Smile

11. Sunday
Jon
“Johnny Boy, any big plans after the game?” Adam asked wriggling his eyebrows as we were getting on the plane.

“No, why?” I asked a little confused on why I would have plans tonight if we have an away game.

“Uh, cause today’s February 14th!” He replied but I still didn’t get what the big deal was.

“What’s so special about February 14th?” I said taking my seat with Seabs on the plane. He just looked at me with disbelief that I didn’t know what so special today was. I knew it wasn’t Christmas, Thanksgiving or Easter so I didn’t know what the big deal was.

Throughout the plane ride the boys refused to tell me what was so special about today. So I figured I would just ask someone at the hotel or something. The plane ride was pretty uneventful besides the jokes from Burish and Sharpie. Seabs asked me about Ara and how we were doing. We were fine but since I’ve asked her out we’ve only been on one date with just me and her. Seabs said that him and his girlfriend had trouble finding time to date in the beginning but it got better.

“Well anyone now like to tell me what today is?” I asked as we all walked into the hotel.

“NO!” They all shouted briefly looking at me before continuing what they were doing earlier.

“Don’t need to be so harsh.” I mumbled to myself. The hotel we were staying at seemed to be more dressed up then just a week ago. There were tons of red roses and hearts around the room. I guess they were getting ready for a wedding or something.

“Get some rest, and drink water.” Joel shouted before we started to get in the elevator. All the players on one floor and the coaches on another yet they said if we ever abuse this privilege they’re going to room with us.

Hey, just got to the hotel.-jon

Ello, how was the plane ride?-ara:)

pretty boring, sat by seabs.-jon

aww you didn’t sit wit your bf:P-ara:)

very funny, ha.ha.ha:p-jon

:D-ara:)

“Jon, stop texting you’re girlfriend and go take a nap. Let’s not forget about the game tonight.” Kaner told me walking to his bed and falling on top of it.

“Can’t believe you just told me that, and she isn’t my girlfriend.” I said looking at the clock and realizing that Kaner was right.

“Yet. She’s not your girlfriend, yet.” He said turning over so his back was to me. I guess he was tired.

ttyl going to take a nap before the game-jon
good luck:) -ara:)

Soon after that I fell asleep. This was going to be our last game before we would have an olympic break. The olympics started 2 days ago but none of the hockey games started yet which was good. A few hours later the hotel room phone started to ring, that was our wake up call.

“Last game before olympics.” Kaner sighed out getting up from his bed. I only nodded my head in agreement.

Everyone was ready in suits and with their duffle bags. I think that everyone was ready for that olympic break that was coming up. I was ready to home to Canada for awhile, I may not have been going to Winnipeg but I wanted just to go to Canada. And I’m still debating on whether or not I should invite Arabella. I didn’t want her missing school so I started to think of just inviting her for the final.

“Okay, boys big game tonight. It’s our last game before the break and we won our last to games so lets end tonight with another win. Plus the faster we get this game done, so we can go home for Valentine’s Day.” Coach Q said.

“Today’s Valentine’s Day?!” I shouted feeling like such an idiot. I couldn’t believe that I forgot about Valentine’s day.

“Yes, don’t you have a girlfriend? How could you forget?” Coach asked after the locker room died down from the roaring of laughter.

“I guess it just slipped my mind.” I said not believing that I forgot about Valentine’s day.

“Well, frankly I don’t know what to say to that Jon. But let’s go out and win tonight!” Coach Q shouted. Then we got in line and started to walk out of the room.

Throughout the whole game I still couldn’t believe that I forgot Valentine’s Day. Especially since there were so many clues to that the date was around the corner. Kaner was saying something about hopefully hitting the bars as soon as he lands in Vancouver to find some brokenhearted single ladies. Sharpie was talking about getting flowers before he landed in Chicago. Even the hotel had roses and hearts around yet I still didn’t get the hint.

“Focus on the game!” Coach Q shouted behind me while I was sitting on the bench. I guess he could tell that I wasn’t paying attention to it so I nodded my head.

We ended up winning the game which was a plus. The only thing was that after the game I was supposed to head off to Canada for the olympics. Now that I found it was Valentine’s Day I wanted to go see Arabella before I leave for 2 weeks.

“Since we knew you would forget, here you go.” Sharpie said handing me an envelope.

“What is this?” I asked just looking at the envelope hoping it wasn’t some sort of prank.

“Just open it.” Kaner said rolling his eyes at me. I opened the envelope and in there were four plane tickets and a front row seat ticket for the final game.

“Considering you make it to the finals that’s my extra ticket for Arabella because Abbey doesn’t want to go. The first plane ticket is for you so you can go to Chicago, the second is so that you can go to Vancouver and the last two are for Ara so she can go to Vancouver and back.” Sharpie said explaining as I looked at each ticket that was in the envelope.

“Thanks, but you didn’t need to do this.” I said grateful that Sharpie did this for me.

“He needed to do this because you have no game.” Burish said laughing walking over to join Sharpie.

“At least I have someone Bur.” I said laughing at Burish’s discouraged face.
Looking at the plane ticket to Chicago I realized that I only had an hour to get to the airport. After taking a quick shower and changing into a shirt and jeans instead of my suit I hurried off to the airport. Seabs was going to take my duffel bag with him when he went to Canada.

On the plane ride to Chicago I was so tired but the plane ride was so short that I couldn’t fall asleep. I got out my Vancouver ticket to see what time I had to be at the airport, my plane was going to leave at 8 in the morning. Thankfully the first day of practice was going to be easy since everyone is coming from games.

