Some Kind of Magic

‘Junk’ was scribbled across the huge brown box in Vanessa’s hands. There was a heavy line of tape across the flaps and for a moment, she did not want to open the box. If it was junk, then why would she need to unpack it, why couldn’t she just throw it away. Shaking her head, she set the box aside and grabbed the last box that had huge black letters on it. ‘Important’. A heavy sigh escaped her lips which she was nervously chewing on. Her right hand stood on the side of the box as the other grabbed the little part of the flap not covered by tape and she pulled back roughly. The clear tape was split right down the middle as the other flap fell to the side letting the brunette see the full contents of the box.

“All of my papers. All of my school papers, all of my recommendations and what not”, she rolled her eyes and pressed the flaps back into the box. “Should’ve just labeled that box junk”, her words were laced with hatred. Back in New York, her life was borderline perfect. That was before the whole cheating incident of course and a few other alcohol induced incidents that were not going to be brought up at the moment. Her old life in New York was filled with an amazing job, a wonderful house, and at the time close to perfect boyfriend. Her job of managing the advertisements for the New York Knicks, New York Rangers, and various other concerts in Madison Square Garden was the best she could imagine. Special tickets to games, tons of cash, and she was widely liked for her kindness but also for her seriousness when it came to the job. Most of the people there believed she was the perfect person for that job. When she quit, it was widely understood, and she left on good terms. That seemed to be the only place where she left on good terms. With friends and her boyfriend, she was viewed as a cold hearted bitch. But she knew why. All of her friends there, were Matt’s friends first. Matt was powerful. Matt had money. No one messed or took the opposite side of that kind of person. It was a common rule of those kind of people.

Two empty suitcases were piled up on the bed. An empty cardboard box was at the foot of the bed, and then there were the last two boxes, ‘Junk’ and ‘Important‘. Just as Vanessa’s curiosity reached it’s peak and she grabbed her keys and the junk box, there was a heavy pounding on the door, followed by a high pitched squeal followed by one of Alicia’s giggles. To Vanessa it was the sound of a dieing small animal getting run over by a truck. How a man could find a giggle of that pitch cute was beyond Vanessa and she could only accept it.

On her feet, she walked over to the door and opened it. A flailing limb missed her face by an inch as she stumbled back into her room, the anger slowly starting to fuse with her blood. “Hey you hermit, you”, the brunette clenched her jaw as she put on a fake smile. “This monster is my boy. Travis this is my bestie from high school, Vanessa”, there was something in the way Alicia said ‘monster’ that bothered Vanessa, but she quickly brushed it away as she smiled brightly and stuck her hand out to the boy. He looked at it, then back up at her. She readied herself for a cruel remark.

“I’m a hugger”, the boy said and took a step into the room and wrapped his arms around Vanessa causing a genuine laugh to escape her slightly swollen lips from her nibbling on them all the time she was in her room. “Come on, hug me back. I’m not letting go until you do”, she wrapped her arms around him and gave him a small squeeze. With that, he let her go and walked back over to Alicia whose eyes were bright and sparkling. She gushed how she was glad that they were going to get along.

Vanessa stood there feeling guilty and a little shocked. Sure, she was bitter and envious of everything Alicia was and had. She was annoyed that Alicia was so perfect to almost every guy. She wished she had the social skills Alicia did. She wanted the choice of what guy she could date like Alicia did. But Vanessa understood completely that she wasn’t Alicia. She was absolutely nothing like her, and that the only way she was going to get pampered was if she made the money herself.

“So, Vanessa”, this came from Travis. Alicia was now out of the picture and a wave of awkwardness rushed over her as she realized she was talking one on one with this stranger. “I herd Alicia talking about how smart you are”, Vanessa’s cheeks gained a tint of red as she answered humbly. “I just tried way too hard.” He nodded and took a deep breath.

“She also mentioned you were looking for a job”, he said furrowing his eyebrows.

“Everyone needs one”, she said sighing a little.

“Well then!”, he stretched out his arm and took Vanessa under it and pulled her down the hall toward the living room where the hum of voices was coming from. “We need a manager commercial agent supervisor of advertising”, they both shared a laugh as they entered the living room. Vanessa and Travis turned to each other, and the sort walk seemed to break the small shell Vanessa was in off into tiny fragments.

