Brighten My Northern Sky

The next couple days of Operation: Move In were peaceful chaos. Yes peaceful chaos. While moving someone in should have been a complete nightmare, that’s the last thing it was. Everything was coming from another teammate’s house who lived in Tarrytown, but Scott had a range rover that was able to carry everything over to mine and Marc’s apartment. Then with the assistance of Ryan, Scott, Henrik, and Brandon, everything had gone smoothly, considering I was expecting it to be a two person job. And this was one of the many reasons telling me that I was going to get used to all of this better than I had thought.

“Ok we’ll paint the walls of the kitchen red. I mean bright red” Brandon said, standing in the center of the kitchen with a deep concentration on his face. Ryan gave him a look of disbelief and I tried to stifle a chuckle.

“Idiot, it isn’t your apartment! You don’t get to choose how J.R. and Marc want to decorate it!” Ryan said. Brandon sent him a glare and retorted, saying “Well I’m just trying to help! Maybe you should help in being productive, moron.”

“Oh I’M the moron?” Ryan asked.
“Yeah!”

“And you’d think that at their ages they might be a bit more mature. Just saying” Scott said, watching the two men bicker back and forth as he, Marc, Henrik and myself sat in the living room.

“Well, at least you won’t have to put up with them too much, right J.R.?” Hank asked, giving me one of the most charming smiles. In an instant, I felt my heart melt into a puddle of blood and felt that blood rush into my cheeks. How could one man be so attractive?

“Right.” I said quietly, eyes suddenly widening as Brandon threw a banana at Ryan’s head, but ended up missing and hitting the window, to which Marc stood up. I watched with a nervous amusement as Marc with his imposing 6’4 frame stomped over towards both his teammates, who both seemed to get smaller as Marc made every angry step closer.

“Guys, stop messing around with the apartment! Now I’M gonna have to clean it up!” Marc said, grabbing Brandon in a headlock. Scott and Hank broke out into a fit of giggles as Brandon tried helplessly to get himself out of Marc’s inhumanly strong grip.

“Oh stop being a wuss!” Ryan replied with a chortle.

“Wuss?!”

“Get off Staal!”

Their fight was like a really bad train wreck- I couldn’t avert my eyes from it even if I tried, which I guessed was the same deal with Scott and Hank who watched with just as much interest as myself, while the other three fought their way over into the living room. I let out little involuntary gasps of fear as I saw them get progressively rougher with one another, fearing they’d break something. Or each other. Both would be awful, and I let out the biggest gap once they all fell onto the couch, only a couple of feet away from the three of us who had decided not to partake in their fight.

Scott laughed at my gasps, and happily put an arm around my shoulders, bringing me closer into him as the fight progressed to where we were sitting on the couch.

“Don’t worry J.R., they’ll be ok. They need each other to play after all.” he said cheerily, nowhere near as worried as I was about what could happen. I just continued to stare as Ryan tried to tackle both Marc and Brandon to the ground, Marc had Brandon in a headlock still, and Brandon flailed his arms around, trying to get out of Marc’s grasp. Maybe I was a little too tightly-wounded, but the sight of three young men rough-housing in a new apartment was unsettling.

“Are they always this crazy?” I asked both men sitting on the couch with me.

“Oh yes. You’re in for quite a treat J.R.” Hank chuckled.

Later that Night

“So” I said, flipping through channels on the TV, “Do you prefer Italian or Chinese food?”

“Huh?” Marc asked from the other side of the couch, raising a curious eyebrow.

“I’ve just decided we’re going to play twenty questions and get to know each other more. I mean despite the fact I am living with you, I hardly know anything about you.” I smiled up at him while running a hand through my hair. He just chuckled at me and shook his head. He looked up at the ceiling in thought and then looked back to me, a goofy grin plastered on his face.

“Italian. No offense to the Chinese, but their food kind of freaks me out. How about you?” he asked, his arm slung around the back of the couch and right above my head.

“I agree with you. Take your pick, Playing hockey outdoors or indoors?”

The questions kept on coming as the seconds, minutes, and eventually hour ticked on. He intrigued me, to put it at the very least. He told me he had grown up on a farm in Thunder Bay, Ontario and that when he had been first been drafted to New York, he had no clue as to how he would survive. His teammates got him through though, helping him assimilate to a foreign city life. Now in his second year of playing in the NHL, he felt more comfortable-yet not comfortable to live on his own just yet.

“So how about you, J.R.?” Marc asked, his torso turning so he could face me more accurately, “What about your life story?”

“My life story?” I laughed at the concept of being a twenty-one year old like myself and having a life story, “That’s not fair, I don’t necessarily have one.”

“Well neither do I.” Marc replied with a cheeky grin “But I still told it to you. Now come on.” I let out a sigh and sat forward a little, exiting from my relaxed, semi-sprawled position on the couch.

“I was born in Michigan. Irish dad, Italian mom… REALLY Italian mom. I speak Italian actually. Anyway, I have two brothers, Michael and Tobias, Toby for short though. I came here so I could go to NYU and study medicine. Then I met Tessy in an art class I took for fun and we hit it off…Look I’m really boring, you probably could care less.” I finally said, embarrassed at how my boring life didn’t even compare to his exciting, near storybook one. He just smiled at me, and leaned a little forward.

“I don’t think you’re boring. I think that you just think you’re boring and can’t realize that you’re pretty cool” Marc told me. I blushed, and stared up at the ceiling, trying my best to ignore his gaze.

“You’re just trying to flatter me, it’s almost working.” I replied, giving him a very tiny smile.

“Well, I’m glad that it’s making you happy but no, I’m not trying to flatter you J.” Marc said, leaning back on the arm of the couch.

