Having Faith

The Illinois highway was fairly busy for a Tuesday afternoon. A light snow had started to fall, which was not unusual for a January day in Chicago. Juliette, a young woman of 25, was driving home after a short winter break. The last year of her Master’s Program was really tough, which was to be expected but the break was needed. Traffic, which was bad and typical of Chicago, was not sitting well with her and the snow did not help. As traffic started to clear Juliette stepped on the gas and got back up to a decent speed of 55. She might possibly make it to her apartment before dark. She had spoken too soon though because all of the sudden the car in front of her slammed on their breaks causing Juliette to panic and do the same. Her truck stopped with plenty of distance between her and the vehicle in front of her. But then she heard squealing tires and was jostled around in the front seat by the impact of being rear-ended.

“Shit!” Juliette spoke to her self. Her truck was still functioning so she quickly pulled to the side to keep the traffic behind her flowing. The car that hit her, Juliette assumed, pulled in right behind her.

She grabbed her jacket so she could go out into the snow to check the damage. When she got out she noticed the other driver looking around the inside of his car for something, probably insurance information. Juliette continued to walk to the back of her car where she found an extensive amount of damage done to the tailgate and back bumper.

“Just great… just fucking great.” She said to herself. What a way to start her final semester of school.

A door behind her slammed and the other driver started walking towards her. The snow had picked up some so it was a bit difficult to make out his face. But as the man got closer Juliette could tell it was a young man probably around her age and when he was close enough to her, she noticed that he had on a winter hat that practically covered his face which caused her to worry that the man could be some sort of creep looking to kidnap a girl like herself.

“Sorry about that,” the deep voice of the driver said. “I guess I was closer than I thought.” Juliette noticed a slight accent in his voice but couldn’t place it.

“Yeah well what can you do now, if we could just trade insurance information that would be great? I would really like to get home before it gets dark.”

“Of course, I could just pay everything if you needed. That way your insurance isn’t affected.” The man said.

Juliette turned to look at him thinking who suggests something like that, when she turned to meet his graze though she noticed something very familiar about the man that had hit her truck.

“Do I know you?” She asked confused by the familiarity of the young man.

“I don’t believe so. But I guess you could have seen me around Chicago before.”

“Well that makes sense but I hardly go into the city.”

“Watch hockey?” The man asked randomly

“Umm… well I… what kind of question is that?” Juliette retorted finally finding her voice.

“If you do watch hockey you might have seen me before.”

Juliette squinted at the guy trying to figure out what he was getting at, when she figured out why his face looked familiar. It finally clicked and she realized she was face to face with Jonathan Toews, captain of the Chicago Blackhawks. She was a bit at a lost considering that the one time she gets into an accident it happens to be an attractive young professional hockey player that hits her.

“You know who I am now?”

“Well I am more of a Canucks fan but I do know who you are Mr. Toews.” Juliette retorts.

“I see.” Jonathan said looking a bit confused and upset about the fact that a Canucks fan was standing right in front of here.

Juliette took one look at his face and started laughing. She now understood why the team called him Captain Serious. He went from grinning to game face pretty quickly. After she contained her laugher the young captain’s eyebrows furrowed and his frown was even bigger.

“What?” He said harshly.

“Sorry… it’s just your face… you’d have thought I told you I hated hockey or something.” Juliette said trying to contain her laughter.

“Can you blame me? The Canucks seriously unless you are from Vancouver then it would be okay but I highly doubt that since your license plate says Indiana. Do you even watch hockey for the sport or just the guys?

It was Juliette’s turn to frown and glare at the Blackhawk’s player. He didn’t have to say it straight out but she knew what he was implying.

“For you information I love hockey and I was just joking about being a Canucks fan. I actually don’t like the Canucks I’m a Blackhawks fan. And to answer your question I enjoy hockey for the game and the guys who play it and who are you to judge anyway who cares if I just like it for the guys I’m helping pay your wage by purchasing your teams’ products,” She said angrily, “Anyway could I just get your information so I can leave now?”

Realizing his mistake Jonathan looked at the girl with a sad face and pulled out a card and handed it to here. She snatched it from his hand grabbing a pen and paper from her purse jotting down her information just in case something came up. After she had handed the paper to Jonathan she quickly turned around and headed back towards her car. Always being the one to try and fix things Jonathan jogged to catch up with the young girl.

“Look I’m sorry I implied what I did, it’s just been long few weeks and I guess I took out all my aggression at you.” He said trying to right his wrong.

