The Moonstone Starlet

Chapter 6

When the Blackhawks won their next game in overtime, Seabrook declared they were having another party at Elia’s. It was too much of a coincidence to happen twice in a row, he said. And when they won the next game in regulation, somehow Seabrook still thought it was because of the party. Because they had to wake up in the morning to fly to Nashville Toews declared it an alcohol free party. He went so far as to search the apartment before anyone on the roster was allowed to go.

Somebody brought over the dvd “Hot Rod”, one of the stupidest movies ever made. Elia and Kane were in their normal seat on the sectional’s chaise lounge chair, drinking purple/green gatorade, or as it came to be known: brown gatorade. The further into the movie the more they were laughing, and kept saying “wHisky,” over and over.

Toews jumped up all of a sudden and pointed at them shouting “You put something in your gatorade!!”
Elia and Kane screamed like school girls and tried to run to the kitchen, but got caught up in the snuggie they were wearing. Jonathan grabbed the gatorade out of their hand and smelled it. “Whisky!” he yelled. Behind him the rest of the guys held back laughter.
“Where are you hiding it?”
“Hiding what!?”

The party was declared over. Before leaving with Kane Jonathan vowed to get ankle monitors and put them both on house arrest.

After they won the game in Nashville the team flew right back to Chicago. In order to make sure there was no post game party Toews told Elia to Skype him when she got home. He wasn’t joking around, he kept her on video chat for an hour.

She texted Kane once they were finally done.

“I’m quitting the drank”
“Why what happened”
“Idk but now I have to go fishing with tazersaurusrex on Friday AND he wants me to help shop for halloween costume.”
“lmao. i think drinking is required for fishing tho”

The Hawks lost their next two games. Seabrook blamed Jonathan. Jonathan blamed himself. At first Elia was glad Toews would have a day to sulk on his own before she had to hang out with him. Instead, on Thursday morning she called him up.
“Hey Tazer, do you want to go to Protein Bar?”
“You want to go to Protein Bar?”
No, she thought.
“Yeah, I love that healthy shit, gets me so...pumped up and stuff. I have an idea, how about I drive to your place, and then we jog to the Lincoln Park one.” There was a lot of silence on the other end.
“That would be cool,” he slowly replied.

As soon as they got off the phone Elia googlemapped how long of a distance it was from the Aqua building to Clybourn and Armitage and almost cried when she saw it was nearly four miles. That had been a very bad impulse idea.

Besides almost dying on the run it wasn’t really a bad morning. And on the plus side, Jonathan seemed amused by her suffering. Between laughing at how out of shape Elia was and getting a 20 oz Fruit Loop’d smoothie Jonny was almost at a normal human level of cheerfulness. Up until now Jonny had been pretty quiet, only talking about the game or shooting a sarcastic insult at Elia. As they finished up at Protein Bar, however, he was starting to converse about regular things. Jonathan had just gotten a new car, a black AMG Mercedes, was excited about the upcoming Father’s trip the team was putting together. Most surprising of all for Elia to hear was that Jonathan had gone on a couple dates with a girl.

“Don’t look so shocked, you know, most women find me very charming.”
“Hey, no judgement,” Elia said as she tried to control her facial expression, “Soo what is she like?”
“She’s a model and--you’re judging.”
“No I’m not, there is nothing wrong with models.”
“You just cringed. How have you won awards for acting?” He joked
“How have you won awards for...damn it…”

When they showed up for practice together at Johnnie’s Ice House that afternoon the guys were both surprised and amused. Sharp asked if Toews had just bailed Elia out of jail. After practice Kane drove them back to Toews’ condo so Elia could get her car. They planned their fishing trip for the next morning. Toews suggested a place in Wisconsin that he had gone to with Burish and Sharp, but Elia said she knew some local places they could go to.

Toews was surprised the next morning when Elia showed up with a pickup towing a bass boat. Elia replied this wasn’t her first rodeo. They headed out west to a lake in the suburbs Elia had been to before. She didn’t quite know how to drop the boat in the water, but once they were out Toews was glad to find she could tie her own lines, set her own bait and knew where to look for fish. It was a calm, relaxing day, and by the time Elia dropped Toews off late in the afternoon he seemed recharged and over losing two games.

Notes