Your Hand In Mine

Four-hundred seventy points and two-hundred thrity points. You know who won? Sidney. You should have already known that when he asked me to play him, though. He was the fiercest competitor I knew, and he would do whatever it took to win. I was convinced he cheated, though. I mean, really, how do you get the ball into the "100" hole three times? I couldn't even get it in their once. Max and I tried to cheat, too. We tried to have Billy distract Sid and then Max was going to take a ball and shove into the circular hole so I would have one hundred more points than I currently had, but it didn't work. Nothing, and I mean nothing, could make Sidney Crosby ever loose focus--not even Billy attempting to play that cool dancing game where you step on the squares that light up.

"I think you missed your calling, Sid," I told him with a smirk.

"What? What calling?" he asked, seeming to be sort of worried.

"Ski ball. You're much better at it than you are hockey." Of course I'm kidding, but he's just too much fun to mess with.

He scowled at me. "I know what you're up to," he said.

"Do you now?"

He tilted his head to the side and pondered my question for a quick second before he replied. "No."

"That's what I thought," I smirked.

"Yeah, yeah. You have a guy to be hitting on, eh?" Stupid boy and his stupid Canadian ways.

"Only because you cheated."

"I didn't cheat! I won, fair and square."

"Whatever helps you sleep at night, Sid. Now which guy?" I so didn't want to do it.

"Oh, no, he's not picking. I am." Even better. Billy Guerin gets to pick him out. How'd I get so lucky?

I sighed. "Take your time, I've got all day."

A group consisting of TK, Max, Billy, Sid and Pascal, started walking around Dave & Busters in search of some poor soul. Kris stayed behind.

"Are you really going to do this?" Kris asked as he sat down next to me at the table.

I gave my head a nod. "A bet's a bet," I shrugged.

He didn't look very pleased with my answer. "Yeah," was all he said then landed his gaze on the straw wrapper he was playing with. Why was he so upset? Whatever the reason, I wasn't liking the result.

I put my hand on his shoulder and he turned to look at me. "Hey..," I said softly. "What's wrong?"

He was silent for a moment, still playing with the wrapper. "I, um.. I-I think I mig-"

"Yo! Shane!" TK shouted as the group of boys--who were probably up to no good--made their way back to where Kris and I were sitting. I held up my pointer finger to signal TK to shut up for a second.

"Sorry, what were you saying?" I asked Kris.

He lightly shook his head. "Nothing."

"Are you sure? You know, you can tell me."

"Yeah, positive," he said and gave me a smile. I saw right through it, though. Something was bothering him, and I made a mental note to talk to him about it later because he was obviously not in the mood to talk about whatever it was in front of the guys.

I just nodded my head towards him, letting it go for now, then looked back at the boys. "Did you find the guy?" I asked.

"Oh yeah, we found him. Fer sher." Typical Tyler Kennedy, ladies and gentlemen. Fer sher, fer sher, fer sher.

"Okay, well what's he look like?" I questioned. I was going to make sure that they never played hockey again or had the chance to have kids if it was some pervert.

"He's right over there," Pascal said and pointed to some dude behind the counter in the prize room.

The guy wasn't actually all that bad looking from what I could see. He had blonde, shaggy hair. He looked muscular, and his teeth were as bright as the sun. He was sort of.. cute?

As I was walking towards the prize area, I could here them whistle and scream out my name. It was sort of embarrassing. I made my way up to the counter and waited for this guy to turn around and face me.

- Kris -

I hate them. They all knew that I liked Shane, every single one of them--thanks to Max. Why would Flower go and pull something like that? He can be such an ass sometime.

"Tanger, you alright?" I heard Staalsy ask. No, the girl I liked was hitting on some guy. How could I be alright? But she was not even mine. She had the right to talk to whoever she pleased, right?

"Yeah, fine," I reply to Jordan, but kept my gaze on Shane and the guy she was talking to. They were laughing and smiling, and it made me so jealous that I had to get up and walk away.

"Kris?" Marc called.

"What?" I semi-snapped at him.

"Hé, calme-toi. C'est seulement un pari. De plus, vous ne devinerez jamais ce que j'ai découvert."

I sighed and ran my hand through my hair and stuck my hat back on. "What?"

"Alexa m'a dit que Shane vous aime. De bonnes nouvelles, eh?" Was he serious?

"Really?"

"Yeah, man," Marc assured me then walked away. Somehow, he alway knew that he did not have to talk thing out with me. We almost alway agreed, and he seem to know what I was thinking when it came to thing like that. I was so relieved to know that whatever Shane and that guy were talking about was not going to be anything more than a cruel joke--at least I hoped so.

I walked back over the guy, but they did not seem to notice me; they were too focussed on the guy and Shane.

Six more uneasy, long minute passed and then she finally started to walk back toward us, laughing. I noticed that she had a little piece of paper in her hand, too.

"How'd it go, Princess?" Billy laughed.

"It was hilarious. He was practically bowing down to me. The first thing I said was 'Was your dad a baker? Because you’ve got a nice set of buns'. He cracked up and told me his name was Danny. He spent five minutes telling me about himself. In case you were wondering, he ice fishes for fun, he works out at the gym at least three hours a day, and his cologne smells good. Oh, and he gave me his phone number," she said and then held up the tiny piece of paper. Great. She will probably forget that I exist and start hanging out with that douche. This was all Flower's fault, too. I just stood there, silent, with my fist clenched, ready to hit this Danny guy.

"You going to call him?" Sidney ask her.

She glanced over to me, and I sent her a bit of a smile. "I don't think so," she smiled. I was sort of surprise, but what surprise me more was that she rip the paper into four then threw it on the table.

"Damn, was he not hot enough or something?" Max ask.

