All I Can Do

“Jonny.”

Jonathan Toews looked up from his cell phone and towards his best friend, who was sitting across from him with an irritated look on his face. The charity event was dragging on longer than any of them had expected. Sure, it was fun and it was a good cause, but it was nearing 1 AM and they were still seated.

Many of their teammates and girlfriends were up dancing and drinking, but Jonathan was named DD for Patrick tonight, so he’d steered clear of any alcohol... though it wasn’t necessary. Patrick was clearly not enjoying himself and Jonathan couldn’t even recall seeing him with a drink in his hand.

He glanced up at his coach, who was talking to the event holder and waited for him to look over to his captain. When he did, and their eyes met, Jon nodded his head to the exit, silently asking if it’d be okay if he were to leave. Coach gave a small nod and returned to his conversation, giving him the needed permission.

“Alright, let’s head out Kaner.”

Patrick got up all too eagerly, grabbed his suit jacked and throwing it on. Jonathan chuckled as he fished his keys out of his pocket and grabbed his own jacket. The two players quickly thanked and said goodbye to the people running the event and then made a bee-line for Jon’s SUV.

Patrick was one step ahead of Jon, “That was brutal.”

Jon smiled at his friend and eyed down his car, “It was fine... just dragged on a little too long.”

Patrick nodded in agreement, letting out a sigh as he reached the car, “1 AM, like you’ve got to be fucking kidding me.”

Jonathan didn’t say anything as he unlocked the car and got in. The thing about tonight was that it was for charity, they were benefitting people just by showing up and for that, he wasn’t going to knock it down. Patrick was a little more impatient and a little more irritated, but he wouldn’t say that aloud.

1 AM though, that was the deal breaker. That was far too long for an event that started at seven. However now, they were out of there and they were able to go home and sleep, ready for practice tomorrow morning. That’s what Jonathan was going to do, anyway.

He stopped at the red light that was right out of the parking lot and listened to Patrick rant about how charity events should never go that long, or they should be allowed to leave at 11. Jon only nodded and spoke up once in a while as the light flickered green and he began to drive.

“I mean, come on,” Patrick grunted, texting someone on his blackberry, “It’s for a good cause, yea, but 1 fucking AM?”

Jon sighed and decided to change the subject, “What about that blonde you were hitting on?”

Patrick raised an eyebrow and pressed send, “She had a boyfriend.”

“Didn’t look like it,” Jon piped up quietly, putting on his signal and turning, “She was all over you all night.”

Patrick gave his buddy a smug grin, and Jon knew what was coming next, “Well duh, girls throw themselves at me all the time man, you know that.”

Jon laughed and nodded, “True, dude, true.”

Patrick smirked and looked back to the road, leaning to the side of the door, “But the chick decided to tell me that she had a boyfriend at midnight, after giving me her number.”

Jonathan frowned and stopped at yet another red light. He turned to Patrick and raised an eyebrow, “After?”

Patrick scoffed and nodded, “Yea, fucking annoying huh? She goes ‘He goes out of town a lot, every second weekend’.”

Jonathan shook his head. He’d seen a lot of different girls since signing with the NHL. Girls throw themselves at you; single, taken, married, it didn’t matter. It was ridiculous and thankfully, he didn’t take part in that lifestyle. It was fun at first, but after that it just gets irritating, hopeless and utterly disgusting. You really couldn’t respect someone when they would sleep with you and then go home to their husband in the morning.

“Fuck it,” Jon concluded for his teammate, who was just about to say the same.

Patrick nodded drastically and agreed, “Exactly, bro.”

With that, he reached over and jacked up the tunes. It echoed through the car, making the glass shake. Patrick began to sing at the top of his lungs and before he knew it, Jon was also screaming out the song. They belted it out at the highest pitch possibly, laughing loudly to themselves.

Patrick began to drum his fingers on the dashboard, and Jon smiled, yelling out his favourite part. Then, everything changed. Patrick’s look of amusement turned to horror and his face spun around to give Jonathan a look of sheer fear.

“LOOK OUT!” Hit Jonathan’s ears over the music, the scream topping the volume of the music.

But it was too late. The only thing he could hear now was the sound of screeching tires and shattering glass, and the high pitched, heart breaking sound of a woman’s scream.