Smile

18.
Arabella had said her packed her bags with warmer clothes now that the weather was changing in Chicago. A lot of her friends thought she was crazy by switching her closet after every season. Well Dean and Emma thought it was crazy while Same loved it. That was the probably the reason Sam and her were roommates in the first place, the love for fashion.

“Au revior, Martin.” Arabella said to Martin. He was your typical frenchman that made Americans swoon. Martin has the heavy french accent when he spoke, the style, chocolate eyes and brown hair. Martin and Arabella have know each since she was born, he being 3 years older than her was best friends with her brother.

“Jusqu'à ce que nous retrouverons mon amour. Nous aurons toujours Paris” Martin whispered in Arabella’s ear. In translation he said; Until we meet agin my love. We’ll always have Paris. Arabella couldn’t help but smile at the words he whispered. If anyone else heard what he would say they would automatically think that the two were dating. But they would never understand the bond the two shared.

Now Arabella just had to make it through another 8 hour and half an hour flight to Chicago. Reading was something Arabella never liked but whenever she had nothing to do she would read. Not after an hour of reading Arabella curled up in her first class seat and fell asleep. She just couldn’t wait to land in Chicago to see Jonathan.

Jonathan was standing in front of the flight board. He wanted to make sure that he was going to be at the correct baggage claim and that Arabella’s flight wasn’t delayed. The week that she was gone had just dragged on and on. Especially after the lost that the Blue Jackets handed to them made everything seem worse.

“Il s'agit donc de Chicago” A young couple said to each other in awe as they passed Jonathan. That was probably the same words that he said in awe ‘So this is Chicago’ when he first moved here from Canada. He guessed that he would be seeing Arabella very shortly. He grabbed his hands nervously.

Arabella saw her boyfriend standing in the sea of people wearing his gray trench coat and toque. From afar she knew that he couldn’t see her but he was looking around in the crowd. As Arabella walked right in front of Jonathan but a couple feet away he looked up and smiled. She dropped her bags sprinting to her boyfriend in her 5 inch heels.

It was like those scenes in the movie when the man returns from war but this time the girl was returning from home. The crowd disappeared from the tunnel vision that both of the pair had. A shrill cry of Jonathan was heard throughout the airport as the girl jumped into her boyfriend’s open arms. He spun around holding his girlfriend tightly glad that she was back.

“I really missed you, those video chats weren’t enough.” Arabella said looking Jonathan in his eyes. He had wrapped her legs around his waist so she was the same height as him. The two video chatted whenever the time difference allowed them to, but it was usually Arabella sacrificed the sleep for her boyfriend.

Yet it wouldn’t be the first time that Arabella has sacrificed sleep for her boyfriend’s hockey career. Sometimes when they lose a game Jonathan will want stay at the ring to practice some more. Even if it was an away game Arabella would pick Jonathan up and drive him to Johnny’s Ice Palace. Or back to the Madhouse on Madison just so he could lace up and practice on his own. She would wait in the stands or sometimes sit in the penalty box. Just recently the guys started to catch on that she was staying with Jonathan instead of leaving. So they pitched in to buy her a futon so she could drag it onto the ice and sleep while Jonathan skated back and forth.

“Let’s get out of here.” Jonathan whispered at his girlfriend putting her down and following her to grab her bags. As people looked at the couple fans started to recognize Jonathan but somehow held back the will to ask him for an autograph. Maybe it the sheer knowledge that by the way he looked at his girlfriend no one else existed in the world. Standing in a busy airport he was only looking at the blonde girl.

The two got into Jonathan’s car and left for Arabella’s apartment, she was going to drop off her luggage before going over to Jon’s place. Even though it seemed that Sam and Arabella barely see each other because of their relationships they’re both happy so it doesn’t really matter. Plus both have weekly talk sessions when they ignore their other half to hang out with each other.

“How was France?” Sharpie asked as everyone was situated around Jonathan’s living room. As soon as the couple walked into his apartment the whole team was sitting there waiting for them. They got in thanks to Kaner and his copied key he stole from Jonathan. Jon wasn’t happy to say the least but soon got over it, well not really but kinda got it over.

