Stockholm Syndrome

“Phoenix I dare you to try the double mctwist,” my best friend Danny challenges me. It was a sunny day in Breckenridge Colorado, where me and my crew were snowboarding.

“I will if you will,” I tease back. As a female snowboarder I was lucky enough to be a part of a male crew who pushed me to be my best. I was competitive and I wanted to keep up to the skill level they had.
Danny tries the trick with no problem. I drop in the halfpipe and get to the top on the other side. Using the speed I picked up, I pull the trick and land on my feet unsteadily.

“WOOOO!” I hear a chorus of cheers erupt. I spray my friends with snow and high five each of them.

“That was way better than it was in Tahoe,” Scotty exclaims.

“Yeah, it’s a big step up from landing on your face,” Jack jokes.

“Yeah yeah yeah,” I reply.

Ready for a break I sit down and pull out my phone. I had a bunch of missed texts from people asking if I had heard the news. I scroll through twitter and find numerous amounts of tweets saying Carl had been traded to the Pittsburgh Penguins. I quickly find his contact information and start calling him.

“Hello?” he asks, sounding impassive.

“Yeah hi. It’s your sister, I just heard the news. Why didn’t you tell me?” I ask angrily in Swedish. We were fraternal twins but we were just as close as identical. I could tell his mood or what he was thinking just by looking at him.

“I knew you were at the mountain all day, I didn’t want to bother you. “ he replies.

“Are you okay with this?”

“I kind of have to be Phoenix, this is what I signed up for when I wanted to be a hockey player. Besides Pittsburgh is a decent team. They have a lot of talent and I’m hoping I can be an asset there.”

“Well that’s a positive way of looking at it.” I say, though I know it’s just a front.

“Yeah well I know you were saying you were looking for a new adventure and I figured this could be it. You should come stay in Pittsburgh with me, it’d be really cool if I had you there with me.” He asked persuasively. I liked to consider myself a gypsy. I loved to travel and being a professional snowboarder let me do that globally. It wouldn’t be a huge deal to pack up and go live with Carl for a while plus I know he wouldn’t have asked if he didn’t mean it.

“You know what sure. Why not?” I say giving in.

“Awesome! Well I gotta go do a million things. I’ll text details and everything.” He says with a much lighter tone in his voice. We hang up and I walk back over to the guys who are getting ready to leave.

“What was that all about?” Scotty asks.

“Carl just got traded to Pittsburgh, and apparently I’m going with him,” I inform them.

“Pittsburgh, like the Pittsburgh Penguins? As in Sidney Crosby?” Danny asks in shock.

“Yes Danny,” I laugh. “Would you like me to get an autograph?” My friends were all very big hockey fans. We head back to my house to unwind after a long day out on the mountain.

“Where are you heading next?” Jack asks me while cracking a beer.

“I have a shoot and an interview in LA, then I’m meeting up with Carl once he gets a place in Pittsburgh.” I say chewing an apple. Since I was in a super good mood since nailing that trick earlier I decided that I wanted to go out before we all went our separate ways. “We should go out tonight!” I yell loudly.

“Yeah I’m down,” Danny nodded. The rest of the guys agreed and I went upstairs to get ready. I threw on black skinny jeans and a white halter crop top. I brushed my long black hair and applied a little mascara and foundation to cover up my paleness. I looked in the mirror and was satisfied with my final look. I headed downstairs and then we left to hail a cab.

Once there, the music was blaring and I went immediately to the bar with Danny.
“Let’s get shots to celebrate!” Danny yells over the music.

“Celebrate what?” I yell back.

“You! Doing the double mctwist. You’ll be competing in the men’s group soon enough,” he says proudly. I smile and we knock back the shots. The guys always made comments about me competiting with them but I never took them seriously. I get another drink and we make our way to the dance floor where Jack and Scotty are tearing it up. Jump Around starts to play and Jack and me start doing our choreographed dance to it. Feeling the buzz I can’t help but smile. I wasn’t an alcoholic but there wasn’t a better feeling that dancing and having fun with your friends, not having a care in your mind. The rest of the night was filled with many drinks and many dance offs until we finally got to a cab and headed home.

Notes