A Life Time of Ice Time

“Alright.” Patrick clapped his hands together after he pushed me down onto the bench in the locker room. “Let's get started.”

“Do we really have to do this in here?” I crinkled my nose and made a face as I spoke. “It smells really disgusting.” I smirked at Jon when he let out a small laugh.

“Do you want the other guys to know that we are doing this for you?” Patrick raised his eyebrows at me expectantly.

I shrugged indifferently. “Actually, I could care less.”

Patrick rolled his eyes as he turned the page on the little easel he had set up. “Well I don't want them to know. You know how embarrassing it would be to be seen with a non-hockey watcher?” I rolled my eyes simultaneously with Jonathan. “Let's start with the basics.” I half-expected Patrick to pull out a laser pointer, like I was taking a collage course on the rules of hockey. “What is this called?” I narrowed my eyes at him when he pointed to the picture.

“I'm not an idiot.” I crossed my arms and sighed when he waited for me to answer. “A goal.”

Patrick made a buzzer noise to signal that I had gotten the answer wrong. “Incorrect.”

“What?” I placed my hands out in front of me in disbelief.

“The correct answer is.” He patted his hands on his thighs to imitate a drum roll. “A net.” He laughed under his breath. “We have a lot of work to do if you can't even get that one right.”

“She was close enough,” Jonathan defended me and I nodded my head as Patrick shook his.

“Dude, don't let your personal feelings get in the way of the business we have to do.” Jonathan blushed slightly when Patrick gestured in my direction. “A goal is what you get when you score in the net.”

“Whatever,” I grumbled, crossing my arms back in front of my chest. “Next question.”

“Okay,” Jonathan said and I glanced over when he sat down beside me. “What is it called when you get three goals in one game?”

I rolled my eyes. “How am I supposed to know that?”

“How do you not know it?” Jonathan gave Patrick a look when he looked at me in disbelief. He sighed, exasperated. “It's called a hat trick.”

“A hattrick?” I asked, trying to understand what he was saying.

“No,” Jonathan slowly shook his head from beside me. “It's two separate words. A hat,” he patted his head. “Like you wear, and then a trick, like a magic trick.”

“Oh,” I laughed at myself and they both looked at me like I was an idiot. “A hat trick. Why do they call it that?”

“Because when you get one, people throw their hats on the ice.” Jonathan answered me as he stood up to go stand up next to Patrick. I appreciated his patients with my slowness.

I shrugged it off. “Okay, next question.”

“Okay, well it's apparent that we need to go a little easier,” I shot Patrick a look and he smirked over at me as he turned the page on his easel. “So let me think here.” He quickly ran his fingers through his curly blonde hair. His eyes scanned the walls, as if the answer would be written there. “Where are we right now?”

“The locker room?” I said it as more of a question, not sure if he was trying to trick me.

“Yeah.” Patrick clapped his hands together as he spoke. “You got one right!” I stuck my tongue out at his hand when he offered it for a high five.

“I think we're done for today,” Jonathan said as he offered his hand to help me stand up. I took it even though I didn't really need to. “Want to go grab a bite to eat?”

“But,” Patrick interjected when I nodded my head eagerly. “We hardly even covered anything.”

“There's always tomorrow,” I said through my teeth as I pulled him by the arm out of the locker room. They scanned the outside quickly with their eyes, making sure no one was out there before making a break for Jonathan's car. “Don't you guys get tired of doing this?”

I saw Jonathan shrug as he smirked at me from the rear view mirror. “It's good exercise.”

I felt my phone vibrate and I slowly pulled it out of my pocket. “Hello?”

“Taylor, where are you?” I rolled my eyes.

“Don't you ever start a conversation with 'hello' or something along those lines?” Patrick turned around to look at me when my tone of voice became annoyed as I spoke to Amanda.

“Excuse me for being the loving sister that I am and making sure you're okay since you left without telling me where you were going!” I laughed skeptically under my breath and rolled my eyes to assure Patrick that everything was okay, but he didn't seem convinced.

“Well I'm fine okay?” Jonathan shot me a look when I slammed his car door closed as we pulled up to the restaurant. “I'm just getting a bit to eat.”

“Who is that?” Jonathan mouthed to me as he opened up the door for me.

“My sister,” I whispered back and his features contorted in confusion. Oops, I guess that must've slipped from our conversations.

“Who are you talking to?” Amanda demanded as I switched the phone to my other ear.

“No one.” I notice a flash of hurt momentarily cross Jonathan's features so I continued in a rush, “My friend, if you need to know.”

“Ohh boys?” I blushed when Amanda laughed giddily. “College boys? I'm in.”

“No you're no-.” I was unable to finish since the phone was ripped away from my ear and was now being held up to Patrick's.