I hailed a taxi cab and gave him the directions to Arabella’s apartment. He taxi man was all moody to me the whole time. He kept saying all these crazy things that after awhile I tuned him out. By the time I got to Arabella’s apartment it was midnight, I’m really hoping that she isn’t sleeping already.
Knock. Knock. Knock.

“Who is it?” A sleepy voice asked coming from the other side of the door. It sounded a lot like Sam.

“It’s me, Jon.” I replied hoping that he heard me. Soon the front door was thrown open showing a very stressed and tired looking Sam.

“Her light is on but she might be sleeping.” He said pointing to her bedroom, I nodded my head and walked over to her room. I knocked on it a few times but got no answer, so Sam must be right, she was probably sleeping.

“Arabella?” I called out softly opening her bedroom door to reveal a sleeping Arabella on her bed. I looked around her room which was filled with pictures of France. It was a simple room but with pictures all over the place it was nice.

“Ara.” I said standing over her shaking her a bit. I felt bad for waking her up on a Sunday, well its Monday now.

“Mhmm, hi Jon. What are you doing here?” She replied slowly after stretching a bit and yawning.

“It’s Valentine’s day.” I said grabbing her rolling chair to sit down.

“You remembered?” She asked smiling a little.

“Truthfully, no.” I replied scratching the back of my neck hoping that she wouldn’t get mad at me.

“But at least you’re here, aren’t you supposed to leave to Vancouver?” Ara asked sitting up on her bed.

“It’s Valentines Day well actually Valentines Day was yesterday. But I wanted to be here and my plane leaves at 8.” I said stretching I was tired.

“Aww, that’s really sweet Jon and you can lie down if you want.” She said moving over to the other side of the bed. I was so tried I kicked off my shoes, my jacket and basically jumped onto the bed.

“What are we?” I asked Arabella hoping she didn’t fall asleep on me yet.

“Why? Are you planning to hook up at Vancouver?” She asked laughing a little.

“No, and this is going to sound really cheesy but I was wondering if you wanted to be my girlfriend?!” I asked not believing I just asked that and making it sound the cheesiest way possible.

“I have to admit it was pretty cheesy, but my answer is going to be just as cheesy because I would love to be your girlfriend.” She replied going into a fit of laughter which caused me to laugh along.

When we finally stopped laughing I asked Ara to where the bathroom was. I was so tired that I was going to sleep over. I was a little nervous because I’ve known her for a month, dated for 2 weeks and just asked her to be my girlfriend. I know that we weren’t moving fast because some people are already having sex by now but I just hope that we aren’t moving too fast.

“Wait! You have to turn off the light.” Ara said pointing to the light switch just to the right of the doorway.

I turned off the light, set my phones alarm and then climbed into bed with Ara. We said our goodnights and she fell asleep. For some reason I couldn’t fall asleep just yet so I was just lying there waiting to fall asleep. I knew that if I didn’t sleep in the next five minutes I would regret it during practice. Today was going to be our first practice as an olympic team at 10 in the morning.

5 minutes before my alarm was supposed to go off I woke up. My arm was around Ara’s waist while she was curled up into me. Not wanting to wake her up I slowly got off the bed and went to the bathroom. I got dressed, brushed my teeth and somewhat combed my hair.

“Your leaving already?” Ara asked sitting up from her spot on her bed.

“Yea, my plane leaves at 8 so I have to be there early. I’ll see you in two weeks.” I said handing her the envelope.

“What is this?” She asked opening up the envelope to find the tickets.

“Plane tickets, and a ticket for the final game.” I said leaning over the side of the bed.

“Finals? Thinking a little confident of ourselves aren’t we?” She said laughing holding the tickets up infront of her face.

“Well hockey was invented in Canada, and we can’t let America win now can we?” I asked laughing.

“No you can’t because if you let America win I will probably end up killing Kaner.” She said laughing. It was funny to see how her and Kaner got along because Kaner is always bragging about how good America is and Ara isn’t such a fan of America.

“Mhmm, well you can tease him when we beat America. I have to go but I’ll see you in two weeks.” I said leaning in a little closer.

“Thank you for the tickets, see you in two weeks.” She said putting her forehead against mines. I leaned forward and we kissed.

“I don’t want to leave now.” I said after pulling away.

“You have to go, two weeks. It’s not that bad.” Ara said smiling being optimistic like always.

She walked me to the front door, we kissed one more time before I had to go. For some reason it felt like that was a routine for us. As soon as I landed in Vancouver it felt like the olympics were really happening. Before it seemed so far away but now I was actually here in Vancouver participating in my first olympics. Straight from the airport I was going to go to the restaurant in the hotel for breakfast.

“Hey! Jon where have you been?” Sid asked after I got my breakfast and sat down at the table.

“Dummy forgot it was Valentine’s Day so he had to go see his girl.” Seabs said shoveling his mouth with eggs. Everyone chocked on their drinks or food.

“You have a girlfriend?!” Sidney asked shocked matching everyone’s face.

“Yea, just asked her to be my girlfriend this morning actually.” I said starting to eat my food.

“Well then we have to meet this girlfriend of yours.” Mike Richards said and after that we moved onto other topics.

It was going to be another two long weeks before I saw Arabella again. It seems just as we started going somewhere I always had to leave. I hope this wouldn’t happen every time.