Melting On Ice

"Did you get the present?" Patrick asked as I slid into the passenger seat of his car.

"Of course." I threw the the light pink bag at him. I considered "forgetting" to bring it, but why should I make a little girl suffer for Patrick's stupidity? "My attention span is not as short as yours." We were going to Madden's daughter, Reese's birthday party and Patrick had forgotten to get her a present. "You should be happy that I'm doing anything for you considering what you did on my date last night."

"I have no idea what you are talking about." Patrick kept his eyes deeply focused on the road as he spoke.

"Mhm." I rolled my eyes as I looked out the window. "Why did you even come anyway?"

"Wanted to make sure you didn't do anything you'd get in trouble for." He crossed lanes and still refused to turn his attention away from the road.

My face turned bright red as I looked over at him. "Excuse me? Do I follow you and Amber around?"

He shrugged. "Maybe you should." I stopped talking to him after that, not wanting to know what that meant.

"Emma!" Reese ran up and hugged me as I got out of the car at the Madden residence.

"Happy birthday Resse!" I picked her up as she jumped into my arms. "Did daddy get you anything good?"

Her tiny lips turned into a pout. "I don't know. He won't let me open any presents yet."

I laughed as I set her back down. "Good, then you can open mine first." I whispered as I handed her the bag.

John came and took the bag just as his daughter was about to open it. "I don't think so." I saw him walk inside to go put it with the rest of the presents.

She stuck her tongue out at his back as I grabbed her hand. "Why don't you show me around?" I asked to distract her. She nodded excitedly as I watched Patrick go inside to greet the rest of the team. I followed her into the back yard to see little kid paradise. There was a pool, a bouncy house, a clown, even pony rides.

"Em!" I looked up to see Burish waving me over. He was in just his swimming trunks as he hugged me. "It's been forever!"

"I know! Two days is a long time." I smiled mocking up at him as he released me.

"Forgive me for missing your snarky comments." He rubbed my hair, messing up the way I had it pulled back. I stepped away as he prepared to do a cannon ball into the pool.

"Burish!" I looked over to see Versteeg glaring at him from the chair that he was sitting in.

Adam came up from under the water and shook his hair in a way that a dog would. "Sorry Verbeauty, did I mess up the stylish hair-do you have going on there?" The boys sitting on the deck laughed at Burish's reference to the bed-head look Versteeg had going on.

"Are you going swimming Em?" Kopecky asked me from his seat.

I shrugged. "I don't know, maybe. Are you?"

He laughed like I had just said the funniest thing in the world. "That's a good one. The only kind of water I like is frozen."

"Come on Emma!" Reese pulled impatiently on my hand. "Let's go draw with my friends!" I waved goodbye to the boys as she dragged me down to a 7-year-old infested sidewalk. "This is Ashleigh, Jackson, Maddie, Payton, Cara, Landen," She continued to rattle off names as the little kids looked up at me in response. "Here, come draw by me." She dragged me by the hand down to a further end of the sidewalk. I knelt down next to her and examined the box of chalk before starting to draw.

"Um what is that supposed to be?" Patrick squat down next to me so that he could see my drawing better. "A mutated potato with a face?"

I slapped him in the arm and looked down at my nearly completed drawing. "No! It's supposed to be the Blackhawks emblem." I turned my head to the side and squinted, convincing myself that it looked sort of similar to it.

"Right...." He said, nodding slowly to mock me. I rolled my eyes. "Go and change into your bathing suit so we can go in the pool."

"Fine." I got up and walked over to his car to grab my suit before going to the house to change. I self-consciously wrapped a towel around myself before heading out. It didn't really help yourself confidence to walk out to see a bunch of hockey players with perfectly toned bodies and six packs. I dropped the towel and slowly slid my body into the water.

"Don't be such as sissy." Patrick slapped his hands on the water, splashing me in the face. I splashed him back before dipping my head under the water. I was surprised to find as I swam from one end to the other, that the pool reached almost ten feet at it's deepest point.

I observed as the boys had a diving contest, most of there dives turning into belly flops. "Watch and learn boys." Sharpie cracked his knuckles as he prepared to jump in. The team applauded as he did a perfect dive into the pool. We all waited to congratulate him but it was taking longer then normal for him to come back up from the surface.

