Plus And Minus

Kane and I have always been like two positively charged magnets getting shoved at each other. We were right in each others faces, we were extremely alike in a lot of ways, but we never really got close enough for an attraction of a romantic nature.

He was never really my best friend, nor was he my enemy. In fact, I did knew Patrick Kane and I knew him well. He too knew me as we remembered each other during high school, but since the NHL, he had grown into a little man.

Stress on the little.

Pat was still a kid and he still, as far as I could tell, had that charm about him he always had. Sure, he was still a player on and off the ice, but that was just Kane. I, on the other hand, was still the usual happy, hyper Amanda who somehow always managed to remember Patrick Kane on a daily basis.

See, I wasn't one of his or Sidney Crosby's fans like most hockey-loving girls my age. I was a Pittsburgh girl, though with special love for Evgeni Malkin. I guess with my learning of Russian he grew to be one of my favorites. After meeting him for the thousandth time and conversing with him, I couldn't help but really like the guy.

Yes, Geno and I were pretty familiar, but we didn't and couldn't hang out. I wasn't the type of girl he chased after anyway.

But he isn't who this story is about, now is it?

It was my birthday.

Exactly one year ago to the day, December 5th, I had seen Patrick Kane. He gave me a little card with a nice little happy birthday I'm sure his mom made him hand deliver to me. She always did love me for some reason, but that was because our moms were best friends, even if we weren't. Somehow I knew that they secretly wanted us to fall in love, but we were like two positive magnets wanting to get the Hell away from each other when it came down to romance. He just wasn't my type.

Back then.

I was sitting with my boyfriend, leaning against his warm coat-padded chest when a knock came to the front door. Springing up, I wondered who it was for a moment. After all, I had just moved from an apartment to this cute little house on my own accord. Peeping through the little hole thingy, my eye twitched. An unfamiliar man stood in the door way holding a small box.

"How may I help you?" I asked, opening the door. He gave me a small friendly smile and handed me the box.

"This is a gift from Pat. He told me to wish you happy birthday and say he was sorry he couldn't come deliver it himself. Game tonight, so they're practicing."

"Oh..." This was new. I half expected no gift since we never saw each other on a regular basis. Maybe seven or eight times a year when we were home in the off season. Our jobs revolved around the Blackhawks so that was pretty much a given.

"What is it, sweet heart?" Alex's soft, round face rested on my shoulder, his arms wrapping securely around my waist. I loved it when he did stuff like that.

"Thanks, um..."

"Max."

"Tell Pat I say good luck, alright?"

"You can tell him that yourself, can't you? He told me you were one of the sound technicians like the DJ, right?" Max raised a brow, his floppy brown bangs raising slightly with his skin.

Chuckling, I nodded. "Yeah, but we don't really cross paths. I leave a lot earlier than he does most of the time."

"Well then I'll relay the message." And with a soft smile, he was off.

"Gift from Kane," I stated with mild care, excited to see what Pat had given me. His gifts were always very simple, but somehow they meant a lot to me. That boy was weird like that. He hardly knew me and yet he knew exactly the kind of stuff I liked be it music, sports, food, clothes, atmospheres, you get it.

"Open it!" He smiled really wide when I threatened to just chuck it on the couch. "Come on. It can't hurt."

Shrugging, I moved my hand over the dark green wrapping paper's smooth surface and followed the thick red ribbon to the edge of a bow string. I pulled and let the ribbon fall undone and tore open the messily wrapped paper securing a long, skinny black box. Lifting the black box off, I set all the trash on the table. On the top of the box, covering something wrapped lightly with white gift tissue, was a little letter on tan fancy holiday paper. I unfolded it and read:

Hey Amanda,

It's been awhile, right? So... I never see you at work, or, at least, I haven't lately. How's life? Obviously this years been good for me. Tazer says hi. Yeah, I'm writing this in the locker room. (I know I'm lame, but whatever. I have no free time lately.) Jon's never met you, but he says he wants to because you have great music taste. Can you tell he's full of energy? I think so.

Anyway... For once mom didn't have to remind me about your birthday. I don't know why, but I was thinking a lot about you in the passed few days.Everything's been reminding me of you lately. I think its just because I didn't know what to get you this year.

