, really good.

‘’How’s the new movie coming?” Dana asks me.

I give her the generic answer, “Everything is going well. Liam’s great and all the whole crew is really working hard.” My phone vibrates and I pull it out seeing that I had a new message from Sidney.

“You know I’m your favorite cousin you don’t have to treat me like a reporter.”

I laugh, but I’m not really paying attention. Sidney responded to me, right before a game. Shouldn’t he be focusing or visualizing or stretching or something? Regardless, I had to open the message. Thanks babe, glad you’re watching

He called me babe, again. I should want to slow down, but everything feels so comfortable and he’s a great guy. Whatever, I’m not going to see him in over a week so who knows what could happen. Shaking my head I try to focus on the game and my family.

*********
“I don’t know if you guys are tired or what, but today cannot happen again! You need to get your head out of your asses if you want to make this season count. We need to stay consistent and today was not a good example of that.” Coach Bylsma was furious and we were all feeling his wrath. I look down at my hands, coach is right that game was painful. He looks at me, “Anything you want to add Captain?”

Looking around the locker room I see we are all beat up enough. I take a deep breath, “I think we all know we can’t make a habit out of this. It won’t happen again Coach.”

Dan doesn’t respond he just leaves the locker room. We are all silent as we pack up our things. I look down at my phone before the press comes in and I see only one text message. It’s from Brooklyn of course. She doesn’t know that I hate when people text me after losses, that I like to be by myself or take out my anger with a bottle of rum and a stranger. I open it, Tough loss, you’ll get them next time. This text should upset me; no one talks to me after a game. My friends and family give me space to get over it and then we are fine. But again Brooklyn has no idea. And I find myself comforted by those words, I like that she watched and still wanted to speak to me afterwards. Shit, I could get used to this.

“Why are you looking at your phone? Is everything okay?” Fleury knows my preference for solitude after a game, if someone texted or called me it would mean that something is wrong.

“I got a text, from Brooklyn.”

Fleury’s eyebrows rise, “And?”

I smile, “It was nice.” Fleury returns my smile and now we are both grinning like idiots. This is the best I’ve felt immediately following a loss in a long time. As the press walk in I relax my face back onto my neutral post-lost façade.

The press has left and I’m the last one in the locker room still holding my phone in my hands. She is probably still with her family, but I want to talk to her. This is too early for this though, I can’t be this dependent on her, and she can’t make me this happy. With that thought I shove my phone in my pocket and walk towards the bus.

Notes

Short one, but next one is longer, Promise!