Come Closer

It was the first game of the regular season and the Ontario provincial volleyball team was making their way onto the stadium floor to start with warm-ups.

The first tournament of the 2013-14 season was in Pittsburgh, lucky for Meghan, James and the team where in Pittsburgh that weekend so Meghan texted James and asked if he wanted to come to a game. Without hesitation he said yes and he was going to bring some of the guys.

As warm-ups started out of the corner of my eye I saw James, Sidney Crosby, Beau Bennett, Evgeni Malkin and Paul Martin.
Meghan’s best friend Khloe who she also played with in high school made the team this year and I couldn’t have been happier.
“Oh fuck” Meghan whispered to Khloe as we were practising serving. “I didn’t know he was going bring half of the fucking team…omg what are we going do!”

“Just calm down Megs, we look hot in our jerseys and spandex’s, those boys are going to be drooling all over us!” said Khloe slapping me on the ass. “And James has not taken his eyes off you since he walked in” sending me a wink and she ran to retrieve her ball.

Coach pulled me aside to talk about the game plan for the night and watched as the Pittsburgh girls hit and came up with strategies.

“So James Neal eh?” Coach turned to me. “What about him.” I asked. “I think he has the hot’s for you…didn’t you date him in high school?”. “Yeah about 3 years, but when he was drafted to Dallas we just grew apart, so that was the end of that.”

Whistle blew and it was time to start, when on the court, I pulled my girls toward me to have one last meeting before first serve.

“Ok, these girls are going come and hit hard so we have to stay low, if you haven’t already noticed some of the penguin players are here, so look hot while kicking some Pittsburgh ass.” Final whistle blew and we had the serve advantage.

Boy was I right, these Pittsburgh girls are tough, serves and hits are hard, they are great passers and their setter was flawless. We were down by 3 points and we were beat, all of us had sweat running all over our bodies, arms, legs, head, behind of the neck, I just felt gross. We were just getting whipped, and I was obviously getting frustrated.

Coach called for a time out and I was able to catch my breath have a drink of water and calm down a little, again, James couldn’t keep his eyes off me.
We stepped back on the court with a new mindset, ready to start over. Sarah’s serves got us back in the game, serving three times in a row. We were tied, I whispered in Khloe’s ear, “set me up…I want to finish them”, and she winked and told the girls to pass to her instead of me. Pittsburgh served, Bianca made a beautiful pass to Khloe, she set it to me and I slammed that ball hard and they couldn’t lift up that ball to save their life.

“WOOO” I screamed when I landed, next thing I know, my whole team pounced on me and gave me huge hugs…man I was so happy, I just showed off in found of my high school sweetheart and all of his friends, I was pretty excited about it!

We shook hands with the other team, as I headed toward my bench to pack up my stuff I felt someone touch my lower back. It startled me, made me jump a little. I turned around and there was James standing right behind me, his body hovering over mine.
“Good Game” all of the guys said in unison “That hit at the end was killer”, “You good at volleyball, you scary when angry” Evgeni Malkin said to me with his thick Russian accent.

Sidney Crosby also came up to me and gave me a friendly hug, “I don’t think you want to be touching me, Queen Sweat over here and I probably don’t smell very good.” as I laughed a little. “It’s alright it is nothing I can’t handle we sweat a ton more than you”. We laughed at our lame jokes.

“Can we have a little privacy please boys” I said winking at them. “That was an amazing game Meg, was on the edge of my seat all game.” James said laughing a little. “Thanks, I was getting frustrated and really worried; I wanted to win my first game of the season…and in front of some of the best hockey players in the world.” I whispered in his ear, sending shivers down his spine.

“Meg! We have to get going if we want to make it to the bar at a reasonable time; we don’t want to stay out to late because coach will whop our ass if we are hung over tomorrow!” said Khloe yelling at me to hurry up. “Hey, do some of the guys want to come to the bar with us later, just a few drinks nothing crazy?” I asked turning toward him, praying he would say yes.

“Yeah, he said, I’ll call up some of the boys, should be a good time!” said James as he took a step closer to me. “Yeah it should be!” tossing my water bottle in my bag, zipped it up and started to head out. “See you there James!” as I walked out with the biggest smile on my face.

Notes

My first hockey fanfiction !! let me know what you think!