Boy Next Door

I’ve got your runaway smile in my piggy-bank baby
Gonna cash right in for a new Mercedes
You were worth a hundred-thousand miles
But you couldn’t stay a while.(Heels Over Head by Boys Like Girls) my cell phone rang out. It still has a cracked screen by the way.

“Hello,” I said in a rushed tone into the phone.

“Hey baby,” Marc said.

“Oh hey. Are you on your way up?” I asked. The rehearsal dinner was tonight and I did not want to spend it being told by my aunts that I need a boyfriend. “No! I need the other flowers for tonight. I’ll pick up the other flowers tomorrow morning,” I said, getting frustrated with the florist for messing up the order.

“Actually I’m in Toronto right now. I don’t know where I need to go.”

“Um, get a cab and tell him to drop you off at the Marriot. It’s about a ten minute drive away from the airport and I’m five minutes away from it.”

“Okay. Bye.”

“Bye.” I hung up the phone and waited impatiently for the florist to go get the right flowers. I grabbed the pre-paid flowers off the counter. I put the flowers in the back of my mom’s truck and started to drive towards the hotel. I got there at the same time Marc did so I just told him to hop in my car once he paid the cab driver.

“Hey. How’d you guys do last night? I didn’t get to watch the game.”

“We lost in overtime,” he said disappointedly. I decided not to press the subject any further. The rest of the car ride was spent listening to music on the radio. That was the one bad thing about having a professional athlete as a boyfriend. Sometimes they tend to carry their losses home with them.

I drove up to my house and without asking if I needed help, he went to go grab the some of the flowers and brought them in for me.

“Mom! Some stranger just walked into our house carrying flowers!” Maddie yelled. I couldn’t tell if she was joking or not. I could tell that Marc didn’t know if she was being sarcastic or not either.

“Yeah Maddie. My boyfriend is just such a stranger.” I rolled my eyes as I set the flowers down on the counter. I heard quick footsteps coming from behind me and the distinct sound of chains on a collar hitting each other. “BALTO!” I screamed as I hugged my Siberian husky. I saw Maddie’s eyes go wide.

“This is your boyfriend,” she said, pointed to Marc like he was some foreign creature.

“So you must be Maddie. I’m Marc,” he said to Maddie, sticking his hand out for her to shake. She just kept looking back and forth from me to Marc. He took his hand back and whispered, “Awkward.”

“Well at least Balto can greet you,” I said as Balto jumped on Marc’s leg.

“What’s going on in here?” my mom asked.

“I picked up the flowers and some hobo stranger, came home, introduced the hobo stranger to Maddie and she froze up like this.”

“Hobo stranger?” my mom asked, obviously very confused.

“No Mom, it’s her boyfriend. Marc Staal,” Maddie said, breaking out of her trance.

“Oh you’re Danielle’s boyfriend,” she said while walking over to give him a hug.

“Mom,” I said. “You don’t need to hug him.”

“Oh, sorry.”

“Where’s dad?” I asked, noticing he was the only one that wasn’t in the kitchen with us.

“Oh he’s at the hall setting up for the reception. I’ll go drop the flowers off you guys should probably start getting ready. You have to be there in two hours,” my mom said as she carried the flowers back out to her car, Marc following behind her with some more flowers.

“Well done,” Maddie whispered in my ear. I smiled in response.

“I’m going to go shower” I said as I headed upstairs to my room.

“I’ll lay out your outfit for tonight because I know you did not pack a dress.”

“Okay. Tell Marc he can leave his stuff in the guest room.”

Surprisingly, our family did not want to stay at our house and wanted to stay at hotels instead. I was okay with that because with all of our family in one house, things can get pretty hectic. I turned on the shower in my bathroom that was attached to my room (yes, Maddie and I each have our own bathroom), and went to go grab towels from the linen closet. When I got back, I stripped my body of my clothes and stepped in the shower. I finished my shower and quickly dried off, putting on my robe once I was done. I quickly combed and dried my hair. I left it straight. There was no need to make it look fantastic tonight.

When I walked out of the bathroom to go get my outfit I just rolled my eyes. It was a simple gray dress that clung to my body, had spaghetti straps and went down to my mid-thigh. She paired a black chunky belt that went around my torso and black gladiator sandals with jewels on them. I put on the outfit and a small amount of make-up.

I went back downstairs and saw that Marc was already ready. He was dressed in a simple black suit. He eyed my body and quickly looked away, trying to make it seem like he didn’t look. I had to hold back a laugh at him. I’ve seen guys blatantly stare at me, and didn’t even try to look away when I noticed.

“Can you put this stuff in your pockets?” I asked as I handed him my phone and lip gloss.

“Of course,” he said as he grabbed my stuff and put it in his pockets.

