Life Unexpected.

“Adali!” Mia sang the next morning, waking Adali from her hung-over sleep state.

After Mia had went on a two hour-yes a two hour- schpeel about Sidney they decided to have a little fun with Alcohol.

Worst mistake ever.

“Adali!” Mia sang again and Adali groaned, not knowing why the hell Mia was in her room at…8:45 in the morning- singing.

“Adali, you promised you would go to Sid’s practice with me! Get up, get up, get up!” Mia sang happily as she twittered around the room, yanking Adali’s bed cover every few moments. Adali did not recall her promising any sort of this. She was hung over, tired, grumpy and felt very dirty.

“Mia…” Adali groaned but it really came out as more of a whisper since her voice hadn’t fully come to her yet and she didn’t want to upset her head anymore than it already was.

“Adali you promised. Not it’s ands or buts! Now get up and get ready. You have an hour.” Mia told Adali before promptly shutting her door, quite loudly and walking back toward the kitchen. Adali groaned and slowly sat up out of bed. She noticed the aspirin and cup of water on her nightstand and smiled slightly at Mia’s kindness. She downed the medicine quickly before walking toward the bathroom and starting her shower. She picked out a simple t shirt and jeans with a lingerie set for underneath and set them on the toilet seat.

She then hopped into the shower and rinsed off last night’s drinking escapade.

As she straightened her hair a thought popped into Adali’s mind: How could Mia not be hung over? Adali finished getting ready, her brown uggs covering her feet and she grabbed her purse and cropped coat before walking out into the kitchen. Adali was actually feeling much more refreshed and her eyes were slowly adjusting to the bright lights and her headache was finally gone.

Mia was waiting patiently for Adali out in the kitchen, Adali’s usual smoothie in hand and a travel coffee mug for her. Mia finally heard Adali’s footsteps and smiled at her friend seeing her look better than earlier. She handed her, her drink and the girls headed to the Arena.

They arrived and were seated about 25 minutes later and were both silently sipping their choice of drink.

“Mia, how could you not be hung over?” Adali asked Mia, the question from earlier popping into her mind again. Mia chuckled before answering.

“I didn’t drink as much as you did. I only drank one margarita. While you drank 3 and had 2 shots of vanilla vodka.” Adali cringed as Mia said those. Memories came flooding back and she could clearly remember Mia leading her to bed and laughing as she sang, well attempted to sing, “California Gurls” by Katy Perry.

“Oh yes…Sorry about that.” Adali replied while slightly giggling. Mia joined and they were soon full out in hysterics. Soon enough though, the team came out onto the ice and Mia was sucked into focusing on watching Sidney. Adali was playing Uno on her iPhone and half listening to what the coach was yelling.

“Geno! Come to the bench, quickly now. Hurry.” Adali perked up at the name the coach was yelling and leaned forward slightly. She heard the undertone of urgency in the coach’s voice and couldn’t help but eavesdrop.

“Geno, I’m sorry to tell you this but it's your mom. They had to send her to the hospital. She was in a car accident. I’m giving you this practice off and I expect a phone call when you get some time to update me on this. Go now boy, Sally will explain where she’s staying.” Adali’s eyes widened dramatically and she forgot about the game on her phone, leaning forward as far as she could go she watched Evgeni become slightly panicked before rushing out of the rink.

Adali’s mind wasn’t in control of her body anymore and she hurriedly got out of her seat, grabbing her things and sending Mia a look telling her she’d explain later and running after the same boy who left her 4 years ago.

*

Geno was rushing out of the locker room when Adali finally spotted him. She started running as fast as her slender legs could take her, yelling Evgeni’s name once she was close enough to not draw attention. Geno whipped around to find the one person he never suspected to see, running to him. His jaw slackened as she stopped right in front of him.

“Евгений. Я слышал, что происходит вокруг, и я пойду с тобой.”(Evgeni. I heard what’s going on and I’m coming with you.) Those were the only words Geno needed to hear and he grabbed her hand, lacing his fingers through hers and together they ran to his porshe and sped toward the hospital. They arrived only 10 minutes later and rushed toward the information desk. She told them that she was on the 2nd floor and in room 309. Together they rode the elevator in silence; Adali could feel Evgeni’s anxiousness rolling off of him in waves.

They finally found room 309 after getting off the elevator and Geno barged in, not bothering to knock. Adali inwardly chuckled as she heard him mutter something about not having to knock since it was his mother.

‘”(Evgeni!) Adali heard the familiar voice call out to Geno before the door closed. Adali didn’t feel that it was right for her to go in there since she wasn’t anything close to being family. She walked over to a lone bench in the hallway and took a seat. She picked at the loose strings in her pants as she thought about why she came down here with Geno.

On the way over she realized something that she’d known pretty much all along but never came to terms with. She still, no matter what he did, she still cared about Geno. She was still going to be there for Geno and even though some think he may not deserve it, she probably always will be. Adali had always been like that though. Once she made a promise to someone she usually kept it, even if she can’t remember telling Geno this, it was unspoken but always known. Adali wasn’t sure if Geno would return the favor for being there for her; to be honest she highly doubted he would.

“Adali?” Adali was snapped out of her thoughts, or rather her revelation, from Geno’s heavily accent English. She turned toward the voice to see a confused Evgeni walking toward her.

