17 Nights

By the time the clock struck twelve in the afternoon New York was in full bloom, the city that never slept was at its busiest. Ava Hall was startled by the loud alarming sound of her cell phone ringing incessantly. She groaned and reached for her side table, smacking her cell phone and effectively shutting it off.

Lazily throwing off her blanket, she made her way to her large and spacious closet, the only reason she put up with a paparazzi and rich infested Upper East Sid. She picked out random article of clothes and put them on, not caring about matching or not as all her clothes were beautiful to begin with.

She didn't bother with breakfast, knowing that she was due to brunch with her parents anyways, and made her way downstairs. Ava smiled at the doorman, Steve, and hailed for a cab. Catching the attention of a cab driver like a pro, she stepped inside and gave the man directions to her desired destination.

Fishing for her newspaper from her expensive leather Marc Jacobs bag, Ava began to read the entertainment section of the newspaper. She read the review for her new movie, 17 Nights, she became anxious. A frown graced her beautiful and immaculate face as the critic began to talk negatively about her acting.

The critic called her acting 'one-dimensional' and that it was a big mistake, on the director's part, to pick her for the role. It went on to say that she should just stay away from romantic comedies all together and just stick to dramas.

She huffed and messily stuffed the paper back into her bag when the cab driver informed her that they had arrived. Ava thanked the man, gave him a couple of bills and gracefully exited the vehicle.

As she approached the entrance to the Madison Square Garden, she flashed the guard her pass that allowed her all access to any part of MSG. The incessant ringing of her cell phone began again, but this time it was a different tune.

"What?" she asked rudely, not even bothering to greet the other person on the line.

"Where are you?" her father demanded.

She rolled her eyes and clicked her tongue. "I'm on my way, relax," she said and hung up without giving her father a proper goodbye. Rounding the corner, Ava saw her father talking to someone at the entrance to the rink.

Once he spotted his daughter, Ron stopped talking to his friend and excused himself before walking over to Ava. "What took you so long; you were supposed to meet me here an hour ago."

Ava rolled her eyes and just continued past her father and into the rink. "Not so loud, my head hurts," she mumbled, massaging her forehead. "Gee Dad, thanks for your support. No congrats on how well my movie did last night, even though there was this really bad review about how much my acting sucks," she replied snootily. "You really know how to make your only child feel so special," Ava commented sarcastically.

As she was about to descended the steps, Ron quickly grabbed her thin wrist and turned her around to face him. "Have you been drinking? Jesus Ava, isn't it a little too early?" he asked looking at her disappointingly.

Narrowing her eyes, Ava gave her father the hardest glare possible. "Why does everyone think that I'm some boozy slut? I have a headache, that's it."

Ron was about to respond, until he hear someone call out his name. He looked from his daughter to the rink trying to figure out what he should do. Sparing her father the trouble of deciding, Ava snapped her fingers at the direction of the rink.

"Your people call. I'm going to the medical room to get an aspirin."

Ava walked away from her father and headed straight for the medical room. She started to raid the cabinets looking for where they usually put the little pills of heaven. Muttering to herself, she didn't notice someone walk into the room until the door shut.

Thinking it was her father, she continued to look for the aspirins. "You know, I'm 22 years old, I really don't have to listen to you. Watch the next time you see me, I'll be married to some Mexican named Julio, we'll raise our kids, Maria, Connie and Julio Jr., in Kansas and you can't do shit. God, where the fuck are the aspirins?"

"Um, that's… nice?" a male voice that didn't belong to her father responded.

Ava quickly closed the cabinet and turned to face a tall redheaded man wearing the Rangers jersey. "Well, you're not my father," she said smoothly, her hair slightly dishevelled.

"I hope not."

"Well, I'm Ava Jenkins. You are?" she introduced herself and stuck out her hand.

"Marc Staal," Marc said awkwardly and shook the blonde's hand. Marc was rather confused; it was a rare occasion to see Ava Hall at Madison Square Garden visiting her father or in MSG at all. Throughout his time with the Rangers, he had probably only seen her handful of times, but she never spoke to anyone but her family, and that didn't include the time he got drafted.