“Let’s go, let’s go!” Maddie screamed as she grabbed both of our arms and led us towards her car. I hopped in the back seat with Marc and pulled my phone out of his pocket. He whipped his head around and gave me a ‘what are you doing?’ look. I started to text him so Maddie wouldn’t butt in on our conversation.

Me: Thank you so much for doing this.
Marc: It’s no problem. Really.
Me: No. I feel bad. You came out of your way just so I wouldn’t look like a loner.
Marc: Trust me. I’d rather be here than having to be Matt’s therapist right now.
Me: Why? What happened?
Marc: Do you know Taylor?
Me: Matt’s girlfriend that he’s been dating since freshman year?
Marc: Yeah. When Matt came to New York they said that they would make a long-distance relationship work. It turns out she’s been cheating on him since a month after he left.
Me: THAT BITCH!!!!!!!

I gave Marc my phone when I noticed that we were there already. The three of us walked to the front entrance. Marc and I were holding hands while Maddie was silently praying that everything looked perfect. I was praying along with her because if it wasn’t perfect, I would be the one blamed. Marc was just awkwardly following along with us. We walked in with our fingers crossed.

I looked around the hall. We had rented out two rooms: one for the rehearsal and one for the reception. We rented the one for the reception for both nights just so we would know that everything looks like it’s supposed to. Maddie spotted Nick and went into the reception hall with him while Marc and I went into the rehearsal hall.

I looked around the room and everything was perfect. I felt like I had just walked into a magazine. I was just about to walk over to my father to introduce him to Marc when I heard a scream coming from down the hall. I ran down to where the noise was coming from, Marc following behind me.

“Maddie, what’s wrong?” I asked, very concerned. Ever since Maddie was a little girl, she always imagined having her perfect, fairy-tale wedding, and I always said that I would do anything to help her make that happen.

“They messed up the fucking sign!” she spat. I looked up at the sign. It read “Congratulations Matty and Niki!” when it was supposed to say, “Congratulations Maddie and Nick!” They decided to go with their nicknames for the sign.

“Okay, okay, I’ll fix it. You go into the other room and say hi to people and crap while Marc and I fix the sign. We’ll hang it back up and then you can come and see it,” I said, trying to be as helpful as possible.

“Okay, but you better not screw up, too,” she said jokingly. She walked into the other room, while her fiancé, Nick, just kept looking at Marc and me with a confused face.

“I feel like I know you from somewhere,” he said, still with a confused look on his face.

“Marc Staal, defenseman for the New York Rangers,” he said as he stuck his hand it. Nick shook it.

“Dude! What are you doing here?” he asked excitedly. Marc gave him an ‘are you kidding me?’ look and jerked his thumb towards me.

“Nick!” Maddie called from down the hall. Nick left still amazed that Marc was here.

“What do we need to do know?” Marc asked since I volunteered him for the job.

“We need to go down the street to the drug store to get paint and crap.” He nodded his head and followed me out and down the street. I could tell that he was feeling awkward being here and not knowing anyone. “What’s your problem?” I asked, trying to get him to tell me why he was feeling so uncomfortable.

“I don’t want to be the star of your sister’s wedding,” he said with the famous Staal smirk. I laughed at him as we entered the store. I grabbed a bottle of purple paint since purple was the main color of her wedding. Then I grabbed a bottle of glitter and a paint brush.

“Crap!” I sighed.

“What?”

“I left my money at home.”

“I’ll pay for it,” he said as he got his money out of his pocket. I thanked him as I grabbed the bag of stuff off of the counter and started to speed-walk back.

I got back to the hall and went straight towards the sign that was still hanging on the wall. Marc came in a few minutes later and saw me still attempting to get the sign down. He came up behind me and grabbed the sign, leaning into me. I blushed, but he didn’t seem to notice. He handed me the sing once he got it down. I placed it face down on the floor so the blank side was facing up. I grabbed my brush and paint and painted the sign correctly this time. I looked back at marc for a brief second and I swear I saw him staring at my ass. I finished up painting it and grabbed the bottle of glitter out of the bag. I poured some of it in my hand and then I gave some to Marc and told him to start sprinkling it over the letters. Once we finished I threw the rest of the glitter in my hand at him. He did the same to me.

“You got some stuff on your face,” he said, pointing to my lips.

“What are you gonna do about it, Staal?” I asked him.

“This,” he said as he leaned down and kissed me.

“We should probably be getting back,” I said as I pulled away. He sighed and held my hand as we walked back. When we walked in the room, all heads turned towards us and a chorus of “Marc Staal!”’s rang throughout the room.

“Oh boy,” I sighed. “This is going to be a long night.”

“Agreed.”