“Why you not come in?” He asked her, his brows furrowing together making him look 5 years younger than he actually is.

“I’m not family or anything close to being family so it didn’t feel right. And plus I doubt your mom even remembers me.” Adali mentally smacked herself for saying the last part of her answer. That was the only reference that they had faced about their past. Luckily Evgeni didn’t seem affected by it and just continued walking over and sat down next to her.

“She does. She ask all the time about you. It make her very happy to see you.” Adali’s heart warmed that Mrs. Malkin still remembered her. She smiled and nodded at Evgeni and he took her hand and lead her into the hospital room. Adali was expecting the worst but all she saw was Evgeni’s mom laying a hospital bed with an unflattering gown and a taped up wrist.

“Адали? ” (Adali?) She heard the comforting voice of Mrs. Malkin, or Momma as she always had told me to call her. I nodded and smiled slightly and she motioned me over with a wide smile. She kissed both of Adali’s cheeks and that little gesture almost brought tears to her eyes.

“Ведь это так здорово тебя видеть. Ты выглядишь еще прекраснее с Последний раз я видел вас. Как же вы живете ”(It’s so great to see you. You look even more beautiful since the last time I saw you. How’ve you been?)

“Я делаю хорошо, но вопрос заключается как ты? ” (I’ve been doing good, but the real question is how are you?) She smiled passively as if saying that it didn’t really matter at the moment.

“Ну, просто ушиб до запястья все, что я пострадал. Человек попал в глубине моего бампера и подушки ушел. Вот и все. Я не понимаю, почему они сделали такой большой суеты. ”(Oh, just a bruised up wrist is all I suffered. The man hit the back of my bumper and the air bags went off. That’s all. I don’t see why they made such a big fuss.)

“Ну по крайней мере, все нормально. Вот и все вопросы ”(Well at least you’re okay.

That’s really all the matters.) Geno’s voice answered back to his mom and I felt him walk over and stand next to me. Adali saw Mrs. Malkin’s eyes grow a little bite lighter once she saw us standing next to each other. Adali looked away quickly before her cheeks heated up.

She could see out of the corner of her eye that the two family members were communicating quietly, obviously she wasn’t supposed to hear what they were talking about.

“Так Адали, вы видите кого сейчас? ”(So Adali, are you seeing anyone right now?) The question was so sudden and loud compared to the almost complete silence a few seconds earlier that it made her jump. Heat rushed to her cheeks and she quickly shook her head no.

“Нет, не в данный момент.”(No, not at the moment.) Adali replied quietly. Mrs. Malkin’s eyes lit up even more and Adali wondered how red her face was getting.

“Oh. Так скажи мне, о родителях, как это они делают?”(Oh. So tell me about your parents, how are they doing?) Adali held in a sigh of relief and answered Mrs. Malkin’s
question glad for the focus to not be on her anymore.

*

About an hour later Adali and Geno finally left the hospital room. Adali had spent most of her time catching up with Mrs. Malkin, actually now that she thought about it, she hadn’t spoken a full sentence to Geno since the Arena. She was in the middle of buttoning up her coat when a voice called her name.

“Adali?” Geno’s accented voice called to her, she looked up to see him standing there awkwardly, rubbing the back of his neck with his large hand.

“Yes?”

“Would you….Go to eat with me? Some time?” Adali’s heart sped up as she heard him ask her out to lunch with him. She wanted so badly to say yes but so many things were running through her mind. She took a deep breath and connected her eyes with his.

“Evgeni, you hurt me. You hurt me a lot when we were younger and just because we saw each other again that doesn’t mean that all of that went away. I can’t just become friends with someone who hurt and betrayed me like that. It just doesn’t work like that.” Geno’ eyes turned confused and then guilt filled them.

“Адали, я хочу тебе все объяснить. Я просто хочу час, 1 час, вот и все. Пожалуйста, вы придете на обед со мной? Она не должна быть сегодня, но в ближайшее время.”(Adali, I want to explain everything to you. I just want an hour, one hour, that’s all. Please, will you come to lunch with me? It doesn’t have to be today but sometime soon.) Obviously

Evgeni didn’t have enough of a grasp on English to express his plea so he switched to Russian and Adali listened intently. If Adali did go to lunch with him she could receive closer. Yes closer. That’s what she needed. She smiled slightly and looked back at the desperate Russian.

“Хорошо, как насчет завтра? ”(Alright, how about tomorrow?)

“У меня есть игра, но как насчет вас прийти и посмотреть, и мы пойдем на ужин после этого?”( I have a game tomorrow, but how about you come and watch and we can go out to dinner afterwards?)

“Звучит хорошо. Я провожу тебя Томор?”( Sounds good. I’ll see you tomorrow night then?)

“Я пришлю вам билеты.” (I’ll send you tickets.) smiled before turning and starting to walk away.

“Адали?” (Adali?) Adali turned back toward Geno who was standing in the same spot as before and his hands in his pockets.

“Моя мама была права, вам выглядеть еще красивее, чем в последний раз я видел вас.” ( My mom was right. You do look even more beautiful than the last time I saw you.)

Adali blushed slightly and smiled at the man.

“Не вставляйте свою удачу Гено.” (Don’t push your luck Geno.) Adali smiled at Evgeni before turning and continuing to walk out of the hospital. She could hear his laughter echoing down the hallway as she walked.