Melting On Ice

"Kane gets the puck and weaves through the Flyers on the ice. He skates around the net and GOAL!!!! The Blackhawks just won the Stanley Cup!!!! The Cup is back in Chicago!!!!" I cupped my hands around my mouth to make my voice louder and I imitated a screaming crowd as Patrick skated past me, chewing on his mouthguard as always. The guys had swept the Sharks and were going to the Stanley Cup finals. Patrick was practicing slap shots by himself when I walked in to come see if he ready to go on our "day out on the town".

"I wish." He skated around another lap before stepping off the ice.

"I have faith in you." I assured him as he walked up to me. I looked down at my feet, making sure he didn't step on them with his skates on. I had always been afraid of that. He smiled down at me for a moment before stepping back, like he was reading my mind.

"Are you guys almost ready?" Toews walked in tapping his watch. "I'd like to do something before everything closes."

Patrick rolled his eyes. "You yell at me when I don't practice and you yell at me when I do. What do you want?" He walked towards the locker rooms.

"You must have sensitive ears." Jon said as Patrick passed him. "Cause I wouldn't exactly call that yelling."

"Where to first?" He walked closer to me as I spoke.

"You decide, this was your idea." I noticed that he said this with a not very excited tone of voice.

I pretended to think about it for a minute, even though I had already decided. "How about we start at the Shedd?" He nodded in agreement, completley oblivious to what I had planned.
When Patrick came out of the locker room, now dressed in normal clothes, we all headed to Toews car.

As I slid into the back seat, I felt my phone vibrate in my pocket. It was a text from Derek.

Hey are you busy today?

I hesitated and looked up at Patrick watching me in the review mirror before responding. Yep sorry I have plans with Patrick and Tazer today. I wasn't exactly sure if that was the right thing to tell him, but I didn't want to lie. Maybe tomorrow though.

Alright cool, I'll call you tomorrow then.

"Emma, stop texting your boyfriend." I saw Patrick glareing at me from the front seat.

"Yes father." I retorted sarcastically as I slid my phone back into my pocket.

Jon laughed quietly to himself. "You guys are too perfect for each other." We both turned to scowl at him as he pulled out of the parking lot.

It was a regularly cold day in Chicago. I hated Chicago weather. It was unbelievable to me that last week I had been walking around in shorts and tank tops and now I was wearing jeans and a jacket. I watched all the people out Jon's car window as they walked by with their own worries and stories to tell, completely unaware of our presence.

As we pulled into the Shedd aquarium parking lot, I was praying that my not-very-thought-out plan of people not recognizing the boys was going to succeed. I was really hoping that in their regular clothes they would be harder to recognize.

"Where to first?" Jon walked over to us, opening a map in his hands.

Patrick glanced at me and shrugged. "Why don't we just walk around?" I suggested, not wanting to give anything away. They both nodded and walked a little bit in front of me.

I quickly whipped out my phone and texted my roommate Miranda. Where are you?

It took her about 5 seconds to respond. At the Shedd working why?

I looked up just in time to not run into some lady pushing her baby in a stroller. I looked up at her glare apologetically. 

I'm here and I want to know what exhibit your at. I've got a surprise for you!

Penguins. Hurry, now you've got me all excited! I smiled down at my phone and hurried ahead to Jon and Patrick, who were occupied watching the jellyfish swim in circles.

"You guys want to go see the penguins?" Neither of them turned their attention away from the tank as I spoke.

"Maybe in a little while," Patrick said. "I want to see all of the stuff up here first." I poked him in the back so that he could see the look I was giving him. I could tell that he didn't entirely get the hint, but he said anyway, "Or we could go see the penguins?" He said it as a question and I nodded to assure him that he was doing what I wanted.

We started to walk in that direction and they seemed to be walking excruciatingly slow, so I walked several paces in front of them so that they would hurry up. "Hey Tazer?" I slowed down so that I was walking in between him and Patrick. "Do you remember my roommate I was telling you about? Miranda?" He nodded slowly and I could tell that he did not like where this was going. "Yeah, she's really into this kind of stuff." I gestured around me, referring to the aquatic life that surrounded us.

"Cool" he said indifferently, trying to figure out what I was doing.

I nodded, smiling at him. "She was actually studying a little bit of marine biology at Depaul with me." Again he nodded. I saw Patrick studying me too. Were boys really that stupid? "And sometimes she does volunteer work here."

He finally sighed in realization. "Em, I really appreciate what you are trying to do, but I really have to focus on hockey right now. This is a huge opportunity for us. We could win the Stanley Cup." A couple little kids ran ahead of us, laughing as their mother smiled at us apologetically.

I sighed, stretching so I could rest my hand on his shoulder, very aware of how awkward I must've looked. "I know, but after that your going to have a break from hockey for a while -" He rolled his eyes at me. "-and," I continued slowly. "It's always good to make new friends."

"And you have to admit Tazer." Patrick said, who had been quietly trying to figure out what we were talking about. "You do need more of those." Jon narrowed his eyes at Patrick as we reached the penguin exhibit. I spotted Miranda immediately, feeding the penguins in her Blackhawks jersey that all of the employees were wearing as part of a "Shedd supports the Hawks" promotion that was going on.

