Prove Me Wrong.

'Jamie's POV'

I was laying on the couch watching the NHL network recap of our game, taking in the sights on the ice and of our awesome crowd. Then they showed my goal, damn it felt good to score again! That's when I saw her, they showed Kieran in the crowd with her brother beating on the glass with the biggest smile on her face, she looked like she was really proud of me. She looked like a happy girlfriend, what I wouldn’t give for the next time I scored for her to say "That's my boy." or "Way to go babe!" I had basically told her I wanted to be with her tonight, and by the dumbfounded look on her face I had scared her.

When she left, quickly and clearly flustered Tyler had told me not to worry, he could see she felt the same but had a good reason to be scared. I needed to know the reason, but Tyler said it wasn't his place to tell me. Coming back from my daydream my phone vibrated on the coffee table, one new message, Kieran.
Four words, the scariest 4 words ever, "We need to talk." This could either be good or bad, she could tell me that she was never going to want me in the way I wanted her, or she could let me in on the reason why she was so guarded. I prayed for the latter. Taking a deep breath I replied,

*Yeah, tomorrow? I can meet you after work.*

'Kieran's POV'

Jamie and I had agreed he would come over after I got off of work so we could talk. God I was scared to tell him about Ryan, Tyler was the last person I had told and even then I had been a little intoxicated so it just kind of fell out. But Jamie deserved to know what was wrong with me.

I opened the door to a cuddly looking Jamie Benn, a black Stars hoodie and sweatpants covered his body. He kicked his shoes off at the door and followed me to the long grey couch. No one said a word as we sat down, he sat in his usual spot and I sat at mine only this time I pulled my knees into my chest and wrapped a tribal throw blanket around my body as if it would protect me. We stared at each other for a minute until I mustered up the courage to speak, "You need to know why I'm so guarded Jamie, because it's not that I don't like you.." I paused and scanned his face, he looked worried, "Because I really like you, it's just that I'm afraid to let people in after Ryan.." I felt my eyes sting, I willed myself not to cry. No Kieran you will not cry over that boy anymore, I thought to myself as Jamie stared at me as if he was looking deep into my soul. "You can tell me anything Kier," I nodded and began the story of the football player that broke my heart in two.

I had met Ryan my sophomore year in college, I was playing volleyball he was at that time one of the best running backs A&M had next to my brother Kilian who was a senior. Ryan and I were both biology majors, both Pre-Med with big dreams. We got along in every way, falling for each other quickly he asked me to be his girlfriend at the end of sophomore year. We were that couple everyone wanted to be like, athletes who supported each other wearing cute shirts that said "My heart belongs to #12" and "My girl Kills" (Kill is a volleyball term for score), studying together, we were even in coinciding frats.

My brother and parents loved Ryan, and for a while I thought he was "the one". I was so in love with Ryan that it hurt. It hurt physically the day he told me he couldn’t love someone like me anymore. Those words are forever burned into my head, "someone like you" the words dripped with venom. We had been together for almost two years, and we were nearing undergrad graduation I was staying at A&M for vet school while Ryan was headed to med school in California.

When the words came out of his mouth I could almost feel my heart snap, all along I never thought that he was the type of person that needed constant attention, I thought we could make the distance work. However he felt that he couldn’t "be with someone who wouldn’t support his dreams", I didn’t know following your own dreams was a bad thing but Ryan made me feel like it was. Feeling so bad I almost gave up vet school, and if it wasn’t for my best friend Lauren I would have crawled back to Ryan and followed him to California.

Lauren was my sense of reason, she pulled me out of the dark depression and pushed me into vet school, never letting me lose sight of my dream, our dream. Lauren and I will both graduate as veterinarians together in May, and to her I will always be grateful, she's the reason I made it through the dark. As I got over him I put up wall after wall, I pushed away any guy that could potentially hurt me, most of them athletes. In the past 3 years I hadn't dated anyone seriously, I went out but I never let anyone in. I thought that the guys who wanted me were all alike, but as I've learned I was wrong.

As the last words fell from my mouth tears were rolling down my cheeks and I felt angry, God why did he still have this effect on me. I looked over at Jamie who had been silent through the whole story, his face was a little red with what I assumed to be anger but it also looked sad. "Kier," he started, but stopped probably unsure of what to say. He inched closer to me, limiting the space between us grabbing my hands that were wrapped tight around my legs. Lacing our fingers together he looked at me with a serious look on his face, "If he can't love someone as perfect as you he doesn't deserve to love anyone at all. You're so incredible Kieran, and you don’t even see it."

He stopped, tilting my face up to look at him "You have a heart of gold, and you're hilarious and you don’t take anyone's shit. Not to mention you're beautiful, you're so damn beautiful." I smiled lightly and blinked quickly trying to keep the tears at bay, but it didn’t work they were coming down like a waterfall. Jamie let go of my face and swiped his thumbs under my eyes, "Hey, don't cry." he spoke smoothly as he wrapped his arms around me and I melted into his embrace. Silence overtook us both as we sat there wrapped around each other, after a few minutes I pulled my face from the crook of Jamie's neck. "Jame?" I asked and he looked up at me, "We're going to have to take this slow, I'm not sure if I can handle a relationship right now." He nodded, "Anything you want Kieran, I'll be that for you. I'll prove it to you that I'm different." With a smile on my face I leaned down and kissed Jamie softly on the cheek before tucking my head back into the crook of his neck, this was the beginning of something real and I knew it.

Notes