Some Kind of Magic

A cool wind blew through the open window in the guest bedroom. Air that was warmed by the heaters in the floor immediately turned ice cold. The small lump in the bed reacted to the freezing air by pulling the covers tightly around it. As the wind died down, and the heat slowly started to consume the cold air, a sniffle sliced through the silence of that portion of the house. It was like someone had hit a resume button. Muffled voices seeped through the cracks around the door, a loud engine roared to life from outside of the window, and as the wind blew through the window again, it seemed to bring an eerie scream with it, that was only the wind whistling through the small openings on the other windows.

Time fell away and what felt like days after the brunette had left the get together complaining about stomach problems, she could not stand to lie in bed any longer. The left side of her body was starting to pulse and her left arm had gone numb a while back from the pressure of her body against it. Inhaling deeply, she rolled over.

Eyelids back, and blue orbs ready to observe the world, they wandered around the dark room. The only things visible were small outlines of objects illuminated by the sliver of moonlight pouring through the window, into the room, and across the floor leading all the way up to the door. For a moment, it seemed like a sign to the girl on the bed, but as memories flooded back into her head, going back out there would only make the tears come rushing back down her face. When Vanessa saw the face of Zach Parise, she did not see a hockey player, or a celebrity, she saw a horrible memory that was erased from her mind, until five hours ago.

Pain rushed through her body as a bright light temporarily filled the room making her eyes snap shut. A female voice started talking, quite quickly, going on about how she wanted her best friend to get some sleep before tomorrow. All of Alicia’s fighting was ignored as pressure against the floorboards made them scream. Each scream grew louder as the person reached the side of Vanessa’s bed. In the pit of her stomach, it was evident who it was, and it made her sick.

“How are you feeling?” Smooth, calm, collected; the boy’s voice entered Vanessa’s ears and suddenly her whole body was calm, like someone had just told her that everything in the world was going to be okay. “Vanessa?” She turned toward the voice, and as she reopened her eyes and gave them a minute to adjust to the new bright light, blood rushed to her cheeks and soon her whole body was hot from embarrassment.

When her blue orbs were finally wide open without any pain, they connected with vibrant brown ones. A strong sick feeling settled in the pit of her stomach, hunching over, she sighed heavily. How was she going to live like this? How long was she going to stay here? How many times was she going to see this boy and feel like she was just infected with the worst flu known to man?

A pressure was applied to her shoulder, and a few seconds later, her whole arm was warm. Looking up, she came back into contact with the vibrant brown eyes that gave her all of these feelings. Sick, torturous, horrible, feelings. Zach’s lips parted and a small sigh escaped them, once the room was back to silence, the door shut and a blanket of fear covered Vanessa. Her eyes darted from the boy to the door, and then everywhere in-between.

Zach watched the girl, her eyes landing on everything but him. The emotions Vanessa felt were shown through her crystal blue eyes. The last time he was around her they were exactly the same, even the same emotions; fear, anger, shock, and anxiety. With a slow inhale, Zach caught Vanessa’s blue eyes and gave her a tiny smile. “I’ll leave if you’d like?” Underneath his words, he wished she would shake her head. Although he only knew certain things about the brunette blue eyed beauty in front of him, he still found himself wishing her could just hold her in his arms.

“You…” Zach’s eyes blew to the size of saucers as Vanessa finally gained the courage to speak to him without someone ice starting the conversation for her. “You were the guy on Saturday”, Zach looked at her confused. Lifting her eyes to his, she whispered a small curse and ran a shaking hand through her long brown hair. “You were the boy that saw me and Matt. You were the one that picked me off of the floor, got me the ice pack”, Vanessa looked up into those vibrant brown eyes. Her stomach flipped violently, and she silently cursed at herself for even bringing this up. It was the past, and it should’ve been kept there.

Zach was speechless at first. He expected that starting this possibly touchy conversation was going to be bad. Tears or raging hate from the girl across from him, the last thing he expected was for her to talk about it. Thinking back, the way she cried and held onto him right after it happened, Zach thought she would be traumatized for life, although it wasn’t that bad. It was bad, but there could have been worse.

