“I’m going to miss you,” I say sadly. I was off to my final competition before the Olympics and I was kind of sad about it. Me and Sidney hadn’t been apart in a long time.

“I’ll miss you more,” he says cupping my face. He kisses me goodbye and I head to security. X Games Aspen was one of the most popular competitions and if I did well there I knew I had a good shot at medalling at the Olympics. I spend my flight thinking about the runs I’ll be doing. The last couple times I’ve snowboarded, I’ve broken bones so part of me was worried about how this was going to go. I land in Aspen and find Danny and Jack waiting for me in a van.

“There she is!” Danny yells, honking the horn. I get in the back and I’m suddenly excited for the week.

“Man how are you? It’s been what like two months? You too good for us now? We had to find out from instagram that you’re engaged!” Jack asks, offended.

“Sorry, I’ve been a bad friend.” I admit.

“We forgive you. But let’s see the proof.” Danny challenges. I hold up my ring finger so it looks like I’m flipping him off.

“Oh my god look at that thing,” Jack says, inspecting it.

“So you’re marrying Sidney Crosby? That is unreal.” Danny says, amazed.

“No offence Phoenix, but I thought you weren’t into the whole marriage thing?” Jack asks.

“I thought I wasn’t but then I met Sidney and I can’t imagine my life without him,” I say sighing.

“Our little smitten kitten,” Danny jokes. I roll my eyes and we finally get to our cabin. I check my phone and I have a missed text from Bud.

Coach: I’ll be at registration all day. You better not be late

“I got to go register I’ll see you guys later,” I say getting the keys. I drive down to the chalet and walk in. There are athletes everywhere and I see Bud at a table signing athletes in.

“Sup coach,” I say casually.

“Well if it isn’t Phoenix Hagelin. You know I had find out through Danny that you broke your arm?” he says angrily.

“I didn’t tell you because you would have gotten angry like you are right now. It’s not a huge deal, I can still snowboard,” I reply annoyed. I loved Bud but he could be like an overbearing father sometimes. He signs me in and tells me to meet him at two o’clock for practice. I walk towards the door and I see the McMorris brothers.

“There are my two favourite brothers,” I say hugging them.

“Why’d you pick a black cast?” Craig asks laughing.

“Black goes with everything. Its my favourite colour.” I say defensively.

“You excited to compete?” Mark asks me.

“Yeah I am. It’s been awhile. It’ll be good to see if I’m Olympic ready. Are you guys staying at the cabin?” They nod yes and I tell them I’ll meet them there. I decide to call Sid on the way back to the cabin.

“Hey, how you settling in?” he asks.

“Good just registered, I have practice later.”

“Speaking of practice the guys all reamed me out today.”

“What? Why?” I ask confused.

“Well ‘someone’ made it look like a cat attacked my back. Plus you conveniently left multiple hickeys on my neck.”

“I’m pretty sure you were enjoying those things while they happened. Plus you don’t hear me complaining about the rug burn on my ass” I say rolling my eyes.

“You’re right. I apologize,” he laughs and I can’t help but smile.

"Danny and Jack weren’t pleased I didn’t tell them about my engagement and Coach is pissed about my arm,” I say, sounding defeated.

“I feel like it shouldn’t matter how they found out, they should be happy for you and your coach sounds like a scary guy. Will he be invited to the wedding?”

“Yeah. He wants you to meet you. He specifically said ‘I want to meet the distraction that’s going to ruin your Olympics.’” I say, trying to imitate him.

“Ouch.” Sidney says laughing. I pull up to the cabin and shut the car off.

“Well babe, I gotta bounce. I’ll call you tonight after your game.”

“Alright. Bye Nix, I love you.

“Love you too.” I hang up and get out of the van and walk into the cabin.
Danny and Jack were watching TV and playing guitar.

“Thanks for telling Coach about my arm. I was going to try and hide it,” I tell Danny, punching him lightly.

