Looking Up

-----Elle's POV

When I get back to the apartment with George in the late afternoon, Steve seems happier and more talkative than he has been in weeks. "Elle! There you are- where were you? I thought you had today off?" Steve asks after greeting me with a hug and a kiss as soon as I open the door, "I've been texting you."

"I was at Jamie's- I slept over there," I say nonchalantly.

"It's so good to see you, I missed you."

"I missed you too," I reply starting to feel better about our relationship.

"I'm so sorry I didn't talk to you much over the road trip. We were practicing a lot and spending a lot of time together. Chief's been trying to strengthen team chemistry so we weren't really allowed to take calls or text the whole trip," he says while walking around the kitchen.

"It's okay I just wish you gave me a heads up," I admit.

"Next time I will, okay?" he says with some attitude, but I brush it off and decide to talk to him about his attitude and what really happened on the road trip after the Halloween party tonight- I didn't want to create even more friction between us and then everyone notice and ask questions about it. I just want to relax and enjoy the party before the accusing starts.

"Yep, thanks," I sigh and try to change the subject, "excited for the party tonight?"

"Yeah I can't wait to show off our Halloween costumes," he kisses my forehead and flashes me a smirk, "plus G is dressing up as Pop-Eye."

"No way!" I yell and we both laugh at image of Claude in a sailor outfit.

"So did you finish sewing our costumes yet?" Steve asks as he plops onto the couch and turns on his Xbox.

"Yeah, I finished them last week and ironed them too- kept myself busy," I mumble the last part quickly. I walk through the living room, into our bedroom, and to the bathroom to take a shower before getting into our costumes. Steve and I decided to go as Minnie and Mickey Mouse since it was easy to put together and a cute couple costume we both really liked.

In the shower, I really start debating with myself about whether or not to bring up what happened on the road trip before we left for the party. After a good 20 minutes, I decide to just wait- there was plenty of time to talk everything out after the party rather than an hour before. I wrap myself in a towel and head to the kitchen to grab something to eat quickly before the drive to the venue. Suddenly, I feel large strong arms wrap around my waist and Steve inhales the scent of my hair through his nose, "I missed this, Elle," he sighs. Normally, this would have made me happy but instead it just left a taste of deceit in my mouth.

"Well, I'm glad your back," I smile, "We should probably start getting ready," I move quickly towards the bedroom, leaving Steve confused in the kitchen. He and I help each other put together our outfits once I finish blow drying my hair. I slip on a black crop top with some white frill I sewed on the edge of the sleeves, slide on a short blue flowy skirt with white polka dots, and put on my mouse ears with a red hat in the middle with a flower sticking straight out of the hat. Just before helping Steve, I slip on black tights, my yellow flats, and white gloves. After he puts on his black v-neck t-shirt, I hand him red shorts with two white dots sewed onto the front. After I quickly braid my hair, we safety pin on each others' black tails.

"I didn't know Minnie wore a hat like that and a blue skirt," he confesses as I grab his Mickey Ears headband from the desk.

"Of course she does- in the really really old ones," I say as he leans down so I can place them on his head.

"Well, Minnie, I think we look really good," he kisses my forehead and smiles.

"Just one last thing before we leave." I grab some eyeliner from my make-up drawer and draw a black circle on both of our noses to complete our look.

"Very nice," he smirks as he puts on his white gloves and his yellow Vans, "we just need someone to take our picture when we get there, so we can get the entire costume in the frame."

"Yeah maybe we can get Giroux the sailor man to take it for us," I snicker thinking of Claude wearing a sailor hat. Before we leave the apartment, I take some mirror pictures of us just in case we forget to have someone take the picture while we're there; Steve takes a selfie of us and uploads it to Instagram. The first thing that flashes into my mind is the picture that Claude posted last night and I try to shake it out of my head.

"What is it?" Steve asks me as we make our way towards the door, "you look... distracted."

"Oh, nothing- just zoned out," I mumble and flash my best fake smile to Steve. He's skeptical at first but brushes it off as soon as we get to the car. The 20-minute drive there is longer than normal with some extra traffic on the roads. When we finally get there, most everyone is there, including players, interns, and friends of the team, except for a few couples. The club/bar is relatively dark and has a rather large dance floor alongside the bar. The walls are adorned with orange lights and small plastic jack-o-lanterns.