Voice shaking, Vanessa spoke again. “Did you tell anyone?” Her eyes were covered in a sheet of water. Slowly blinking, the sheet broke down into small tears that collected on the brim of her bottom eyelid. One more blink, and the salty beads would slowly roll down her porcelain cheeks. “Did you?” She pressed in a louder tone. With no answer, she automatically suspected that he had told everyone, and that’s why everyone was being so nice.

With a deep breath, Zach shook his head and looked back into the blue orbs across the bed. “I told Travis, no names or job titled were involved. He doesn’t know, and I would tell you Alicia doesn’t know, but I honestly could not tell you”, he said truthfully. Vanessa nodded and sighed in defeat as she blinked and the small droplets of water rolled down her cheek.

As Zach caught glimpse of the tears, he wanted to put his hand on her face and push them away with his thumb. The urge to just put his hands on her cheeks and kiss her was overwhelming, and he stood up trying to knock the thoughts from his head. Blinking hard, his arm swung up and his hand was placed at the base of his neck. Applying some pressure a heavy sigh escaped his lips and he looked up into the blue orbs. He asked her if she ever told Alicia. With a small string of silence, she shook her head and let out a small sniffle. Immediately after she made a disgusted face as she used her sleeve to push the tears away.

“Can I get a few minutes alone?” Vanessa asked trying to keep the anger out of her voice. She appreciated Zach’s care for her, but she needed to be alone. If more tears dared to roll down her cheeks, she wanted no one to see them, especially the only person that knows the exact reason why they were there. The last thing Vanessa ever wanted was for people to feel bad for her. The feeling made her skin crawl like she couldn’t take care of herself which was a contributor to why a strong guard was always up around people, especially potential datable men.

Thoughts rushing through Vanessa’s head, Zach whispered a few words that did not last in the air long enough to reach her ears, and then exited from the room silently shutting the door and turning the light off leaving her in the same pitch black room she was in for almost five hours straight.

Lying back in the bed, she concealed her blue orbs with her eyelids. Inhaling deeply and exhaling slowly, she felt her whole body relax to the same point it was relaxed when Zach’s voice hit her ears for the first time. Colors swirled behind her eyelids and as her breathing grew deep and her body drifted in and out of sleep, the colors formed into people, and voices were put to them.

“Yeah!” Vanessa smiled widely as she placed the slim black, hand held, phone between her right shoulder and ear. A deep voice came through the other end, informing her that she had to get on a new commercial for the upcoming game with the New York Rangers and New York Islanders in two weeks. With this information in hand, right away she knew she had to call a few film artists go through Rangers goals on Islanders, and compile a list of possible songs to use and clips. It was a normal thing to her, simple.

The conversation continued, and ended with the normal ‘you’re the best’. Ever since she had taken the job over a year ago, the advertising has become a hit, and with the use of ‘new’ music and ‘new’ techniques of video mixing for commercials, they believed that she was going to be working there for a long time, because no matter what stupid thing she could have done, firing her was not an option.

It was late on Saturday night, around eleven at night. A New York Rangers game had ended maybe a half hour or so ago due to a late start, a few goals that had to go under review, and a fifteen round shootout, so the hallways around were still relatively loud. But away from most of the noise, Vanessa was tucked away in her office, clicking through Rangers goals on the Islander goalies. The office was luckily located close to the locker rooms which gave her the advantage to obtain player quotes for no matter which team or sport, whenever she needed one. Only a few players, the well-known ones around the league knew her by name, but it was rumor that the rest of the players wouldn’t mind knowing her on a name to name basis either. And it didn’t help that whenever she had to, or decided to, work in the office in Madison Square Garden, she had to put on her ‘nice’ clothes which usually consisted of some form of a black dress and a shiny pair of black heels. It was rare she had to work in that office, but today was her choice. Matt had become unbearable and she decided it would be a good idea to take a break and get some sorting done before she had to face the film makes tomorrow.

