Playing the Game of Love

October 4th, 2010
Monday
The Julien household, Lexington, MA
6:00 A.M.

Raina woke to the loud screeching of her alarm clock going off. She groaned in annoyance, still only half awake. The things she did for hockey. Without looking up off the pillow she searched for the off button. She finally found it and flicked off the alarm. She sat there for a few minutes, still lying face first on her pillow. It had to be around 6:00, that’s when she set her alarm for. She pushed herself off her pillow and sat up and looked around her darkened room. Light streamed through the sides of the window shade, casting small rays of light across her rug floor. It was indeed 6:00, she had an hour to eat and get dressed before her dad left for practice. She stood up off the bed and opened up her shades to let the sunlight in. Usually Raina didn’t take long in choosing clothes to go to practices but today she knew Brittany was going to be there. She chose a pair of flare jeans that were tight until it reached her knees and then the fabric loosened and flared outward, making her legs look longer, since she would probably be helping out on the ice again and she wouldn’t be wearing her shoes for to long she just chose a pair of plain white sneakers. She had several different types of Bruins shirts in her closet. He had all the jerseys for each player, and several different types of Bruins shirts. She chose a black Bruin’s shirt that had the logo on. It was tighter, and hugged her chest, waist, and the top of her hips. She took some time to put on make-up when she’d usually just swipe it on within five minutes and go. She put on foundation, mascara, blush, and she made sure to take her lip gloss with her to put on after breakfast. She never usually wore eye liner, she had a hard time putting it on, it always irritated her eyes.

She finished up getting ready and headed downstairs. She walked down the stairs to see her mother making pancakes on the stove, and her father eating at the table.

“Good morning sweety, want any pancakes?”

“Sure mom, did Katryna come home last night?”

“Ya, she’s still asleep up in her room. Her friends dropped her off sometime this morning.” Raina took a seat next to her father who still was in his pajamas.

“Doug and Shelley wanted to know if you could baby sit for them on Wednesday, they’re going out for dinner and a movie together from 8:00 to 11:00. You’d be watching all three of the kids.”

“Sure dad, I’ll do it,”

“I’ll let him know at practice,” her dad got up, set his plate in the dish washer, and went upstairs to get dressed. She had three pancakes before she was full. She went back upstairs to brush her teeth, and grab her purse which held her cell phone, the lip gloss she was bringing, her IPod, and a pack of gum, and then walked downstairs to the main entrance to wait for her dad.

They arrived at the rink 20 minutes later. Raina parked her car next to her father’s and they both went inside to the locker room, no one was there yet except for the coaches, so Raina sat on one of the benches and played a game on her cell phone until some of the players arrived. The first two to come in were Chara and Krejci. David still looked slightly hung over. She laughed and said

“You gonna make it Krejci?” He flipped her off as he began getting his gear on. She just smiled at him.

“I don’t even want to know what happened.” said Chara, watching them suspiciously. She saw Blake walk in with a group of players. He looked even worse then David did.

“Just kill me now Ray, just do it, please.” He said, sitting down next to her, running his hands down his face miserably. She laughed and said

“I just can’t wait to see how Vladdy is this morning.” As if on cue Tuukka and Vlad walked through the door. Vlad looked just as bad as Blake. He had dark circles under his eyes, he was slightly hunched over, and his already fair skin looked paler than before. Tuukka sat down on the bench next to her and said

“So how’s your morning been?”

“Pretty good,”

“Wish I could say the same, I had to pick up these three,” he said gesturing to Blake, David, and Vlad. “They were too hung over to drive so I had to go all around Boston and pick them up.”

“Well they deserved what they got,” she said watching Vlad lean his head up against the wall and groan in pain. “They shouldn’t be going and getting drunk when they know they have practice the next day.” Tuukka went off to get into his gear while Raina remembered she had left her skates in her car. Still tired, she didn’t feel fully awake as she pushed open the locker room door but what she saw in front of her shocked her, making her feel suddenly wide awake.

Standing there right in front of her was Milan and Brittany locked in a passionate kiss. She had her arms wrapped around his neck and he had his hands placed tightly around her waist. It took a few seconds for both Milan and Brittany to realize she was standing there. They pulled away from each other and Brittany gave her a triumphant glare before turning back to Milan and saying “I’ll see you after practice,” she than gave him a kiss on the cheek and walked back up the stairs to the rink. She and Milan stood there staring at each other awkwardly. His face was red with embarrassment. At first Raina didn’t know what to feel anger, sadness, or jealousy.

