The Games We Play

“Could you at least try to look incognito?” Lacey mused as she tugged the Blackhawks baseball cap from Jonathan’s head. “That thing is like a wailing siren with a giant sign attached to it saying, ‘Look at me, I’m Jonathan Toews, captain of the Hawks’.”

Jonathan grabbed the hat back and put it back on his head. “I like this hat,” he mused as Lacey gave him a fake pout. “Besides, people are going to be so focused on the game that no one’s going to care that I’m there, anyway. They’re there to see you, not me.”

Lacey sighed and adjusted her white socks for the hundredth time. Jonathan had ended up staying the night, then went back to his apartment to change his clothes before coming back in time for Lacey’s game. Lacey had just gotten changed into her uniform and was getting increasingly more nervous by the minute.

“I feel like I’m going to throw up.”

Jonathan raised an eyebrow. “Why?”

“Because you’re going to be there watching me,” she responded sheepishly. “I don’t know if you know this, Jonny, but you’re a little bit of an intimidating person.”

“Nonsense,” Jonathan scoffed, waving a hand in the air. “Come on. Let’s go before you back out. Just remember, your team needs you to be there. You’ll be perfectly fine.”

“Not if I throw up,” Lacey countered, but grabbed her water bottle and soccer shoes anyway before following Jonathan out the door.

They got into his truck and started to drive to the campus. Lacey’s cell phone rang in her pocket.

“Hello?” she paused. “Oh, hey, Patrick!”

Jonathan sent her a sideways look. She didn’t notice.

“Yeah, I’m actually with Jonathan right now. I have a game against MSU tonight. Yeah, it’s our third one. We’re up 2-0. Uh-huh. Well, do you want to come and watch the game? ...Oh, okay. Too bad then. Yeah, sure, we’ll find a time to hang out before the next series. Okay. Bye, Pat.” Lacey hung up the phone as Jonathan pulled into the parking lot. “Three guesses as to who that was.”

“Kaner,” Jonathan nodded. “You’re gonna go hang out with him or something?”

“He asked me if I was free for a movie,” Lacey shrugged. “I told him I had a game. And then when I invited him here, he said he was busy...so I don’t really know what he was talking about. But we’ll hang out tomorrow or something, I guess.”

“You don’t find that a little odd?” Jonathan questioned. “You know, that Pat asks you to hang out and then when you say that you’re with me and invite him to come to the game, he’s suddenly busy?”

“Well...” Lacey pondered. “Yeah, I guess that is sort of weird.” She eyed Jonathan. “Why, you jealous?”

Jonathan blushed. “No.”

“You are!” she declared, smiling wide. “Oh, that is so cute. Don’t worry Jon, you don’t need to worry about anything like that. Patrick and I are friends, that’s all. I don’t like him in that way or anything. He’s just...touchy-feely, I guess.”

You may not feel that way about him, Jonathan thought, but he sure as hell feels that way about you.

Lacey led Jonathan to the field, intertwining their fingers as they approached the team bench. The majority of the girls recognized Jonathan right away--only a few didn’t who didn’t actually follow or even mildly enjoy hockey. The others had seen enough promotions on TV about the Stanley Cup Finals through either following their city’s team or walking into the room when their dads were screaming at the screen in either anguish or joy. Either way, it was an amusing sight to behold.

“Lacey! You have a boyfriend?!”

“Screw the fact that she has a boyfriend, that’s Jonathan Toews!”

“The captain of the Blackhawks is here?!”

“Lacey, you and Jonathan Toews are a couple?! How could you not tell me!”

“Hey Jonathan, can you introduce me to Patrick Kane? That boy is damn fine!”

Lacey’s palm found her face quicker than you could say, “Oh, shit.”

“Leave Jon alone for a few seconds, ladies,” she announced, letting his hand go. “He’s here to watch our third game. Let’s all get our heads into it and focus, okay? This is important. If we win this, it’ll be a lot harder for MSU to be able to come back. Two more wins and we’re in the semis, okay?”

The girls on the team cheered. Lacey got her shoes on and went out in the field to stretch out and get some practice passes around before the game started. Jonathan stood along with the team’s coach and watched silently. The referee blew the whistle, signaling that it was time to get going. Some girls ran off the field and the starters remained, Lacey being one of them.

The game started. Loyola had first ball. Andrea passed it to Becky and she decided to try and go as far as she could with it. The girls passed back and forth, doing their best to keep it away from MSU’s players. Farah made a sloppy turnover and got the ball picked off by an MSU defender who launched the ball back into Loyola’s half. Lacey took possession and called for her other two defenders on the wings to cover as she went up with the ball.

Jonathan had never been so mesmerized in his life. He’d seen Lacey play in pick-up games and in practices, but this was for real. This was why she was chosen as captain, even if she was a defender. He saw the look of determination in her eyes as she deked past two MSU forwards and a midfielder before passing the ball off to Andrea when another MSU defender got in her way. Andrea faked a shot about eight feet from the MSU goalkeeper who had come out to challenge her and passed it to Lacey who took a shot on the empty net. The ball hit the mesh and the crowd, Jonathan included, went insane.

Jonathan watched as she high-fived her teammates, her smile beaming across the field. His eyes were fixated on her until the team’s coach cleared his throat loudly, on purpose, next to him.

“So, you and Lacey, huh?” he said with a smile. The coach was an older stocky man, about fifty or so, with graying hair and a scratchy looking beard. He seemed like the kind of guy at Christmas who would be perfect to play a department store Santa Claus. Or at least Santa’s younger brother.

Jonathan smiled sheepishly. “Yeah.”

“I hope she doesn’t chase you off,” he told him. “And I don’t mean to sound rude or make her seem like a horrible person or anything. But...I’m sure by now, you know about her relationship track record.”

“Yeah, she told me,” Jonathan replied with a nod. “I really do care about her, though. And I know where she’s coming from.”

“I’ve just never seen someone so dedicated to the sport as she is,” the coach continued. “She lives and breathes soccer. When she has spare time between classes, she’s out here practicing. She comes mornings, afternoons, evenings, weekends--I don’t even know how she manages to keep up with her school work. And finals start this week, too.”

Jonathan didn’t really know how to reply, so he just listened.

“She lives and breathes soccer because she’s lonely though,” the coach said in a quieter voice as he observed the players running up and down the field. “She’d convinced herself after her last breakup that she was meant to be alone forever. That no one could ever understand her love for the sport because she didn’t fully understand it herself. I think she uses soccer as a way to channel her emotions. As long as she’s playing, nothing else matters. She just blocks it all out.”

The coach turned to Jonathan, looking him straight in the eyes.

“A girl that young shouldn’t have to worry about being alone. She shouldn’t have to constantly remind herself that she isn’t good enough. Not just at soccer, but for other people, too. She’s become like a daughter to me over the past couple of years. And she deserves someone who understands the motions she’s going through. I hope you can be that person for her.”

Jonathan gave a lopsided grin. “I’ll definitely do my best.”

“You’d better,” the coach smirked. “Can you imagine what would happen if you and her ever split up? All the girls on the team know you two are a couple now. The last time Lacey was dumped by a boy, the entire team waged psychological warfare on him. Facebook hasn’t been the same since.”

Jonathan let out a laugh, but nervously looked back onto the field.

Somehow he wasn’t sure if giving all those girls cleated shoes was a very good idea.