The noise from the game was slowly starting to fade away. The cheering had gone completely, but the muffled voice from the main hallway behind her door was distracting her from finding a good song for a video clip filled with huge body checks. Running a shaking hand through her brown hair, she shut her eyes and clicked the button on her laptop mouse. A song started to play from a band that had a good up tempo beat to it.

Leaving the song on repeat to see if it truly fit, the clicking noise of the ‘down’ page button filled the room for the next half hour. Occasionally the loud roars of the cheering crowd would echo through the speakers on her macbook as she watched a huge goal, but they only lasted a few moments.

Once the clock had hit midnight, Vanessa let out a heavy sigh and slowly shut the computer screen on her cherry wood desk. It did not die, but her eyes were in pain from staring at the screen for so long, she needed a small break. The break she received was not one she wished for.

Vanessa pulled her knees into her chest as she scooted her butt back in the chair. Forehead against her knees, she let out a yawn and thought about the lovely fight she and Matt had shared before she had left. Loud, annoying, and filled with the stale smell of whiskey, those were the only words that accurately described it. The topic of the fight was unknown, but the cause was clear; Matt was wasted and when he was wasted he was belligerent.

Out of nowhere, her office door swung open. Letting out a small gasp, her blue eyes shot open and she let her feet hit the floor. In the doorway stood Matt, his eyes were tinted pink, the normal stance he had was now bent with his shoulder slumping, and instead of greeting her with a small hello he did on some times he visited her at work, this time he just snarled and slammed the door shut behind him.

“Why the fuck did you leave me? Came here to fuck around with your hockey player friends”, his words were slurred. The fear someone might hear ran through Vanessa’s mind and veins. Her whole body was hot from future embarrassment as Matt slurred a few incomprehensible words.

Walking over to him, she placed her palm on her shoulder. “I needed to get some work done”, her voice stayed soft, trying to calm him down. “I apologize for leaving, alright?” Deep down, in the bottom of her heart, she wanted to just tell Matt to go fuck himself and get out of her office, but dealing with him even later in the night was going to result in something bad. “Go back home, I’ll meet you there in an-“ her words faded quickly into the air as a loud skin against skin slap rang through the small ten by ten foot office. Vanessa’s shoulder slumped down as she stumbled back into her desk. The only emotion present in her eyes was shock. The pain from being slapped in the face had not registered, only shock from the fact that her boyfriend had just hit her.

Speechless, the slim brunette kept her eyes on her feet hoping with every ounce of energy she had that Matt would just walk out of the room. Unfortunately, it was only the beginning. Seconds after she had taken her hand from her face and set it down by her side, Matt had started yelling at her. Most of the words that left his mouth had something to do with cheating on him with a NHL player, but all together, he made no sense. Vanessa tried to stop what she knew was going to happen. During his small breaks, she whispered to him, trying to persuade him to go home, but it didn’t work and she resorted to her last plan, to go behind her desk, it’d leave a nice gap incase anything was going to happen.

“You fucking whore”, Matt snapped and leaned over the desk grabbing the brunette wrist tightly. With a small whimper of pain as the pressure started to increase, Matt pulled her from behind the desk and gave her a good shove across the room. She fell into the chair where she felt completely helpless. As he screamed at her in a low tone, she battled with her head. Stay here and take it, or scream for help like a scared little girl and get into more legal things and have pity from everyone in the whole Madison Square Garden Organization.

The decision was clear as she tried to stand up, but Matt went to slap her and didn’t completely unclench his fist. With a punch to the cheek bone, Vanessa completely missed the chair and fell against the hard floor, blood slowly starting to flow from her nose. With the pain stinging her face, tears quickly formed and started falling from her eyes. When Matt noticed these tears, the only thing he could do was remark on how weak and useless she was. Over and over again he directed blows at her self esteem asking why he was going to marry a pathetic, ugly, worthless thing such as her.

