The Right Kind of Wrong

“So if I pushed you into the pool, what would you do?” Taylor asked curiously as he walked alongside Emily at the large outdoor water park he’d managed to convince her to come along to with some of his friends.

“Well, either I’d pull you in with me, or I’d climb out and hunt you down, then push you in,” Emily said frankly, the look on her face clearly telling him that she was telling the truth.

“Don’t be such a downer,” he told her, nudging her with his shoulder.

“I'm nor a downer,” she disagreed. “I'm just a huge believer in free will and I do not want to swim right now,” she smiled sweetly as she climbed up and sat down on a wooden railing, her legs hanging off the edge as he leaned against it, trying to appear unaffected by seeing her in a bikini. As she’d first emerged from the dressing rooms, he’d been rather sure he’d been drooling slightly.

“Oh, so you're saying you will, in a bit?”

“We’ll see,” she smiled noncommittal as she closed her eyes and turned her face in the direction of the sun. “This reminds me of Greece,” she revealed.

“Like…Greece?” he asked surprised.

“Yeah,” she laughed slightly. “You know that country in southern Europe with all the small islands,” she explained slowly.

“I knew that,” he nodded quickly.

“Yeah, sure,” she smiled knowingly. “I spent two weeks there with my cousins this summer,” she revealed as she looked down at herself, reaching up and fixing her top slightly, keeping it in place.

“Just like that?” he frowned, looking at her closely, not about to admit that it was because he found her absolutely beautiful.

“Kind of,” she shrugged. “They knew I had a bit of a rough time before I got home and they wanted to take my mind off of it, and they had already planned on going there anyway.”

“Right,” he nodded slightly as he drank in her appearance when she closed her eyes and turned her face towards the sun, effectively ending the conversation. She was tall for a girl and whilst her curves weren’t in your face, they were alluring, at least to him. Her toned legs told him she worked out and took good care of herself, not to mention they went on for miles, but it was her face that was the deal-maker. It wasn't that she was amazingly beautiful, neither did she have any particularly striking features, but the whole package along with her lightly curly hair made for a – in his eyes at least – perfect combination. Not to mention, the turquoise bikini she was wearing did nothing to hide her assets.

“The staring is making me a bit uncomfortable,” she told him, causing him to jump in fright. He hadn’t thought she knew he was looking at her.

“Sorry,” he mumbled, blushing bright red.

“Whatever,” she shrugged effortlessly as she jumped down from the railing. “I'm hungry,” she announced as they began walking back towards the chairs where they had left both his friends and their things.

“I can get something to eat,” he suggested quickly.

“It’s alright,” she shook her head. “I'm just going to go see what they have,” she told him as they reached the group of people she was pretty sure she wouldn’t have socialized with if it hadn’t been for meeting Taylor. “I'm grabbing something to eat,” she announced herself as se fished her wallet out of her bag. “Anyone want to come along?”

“I’ll come,” a short, brown-haired girl Emily remembered to be name Julia said as she stood up from the towel she’d been laying spread out on.

“Great,” Emily smiled as she straightened back up and they walked across the grass lawn, with heading towards the large building at the other end of the area.

“So what do you think of Taylor?” Julia asked conversationally as they walked, the short grass tickling the soles of their feet.

“He’s a nice guy,” Emily shrugged. “I don’t really know him,” she pointed out.

“He likes you,” Julia stated frankly. “Like really like you,” she clarified.

“You noticed that, huh?” Emily frowned slightly, she’d been hoping she was wrong about that whole thing.

“It’s quite obvious, I mean, he’s – no offence to you – tagging along after you like a lost puppy,” Julia pointed out.

“None taken,” Emily assured her. “I mean he’s a sweet guy, but I really don’t like him in that fashion, I just don’t want to hurt his feelings,” she nibbled on her lower lip. “Any suggestions?” she asked hopefully.

“Nope, sorry,” Julia smiled slightly. “But I would stay away from Tatum if I were you,” she advised.

“Tatum…” Emily said slowly, trying to place the name to a face. “Oh, that black haired girl he hangs with some times?” she asked, remembering the glare she’d been on the receiving end of one day in the library.

“Yeah,” Julia nodded. “We’ve ‘kind of’, ‘sort of’ known her since our freshman year,” she explained. “And she’s had a thing for Tay since…well, since then. She really doesn’t like other girls trespassing on her territory so to speak.”

“I got ya,” Emily nodded. “I have to tell him though, right?” she frowned at the prospect of having to do so. “Make sure he doesn’t get any false hope.”

“That’s your call,” Julia stated frankly. “Just if you do, do it gently, no matter how much he tries to buff up when you're around, he’s a small kid inside,” she smiled jokingly.

“I know,” Emily smiled back. “And it’s really not something I'm looking forwards to,” she said softly as they entered the cool building, trying to decide what to get to eat.

The wind picking up slightly, making the air rather chilly, they all decided that it was time to leave and head back home. Having previously found that Julia was actually living in the same building as herself, just on the floor below, Emily suggested she should ride back with her instead of causing the others to take a de-tour just to drop her off. Agreeing, much to Taylor’s displeasure, she joined Emily in the black VW Beetle after they’d said goodbye to their friends.

Finding a spot not too far away from the building, Emily parked her car and the two of them grabbed their things before slowly approaching the front doors. Walking along the pathway, Emily noticed the semi-large group of people congregating outside the doors, seemingly just hanging around.

“What?” she inquired as she noticed the frown on Julia’s face.

“Nothing really,” Julia shrugged. “I just…I don’t get those,” she stated, nodding in the direction of the group, which after further inspection was made up by a few guys and several girls who should be feeling rather cold in the wind that was picking up considering what they were wearing.

“Those?” Emily arched her eyebrow interested.

“Puck bunnies, puck sluts, whatever you want to call them,” Julia clarified.

“Oh, those,” Emily nodded slowly as she observed the girls a little closely. She had honestly never heard the term before she stepped foot on Minnesotan soil alongside Erik. At first she wasn't fully on board with what it even meant, but it didn’t take long when the season started to fully understand it.

Having grown up around hockey players, as well as guys who played other sports, she had never really seen the phenomenon with girls wanting to date – sleep with – them just because of the sport they played. And having dated a hockey player for so many years, she couldn’t really see why, especially if they went pro; then they were gone for weeks at a time and you were left at home, alone, possibly in a city you weren’t familiar with and where you knew no one…add a home, a family and children onto that and it really wasn't a dream she thought should even exist.

And as far as puck sluts went…well, she didn’t really have any kind of respect for them, much less any kind of appreciation of where they came from. Hockey players really weren’t all that great…they were as normal as the next person; they just tended to be unbelievably smelly at times and always came with a group of equally as smelly, annoying and loud teammates. Who never seemed to have learned that cardinal rule; what’s mine is mine, what’s yours is yours…

“Yeah, I've…I've encountered them before,” Emily added softly as they passed the group of people and she couldn’t help but let her eyes travel over the guys standing there, having an air about them like they really did own the school… No matter how much she would have liked to deny it, seeing them reminded her of Erik, and she really did miss him. He might have shattered her heart in the worst possible way, there might have been dark moments when she was sure that she was never going to survive the pain and manage to piece it back together again, but it didn’t cause her love for him to just disappear…