“Whatever it’s no big deal I’m just some girl you will probably never see again. I hope you have a better rest of your day and good luck on your game tomorrow.” The girl said civilly.

Jonathan couldn’t help but feel like a douche since she was being still being polite even after what he had said. He grabbed his phone out of his pocket and handed it to Juliette. She starred at the phone confused for a minute before he told her to put her number in so he could call her but he was very vague about what it was he would be “calling” about. So to please the man and therefore get home quicker she typed in her number. She shut her truck door and turned the car on, slowly merging into traffic. As much as Juliette wanted to look in her rear view mirror to catch on more glance at Jonathan Toews she didn’t. She just kept her eyes ahead and drove away.

The rest of Juliette’s drive back to her apartment passed without incident and soon she was pulling into her parking spot. The apartment she shared with the girl she surprisingly was randomly put with her freshman year of undergrad. Riley was also in a graduate program but she was working towards a law degree while Juliette was finishing a master’s in nursing so she could become a nurse practitioner. The apartment was quiet probably because Riley was visiting home which was much closer for her than Juliette’s mother lived who lived in Indiana about an hour and a half from campus. In grad school there isn’t really much break time since you’re always working on something research wise or just class/homework wise.

But while she had extra time she took more hours at the hospital since she did have her bachelor’s in nursing to help her mom, Christine, out since she was a single parent with a full plate of bills to pay including some recent unexpected medical bills when a lump was found during one of her routine checkups. But it had been removed and everything was looking good but because her mom was uninsured it made the cost extensive they would figure it out somehow though like they did for the past 25 years of Juliette’s life.

The door opened suddenly and Riley looked worried as she scanned the room for Juliette.

“Holy shit what happened to your truck? I was worried even though I knew you would have called if you were hurt or it was anything more than minimal damage.” She said in a rush.

“Yeah I’m fine. Some jackass rear ended me while I was on my way back.”

“Jesus what happened.”

“It was snowing and traffic went from normal to a sudden stop, typical Chicago Loop traffic. So the guy behind me must have been too close and he ended up running into the back of my truck.” I told her.

“Wow. So did you call the cops? Get everything sorted out?”

“No he said he would pay for everything since it was his fault.”

“Seriously. That’s weird Juliette what if he doesn’t what then?”

“I’m sure I could just track him down at a Hawks practice or something.” She said causing Riley d give her a strange look.

“What the hell? Please don’t tell me a fucking Blackhawk rear ended your truck.”

“Well then no Jonathan Toews did not cause an accident and take my number promising to call
tomorrow.”

“You’re joking.”

“Nope and he was a huge dick after I joked about being a Canucks fan.”

“No! Why?” Riley asked.

Juliette told her the story from start to finish not leaving out a thing as the relatively short story progressed Riley looked even more offended for her friend and Juliette could tell she was trying not to let out everything she was thinking. Toews was Riley’s favorite Hawk and to hear how he treated her best friend pissed her off.

“I’m getting that assholes jersey right now and throwing it in the trash.” She said heading to her bedroom.

“Riley come on. I know it was shitty as hell but he seemed to regret it after he said it and I think he will make it up to me. It doesn’t make it right but I just think with the lockout and everything he is probably as on edge as we are with school.”

“Still…douche.” Riley said sitting down next to Juliette.

“I know. Want to make some popcorn and watch a dumb movie with me?”

“Yeah probably the last chance we’ll have for a bit.” Riley said since the new semester started up in two days.

Juliette told the other girl to pick a movie while she headed into the kitchen to pop a couple bags of popcorn and grab some water too. They watched the movie and after retreated to their own rooms to get ready for bed. Juliette knew she should probably let her mother know what had happened but it was late so she figured it could wait till morning.

Before she woke up on her own Juliette’s phone ringing drug her out of her dreams and back to reality. She check the caller ID and cursed herself for not just calling the night before since her mom was not going to be happy when she answered the phone.

“Hey mom.” Juliette said cautiously.

“Don’t you hey mom me young lady. I know you’re 25 but a quick text to let your mother know you made it home shouldn’t have been that hard.”

“I know I’m sorry mom, I just forgot and it was late and I didn’t want to wake you.”

“Juliette I don’t care I just want to know you made it safely back to your apartment.”

“Sorry mom it won’t happen again.”

“Good. So how was the trip home?”

“Well it was good for the most part but mom okay don’t freak out,”

“That is not at all a reassuring way to start a conversation Juliette.”