“Yeah that’s my bad. It slipped out.” Danny says apologetically.
I plop down on the couch watch the hockey highlights. I hear Mark and Craig come in with someone and I sit up and see Stale standing there.

“We brought Stale along,” Craig says sitting down beside me. Stale sits down on the other side of me and all the colour drains from my face. He doesn’t say anything and I keep my focus on the TV. Fifteen minutes later I look at the clock and finally the time comes for me to get ready for practice.

“Well I gotta get ready for practice,” I say getting up. I head upstairs to my room and start gathering my stuff. I’m about to leave when I hear a knock on the door, and Stale is there leaning against the frame.

“Hey Phoenix. I just wanted to say I hope things aren’t weird between us. I mean I had a really good time, I was shocked to see you left but I get that it was a one-time thing. I know we both snowboard and have a lot of the same friends so I hope that we can both go back to being friends,” he says warmly. I know he’s being genuine and I want nothing more than to put that night behind us.

“Friends sounds great,” I reply and we hug it out. I head out to practice and Jack and Danny come along.

“Why are you guy’s coming with me?” I ask skeptically.

“What was that all about?” Jack asks.

“What?”

“You and Stale. Upstairs. Seemed kinda weird.” Danny adds. I knew I wasn’t going to get out this interrogation. Plus these guys were my best friends and I knew I could talk to them about anything.

“Fine. I slept with him. We were just putting it behind us.” Danny slams on the brakes and we all lurch forward. “Jesus Danny. You’re lucky no one was behind us.” I say angrily.

“You slept with Stale? When?” Jack asks shocked.

“A few months ago. Sidney and I broke up for awhile and I got drunk and it was stupid,” I say regretfully.

“What did Sidney say about it?” Danny asks.

“He wasn’t happy about it obviously but he forgave me eventually.” We get to the mountain and I tell them I’ll see them later.

Practice goes way better than I expected. Even Coach seemed impressed. I head down to the chalet for supper. I find everyone sitting at table so I grab my food and head over.

“So you’re really engaged?” Craig asks as I sit down. I show him my ring and he stares at it intensely.

“You know what that means boys, summer wedding, open bar!” Mark exclaims. I roll my eyes and shake my head.

“Do I get to be a bridesmaid?” Jack asks and I contemplate the question. I hadn’t thought about bridesmaids. All my friends were guys. I was friends with a couple of the wags but were we close enough to be bridesmaids?

“If I can’t find any female bridesmaids, you guys can be my bridesmaids,” I reply smiling. They all high five and we finish our meal talking about the competitions the next day. We head back to the cabin and I convince the guys to let me watch Sidney’s game. The penguins end up winning 4-3 against Carolina and I wait a couple hours before calling him.

“Hello?” he answers on the third ring.

“Nice game, superstar. That goal was a beauty.”

“Oh you saw that. Yeah it felt good to contribute. How was your day?”

“Weird to be honest.”

“Why was it weird?”

“I was getting ready for practice today and Stale came and found me. He wanted to make sure things weren’t weird and that we’re still friends,” I say hesitantly. The line goes silent and I can tell he’s thinking of what to say.

“So you’re friends again?” he says, his voice even.

“Look Sidney, we have all the same friends. I’m going to see him around whether I like it or not.”

“Is he staying at the cabin?”

“No. He’s staying with the other slopestyle guys.”

“Well. I trust you Phoenix. But if the roles were reversed, wouldn’t you be uncomfortable?” He had a point.

“Yeah probably. I just hate dealing with drama. I just wanted to put it in the past and move on. I don’t know how to deal with this kind of situation,” I say honestly.

“I’m sorry, I’m not trying to stress you out.”

“No it’s fine. You’re entitled to your feelings. I just want you to know everyone here is talking about me being engaged.”

“Oh really?” Sidney says sounding surprised.

“Yeah I’m the talk of the town,” I reply smiling.