I was relieved when I saw that she had decided to wear the Toews jersey as opposed to the Kane one she had just purchased the other day. "That's her," I whispered to him. I let him stare at her a minute before I waved her over. "Miranda, meet your surprise."

Her big brown eyes got even bigger and I thought that she was going to faint. She stuttered for a couple seconds before finally spitting out "Hi, I'm Miranda."

Patrick elbowed Jon in the ribs. "Dude, say something."

Jon quickly shook his head, like that would help him focus. "Nice jersey."

"Well," I clapped my hands together to break the awkward silence. "Why don't you two get to know each other while Patrick and I go look around some more."

Jon grabbed my wrist as I started to walk away. "I'd rather you not." He said through his teeth.

"Come on, man up." I pried my hand from his wrist and patted him on the back.

"And no offense," Patrick grabbed my other hand and started pulling me in his direction. "But we don't want to be here to see your tongue down her throat."

I covered my eyes with my hands, trying to block out the mental image that just flashed through my mind. "Patrick! That's disgusting."

I waved goodbye before Jon could protest further and followed Patrick to the beluga whales exhibit.

"Nice work" he applauded me when we were safely away from them. "I haven't seen him that tongue tied since...ever."

"Thank you." I watched as a group of little kids started laughing uncontrollably every time the whale passed the glass by them. "I have several hidden talents."

* * *
"Hey, I painted a picture just like that in the first grade." I gently slapped him in the stomach to get him to be quiet as a couple walking by gave us a strange look. We were now at the Art Institute of Chicago and it seemed as if only Miranda was enjoying the art.

"Whoa, look at this!" Miranda led Jon over to a painting that looked like it had been done by a cat.

"Look at what?" I whispered to Patrick who just shrugged in response. It was pretty obvious that we had all wasted eighteen bucks on admission. I walked around and looked blankly at the other paintings. "Well you've got to at least give them credit for the creative names." Patrick laughed at my sarcasm as we examined an entire wall of portraits of hay at different times of day and they were all entitled hay at whatever time of day it was.

We continued to look around the room at the different paintings. Suddenly, Patrick through his hands over my eyes as we passed one of a naked man.I ripped his hands off my eyes. "God, I'm not seven years old Patrick." But still I let my eyes avoid the picture.

"Can we go now? I am soooooo bored." Patrick leaned his head down on my shoulder.

"Suck it up" I said even though I completely agreed with him. "This isn't for us, it's for them." I used my eyes to gesture to Jon and Miranda. I was pretty sure that this was the most that I had ever seen either of them smiling.

"Yes but whenever I go on a date, I'd rather not have people watching." Right as he said this, Jon looked over at us.

"Your right," I led him towards the door. "Let's go."

* * *

"Hey Em, does your ice cream smell funny?" Patrick and I had left Jon and Miranda about three hours ago and haven't even gotten a call from them so we decided to go to Navy Pier. I suppose we should have been worried that they were kidnapped or something considering it was almost ten o' clock at night, but I was having way to much fun to even notice.

"Haha, like I've never heard that one before." I said as I took a big lick of my ice cream cone.

He shrugged. "It was worth a shot." I guess one of the reasons that I was having so much fun was that Patrick and I were just hanging out. It was almost like the old days before he became national hockey superstar.

I shivered, suddenly realizing how stupid it was that we were even eating ice cream considering that it was about 50 degrees out right now.

"You want my jacket?" He asked, already sliding it off. I nodded and let him hold my cone as I put it on. "I miss that."

"Miss what?" I asked as I took my cone back. I was surprised at how empty the pier was even though it was a weekday night and it was freezing. But it seemed as if there was always people there.

"You needing me." He looked over Lake Michigan as he spoke.

"What are you talking about?" I crinkled my eyebrows in confusion. "Of course I need you, your my best friend."

"Yeah but it's not like it used to be." He sighed quietly to himself. "Now you have a boyfriend and college friends and you don't need me so much."

"That's not true." I looked at him sympathetically but wondered why he was bringing this up all of a sudden. "I wouldn't be able to do anything without you."

"That's because you choose to." He insisted. "I liked it better in high school. I mean, let's face it. You weren't exactly the most popular person in school." I shuddered as a flood of memories from the worst four years of my life came rushing back. "And I know it sounds selfish, but I liked it better when you were forced to hang out with me."

I laughed slightly under my breath. "Are you PMSing or something?"

He sighed in frustration. "I knew I couldn't talk about anything serious with you."

"I'm sorry." I laughed as I pulled him into a hug. "I'm just not used to being so emotional." I knew that he made a face as I said that word. "Forgive me?"

"On one condition." I paused, waiting for him to continue. "You forgive me for this." Suddenly I felt a cold sensation on my head as he smashed his ice cream cone into my hair.

I shrieked as I stepped away from him. "You did not just do that." He smirked at me before I charged at him, fully loaded with my ice cream. When I got close enough, I smashed it right in his face.

He slowly wiped the ice cream from his eyes. "Oh your gonna get it now!" I could not stop laughing as he chased me around the pier.

"Hey look! It's Patrick Kane!" I froze until Patrick came up behind me, grabbing my hand as he sprinted forward.

"Time to go!"