There Might Be Hope

I was taking a small walk through a big city, my hands shoved in my pockets. Frozen air slammed against my face. A fresh blanket of snow covered everything that made up the park I ventured through. It was magnificent and beautiful and screamed, "Winter is here, Chicago!"

Out of nowhere, a ball of snow flew and slammed me in the side of the head. I stumbled sideways, rubbing my cheek furiously before whirling around. "What the he-"

"I am so sorry!" A man peeked out from behind a nearby tree, just over my left shoulder.

I double took at the sight of him before my eye twitched. My heart pounded like mad.

Jonathan Toews.

"Uh-I-Um-It's... Really it's alright." I shook my head, blinking. Rubbing my red cheek with my gloved hand, I watched him approach me with a small embarrassed smile. He was red in the face and it didn't appear just to be from the snow.

He was bombarded suddenly by snowballs from all sides. I pushed him backward and took a few snow balls, making me mentally scream at myself. Only, he thanked me and took me by the hand, dragging me behind a barricade of bushes.

"What the hell is this?" I whispered harshly. "Snowball war?"

"Yeah," he answered, huffing to make a snowball, "Pretty much."

"Why am I hiding here anyway?" I could just keep walking. Actually, I knew very well why. He was Jonathan Toews and he was pretty much my idol. Simply, I wanted to see what would happen next and take part in the fun.

"Because you want to." His answer was rather cocky, but it was simple, true, and to the point.

Without a reply, I balled up snow in my gloves and began hurling them wherever he pointed. After awhile, I realized that there was actually a decently large group of people playing with myself and Toe-er- Jon. The first I saw was Adam Burish, who was accompanied by his girlfriend and some random guy who I knew wasn't on the team. Then there was Kris Versteeg and two of his friends, according to Jon. Last, but not least, I head shot Kane as much as possible, seeing as he annoyed the shit out of me.

Twirp.

Actually, my hatred of him started awhile ago. He was a manwhore and I frankly detested the sight of him, which haunted me constantly. Unlike anyone else who simply didn't like him because he was so overrated, I actually had a decent reason.

It all started the night I decided to go clubbing at a new place down town with my best friend. She had a drink, I had a couple of shots, and the next thing you know, the party is in full swing. An extremely cute guy asked her to dance and I was alone, but alright for the time being. Then this boy, my age, confidently decided to attempt picking me up. Sober as both of us were, I couldn't believe him. He was insanely arrogant and looked appalled when I turned him flat down.

Thinking that I didn't know him, he introduced himself and smirked devilishly. I rolled my eyes and walked off, I only to have him follow me all the way to my apartment, interrogating me on why I didn't like him and all of this crap. The kid acted like turning him down meant I was in denial of loving him.

Clearly he was wrong.

I ran forward and dived through a pile of snow the strawberry blonde was using as a shield. Jon sprung to his other side and launched two massive balls of white at he boy's head. They both landed perfectly, ending in my laughter.

The game went on and on and I found that every time Kane looked at me, he had this knowing look on this face that was sometimes very subtle. I wasn't an idiot.

He remembered me.

I was tackled out of nowhere sideways and found myself pinned behind trees and white bushes. "What the fu-"

"I knew it was you!" Patrick Kane scrambled off of me, looking a little bit too happy.

"Yeah, yeah... It's been what-"

"Three weeks."

I stared at him blankly. About five seconds of awkward silence passed before I raised an eyebrow. "You remember that?"

"How can I not? You're the first moderately pretty girl to flat turn me down like that. I mean, I thought you were just playing hard to get, but I didn't realize you were being serious until I got back home and actually really thought about it... Sorry..." The boy rubbed the back of his neck and studied me carefully, not knowing if he just spewed too much out to me or not. All I knew was, his voice was really anxious and he looked kind of... cute.

"Wow." However, his little act wouldn't fool me. He just changed tactics. "I can't say that I forgive you, but whatever. At least you thought about it." Sitting up, I sat on the balls of my feet and began squishing snow into a decently large ball about three times the size of my fist.

Now Kane looked amused, but I paid no attention. "Grudges aren't flattering," he stated simply, a smirk on his smug face.

Snorting, I retorted, "Smirks aren't sexy like you idiots think, either."

"Why can't you just smile at me?"

"Because I don't like you." The honest truth.

He flinched, giving me a look like I just slapped him in the face. "Ouch. That's a bit harsh, don't ya think?"