So...

I was hoping we could hang out after the game on your birthday? Just catch up and whatnot.

Happy birthday and I hope your day is awesome.

-Patrick Kane

I smiled down at the letter and folded it again. "Do you mind if I chill with him later?" I asked, obviously not wanting to give Alex the wrong idea. He smiled and nodded.

"Yeah, sure."

"Tha-" My voice was cut off when I folded back the white paper. On the inside of the box was a picture of us from Freshman year. It was out of a local magazine talking about Pat's future. He and I were sitting on the bleacher's of an outdoor rink. Pat was all suited up and I was in my skates wearing his gloves, his helmets, and a London Knights sweatshirt.

"Wow... You were cute," Alex breathed behind me, smiling down at the photo. I giggled and kissed his cheek as he held me in his lap on the couch.

"Yeah. we both were. I remember taking that picture. My mom bought me that sweat shirt and made me wear it for the picture. She made me get my hair done and everything."

"Why?"

"She wanted me and Pat to get together."

"Did you guys ever date?" I could hear the paranoia in his voice.

Shaking my head, I chuckled. "Relax. We were never like that."

He exhaled a sigh of relief and kissed my cheek. "Thank God. I was about to get scared there for a second."

[+][And he sees me coming...][-]

The game ended in a great victory over Anaheim. 4-1 ended the third period with a smile on everyone's faces. As requested, I waited for Pat outside the locker room.

He emerged after about half an hour, clean and ready to roll. As soon as he rested his eyes on me, he smiled really big and caught his breath in his throat. "Hey." I was taken slightly off guard when he gave me a lopsided grin and dropped his things where he stood just to give me a hug.

I'm pretty sure it was only awkward for me. However, I hugged back without hesitation and studied his face. Wow, I don't remember him being so cute... Pat's grown up. A lot.

"So... I was hoping you wouldn't mind coming back to my place with me to hang out? I originally had some plans to go out to a nice post game dinner, but my plans sort of crapped out on me."

My stomach turned and mentally I screamed at myself to say no. It was a bad idea being alone with Patrick Kane, especially since I had a boyfriend and yet I still couldn't say no. The look in his eyes was unbearable. "Yeah, let's hit the road. I'll follow you."

[+][I'm thinking about tomorrow...][-]

After chatting for nearly an hour and a half over two large mugs of steaming hot coco, Pat and I compiled super playlists of songs the two of us thoroughly enjoyed. In the end, as expected, the super playlists became the super playlist. Both of our tastes were identical in every way. It was kind of scary.

"Thanks for the picture, by the way."

"Oh yeah! I found that the other day while going through some old boxes and thought you might like it. I have a copy, too."

"That's probably one of the most thoughtful presents anyone's ever given me. Thanks."

He turned in his big, comfy computer chair to me on his Blackhawks bar stool beside him with a soft smile my that made my heart melt. That's a first. "Oh come on, your boyfriend probably gives you stuff like that all the time."

"Actually... No... He gets me a lot of nice things, yeah, but he's not really sentimental...Or nostalgic."

Pat paused for a brief moment before cracking a goofier grin. "Well I'm not really nostalgic, either, I just thought you'd like it."

"And I do so thank you."

"Good and your welcome."

"Shit." My eye caught sight of the time in the bottom right hand corner of the laptop computer screen.
"What?" His eyes snapped back up to meet mine as I hopped off the chair and returned it to its previous place.

"It's three in the morning! I've got to get home."

"Oh yeah, Alex will probably be wondering where you were." He spoke softly.

"Oh, no. He doesn't live with me."

Pat raised an eyebrow. "I thought you said you just got a new house. and haven't you guys been dating for like seven months now?"

"Yeah and I did, but with my own money for me."

"Oh." He nodded in false understanding and walked me to the door.

"I don't remember the last time we had so much fun hanging out." My voice was soft and awkward. I wanted to get at least that much out before I left. In truth, I hardly ever had as much fun as I did with Pat that night with anyone let alone my own boyfriend.

"Yeah, we should hang out again sometime soon. It's ridiculous that we work in the same place and don't ever see each other."

Smiling, I nodded. He gave me a quick, warm, lingering hug before seeing me off.