“It was AMAZING like always. Makes me not want come back sometimes.” Arabella said with the spark in her eyes when she talked about France. It was something that was and probably will always be there no matter who she was talking. After Arabella said this it made her boyfriend have mixed feelings, was he supposed to be happy that she chose to come back or was he supposed to be sad that she isn’t in love with Chicago.

Soon all talk was revolving around France. The guys with wives, fiancées or girlfriends were wondering if they should take them on a trip to France. And with much convincing from Arabella it made the guys want to book a flight right then and there. The single guys wanted to go to France because of the girls. Jonathan stayed out of the conversation for the most part and just watched how animated his girlfriend got over her home country.

“I’m so glad that they all finally left.” Jonathan said pushing his girlfriend up against the wall just as Patrick Kane was the last one to leave. He of course stayed the longest out of everyone probably because he was the closest to the couple. Sometimes it killed the ladies man that he didn’t have someone to come home to. All he had was his beer and dancing skills.

The two left a clothes trail all the way to Jonathan’s bedroom. This wasn’t the first time the couple has had fun in the bedroom but it was the first that it wasn’t after a game win. The first time was a when the Blackhawks returned home from the road game after the Olympic break. Jonathan a sensational congratulations from Arabella after that big win. After a few rounds at it the couple decided to sleep, well Arabella decided that she was to tired to continue since she was still jet lagged. Jonathan was impressed though that they actually did something after Arabella’s 8 hour flight.

As Arabella was sound asleep curled into Jonathan’s side he was wide awake. His mind was going million thoughts a second. He wanted desperately to figure out what happened to her but didn’t know how to bring the topic back up. He thought of ways to ask but all just seemed like he didn’t trust her. Soon Arabella’s soft snores lured Jonathan into a light sleep, but it was okay by him. As long as he got to hold his girlfriend all was well.

“Morning sleepyhead.” Jonathan said looking at his girlfriend who was wearing one of his sweatshirts. Of course she was drowning in it but he loved it when she wore anything of his. It was 5:30 at night when Arabella finally woke up from her sleep so Jonathan was just watching Sports Center.

“Mhmm.” Arabella said as she crawled onto the couch sitting right next to Jonathan. He pulled her closer as she leaned her head against him. On the coffee table in front of them was Chinese food that Jonathan had ordered about 15 minutes ago. He was to lazy to cook so he called up the closest Dim Sum place around his apartment.

“Well at least you won’t have to go to France until the playoffs are done.” Jonathan said leaning to grab the spare ribs container. It was almost gone but he was glad that the didn’t worry about eating it all. It was just a perk of having a vegetarian girlfriend, he never had to share his meat.

“About that, I actually have to fly back to France in 3 weeks.” Arabella said as she watched her boyfriend grab his container. From the back view she saw all his muscles tense up. She knew that her going back to France in 3 weeks was something Jonathan didn’t want to hear. Deep down Arabella knew that her boyfriend didn’t want her to leave scared that she wouldn’t come back for him.

“You just back from France? Why would you need to go back again?” Jonathan asked calming himself down. He didn’t want to start a fight with Arabella right now or ever for the matter but right now he was mad. As he looked in her eyes he could see that she was holding something back. She was always holding something back from him, like a deep dark secret. “I can see it in your eyes that you’re hiding something. Ara please just tell me what it is.” Jonathan said finding himself begging to find out what she was holding back.

“I--I don’t know if I can.” Arabella stuttered out as she felt her eyes start to water. She held onto this secret from everyone in Chicago for 3 years. For 3 whole years no one knew what happened to her or the pain that she went through. Now her boyfriend of one month wanted to know her secret. Jonathan could see that he was making her cry, the last thing that he wanted to do.

“I’m sorry, Ara. Whenever you’re ready, I’m hear to listen.” Jonathan said leaning back on the couch looking at his girlfriend. He just didn’t know what to do so it remained quiet for the two of them. You could drop a pin outside of the apartment and it would sound so loud like a gong. As Arabella looked over at her boyfriend she knew that if she didn’t tell him now, she might never get around to telling him.

Jonathan watched his girlfriend stand up to look at the busy city of Chicago down below. Looking down at all the little people and cars below Arabella found the courage to tell her boyfriend what happened. The courage didn’t come from the cars or her boyfriend by the important lesson that this incident taught Arabella. She took a big shaky breath as she let the words “I killed my family” fall out of her mouth.