"Hey!" Ryanne yells running up to us with a big smile on her face sporting her Olive Oyl costume, "You two look great!"

"Thanks- you do too! Question though. How much did you have to beg to make Claude dress up as Popeye?" I laugh.

"It took some work," she winks at me and heads over to the bar when she spots a couple of other arriving. We make our way further in the club where most everyone is hanging out and talking. Scott Laughton, Chris VandVelde, Jason Akeson, and Ryan White are dressed as the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and I had to laugh since their faces are painted forest green and TMNT onesies. Then I see Coburn and Jakub with their girlfriends chatting near the bar; Coburn and Lauren are dressed as Peach and Mario, while Jakub and Catherine are dressed as Ariel and Prince John since her hair is already a fiery red color.

I scan the room and I'm taken aback by everyone's costumes, "everyone looks so great! I didn't think people would get so into it," I say honestly.

"We love Halloween," Steve smiles and rubs my back with his hand, "let's go get some drinks."

"You do that- I need to find Popeye!" I chime before heading into the large crowd of people- I say excuse me about 40 times before I finally find Claude.

"Oh G! Hey!" I yell over the loud music that starts to play- I almost immediately start to laugh at how ridiculous Claude looks as Popeye.

"Elle!" he smiles, "I haven't seen you in forever! You look great!" Claude pulls me into a hug and then spins my around by my hand to see all of my outfit. He notices me glance around for Steve while I tell him about what I've been up to lately and takes me away from the large group of people, "How are you guys?"

"Uhm well, I don't actually know. I think he's hiding something but I just don't know- there's too much I don't know. I'm going to talk to him about it tomorrow morning," I say nervously.

"Don't worry okay? Steve wouldn't do anything to hurt you," he says rubbing my hand with his thumb.

"Well he's not making his case look any better, that's for-"

"Should I be worried for Steve? You too look reeeeeal close in this dark corner," I hear someone say with a thick Austrian accent. I turn around to see Raffl dressed up as a Spartan smirking at the two of us. I try to look unphased by his exposed muscles, but I'm pretty sure I'm failing since he tells me "my eyes are up here Ellie." I honestly just never expected him to have that much muscle on him- you can never tell with all of the padding they wear during the games.

"Oh stop," I scoff, "I'll see you boys later, I need to find Mickey," I say as I point to my mouse ears and walk into the large crowd of people.

As I make my way towards the bar, someone steps in my path. My heart sinks and I can feel my blood pressure rising as I clench my fists, looking at the familiar girl sneering at me.

"Jillian, nice to see you," I grimace as I give her skimpy Tinkerbell costume a look over- I'm never going to be able to look at that movie in the same way ever again.
"Hey. Nice costume- were you afraid to show too much skin? You might as well dressed as a nun," she scoffs.

"Maybe I should've, it's obvious you need some type of religion in your life," I spit out and Jill's jaw drops, "now if you'll excuse me." I pass by her shaking my head. Why the hell is she even here- guess she love to crash parties.

Finally after getting backed up into about 6 times, I find Steve at the bar talking to Brayden- a Flyer I've always had a "crush" on ever since he got traded to here- but then again who doesn't- the guy is gorgeous. Brayden, dressed as James Dean, notices me heading towards them so he flashes me a smile and see him say, "I'll catch you later," to Steve.

"Hey, I was just about to find you," he says and hands me a beer, "what's wrong? You look annoyed."

"Jill's here and she just had to say something to me."

"She is? Well don't worry we'll just ignore her, okay?" he smiles just before taking my hand in his and sets our beers down on the counter. He pulls me to the dance floor where everyone is now swarming to. A fast beat song with heavy bass starts to play, Steve pulls me to his chest, and we start to move together in sync. We dance for 5 more songs before I feel a chilling liquid wash over my shoulder.

"Oh my gosh I am sooo sorry," I hear a high pitched voice say. I turn to see a blonde haired girl in a tiny revealing bunny costume and 3 inch black high heels. Behind her, I see Jillian shrug, give me a smirk, and mouths "oops!"