"Nah, he's not my type," Shane said then looked over to me. "You could tell just from looking at him that he's full of himself, and he wants to get into girls' pants. And who the hell ice fishes?" she said and shook her head. "You boys obviously need some help when it comes to singling out your own sex."

"Yeah, well.. Guys aren't my type. My type's the kind with a chest and long, blonde hair, and you know, none of the same junk I have," Max reply. That made everyone laugh. If only he realize how much he sound like an idiot.

Shane walked over to me with a smile on her face. "Still want to get your ass kicked?"

"Only if it does not involve either one of us 'itting on an employee," I smile.

"I think we can manage that," she smirked. "That guy really wasn't my type. Sure, he was good looking, but that doesn't mean anything if he's a dick."

"Oui, that's 'ow most guy are."

"Well, you aren't," she told me.

"That's a compliment, right?"

"Yes," she laughed. Well, I sure felt stupid.

"Oh, merci."

"Anytime. So what game?"

I looked around. "This 'unting game?"

"Why not."

- Shane -

That time, the scores were almost even, but Kris still won. I didn't mind, though, because I didn't have to hit on another guy. Speaking of, Kris didn't seem to like what the boys made me do. But once I ripped up that paper, his mood had completely changed.

"You were not that bad at this game, actually," Kris told me.

"Yeah, uh huh. Are you sure you didn't lay off?" I joked.

"I swear. These shooting game are not my thing."

I was about to answer him, but Max and his loud ass mouth had to interrupt us. "Guys! Get over here! It's cake time."

"We are coming," Kris yelled back.

"So, Mr. Party Planner, what kind of cake did you get me?" I asked him as we headed back to the biggest table where all the guys were.

"Ice cream cake."

"Are you serious? That's my favorite! Thank you," I said then gave him a sideways hug.

"That iss what Alexa told me to get," he shrugged and hugged me back. "And you are welcome."

They sang happy birthday to me--Max added the extra verse at the very about Scooby Doo and the Big Fat Lady--then I blew out my candles. Twenty-two years old, God. It feels like just yesterday I was seven and throwing sand in my brother's face. Amazing how time flies..

"Presents!" Jordan screamed.

"Aw, guys. You really didn't have to get me anything. This was enough, I swear."

"Yeah, but we wanted to get you presents," Flower said.

I gave them a smile and opened the first present that was shoved into my hands. The first thing I pulled out was a homemade card from Jordan.

Shane,
You are awesome, but not as awesome as me.
But that's okay, because nobody will ever be.
Learn to live with it.
Sincerely,
Jordan Staal #11

The way he signed his name looked exactly like one of his autographs, except it was in purple, and I think he drew.. a rainbow, maybe, and then the Stanley Cup near it.

I scratched my head. "Um, thanks, Jordan."

"Welcome," he smiled.

He got me his jersey, which he autographed, also in purple. Maybe he was getting in touch with his feminine side? I don't know. Sidney got me two seasons of friends because I was a 'movieaholic.' Matt and his kids got me a teddy bear. When I gave him a questioning look, he just said they picked it out for me. They were cute kids, it was sweet of them. Max got me a fathead of himself, typical. TK bought me four containers of white chocolate macadamia nut cookies--my favorite. Alex decorated a kleenex box and then taped money together. and I had to pull it out. Kids in middle school used to do this all the time. He said he didn't know what to get me, so he asked his mom and that's what she told him to do. Pascal bought me a clock and the numbers were backwards, weird. Billy, he bought me some cherry flavored condoms. How thoughtful. Geno got me some Russian movies and told me they were good and that he'd translate them for me. Brooks got me a fifty dollar iTunes gift card and a picture of him when he was like, ten, with his pink poodle. I didn't believe him when he told me he dyed his dog pink, so he said he'd get me a picture. Turns out he wasn't lying. Brian got me various gift cards to stores in the mall. I was under the impression that he was in dire need of a shopping spree ,and I now had a reason to go with him. Lex and Ryan got me a picture frame that held multiple pictures and stuck some photos of us in them and then left others empty so I could fill them up with things from school.

"Two left," Geno announced. He may not make a lot of sense sometimes, but at least he could count.

I grabbed a green bag and pulled out the card. It was one of those Hoops & Yoyo cards, and it was from Marc-André. I pulled out a square plastic container and saw a hermit crab sitting inside of it. It even had the fleur de lis on its shell. I guess he didn't want me to forget who gave it to me. He told me that he actually looked into finding the puking bird I joked about wanting for my birthday, but they weren't for sale.

The last bag left had to be Kris', it had to be. I looked up to him and gave him a smile, and he shot me a grin, too. Yep, definitely his. He made me a card, too, and his artwork was a lot better than Jordan's. All it said was 'Happy Birthday Shane!' in big bubble letters. He drew some random little things that didn't have anything to do with my birthday, but it's the thought that counts, right? He would make a good Pictionary partner, though. Then I pulled out a red, medium-ish sized box. I gave him a questioning look, but he just smiled. I opened it up and there laid my very own set of sporks! SPORKS! I had sporks! I couldn't believe that he remembered that I wanted them..

"Where did you get these?" I asked excitedly.

He shrugged. "Ebay."

"I love them. Thank you so much," I smiled.

"Merci," he said with a little nod.

We all played some more games, and then it started to get a little late so we decided to call it quits. I thanked everyone for coming and all the presents they gave me. I found Kris as we started to walk out of the building and asked him the question that was on my mind all day.

"Hey."

"Alo'a."

"About earlier.. what were you going to say?"

I guess he didn't expect me to ask him about it because he stopped walking for a moment then turned and faced me. He scratched the back of his neck. "I, uh.. I just wanted to tell you that I really like you. You do not 'ave to say anyt'ing back, but I just 'ad to get that off my chest. It was killing me."