Now in full hysterics, Matt picked her off of the floor, and they had one more battle with words before he punched her again, and her frail body fell against the desk, holding her nose in pain. It wasn’t broken, but whenever she touched the skin around it, tears of pain would form and a burning sensation would rush through the whole right side other face.

Matt collected himself and walked out of the room, leaving the door cracked open. As the shock slowly dissipated, pure anger and fright rushed through Vanessa’s body and she couldn’t help but to sit down on her desk, pull her knees to her chest and cry into them like a small child that had just got punished for the first time.

Blood was staining her dress, but she couldn’t find it in her to get up and get out. All of her energy was wasted on trying to keep the fight she just had under wraps, which she seemed to do successfully, but it was going to take a lot of time to think of an excuse for the new huge black and blue that would be taking over all of the skin around her right eye.

Once her tears had hit their worst, there was a knock on the door. Slicing through the silence of the hallway were Vanessa’s soft sobs that had been picked up by visiting teams left winger Zach Parise. “Excuse me?” His voice silenced the girls crying and she held her breath, wishing that he would just leave. There was blood all over her hands, and still more coming out. “Are you alright? I thought I heard crying?” Once he was close enough to put his hand on her shoulder, he did and Vanessa, forgetting about her wish to keep what had happened under wraps, picked her head up and looked up right into the boys brown eyes.

He gasped and quickly left the room only causing more tears to rush down Vanessa’s face. Giving up on her need to keep her incident under wraps, she let out a heavy sigh and started crying as hard as her body would allow. Every sob would burn her throat, and her vision was blurry for a long time until she was forced to blink the water away to see he boy back in the room, a wet towel in one hand, a dry one over his shoulder and an ice pack in his free hand. Kicking the door closed, he walked up to her and pulled her hands away from her shame filled face.

The brown eyes that met Vanessa’s blue ones were caring and brought a sigh of relief to wash over her body. “Who did this to you?” The only response Vanessa could provide was a simple shake of her head. “One of the players?” She shook her head again. “Boyfriend”, he stated more than asked, but Vanessa let out a shaky sigh and nodded anyway.

The brown eyed boy started muttering things, most of them on how she shouldn’t be with someone like that, especially being the person she is, the money she made, and the looks she had. Although they were lovely compliments, Vanessa could only bawl as the boy cleaned up her face and held the ice patch to her eye once her nose had stopped the flow of blood and the rest was off of her face and hands.

Standing up off of the desk, her legs felt like jello and as she was about to fall, the boy had caught her. A new wave of emotions washed over her, and she wrapped her arms around the stranger. Once his arms were around her, and he knew she wasn’t going to leave, he ran his hand down her hair, and then pressed her head into his chest, lowering his chin down to the top of her head for some comfort. Vanessa welcomed the comfort. It was not often she was comforted while crying, but then again, she usually never cried.

Not knowing the others name, or really who they were, they stayed in this position for ten minutes. Vanessa let out any tears she had left as Zach let the warmth of her body warm his. Buy the time Vanessa had realized what had happened, Zach could only stare at her wishing he could hold her in another hug, warming his body.

“I have to go home”

“You shouldn’t go home like…“ His words were cut short as the slim brunette ran over to her desk and quickly pushed her things into her bag. Grabbing her shot black pea coat, she shrugged into it, slipped the bag over her shoulder and stopped in front of the boy. Tears still falling, but not nearly as fast, she gave him a short hug and thanked him for cleaning up her face. After that in complete embarrassment, she dashed out of the building ignoring the screams from the boy on how she was in no condition to drive. He may have been right, but Vanessa didn’t care, she needed to get home before Matt so she could go in the bedroom, lock the door, and spend the rest of the night crying in her own bed. Crying because the person she had once fell madly in love with was now some abusive stranger. Crying because she let herself fall apart in front of someone she didn’t know.

As she changed into different clothes and lay in her bed, making sure the door was locked, she looked up at the ceiling and shut her eyes tightly. The only thing she wanted to do was forget about the fight, on top of that, she never wanted to face that boy she broke down in front of ever again.