“Hello?” I heard Amanda's flirty voice flood through the phone. Patrick smirked slightly. “Sure. Michigan Avenue.” He jumped to avoid me when I came from behind and tried to grab the phone from his grasp. “2943 is the address. Okay, five minutes?” He paused as he waited for an answer and I took the opportunity to try and grab the phone again. He easily shrugged my arm off from around his. “Alright, cool.” He smiled down at me before adding in a flirtatious tone, “Can't wait.”

“I hate you,” I growled when he snapped my phone shut and happily handed it back to me. “I really hate you.”

“What is all of this about?” Jonathan asked as he struggled to keep back the smile that was tugging on the corners of his lips.

“Nothing.” I wanted to slap the smirk off of Patrick's face as he slid into the booth across from me. “We're just have an unexpected guest meeting us for lunch today.”

I leaned my elbows on the table, making my face closer to Patrick's. “In case you didn't get the hint before, I hate you.”

Patrick laughed as he leaned back in his seat. “It's unhealthy that you really don't like your sister this much.”

“Step-sister,” I corrected him as I tried to ignore the way my heart rate increased when Jonathan slid in next to me.

“Ah, so it's like a Cinderella thing?” Jonathan asked as he rested his arm around the back of the booth behind me. “She's the evil step-sister and you're the princess?”

I blushed slightly but nodded. “Exactly.”

Patrick snorted from across the table. “She sounded nice to me.”

“Anyone can sound nice from a two second conversation,” I snapped at him as my eyes drifted over the door to make sure Amanda wasn't anywhere in sight. “I have to live with her.”

“In the cellar?” Jonathan let out a tiny laugh when Patrick mocked me. “How do you even get to know her if you spend every waking hour slaving over her? It's hard to talk to someone when you're on your hands and knees, scrubbing the ground with a toothbrush.” Patrick smirked, clearly pleased with himself.

I was about to snap back at him but was interrupted by Amanda when she walked up to the table and slid in next to Patrick. “Hey guys.” I tensed up as her eyes roamed over Jonathan. “Tay, you didn't tell me you had such hot friends.” She bit her lip and giggled simultaneously. They all laughed, Patrick extra loud to irritate me. I shot him a look as I leaned back in the booth. I felt my face fall when Jonathan moved his arm into his lap.

“Nice to meet you.” Jonathan couldn't stop smiling over at Amanda as she batted her eye lashes. “I'm Jonathan.”

“Jonathan,” she repeated. I could tell that he wanted her to say his name again. That's how Amanda was with boys. One look was all it took. Everyone wanted her attention, just being near her was enough for them. I don't know why I hated that Jonathan was falling into the trap so much. “I'm Amanda.”

“Amanda,” Jonathan echoed and she nodded in approval. “That's a pretty name.”

I rolled my eyes and caught Patrick smirking at me. “Jealous much?” He mouthed and I was glad that neither of them were paying enough attention to notice.

“So, where do you work?” Jonathan leaned forward on the table, making himself closer to her. I knew that he was trying to make small talk to get her to say something again.

“No where,” I answered bitterly for her and they both shot me a look.

“Well,” Jonathan said slowly, turning his attention back to Amanda as she licked her lips. “Maybe we can fix that for you.” Patrick crinkled his eye brows when he said we. “There's an opening as an Ice Crew member.”

“You want her to be a puck bunny?” I asked him skeptically. Patrick rubbed his his hand over his mouth, failing at his attempt to hide the smile that had formed on his lips.

“That's the one thing you remember from our lesson?” Jonathan asked me through his teeth. I noticed that Amanda jumped a little as her ring tone blasted around us.

“Excuse me a minute.” Jonathan nodded when she smiled apologetically. She waited until she was standing up and facing away from us to pull her phone out of her back pocket. I looked over at Jonathan in disgust as he watched her walk away.

“You really need to work on your subtlety skills.”

“Me?” Jonathan asked me skeptically at the same time Patrick exclaimed “Him?”

I gave Patrick a strange glance before slowly turning my attention to Jonathan. “Yeah. You couldn't take you're eyes off her for even one second.”

He shrugged it off. “So? I like her.” I could feel my mouth fall slightly slack in disbelief. “And from what I can tell, the feelings mutual.”

“That's just how she is,” I insisted when he rolled his eyes at me. “She's a flirt. She's that cat and you're just her play toy.” He laughed bitterly at the comparison.

“Trust me Taylor,” he ran his hands through his shortly cropped hair. “I'm no ones play toy.” He stood up and Patrick and I let our eyes follow him. I watched as he grabbed Amanda's arm as she started to make her way back to the booth. He whispered something to her and I watched in disbelief as she nodded before they both exited the restaurant.

“What a jerk,” I hissed as I sat back, arms crossed, in the booth. “Can you believe him?” He laughed quietly to himself. “What?” He shook his head. “What?” I insisted. “Tell me.”

“Nothing,” he said as he stood up from the booth. “It's just that maybe, you need to work on your subtly skills too.” With that, he left me sitting there, staring after him in confusion.