“Hey,” said Milan.

“Hi,” she said. There was another moment of silence before she said “Well I gotta go get my skates from my car,” she moved past him and walked up the stairs. Out of the corner of her eye she could still see him standing there watching her go. She reached the top of the stairs and looked around the rink for Brittany. There she was sitting there on the bottom row of the bleachers looking back at Raina. They kept their eyes on each other as Raina walked over to the back door. She could almost swear she saw Brittany mouth the word ‘victory’. The feeling of rage burned deep in her chest, she wanted to punch her in the face and break her nose just as Milan had done to so many other hockey players, except the consequences would be worse than a five minute penalty. She walked outside to her car, punching in the code instead of pulling her keys out to unlock it. She opened up the front door and grabbed her skates from the front passenger seat before re-locking her car.

When she got back into the rink the players were just coming onto the ice to start practice. She saw Milan skate out onto the ice watching her.

“Hey Raina, what’s up? Come sit with me!” She turned around to see Brittany smiling at her. Raina suspiciously raised an eyebrow as she looked over at her. Brittany patted a spot on the bleachers next to her as a welcoming gesture. She saw Milan watching them happily, thinking they were getting along, but it was all one big act. Raina couldn’t get the image of the two kissing out of her head, it made her want to cry and scream in anger all at the same time

“Um hi,” said Raina looking up at Brittany. The friendly demeanor she had had on when she had called her over had changed, not that Raina didn’t expect that.

“Look, why don’t you just back the fuck off,”

“Excuse me?”

“You no what I’m saying, stay away from Milan, he clearly prefers me, if he wanted you he could of said no to going out with me this summer, and waited till now to ask you out. You think you actually have a chance. If you even think about getting close to him again there will be trouble.” It took a minute for what she had just said to register in Raina’s head. Raina felt the intense rage rear its ugly head again. She took a quick look over onto the ice to see Milan had his head turned away from them. You could do it right now. Just punch her right in the eye or the nose. But the idea of losing Milan as a friend because of it stopped her. Instead she stood up, grabbed her skates, narrowed her eyes, and glared back at Brittany.

“You can’t tell me what to do bitch, I’ll do what I want, and I’m not scared of you. If you want to make threats that you’re going to do something to me go right ahead because I’ll take you down myself in any fight you want to have. I can also tell you right now I’ve got at least three giant hockey players to back me up in any brawl, so go right ahead and try to act tough.” She turned on her heel and walked to the bleachers on the other side of the rink. She quickly laced up her skates and went out onto the ice.

She knew it. This Brittany girl was going to be a big problem, and there was absolutely nothing she could do about it. If they weren’t living together she probably wouldn’t be so concerned. But living together seemed to be such a serious step in a relationship. What was the next step? Engagement? She didn’t want to think about it.

The practice seemed to go by quickly; she ignored Brittany’s evil glares whenever she circled the side of the rink she was sitting near. She made sure to go off to the locker room with the team instead of stay out on the ice by herself. As soon as she entered the locker room she ran over to Tuukka.

“I need to talk to you!!”

“Hold on I have to get my stuff off.” He said trying to remove his goalie pads off of his legs.

“No this is serious Tuuk.” As soon as he had taken both pads off she grabbed him by the hand and dragged him out into an empty locker room.

“What is it?” he said looking at her slightly annoyed.

“Brittany told me to back off of Milan, and that if I talked to him anymore there’s going to be trouble.” Without saying a word he handed her his catchers mitt and blocking pad and went to leave the room.

“I’ll be back in five minutes.”

“No don’t do anything to her.” She jumped up and grabbed his jersey, trying to pull him away from the door.

“But she can’t talk to you like that and get away with it!”

“Don’t worry I already told her off, I can fight my own battles.”

“What did you say?”

“That I wasn’t going to listen to her, and that I could easily beat her in a fight, and I had you guys to back me up.”

“Well I still wanna go say something,” he went towards the door again and she jumped on him, clinging to his back.

“No don’t go anywhere! I don’t want to cause any more problems than there already is!” He tried to shake her off but she gripped his shoulders tighter.

“Raina get off me, I’m not going to attack her I just want to-” he was cut off when the door opened and Vlad stepped in.

