Tyler's POV
So we pretty much kidnapped Kirsten. The guys and I had planned on going to six flags after practice, to bond as a team, and to go on a bunch of gut wrenching rides. And how perfect was it that Kirsten just happened to be at the rink! Nah, I knew she was going to be there. But she didn't know about our plan. And she also didn't know that Jamie was on his way to kidnap Marie. And a lot of the other guys were bringing girls, too. It was about a 20 minute drive, and Kirsten still didn't know her way around Dallas, so there was no way for her to tell where we were going. ANd it gave us time to talk. "So, have you thought about whether you're going to be my girlfriend? Or try?" I ask, turning to look at her.
"Keep your eyes on the road, Romeo. And no." She says.
"No you haven't thought about it? Or no..." I trail, not wanting to say it out loud, because I think that's what she means.
"No, I don't want to be your girlfriend. I know I told you that I want a real relationship, but I decided against that. I want to be friends. And maybe those friends would ride the hobby horse occasionally." She purposes, with a straight face. I don't know if she's being serious or not.
"Well, I don't want to lose you as a friend, and are you for real right now?" I ask her.
"Yeah I'm for real. You know me, I wouldn't bullshit about this." She says, looking at me. We stare at each other for a moment, and in that moment, I miss the exit we need to take.
"Shit! That was the exit I needed to take. But I don't want to be just friends with benefits, Kirsten. I like you as a person, and as a friend." I tell her, taking her hand. She doesn't pull her hand away.
"tyler, are you not getting it? I don't want a boyfriend. I don't need that type of commitment right now, and I don't need that type of publicity, especially if I get the athletic trainer job!" SHe says, sounding exasperated.
"Fine, I get it." I say, and think about it. We would stay friends. We would get laid, and I would stay close to her. And if being bed buddies led to something more, then so be it. "Okay, I know I can make that work. We have to have some ground rules. First, you have to tell me all the NHL players you've screwed, because you implied that there may have been more than Brendan." I say.
"Yeah, there was just more than Brendan. Why does it matter?" She asks me, with a sassy tone. "I can't ask you to tell me who you've done throughout your life, you probably can't remember them all."
"I feel like I should know if you've screwed one of my co-workers." I say.
"Fine, I'll tell you one now, and one later. Under one condidtion. You have to tell me the last girl you hooked up with." She gives me an ultimatum.
"Fine, the last girl I hooked up with was named Jessica. I found her at the club. More like she found me. She was a puck bunny. We were drunk. Your turn." I say.
"You can't get mad." She says, and I nod, and pull into the parking lot at Six Flags. "I may have done... Jonathan Toews..." She trails off. I can feel my face getting red. I'm so pissed. I don't even know why, Jon was a pretty nice guy actually. But I didn't like the idea of him being with her.
I calm myself down, and answer, "Oh. I had no idea." I say.
"See! I knew you'd get mad! You have no reason to be mad either! God, I knew I shouldn't have told you." She yells, then looks out the window at where we are. "Oh my god. I love Six Flags! Why are we here?"
"Why do you think we're here? And I'm not mad. It's just weird to picture, kay? But let's go have fun! It looks like more of our group is here." I tell her, and step out of my car. She comes around, and I put my arm around her shoulders, and whisper in her ear, "Is this okay?" And I have a big smile on my face. She turns her head towards me, and our faces are really close.
"Do you do this with all your friends?" She asks with a smile, too.
"I can." Then we go over to where Marie is, and I put my arm over her shoulder too, and Kirsten starts laughing really hard. That makes me laugh to. "Come on! Let's go ride some kick-ass roller coasters!" And Jamie comes and takes Marie from our trio. We go to the gates, and most of us have season passes, because we love this place so much. We get in, and with the season passes, come fast lane lines. We first go to a roller coaster that seats four across, and your feet dangle. I tease Kirsten, "You don't have to go if you're to scared!" And she punches me in the shoulder. In case you didn't go to high school, punching is good.