"No, not really. I never got to slap you." I then proceeded to throw my large, boulder-size ball of snow and land it straight on his red face. "But I think that pretty much makes up for everything!" Springing up from my feet like a rabbit, I darted out of the hiding place and dashed through the falling powder until I found Jon again.

The fight ended not ten minutes later. Kane seemed rather quiet, yet determined to attract my attention to him. He succeeded most of the time and held my eye contact whenever I glanced at him nervously. The group was formerly introduced and offered to let me come along to lunch at Toews' place. Obviously, I'd never pass that up.

Kane was the only open ride, therefore I flat objected, not wanting to have to spend half an hour with him minimum in an enclosed space. Persistent he was, though, until I finally said yes. I kept my mouth shut the entire ride and listened to the light music in the background. As much as it pained me, we had practically identical music taste and he had my dream car, making a smile form against my will.

"I saw that," he whispered innocently, parking beside Jon's packed car in the lot.

"Saw what?"

"You smiled."

Suddenly my cheeks turned pink. I stared at my feet, unable to look at his soft eyes beside me. The light smile playing on his pink lips made my stomach turn. "Yeah... Well....?"

"Nothing. You just smiled, is all."

I instantly hardened facially and got the hell out of the car. Jon led the way through a medium size, high-class building and up a flight of stairs. Kane caught up to me before I could get to Jon's open apartment door. "Look-I'm sorry, alright?"

"Sorry isn't what I'm looking for, Kane. You can't completely turn around how I think of you just by saying two words."

"Then what do you want me to say?" he snapped back, looking impatient.

"You haven't changed at all since then," muttering, I waltzed into Jon's apartment with a smile on my face.

"Hey-where's Pat?" Jon asked when I entered without him.

"Outsi-"

"Right here." Patrick had a small smile on his face.

Jon's apartment was large and simple. Everything was a cream color and his simple furniture was a light tan. We sat in a ring of seven people around his living room. Four fit on the couch, Burish and his girl on the lazy boy, and I on the floor, facing the rest of them. We all settled on and ordered two large pizzas and slapped on a movie. I sat there now, my back to everyone with a blanket wrapped around my shoulders, feeling the heat of Kane's gaze on the back of my head.

Any other time with any other people, I would have whirled around and yelled "What the hell do you want?!" However, in front of this particular group, I was set on making a good impression.

He read my mind.

Or maybe he was just more like me than I thought.

We stood up at the same time, earning glances from everyone in the room. My head shot to my left. We stared at each other for a second. Carefully, I stepped into the kitchen and out of sight, only to find him follow right after me.

"I hate playing cat and mouse," he whispered, shutting the sliding door silently behind us.

"Yeah, well, I hate being the mouse. It's degrading."

"It really annoys me that you hate me so much." His tone may have been blank, but he sure as hell was being honest, which drew my attention. He took a step toward me. I back away until I was on the other side of the kitchen, against the counter fooling around trying to open a frustrating popcorn packet.

"I don't hate you, I just dislike you. Get over it. Just because one person isn't your devoted fan doesn't mean your life is going to end."

"What kills me isn't that you don't like me. Get over yourself."

"Hypocrite. You first."

The strawberry blonde huffed and approached, yanking the bag from my hands and tearing it open in one swift motion. We exchanged glares as he popped the thing in the microwave and pressed the popcorn function.

"Fine. How about this, since I obviously can't just talk to you like any normal person." He rolled his eyes in frustration and grunted, crossing his arms. Our eyes locked and I watched him speak, interested in what he had to say. "I don't think you're 'moderately pretty' or whatever shit I told you earlier. I think you're different, which is something in a girl I don't normally go for, but in a good way. You're like the first person, especially female, to treat me like I'm normal! You may not like me, but damn, that just makes me like you more!"

"So you don't think I'm some piece of meat."

"No, not at all. I may not really know you besides the things I got out of you that night, but I want to. Just give me that chance? I think I deserve that much."

I stared back at him, confusion overtaking my features then falling away into a soft smile.

I wasn't an idiot.

Patrick Kane was actually being honest with me.

The microwave beeped obnoxiously. I moved to open the door, taking a few steps toward Kane and lifted my arm to get the door, but he stopped me. He hand brushed over my upper arm, forcing it down gently, then he barely applied pressure to my chin to force my gaze at his. "I really do think you're beautiful," he whispered and I could tell just by how nervous he was that this was true and innocent.

So I did something a little bit crazy.

I caught him off guard and leaned up, pressing my lips to his. "I think there might be hope for you, Kane."