“I know just hear me out okay.”

So for the second time in less than 24 hours Juliette was telling her story about her accident and the less than stellar events that occurred after. To no one’s surprise that knew Christine she started in on this ‘hockey player’ that had almost hurt her daughter. Letting Juliette know just what she thought and if she didn’t have to work that afternoon how she would drive into Chicago and let him know as well.

Juliette’s mom was a force to be reckoned with especially when it concerned her daughter. But Juliette calmed her down letting her know she was fine and that Mr. Toews planned on paying for the damages (‘Damn right’ her mom mumbled) and making sure everything was taken care of. They ended their call with quick ‘I love yous’ and Juliette promised to call and let her know what happens with that Toes guy (it’s pronounced Taves mom).

Once off the phone she decided breakfast would be a good start and then she would take her car over to the local mechanic and let them give her an estimate before she talked to Toews. They quickly looked her truck over told her what could be done and gave her the price. Juliette asked for it in writing just so Toews didn’t think she was trying to pull one over on him. Once she had that she figured she could go to campus and grab the books she wasn’t able to purchase online, since of course her professors have to give out Loyola specific textbooks that cost about $300 dollars each. When she was in a spot outside the bookstore her phone started ringing and the ID said unknown number. Juliette answered the phone but was hesitant.

“Hello?” She answered.

“Hi. Umm… this is Jon. The guy from yesterday, I hit your truck.” He said in what sounded like a nervous voice.

“Oh hi. What did you need Mr. Toews.” Juliette said formally.

“You can call me Jon,” Jonathan told her. “But I wanted to apologize for everything I said yesterday and offer to pay for your truck damages.”

“Jon…” Juliette said testing the name on her tongue. “Really that’s not necessary we can just let insurance deal with it. That is what they are for.”
She wanted him to pay considering the circumstances but she didn’t want to seem like she was trying to get something out of him.

“No really I feel terrible for everything and I won’t take no for an answer.”

“That is very nice of you. Thank you would you like an address to send it too or how did you want to do this?” Juliette asked

“Well here’s the thing I don’t think paying for the damages is enough for the way I acted and I was hoping if I left some tickets at will call for you then you could come to the game and I could give you the money then.” He said with a hopeful voice.

“I… Jon that is very kind of you but I don’t think I could accept that.”

“Please I feel terrible and the guys think I need to do something about it so this is the least I could do.”

“You told the team?”

“Oh… yeah sorry but they asked why I was in such a mood at practice this morning and I just sort of told them.”

“No its no problem I am just surprised is all.”

“Okay you really have to come though the guys won’t leave me alone until you come.” Jon pleaded with the girl.

“Well since I can’t have this affecting your teams’ playing I guess I should accept. But I don’t know when I will be free next.” She told him considering her school schedule and part time hours at the hospital.

“Of course. Just let me know when you will be free and I’ll leave tickets then. And bring a friend I’ll leave two.”

“I will thank you again Jon.” Juliette told him.

He gave her his phone number quickly and the dates of upcoming home games that hopefully Juliette would be able to make it to.

Once she was off the phone Juliette couldn’t believe this was her life.

Notes

So I am bring Having Faith over here to hockey fanfiction! This was originally two chapters but I thought they were both rather short so why not put them together.


*4/6/14*
Hi. So I know this has been FOREVER but well I really have no excuse but that I thought this story could be better and I really wanted to make some changes plus I'm the world's worst procrastinator. Therefore apparently it took me probably over a year and one comment from a lovely reader to make me think about writing again.
Honestly I'm sure this could be WAY better if I wasn't a girl with a degree in chemistry but well this is what I have so I hope you enjoy it. A LOT was changed in the first chapter because I didn't like were it went the first time and the age difference between Juliette and Corey (not that it was weird I just thought she could be older.) So if you read it once please PLEASE read it again. I think you'll like this version better I am trying to hard to void that typical character of fanfiction.

I hope the formatting and everything is okay it was being weird when I pasted it from Word. I will probably rework the next chapter and have it up in an hour or so. And hopefully we can get this train moving again. I had a lot of nice comments on Mibba were I first posted it and I'm happy if even one person enjoys this. So happy reading.

Amanda

P.S. I am a chemistry major so forgive me for the grammar and spelling mistakes that I am sure are in this chapter. If you notice anything and have a suggestion to fix it please don't hesitate to let me know!

Constructive criticism is good right?