"Nice to meet you Marc Staal. That's a really ugly gash," she said bluntly and pointed at his bleeding arm.

Marc nodded in agreement and sat down quietly on one of the chairs waiting for someone to take a look at his gash. Out of the corner of his eye, he studied the girl who went back to searching for aspirins. In street clothes, she looked like any other person and not Ava Hall the actress. He was so used to seeing her all over the T.V. all dressed up in gowns and dresses.

Seeing Ava on T.V. wasn't uncommon at all. In fact it seemed like every time you turned it on all you see was her. She quickly grew to become a household name by the time she was ten and starred in her first major role. Then when she became legal everyone loved talking about her. What she was wearing, who she was wearing, who she was dating and what she was doing.

Growing up, Marc watched Ava also grow up on T.V. from child actress to just an actress. It seemed like as she grew older, all his old friends and team mates lusted over her or thought that she was insanely hot. In fact, he remembered that Jordan had the biggest crush on her when they were in their teens.

"Fuck this shit," she said angrily and shut one of the cabinets loudly. "If you see my dad, tell him I went to Walgreens to start my Ritalin and Aspirin binge," she instructed the confused redheaded defenseman. "It was nice meeting you, Marc Staal," she waved at him and winked.

*

Practice was a nightmare, aside from the suicide laps he had to do by the end of all of it, Marc ended up with a nice big gash on his arm. How it happened was completely beyond him.

Exhausted, he lazily sat on the couch and turned on the T.V. Just his luck it was an interview with Ava Hall about her new movie. Deciding against changing the channel he watched her interview intently.

"So tell me about 17 Nights and your character?" the interviewer asked Ava.

"17 Nights is about unrequited love and really how these two people deal with it and I play Georgie Hamilton. She's really this wallflower kind of girl. Hates the attention and just pines for Orlando's character, Duke, from afar. And of course, to make things interesting, he has no awareness of her feelings and wants another girl."

"Have you ever experienced that?"

Ava smiled and laughed. "No, I've been lucky enough for it to have never happened to me, but I've been in the friend zone and that sucked. Such a depressing place to be; frustrating too."

"Guy must have been crazy to not have taken an interest in you," the woman commented making Ava laugh. "Now that 17 Nights is finished, do you have any other plans? A new movie maybe?"

"Um, I've been planning to take a break for awhile, I've just been holding that off because of all the scripts I've read and loved. And right now I haven't found any scripts that I like, so I'm hoping to take a break before going back into acting. I'd love to intern for my mom, so I'll probably be doing that."

"Now, I'm sure every single guy is wondering so I'm just going to ask it, but are you single?"

Ava let out a strained laugh and for a moment Ava pursed her lips in annoyance. "No, I'm not dating anyone. Usually when I make a movie, everything in my life stops for me and I focus on the movie so I haven't had a boyfriend in a good two years."

"Well thank you Ava and I hope to see you soon," the woman said and shook Ava's hand.

"Thank you."

Marc looked back to when he had finally met her, earlier this morning and her odd behaviour. She was never really talkative, or at least to the team. She usually kept to herself and watched them play with her mother beside her.

He remembered the first time he saw her. It was at the 2005 entry draft and Ava sat poised and patiently beside her mother near the back of the room. On her other side was her father talking to a few people. She kept a distant smile on her face as people everywhere were smiling at her.

To say Marc was nervous was an understatement. He was a complete wreck as various scenarios crossed his mind. What if they never call his name? Sensing a hand on his, he looked to his mother, who gave him a comforting smile.

The New York Rangers got up next. From the corner of his eye, he watched their partial owner, Ron Jenkins get up and kiss his daughter on the forehead and wife on the lips. Ava whispered something to him, only to have his eyes roll after.

For a moment, his eyes connected with hers and she smiled politely at him. She gave a little wave and a smirk.. He was about to smile back when she turned her head to her mother and whisper something to her, making Josephine chuckle lightly.

He twiddled his fingers, eleven people have been already picked, what if they never call his name? He felt his mother nudge him and looked up, they had called his name. He was now a New York Rangers. Never had he felt so many emotions as he was feeling at that moment.

Hugging his mother and father, Marc thanked them over and over before making his way to the podium to receive his jersey.