“Am I interrupting something?” He said staring at them questioningly.

“You have to here what happened!” said Tuukka. He grabbed Vlad by the arm and pulled him out of the doorway and then slammed the door shut. Vlad looked confused as he sat on one of the benches.

“What happened?”

“Brittany told me to fuck off and then threatened me to stay away from Milan or she would do something to me.”

“And I’m going to cuss her out wanna come?!” said an excited Tuukka, Vlad flashed them a devilish grin and then said

“Ya let’s go!” he went to follow Tuukka but Raina darted in front of the door blocking their way.

“You’re not going anywhere; I don’t want to start any more drama than there already is. If you guys say something or if I instigate a fight with her she’s going to lie to Milan and probably tell him a lie that we ganged up on her for no reason or something and I don’t; want to risk our friendship.” They still had their arms crossed. She sighed and said “Look if it makes you guys feel any better you can shadow me at the party tonight and make sure she doesn’t try anything funny.”

“Alright, fine, but if she does try to do anything we have the right to push her into your pool no matter what Looch says.” She smiled at him and said

“Fine,” they returned to the other locker room to finish getting changed.

“Is your girlfriend coming?” she said to Tuukka.

“Ya, I actually have to go pick her up today at 2:00, she’s flying down from Finland.” Tuukka’s girlfriend Jasmiina was actually the only girl friend she had. They had met a year after Tuukka started playing for the team in 2007. They had become extremely close ever since.

“That’s good; will she be here all season? Or is she leaving half way through like she did last year?”

“All season,” Jasmiina usually would stay with Tuukka in Boston all season but last year she had to leave mid-season because of her cousin’s death and funeral in Finland. She didn’t have the money to fly back down and she had refused to let Tuukka pay for it because she felt like she was stealing his money and didn’t want to look like she was only with him for his paycheck.

“Thank god, now I at least have another girl to help me out in this situation, I’m sorry but you boys can be really stupid some times when it comes to relationships.” His laugh was muffled as he pulled his T-shirt over his head.

“Is she coming to Prague for the first game this Saturday?”

“Yup, I convinced her to let me pay for the flight.” The first game of the season was scheduled to be played in the capital of Czech Republic against the Phoenix Coyotes as a part of the 2010 Compuware NHL premiere. They were flying up on Thursday to prevent the players from being jet lagged while playing.

They were the last to leave the locker room and sure enough when they walked upstairs into the rink there was Milan and Brittany standing there hand in hand.

“Watch how good of an actress I am,” whispered Raina to Tuukka. She marched confidently over to Brittany and said with a huge smile

“I had sooo much fun talking to you today Brittany, and I hope to see you at the party tonight.” She gave her a tight hug and then she then turned to Milan.

“See you later to Looch,” and gave him another big hug around his waist and then walked off towards the parking lot with Tuukka leaving Brittany furious, and Milan perplexed.

“Did she look pissed off when I hugged him,” she said smirking.

“Ya, she looked like she wanted to strangle you.”

“Good, I hope she tries to.” She unlocked her car and sat down. She looked back up at Tuukka and said

“I'll see you tonight, and when you pick up Jasmiina tell her I said hi and that we have a lot to talk about.”

“No problem,” she pulled her door shut and started her car. She had a lot to do before this party tonight. The party was from 7:00 to 11:00. It was a very formal event; everyone would be wearing dresses and suits. They had a white tent set up in the backyard where refreshments would be served, and chairs would be placed. At 11:00 most of the coaches, officials, and older players went home, or went inside to the dining room leaving the backyard open for the real celebration of the starting season. Most of the players knew to wear bathing suits underneath their clothes, or bring it with them to put on. They partied until anywhere from 2:00 to 4:00 in the morning. The majority of the players either piled up in one car to go home with a sober person because the majority of them were to drunk to drive, or they’d end up crashing on one of the benches outside by the pool. Most of the players brought two or three friends with them making it a larger party than just the team alone. Last year’s party was pretty crazy, but this year’s party would be wild, outrageous, and totally irresponsible.
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I'm going to be going away from July 2nd to July 11th. I'll have my laptop with me but won't be able to update because I'll have no internet, which means my last update until the 11th will be on Thursday. I'll be typing new chapters while I'm on vacation so I'll probably have a lot to post when I get back. :)

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