Chicago City Lights

As two more weeks of January passed, Ben was able to begin practicing with the team again. Evelyn had a day off, from both school and work, and Ben had insisted in Bensenville, Evelyn was immediately greeted by Ben’s teammates, most notably, James Wisniewski.

“Hey, Wizzer,” She laughed, as he wrapped his arms around her.

“I missed you!”

“…You saw me, like, a week ago.”

“Yeah,” He said. “And I missed seeing your pretty face.”

Evelyn blushed and turned her head, looking at Ben. Ben shook his head at Wizzer, and she could swear that she saw him frown. As the boys began to dress into their practice gear, Evelyn let herself out of the locker room. She walked into the arena and took a seat on the bench, like Ben had insisted she do.

Evelyn introduced herself to the equipment manager and he smiled widely at her.

“Ah, Ben’s girlfriend, right?”

“Ah, no, we’re just friends.”

“Oh, well, the way he talks about you, I just figured…”

Evelyn let out a nervous laugh, but he didn’t seem to notice.

“How long have you known each other?”

“Just about a month, but we’ve gotten really close.”

“Well, that’s good that he was lucky enough to get so close to someone after just moving here.”

Evelyn grinned because she felt like the lucky one. Meeting Ben had taken her out of her boring routine. Now, almost every night she was with Ben, when she would have been spending her evenings reading otherwise.

As the team skated around, Coach Savard told the guys just to relax and have fun on the ice. Ben immediately skated to the bench, took a drink of Gatorade and hopped over the boards to sit next to the small brunette.

“Hey, come skate with us.”

“I don’t think that’s - ”

“Come on, I’ll teach you,” He told her, handing her a small pair of skates.

Evelyn laughed, but took the skates, tying them tightly. Ben watched her, wondering how she knew how to tie them properly. To say he was shocked when she stood and jumped over the bench and immediately began skating was an understatement.

The whole team looked over at Evelyn, as Ben followed her onto the ice. She waved at the team and winked over at Ben, as he shook his head at her.

“I didn’t know you could skate,” Jonathan Toews said, skating toward her.

“I grew up figure skating.”

“In Arizona?” Patrick Kane, laughed, but stopped as he watching the jumps and fast paced turns Evelyn was executing.

She smiled at him and skated over to Ben, as music starting playing throughout the empty arena. Evelyn giggled and grabbed his hands.

“Ben! Dance with me.”

“I don’t dance.”

Evelyn snorted, “Lies. I saw you dancing that one time I was at your apartment. What you were dancing to?”

“Shut up.”

“Ricky Martin?”

“It was on the radio!”

The team laughed at Ben’s embarrassment, as Evelyn began dancing to the ridiculous, but awesome music known as ABBA. She continued to skate with the guys for a while, until Coach Savard decided to end the practice with some skating drills. Evelyn happily got off the ice and sat back on the bench, changing out of the skates and putting her shoes back on.

Just as she looked up, she saw Ben skate by her. In front of him, Patrick Sharp was skating. She couldn’t believe how fast the entire team was skating, if one of them were to fall…

And just then, Sharpie tripped over himself and Ben was unable to stop himself from falling as well. Evelyn’s eyes went wide and her hand went to her mouth, as Patrick lay on the ice and Ben went hurtling down.

“Oh, shit,” She said, hopping up, as Patrick got up, but Ben didn’t.

The whole team watched and skated over, as Ben slowly moved, bringing a hand to his head.

“Ben!” Evelyn gasped, as she ran out on the ice and to where Ben was kneeled. “Oh my god.”

“I’m fine,” He said, waving her off.

But, as he stood up onto his feet, he fell forward and Evelyn tried to catch him. She fell onto her butt, as Ben dizzily fell into her lap.

“Oh my!” She squeaked. “Ben, honey…”

Just then the medical trainer ran out onto the ice and did some tests. As Evelyn looked on, she knew it was going to be a long time longer before Ben was able to skate again, and she was heartbroken for him.