“It’s an advertising agent”, she let out a laugh and looked up into the boys eyes, “You were on the right track though”, they shared a few more words, mostly Travis informing her that she was now going to be hanging around Hockey players who weren’t ‘advertising agent’ smart, so she needed to dumb herself down to interact with them properly. To this Vanessa laughed and turned to the rest of the people with a smile. All of the boy smiled back at her except for the one in the back of the room with short brown hair and vibrant brown eyes who just looked at her. There was no emotion present in his eyes. It was just a long blank stare.

Travis took a deep breath wrapping his arm around Vanessa’s shoulders in a brotherly way. “Boys, this is Vanessa”, a mixture of ‘hello’s and ‘hey’s escaped the four boys sitting around the living room, suddenly Vanessa felt small under their steady gaze. Her shell was slowly starting to reform. “This here is David Clarkson”, Vanessa’s eyes landed on the closest boy. His bright blue eyes ripped into her sending an uncomfortable feeling in her stomach. After they shared a smile, Travis moved on. “Next to him is the baby”, the boy blushed like mad and stood up sticking his hand out to Vanessa, she took it with a huge smile, “Niclas Bergfors. Pleasure to meet you”, Vanessa nodded smiling widely back at him.

Travis quickly pulled her away and over to the other two boys sitting in the back of the room, one the boy that just looked at her with those huge emotionless eyes, like he was dead. “This is Dainius Zubrus”, He sent Vanessa a small nod, and then Travis and her turned toward the last boy. His eyes were huge like if his name was revealed he would have to run out of the house and go into hiding. “The last one here is the our Assistant Captain, top goal scorer”, Vanessa rolled her eyes, her smile dying down to a small smirk on her lips. She was not one to be swept off her feet by sports stats, and her eyes were not shuffling these boys into attractive and unattractive. It’s been so long since she had to find a guy, they weren’t ready to start sorting. Also, Vanessa did not want to start sorting through men again. She was good for a while. She needed a lengthy break from the stress of having a significant other.

“The best for last, Zach Parise”, the boy seemed to have his breath catch in his throat. His eyes widened a little more. After a short moment of silence, he let his breath out in a heavy sigh and quickly plastered on a fake smile.

“It’s nice to meet you, Vanessa”, he said a pain lingering in his voice as his eyes drowned in hers. As he managed to keep the stare between them, all of the thoughts about her hit him like an eighteen wheeler and he felt like spitting them all out in front of her. How he witnessed her get hit, how he saw her breakdown completely in her office, how he watched her put on a mask and walk back out into the world like nothing had ever happened to her. His stomach was suddenly sick and he excused himself from them and quickly made his way to the bathroom.

A soft sigh escaped Vanessa’s lips as the boy exited the room. She wasn’t really that disappointed, she was sure that not all of the guys would like her, and it was obvious he was the one guy that was not going to like her, especially after the weird stare, and the awkward first impression.

Travis told her that he was weird sometimes, Zach that is, and they’d probably be good friends later on. Instead of blurting out that she didn’t intend to stay here that long, she nodded and took a deep breath looking at the other boys staring at her with smiles.

Maybe this wasn’t going to be so bad. Her thoughts for once tried to see the better side of things. The bright side. “So, why are you moving in here?”, David asked Vanessa just as Zach reentered the room. His brown eyes landed on his teammate and he widened his eyes trying to signal him to shut up, but it was too late.

“Don’t feel obliged to answer that”, Zach snapped looking into Vanessa’s eyes. Her eyes gained curiosity as her mouth slowly parted and she looked at the boy. Bells started ringing in her head, and his face now look familiar, like a while ago he did something for her that she should have thanked him for. But, she just couldn’t put her finger on it.

Zach Parise, who plays for the New Jersey Devils.

Vanessa stood there as conversations flowed around her in the air. All of them involved her, but she took part in none. Instead, she just kept her eyes on the boy sitting back down on the couch in the back of the room. His huge brown eyes were narrowed, staring at his crossed hands in front of him. Vanessa’s eyes were stuck on him, studying his face trying to figure out why when she looked at him she felt a mixture of sadness and embarrassment.