“Just wait until you win.”

“Speaking of winning, I should probably go. I compete in the morning.”

“Alright. I love you Phoenix. Good luck.”

“Love you too.” I hang up the phone and fall asleep.

---

“Qualifying first like a champ,” Jack says high fiving me after semi’s.

“Yeah that felt really good,” I reply. We head back to commentating booth and I hear my phone go off.

“Hello?” I answer without checking the id.

“Hey doll, miss me?” I hear a familiar voice say in Swedish.

“Oh my god. Natalia how are you? It’s been forever.” Natalia had moved with me from Sweden to the States but we went our different ways a year later. She wanted to be an event planner in LA and I followed Carl to New York.

“Oh good. I heard the news of your engagement and I just had to call and say congratulations!”

“Well thank you. But let me guess, you wanted to see who was planning my wedding?”

“I figured I could come and stay in Pittsburgh for a few months and I could plan your wedding! We used to be best friends; this could give us a chance to get close again. Like a reunion!” she exclaims excitedly. I think about her proposition. To be honest I had missed her and it would be nice having a female friend around to help with the wedding.

“You know that actually sounds great,” I say, giving in.

“Great! This is going to be great! I know you have X Games but I’ll be in Pittsburgh next week. I just have to find a place to live.”

“You could stay with and Sidney and I if you want. Also Carl has an open room in his apartment. It’s in the heart of downtown, I think you’d love it.” I reply.

“You think he’d let me stay there? I feel like it’d be weird.”

“It wouldn’t be weird. I’ll talk to him and send you the details.” We exchange goodbyes and I head to slopestyle practice.

---

I win gold in halfpipe and my phone blows up. Smiling I skip to Sidney’s text.

Sidney: Had all the guys over, they went nuts. Beau accidently broke your favourite lamp. Congratulations superstar, you killed it.

I smile and head in the chalet for some food. I see Shaun walking towards me and I debate whether I have time bolt.
“Hey Phoenix congrats, you second run was unbelievable,” he says smiling.

“Thanks, yeah I wasn’t sure I was going to land that 1440 but I got it around just in time,” I say awkwardly.

“I heard about your engagement. Everyone’s talking about. I just wanted to say I’m really happy for you. You seem really happy,” he says genuinely.

“Thanks Shaun, I am.” He hugs me awkwardly and then wishes me luck in slopestyle. I grab some lunch and chill out for the rest of the day.

The next day the weather is terrible. Snow is blowing hard and visibility is down. Practice went terrible and I wasn’t able to land a good run.

“I don’t think they’re going cancel so you’re going to have to do your best with this weather,” Bud says at the top of the mountain. Slowly one by one girl each girl goes, and one by one each girl falls. Finally Jamie Anderson goes and puts down a relatively clean run. My turn is next and I hit the rails with ease. I get to the jump and I feel my board slow down immensely on the powdery snow. I try my best to whip my trick around but I come short and land on my butt. I stand up and make my way down the rest of the hill. I await my score and get a 32.87, leaving me in ninth place. I go back up the mountain and Bud tells me the changes I need to make for my next run. Everyone continues to fall until it’s my turn again. I simplify my run and manage to put down a run without falling. I get a 65.70 and end up taking bronze.

“Not bad Hagelin. Those conditions were rough,” Danny says back at the cabin. Happy with my performance this week, I head up to my room to pack.

“What you’re not even going to stay for the men’s competition or the concert?” Jack asks, sitting on my bed.

“And stand outside and freeze? No thanks. The sooner I get back to Sidney the better.” I zip up my suitcase and take a moment. “Can you believe that this is the last competition before Olympics?” I say, shocked.

“Crazy hey? One more month.” I stand there a moment, letting those words sink in.

“Do you wanna drive me to the airport?” He smiles and nods and we make our way downstairs. I say goodbye to the guys and wish them luck and then head to airport.

Notes