"Of course," I murmur.

"Are you okay?" Steve says in my ear.

"Yeah I'll be right back- I just need to dry it off," I reply and Steve nods.

"Don't let her get the best of you Elle," I grumble to myself as I walk to the restrooms. I grab a couple paper towels and attempt to dry my soaked shirt that now just smelt of beer. Once my shirt is partially dry, I quickly fix my hair and head back out into the fun atmosphere. When I push through the swinging door, I see Jillian smiling devilishly as she whispers in Steve's ear; my heart starts to pound in my chest. She gets closer to him, he puts his hand on her arm, whispers another sentence to him, and kisses his cheek. Tears start to form in my eyes and I was hoping she couldn't see that this was getting to me when she looks my way. Steve turns around just in time to see me turn around and head down the short hallway towards the exit. I shake my head and clench my fists; how could I be so stupid? Soon enough, after I grab my coat, I feel sturdy fingers wrap around my arm.

"Elle, don't go," Steve begs.

"I'm going home- you stay and party with that bitch- I'll be packing my bags Steve." I bark as I shake my arm from his grip and shimmy on my coat. I look at my feet and slowly take off my mouse ear headband then make eye contact with his puzzled eyes, "I guess you could say we had a good run," I look back up at him, "I just wish you broke up with me before you started sleeping around with Jill and god knows who else. I know she called you and I saw the picture Claude posted- I didn't think you'd do it but after that whole performance, I know it's true."

"What? I-It's not what it looked like- you've got it all wro-"

"Got it all wrong? Me? Yeah I guess you could fucking say that Steve. I got it all goddamn wrong when I thought you'd get out of your phunk and start talking to me again. I got it wrong when I thought you cared about me," I yell as tears start to race down my face, "I got it wrong when I thought you would never do anything to hurt me. And I-I got it all wrong when I thought you loved me," I wipe some of the tears clinging to my face. "The only thing I got right was that this was way too good to be fucking true." I turn sharply and leave Steve standing alone in silence.

Of course he had nothing to say- he knows I'm right about this, about us. When I push through the door, a chilling autumn breeze greets me and I wrap my jacket tighter around me. I quickly hop into a cab and tell the driver the address with a shaky voice. As the city rushes by, I nervously play with the flower attached to my headband, and try to keep myself strong but tears continue to roll down my face.

-----Steve's POV

As I watch Elle run out the door, I try to catch up to her but my body is frozen and my mind starts to spin. What just happened- how could I let this happen? My throat start to tighten and I feel like I'm breathing through a straw. I turn back and run through the crowds of people searching helplessly for G. Everyone around me just becomes a moving blur as I try to get a hold of myself. How could I do this to her? The sound of my heart pounding drowns out the song blaring through the speakers. Jill puts a hand on my chest, trying to stop me from getting by.

"Dance with me honey? I'll help you get out of your losing streak," she says over the music.

"Get off of me- you've caused enough damage already. Never speak to me or Elle again," I yell harshly and brush her hand off of me. Seconds after, I find a tipsy G dancing with Ryanne.

"G!"

"Heyo kid! Where's Minnie?" he laughs, clearly not noticing the distress washed over my face.

"She left me G. She saw Jill on me and she left. She thinks I've been cheating on her and I don't know what to do," I say frantically as my voice starts to tremble and break.

"She left? What do you mean you don't know what to do?! Fight for her! Go get the fucking girl Mase!" he yells in disbelief with anger in his eyes.

"Right!" I make a mad dash for the exit, weaving in and out through the cheery crowd of people. Without getting my jacket from coat check, I grab the keys to my truck and make my way to the apartment as fast as I can before Elle leaves me for good.

Notes

Hey guys! Hope you like the chapter- I ironically had fun writing it! I meant to post this on Thursday night but I got distracted by the game so I ended up finishing it late last night. I've started the next chapter already so you can expect that in the coming week!

Going to the Flyers Wives Carnival tomorrow- hopefully they'll win tonight against the Rangers tonight and get the two points! Hope everyone's having a good weekend! Thank you so much for subscribing & reading the story! Make sure to comment and give some feedback- I love it! Thank you!