[+][Plus and Minus...][-]

Its amazing what that night did to me. Pat, Pat, Pat, was all I could really think about when I was away from Alex, which had been a lot lately with both of our work. He was working down on the ice with the team directly, handling gear and doing whatever was needed of him so we worked on the opposing sides of things. Pat had been leaving me little notes on my desk, as I called my massive work station of buttons and levers and my glorious master computer of music.

Next to me, Zach, the "Jumbotron Master", as I referred to him, was preparing some new little clips for the game and handed me a little misplaced note from Pat. It was a simple piece of printer paper folded up.

:) Hey, kid.
Throw me some Hoobastank during warmups, eh?
And meet me out back after the game!
I haven't seen you for a week and I think its about time we get the hang-out ball rolling.
-Pat

I shook my head, refolded the note, and shoved it in my back pocket.

Naturally, I found him after another victorious game and congratulated him. I thought we would just leave and chill at his or my place like last time, but he had other plans.

"Jon's actually having a few people over and their girlfriends. I was hoping you'd come with us?"

"Yeah sure, I guess."

See, that was only the first get together as a group. Suddenly he and I started spending every day hanging out until the 22nd. That's when things started to get a little bit different.

"I haven't seen you a lot, lately, Alex. Where've you been?" I asked him in my phone. The background was silent where he was so I figured he was home.

"Just hanging out with the guys most of the time. Cousins in town too. He just got a new apartment so I'm just with him."

There was a clearly female voice in the background asking, "who is it, baby?". Blood rushed to my face along with fury. "Right. I'm sick of your bullshit. Haven't we been through this before?"

"No-Amanda-I-"

"Oh stop it! I'm so sick of this, Alex!" Tears began to fall from my eyes."We're done!"

With that, I slammed my phone shut and changed into a pair of jeans, sweatshirt, sneakers and grabbed my purse with all of my stuff in it. I closed and locked my front door before running to my Lexus and speeding off to my sanctuary. The arena was silent and deserted, as it should be.

My phone was now in about a thousand little pieces as I slap shot the razor into the empty goal for the hundredth time. I stood at center ice, my hockey bag on the player's bench. A small pile of my own pucks sat beside me there as I aimed for various corners of the net. "Top right," shot, "bottom left," shot, "top left shelf," shot, "five hole," shot.

"Top right."

His voice broke my silence. Patrick Kane stood there watching me from the open entrance to the home bench. He studied my broken expression while the music rolled softly in the background. I had turned some of my favorite stuff on as low as the system would allow while I vented through hockey.

We stood there in silence. He watched me continue to give all I had into slamming pucks into the net until my pile was gone to the other side of the ice. I stood there still, staring blankly at my feet, cursing myself for ever letting him in again.

"You know how you asked about us not living together?"

He nodded.

I couldn't see his nod because I was staring at my sneakers, but I knew he did. "The only reason he doesn't live with me is because he cheated on me three months ago. I just couldn't let him go..."

Pat's face instantly twisted in sadness, ideas of why I was so hurt now reaching his head. He slowly made his way off the bench toward me. I didn't stop him when he hesitantly wrapped me in a hug. He held me there for what seemed like decades, letting me cry softly in his warm shoulder. Whiping my tears away, he cupped my face in his hands and stared down into my bloodshot eyes.

"He's an idiot. You deserve so much better."

"Yeah, well, apparently someone somewhere doesn't want me to be happy."

"Yeah, well, I do, therefore they can shove their stupidity up their ass."

I couldn't help but smile slightly.

"They're just jealous anyway." He whispered.

"Jealous of what?"

"That you have me."

"Get over yourself, Kane."

"Hey! There's the spunk I like to see... Sort of." He smiled playfully, successfully cheering me up.

"If I do deserve better, how come I can't find him?"

Now Patrick's eyebrows knit together for a moment. He thought hard about it before looking down at me with this epiphany-stricken look on his adorable face. "Because you're an emotional wreck and don't know that you've already met him."

"Wha?"

"He found you."

My eyebrows knit themselves together now, but before I could contemplate anything, Pat leaned down and brushed our lips together. Like two magnets, one turned the right way, we closed any remaining gap between us.