Finally, Burish dove in, in a panic. The team helped him pull Sharpie over the edge and out of the water. I jumped out of the pool and ran over to him, looking at Sharp's expressionless face.

"Sharpie! Sharp!" I shook his arm, attempting to wake him up. I leaned my head over his mouth to check for breath, just like I had learned in CPR training. "He's not breathing!" I looked around at the teams faces who all seemed to be in a panic.

"Hurry! Give him mouth to mouth resuscitation!" I heard Burish yell from behind me.

"Me?" I spun around to look at him. "Why me?"

"Didn't you take a CPR training class!?" His facial expression was pure panic.

"Yeah, but I've never done it in real life! Only on a fake person!" I looked up at Patrick for help, only to soon realize he wasn't going to say anything.

"You have to!" Burish said, kneeling down next to me. "It's not as awkward because your a girl." I felt that was not very good reasoning but I took a deep breath before leaning my face closer to Sharp's.

Right before my lips were about to touch his he sat up suddenly, almost smacking his head into mine and kissed me swiftly. "I'm alive! I'm alive! It's a miracle."

I looked in confusion between him and Burish, who were in hysterics from laughing so hard. "You idiots!" I slapped Sharp hard enough in the chest to leave a hand print. "You let me think you were dead! And you kissed me!" I shuddered as I wiped my lips with the back of my hand. The rest of the team erupted in laughter. "You guys knew too!?!?!?" I saw several nods before getting up and storming off in anger.

"Sorry I'm no Kaner!" Sharp yelled after me. "But at least I got the Patrick part right!" I heard the team's laughter get even louder at that comment.

I ran inside to the Madden's bathroom to try and wash the taste of Sharp out of my mouth.

* * *

"I'm a good gift giver." Patrick gestured over to Reese with his eyes who was playing with the Barbie dolls that I had picked out for him to give her. We were sitting on the Madden's front porch swing, eating the birthday cake and ice cream that they had provided.

"The best." I said sarcastically before shoving a giant piece of cake into my mouth. He laughed at my inability to chew that much.

I wiped the sides of my mouth as Patrick asked, "Did you enjoy your little kiss earlier?"

I rolled my eyes as I swallowed. "Oh my gosh I can't believe I wasted my second kiss on that idiot."

"Wait, second kiss?" I looked over to see Patrick raise his eyebrows. "Who was your first?"

I tapped my chin, pretending to remember. "Well this is not even only my second kiss, just the second one that counts. Which now that I think about it, it doesn't even really count."

"Okay," Patrick said impatiently. "Then who gave you you're first kiss that really counts?"

I smiled, enjoying seeing this jealous side of him. "Don't hold your breath if your expecting me to say you in the 6th grade, because that was a dare."

He blushed slightly. "I wasn't." I totally knew that was what he wanted me to say. "Just answer the question."

"Well, who is my boyfriend Patrick?" I put another forkful into my mouth and I didn't know if this could be considered cruel and unusual punishment for stretching this out so long.

"Derek?" He looked at me skeptically. "A kiss on the cheek doesn't count Emma."

"I'm aware." I looked out at Reese and her friends playing on the sidewalk.

"So you are telling me that he actually kissed you?" I wasn't sure if I should be insulted of not by the tone of disbelief in his voice.

I looked over at him, amused. "Is that a problem?"

Before he could answer, we both heard the front screen door open as Sharpie walked out. "Hey Kaner, you'd better watch yourself around my girl." He came over to sit by me and kissed my lightly on the cheek.

I made a dramatic show of slowly wiping it off my cheek. "I should call your fiance right now and tell her what you are doing."

"Dude, that's enough." Patrick said so quietly that I didn't know if I heard him right.

"Why? Are you jealous?" He leaned in to kiss my cheek again, but he was stopped by Patrick's hand blocking my face. Sharpie cocked one eyebrow up and let his gaze shift from Patrick, to me, and back to Patrick. He shook his head, laughing. I knew he was trying to keep the mood light but I could feel it getting more awkward by the second. He put his hands up in surrender as he got up to go walk back into the house. "Alright, I already have my happy ending," he said, referring to his fiance. "Why should I wreck yours?" He winked at me before going back inside.

I felt Patrick watching me but I refused to look up at him. He stood up and gently pulled on my arm as he did. "Ready to go?"