Thing For You

Chapter 1

Jonathan’s POV

Have you ever crossed paths with a girl, well I guess in your case it would be a guy, and even though you know nothing about them, you just can’t get them out of your head no matter how many pucks you try to kill? Shit, I sound like a fuckin’ chick, but this one’s got me good...or I have it bad, or however the saying goes. Hell if I know, I don’t watch Oprah. All I know is that the first time I saw Corinne smile, I wanted to run out of the room as fast as I could. And not because she had bad teeth either. Actually, her teeth were perfectly nice to be honest, she must have a good orthodontist.

No, it was the fact that she was basically the most perfect thing I had ever seen in my twenty-one years of life. Her smile, the way her dark hair was pinned up off her face, and her legs, my God the legs went on for days! She’s the kind of girl you wouldn’t call hot because that implies that she might have some trashy qualities about her (ie: she doesn’t know her actual size and buys clothes that are too tight, wear’s ridiculous shoes and or finds a way to incorporate sex into every conversation, even if it’s about your grandma’s spoon collection.)

No, Corinne was perfectly lovely, which I decided even though I didn’t know her. Maybe it was because she had that whole ballerina thing going on. Up until three weeks ago, I wasn’t even aware that this type of girl existed. I’m used to trashy girls throwing themselves at me because I play for the Blackhawks. You know, the ones I just told you about? Not exactly the type you bring home for Thanksgiving if you know what I mean. I’d bring Corinne home with me though. She’s probably a sweet girl. I couldn’t tell you for sure though because like I said, she made me want to run fast, and run far. And that was new for me...I don’t generally feel the need to flee the scene when I see an attractive girl.

You see Kaner and I had to deliver a set of season tickets to a raffle winner and when our PR guy told us we had to hit the Joffrey Ballet, I was expecting to hand the tickets over to some middle-aged fundraiser guy named Bob, he’d tell us how big a fan he was and then he’d reminisce about the good ol’ days. That was pretty much the standard protocol. Boy was I wrong. For one thing, middle-aged men aren’t named Corinne. Nope. Corinne was anything but a Bob.

She was in the middle of ballet class when we found her and she was this bright-eyed little thing with the biggest smile I had ever seen. That thing was like a 10,000 watt light bulb. That’s why I noticed her teeth...I don’t just go around looking in people’s mouths you know. She looked right at me too, only I didn’t know that she was the one we were looking for. I remember how she waved at me shyly and then stuck her tongue out at me when I just stood there with my mouth hanging open. Smooth, I know...and it was weird because it wasn’t slutty either, just a silly little thing to get an actual reaction out of me since I seemed to have gone comatose. It sure did the trick because that was the exact moment that I decided running was my only option. Pretty girl + comatose Jonny = unforeseeable embarrassment for all parties involved. I did the complete opposite of what every guy on the team would have done and prayed to God that the gorgeous girl smiling at me was not Corinne. Well...she was.

So we asked for her, and when she came up to the front of the studio, I could tell that she was trying really hard not to blush. Thing is though, that you can’t really control that sort of thing, so she was failing miserably. It didn’t seem to bother her much either which caught my attention...of course that was after the fact that I noticed how her muscular legs were bare. What? Most girls freak out when they meet Kaner and I. Seriously, if I had a dime for every time i’d been proposed to, well, let’s just say that Mr. Bowman wouldn’t have to worry about paying me anything ever again. Kaner loves it but he also thinks his life should be a reality TV show. Me? Not so much. Either they scream or flirt shamelessly. The second one’s not so bad, it’s trying to figure out how to remove them from your upper arm afterward that’s the problem.

So anyways, Corinne just stood there quietly with her hands behind her back (while I started to sweat like a truck driver from being so close to her) until Kaner shoved the tickets in her little face and mumbled something about her winning a raffle. She sort of blinked at him and then out of nowhere, she started to bounce around like a spazz. Literally out of the blue. One second she was quiet and still and the next she was wiggling around like a new puppy. She was wearing this black fluffy skirt thing...what do you call it? A tutu? Again, why would I know that? And in all honesty I thought it was going to crumble at her feet. One, because it was kind of ratty looking and had definitely seen better days and two, she bounced around like a three year old on uppers for about fifteen minutes while she rambled on about how she’d never won anything before. It was completely cute how genuinely happy she was, which was weird for me because I usually think that anyone over the age of ten who gets that excited, is an idiot.

Anyways, that’s all I really remember from the day I first saw Corinne, probably because I was so focused on not acting like a loser in front of her that I wasn’t really paying attention to anything else. To be honest, i'm not even sure if i said congratulations to the poor girl so she probably thinks i'm a jerk. Great. I can't stop thinking about her and she hates me.

She fascinates me in the oddest way. She’s a ballerina who likes a good hockey fight, she was a properly behaved little ballerina and then went completely nuts like some overzealous extrovert, and she blushed but was brave enough to stick her tongue out at me. And did I mention that’s she’s completely gorgeous? That alone is enough to nearly kill me. I. Don’t. Understand.

I want to see her again, but like hell i’m just going to waltz in to the Joffrey Tower to find her. There’s no excuse on earth that wouldn’t make it look like I wasn’t taking ballet or a total stalker. Yeah...i’m thinking Stalker Jonny wouldn’t go over so well with management. I guess i’ll just have to wait to see if she comes to the games, which given her reaction, i’m thinking is a very likely possibility.