"Whatever, I'm surprised you haven't chickened out yet, wuss!" She teases right back, and all the guys laugh. She fits in well with us. And then it's our turn to ride. She goes to the far side, I sit next to her, with Val and John sitting in the other two seats, because they didn't bring dates. "Keep your hands up the whole time!" She challenges us. The ride starts, and she laughs, putting her hands up straight away, mine and Val's follow, and Jon tries, but as soon as the ride starts to go up the initial incline, he grabs the handles, and the three of us start laughing. The ride is great, but at one point I almost grab my handles, while her hands are still up, her hair whipping around her face, and a huge grin on her face. Instead of grabbing the handles, I grab her hand. "That's cheating! Let go wuss! Stop being such a puss Ty!" She yells to get her message across. I just grab tighter.
When we get off the ride, she faux-glared at me. I look down sheepishly, and say, "Sorry K, I was scared! I needed you to hold my hand!" And all the guys laugh and tease me. But it was worth it. I enjoyed holding her hand. And I decided that if the best I could do was being bed buddies, then so be it. I'd take what I could get. We went from ride to ride, all day, and had so much fun that it was pretty ridiculous. When it is time for us to leave, we all head out in one big group, and people stare, and point, but none of us cared. That was one of the most fun times I'd had in a long time, and I don't think I was the only one that felt that way. Kirsten smiled at me, then sneakily pointed at Marie and Jamie. They looked like they were about to have a moment, and they got to his car before we got to mine. Instead of continuing to my car, she ducked down, so Jamie and Marie couldn't see her, and tiptoed around the car, and right as they were about to kiss, went running at them, flailing her arms and shouting at them, 'Break it up! Get a room! That's gross. PDA Police! PDA Police! Weee oooh!' and got in the middle of them. Then couldn't control her laughter, so she collapsed onto the pavement, and just about everyone saw, so they died of laughter, too. Jamie and Marie laughed too, and Jamie helped pick Kirsten up. She laughed and walked away, and despite her 'PDA Police' effort, they kissed anyways. All of they guys and her, made 'EWWWW' noises, and they weren't discouraged. We all went to our respective vehicles, and she was still smiling at her own prank.
"Thank you Tyler. That was the most fun I've had in a long time." She tells me. I smile at her, and then start the car.
"Yeah, me too. And I don't think we're the only ones that feel that way." I inform her. "I thought you would be more scared of some of the rides."
"Really? you thought I would be scared? Me?" She says in a tone of disbelief, but she still has a smile on her face.
"Well, more scared than you were! You were the first one to volunteer for the scariest one!" I say, and imitate her excited noises from earlier.
"Shut up!" She says, and punched me again. "So... I take it you agree that we can keep it as friends with benefits?" She questions.
I nod, and say, "Yeah. But just so you're aware, for the record, you approached me with the idea. You can't call me an asshole or anything. And we need to have rules. So, no we aren't exclusive? We can sleep with other people, right?"
"Yeah, you can do whatever you want. We are still friends in front of everyone, but nobody gets to know we're riding the hobby horse. If I get that job, that is even more important, for both our sakes. There is zero commitment involved in this." She said.
"First you have to tell me who else you slept with in the NHL." I demand.
"Whatever. It was Ben Bishop." I look at her in a, 'are you fucking serious' look. "Don't give me that look! He's a nice guy. And he's really tall, which I liked. Leave me alone!" She says, laughing at me expression.
"Okay, whatever you want. I can see you like the tall ones. Sorry, I fall kind of short of those expectations." I said, making a pun. She busted out laughing, and snorted a little bit, and her occasional snorts were really endearing. Then she got embarrassed and stopped laughing. "So, do you want to come over to my place?" She nodded, and then plugged her phone into the aux cord, and put on some blink-182 song. We drove the rest of the way, with her hand on my thigh, and my hand on top of hers.

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