Our Love is Still Alive

”Zach, it’s over. I’m sorry.”

The words repeated themselves over and over in his mind as he stared down at the severely padded hockey gloves in front of him. He let his eyes droop closed as he sighed loudly, catching the attention of one of his teammates, Justin.

“What’s wrong, man?”

Zach shook his head, but, knowing him to be more than just a simple head shake, Justin pressed his friend even further. After only a few seconds of his bothersome ways, Zach was done listening. “I can’t stop thinking about her, man.”

“Lea?” He could only nod as his teammate sat down next to him and rested his padded hand on his shoulder. “Go get her back then.”

“Are you insane?” Zach’s eyebrows raised at Justin’s suggestion, an obvious sign that he took the proposal to be a crazy one. “She dumped me, Jus. She won’t take my calls; she’s totally dumped me from her life. It’s not like she’s just gonna jump back to me.”

“You never know,” the dark-haired man shook his head. “Zach, I’m tellin’ ya. If you don’t get her back soon, you’re not gonna have anything left.”

And with that, Justin left Zach, who was no less than stunned at his teammates words, in his stall, after his triumphant victory, confused, and wallowing in self pity.

Later that evening, as Zach lay in his empty bed, he couldn’t help but let his mind drift back to the late nights, when both he and Lea attended the same school, the University of North Dakota, when Lea would sneak out of her dorm and into his. The two of them would just lay together, talking about his dream of playing in the NHL one day, and hers to become an elementary teacher.

He let his eyes shut, before he let out a loud sigh, seeing as he’d been trying to sleep for over two hours, but couldn’t, because he’d been thinking about her nearly all day. As he heard stirring in the living room of the small apartment he shared with two of his teammates, he couldn’t help but sit up straight in his bed and run his hands over his face.

“That’s it.”

The second the two words softly left his lips, he stood up and marched over to his closet, nearly ripping his old, ratty North Dakota Fighting Sioux sweatshirt off of its hanger, before he slipped it on over his head, not even bothering to put a shirt on, seeing as he was in a hurry.

He grabbed his wallet and car keys and slipped them into the pockets of the mesh basketball shorts he was wearing, before he shoved his feet into a pair of trainers. Without a word to any of his still-awake teammates, he stalked out of the apartment, and quickly took the stairs down to the lobby, two at a time.

The twenty hour drive from Albany to North Dakota was an absolute nightmare. Zach hadn’t brought much with him- just the clothes on his back, his wallet, and his cell phone, along with whatever he just so happened to have in his car –and he instantly regretted even beginning to make the drive. But, when he drove out of his home state of Minnesota, and through the border of North Dakota, his mood instantly began to perk up.

The second he pulled into the parking lot outside the campus, he slammed his door shut, ignoring the fact that it was nearly ten o’clock already, on a school night, for most of them, and began to make his way to building seven, where he knew her dorm was located.

“Sir! Sir! You can’t go back there! Sir!”

As he swung the glass door closed, Zach ignored the short woman’s yelling as he jogged past her, and continued to stalk back, further into the dorm rooms, in search of the one he knew he would remember. The second he came across dorm 7D, he nearly broke down the door as he pounded on the wooden surface.

“Zach?” the petite blonde squeaked as she looked at the man who nearly knocked her door down. “What are you doing here?”

“Lea, I love you.”

She didn’t have a chance to respond to his statement before his lips were on hers, and he had kicked the wooden door shut with his foot. He ran his hands down her sides and wrapped his arms around her waist, locking her into the kiss. Hesitantly, she sighed slowly and placed her hands on his chest, relaxing into the familiar embrace.

He broke away from her plush lips and kissed down the side of her neck, smirking against her skin when her hands slid up to his broad shoulders and tried to grasp the muscles there.

“Zach,” she whispered, fearing she would scream if she let herself talk any louder. “Lock the door.”

He smirked again, definitely triumphant this time, and turned around, letting the hard metal spin closed beneath his fingers. When he turned around, however, Lea wasn’t in the same spot she had just been standing in previously; she was already laying down, propped up on her forearms in her bed, waiting for him. It was definitely times like this when she was thankful she didn’t have a roommate.

He nearly pounced on top of her, smiling steadily when she giggled from underneath him. He straddled her hips and began to work one of the t-shirts he was sure she had stolen from him up, over her flat stomach, and right over her head.

The t-shirt he’d changed into that morning joined hers on the floor, and soon, all that was heard were her whispered moans, and his attempts to keep her quiet as their bodies connected in the most intimate way possible.

“Move back with me,” he whispered into the crook of her neck as she leaned her bare back against his chest, pulling the sheet up over herself.

“Zach,” she sighed, desperately wanting to say yes to his request, and take off to be with the man she surely still loved. He kissed the weak spot underneath her ear, and it almost broke her, but she knew she had what she needed. “You know I can’t. I’ve got everything here; my whole life’s here. I’m graduating next year.”

“Next year,” he emphasized. “You can transfer for your last one; c’mon, baby. For me?”

“Zach, I can’t.”

Her firm answer made him almost shrink back into the fetal position- she was rejecting him, then thing he was most afraid of. “Then I guess I’ll have to make this trip more often, won’t I?”

She smiled as she turned over and snuggled down into his warm, bare chest. “You’re a goofball.”

“It’s true,” he answered. “I’d walk a thousand miles for you, baby.”

She smiled, and uttered the three words he had been waiting to hear for over a month and a half. “I love you.”