“I think you’re lying” I smiled at him, turning so that we were facing one another.

“I think you’re wrong.”

“Oh yeah?” I asked, folding my arms over my chest.

“Yeah. I do.” He replied, leaning forward with a big grin on his face. I could feel my cheeks turning red as he was so close to me, but I just brushed it off with a laugh.

“You’re too nice for your own good.” I told him sincerely, “You’re almost like a stereotypical boy next door”.

He asked what that necessarily meant, and I felt tiny butterflies start to wake up in my stomach and float around. What exactly was the boy next door, besides perfection to a T?

“Well, you’re nice. And you’re funny… You kind of seem like the boy that every girl’s parents want them to date. Y’know just very boy next door.” I shrugged, trying to keep my voice low and not embarrass myself. Marc just laughed and placed his hand on top of my head, ruffling it up a little.

“Thanks, J.R.” he said.

“Anytime pal”
_________________________

The energy pulsing throughout my body right now was going at a hundred miles an hour as the loud hustle and bustle of work just continued to grow. The Rangers had won their game against the Panthers, and it was common for most fans to pour into the bars, particularly ours after the game, win or lose.

But the energies were much different, and I was extremely thankful that it was a win rather than a loss.

The loud music inside of Stout mixed with the laughter coming from all the hockey fans put a bright smile on my face as everyone clamored for just one more beer, and that would be it. It wouldn’t be though. But it wasn’t my problem. The electrifying air made it that much more enjoyable of a shift.

An hour ticked on, and I was starting to lose steam as more and more orders came pouring in. I was working the center of the bar, which was always the busiest area of the bar, but someone had to do it and I was more than capable of doing so. I didn’t even really notice as the bar broke out into one big cheer as I was busying myself at the taps fixing up another pint of Sam Adams.

“J!” I heard a loud voice yell out my name. I jumped and turned to see who had done so and almost dropped the pint right where I was standing. Brandon and Ryan were leaning over the bar, giving me the biggest grins I had ever seen come from two men at once. I couldn’t help but smile as they resembled two boys who just happened to be wearing nice suits.

“What are you both doing here?” I asked with a smile, walking up to them and sliding the pint down to the grateful man who had asked for it.

“Celebratory drinks, and we knew that you worked here so we decided to come here for once.” Ryan replied, smiling wider than ever.

“I see, and how did you both know that I worked here?” I asked, leaning on the bar with my arms spread out from one another. They both grinned sheepishly and told me that Marc had told them, and that Marc was around somewhere, probably trying to push his way through the crowd.

“Ahh look here he is!” Brandon said, motioning his hand towards where the three of us were standing. Stepping through the crowd of people was Marc, a humungous smile on his face.

“Some win tonight, eh?” I asked with a bright smile on my face, while grabbing a pint glass from below the bar, “Heard you got a goal.”

“How’d you find out?” he laughed, taking a seat next to Ryan. I mindlessly let the tap fill and replied “There are on average, 500 people on the first floor of this bar right now, and I’d say about ¾ of them are fans coming from the game. Word travels pretty fast around here. You know what that goal means though right?”

Marc didn’t respond at first, but once I put the filled-to-the-brim pint before him, he let out a small gasp of pleasure, and I couldn’t help but laugh at Brandon and Ryan’s facial expressions of mortified shock. Their jaws began to drop even further as Marc greedily downed his beer and after a few grateful chugs, rested it down on the bar, commenting, “Ooh you knew I like Molson, eh?”

“How come HE gets a free pint and WE don’t?!” Brandon exclaimed, pointing back and forth between him and Ryan. I just laughed and ruffled his hair playfully, causing his cheeks to turn a bright crimson that was noticeable even with the dimming light of the bar.

“Well, when you both get goals, you’ll both get free pints as well. I promise.” I said leaning forward, flirtatiously towards them both.

“I’m going to have to get a hat-trick for you now, so that I can get THREE free beers from you. Promise?” Brandon replied playfully.

“Promise.” I replied with a grin, causing Ryan to let out a gagging sound. We both turned to him and gave him a question look, to which he smiled deviously and replied, “You two flirting is too sweet. I think it’s going to make me sick.”

“Oh get over it.” I said trying to be annoyed, but ended up chuckling at him anyway when he winked towards me. I left them swiftly to go attend to other orders, happy that they had come to celebrate here after their game. They just better give me a really nice tip after this. If not, those free beers won’t be coming as often as I was thinking they would.

To the boys

“Dude you really are so lucky.” Brandon said to Marc, staring after J.R. as she walked over to hand out more beverages, “She’s the perfect roommate.”

“Yeah I’ll bet she cooks well too. Pretty, smart… How’d you get so lucky?” Ryan asked the defenseman.

“What?” Marc asked, snapping out of his dazed state, making Brandon and Ryan laugh.

“J.R. We’re just talking about how lucky you are to have her as a roommate. Is she single, do you know?” Brandon asked, taking a sip of his beer, and continually staring after the 21 year old. Marc just rolled his eyes, and rubbed his forehand with his large hands.

“Yeah she’s single, but dude c’mon.” Marc said turning to face the both of them, ‘She’s my roommate, don’t hit on her. I mean she hasn‘t even met Jordan yet” Ryan laughed at him as Brandon furrowed his eyebrows.

“Why don’t you want us hitting on her? You don’t want her all for yourself, do you?” Brandon asked suspiciously. Marc just shook his head and took another sip of his Molson, trying to block out any thoughts of what Brandon was saying was true.

“No it would just be awkward if anyone on the team was to date her…That’s all. Just that.”
“Liar.” Ryan laughed along with Brandon. Marc just tried to tune them out. They were wrong. Absolutely wrong.