Little Lion Man

Jordan and I were sitting on my couch in front of the TV as the puck was dropped to the second game of the Penguins this season. In front of us was a huge bowl of Chips and two, opened beer’s. Before the game I checked my twitter and hit my head with the palm of my hand. Jordan looks at me like I’ve gone crazy.

I quickly write an sms and in seconds, it seems I get an answer. I laugh lightly and then turn to Jordan whose gaze I felt on me the whole time.
“What?” I asked smiling. “Who where you writing to?” I showed him the sms and he smiled proudly.

Hey Shorty, guess Jordan has worked his Staal charm on you. Forgetting our game! But you know in the end no one (not even your secret love Eric) can compare to the awesomeness that is Marc Staal. xoxo

“He is quite full of himself, isn’t he?” Jordan nodded and then pointed to the game that had just started. We sat in silence as the pens fell behind one goal and Jordan was laughing at me when I yelled that Mike shouldn’t have gotten a penalty on the high stick.

When the game finished I took my phone and called Max, telling him that they’d definitely win the game against the Devils. He seemed a little less bummed about it and made me promise to go to a club with him when he came back.

Then I called Marc and was greeted by nineteen men screaming, “We won!” I laughed and so did Jordan since he had heard it. “Alli your on speaker!” I smiled and yelled ‘Congratulations’.
“Hank you where tha’ bomb.” Some where in the background I heard the Swede yell ‘Tack’. I turned off the speakerphone and held my mobile to my ear.

“So darling. Why would you get a tripping penalty, with only one and a half minutes going?” He laughed, “you where almost the longest skating player on the ice before you did that.” I knew he was smirking. “Well, I have to shower, my love, but we scored six goals, so that's six shorts. I’ll call you when I’m online on skype.” I laughed and nodded, knowing he couldn't see me, but through our ‘magic’ bond knew what I was doing. We hung up and then I turned to Jordan who, had put on his shoes and his hoodie.

“I better go. I’ll see you on Monday?” I nodded and stood on my toes and he leaned down and we hugged. The butterflies that where taking a roller-coaster ride on in my stomach could not be denied, but as I pulled away the face Jordan was pulling made me more self-conscious than anything had ever. “Jord, are you okay?” He quickly nodded kissed my forehead and left, without giving me an explanation.

***

I unlocked the door and entered the console. Everything was dark and I knew I was going to be the only person here for the next hour. No one was gonna come to the rink before seven thirty on a Sunday morning.

I placed my ipod on its dock and turned on ‘Raise your Glass’ By Pink, before running laps in my skates. Once I was warm I started doing some spins until I was dizzy. I skated to the side and took my water bottle. It had been at least fifteen months since I last skated and I felt my leg ache. I ignored it and put on ‘Far Too Gone’ by Chef’Special and just started messing around.

I did some spins and after a while I tried to do a Salchow. The jump of was perfect, but the moment I was in the air spinning, I knew this wasn’t going to end well. I landed and my right leg gave out completely. I pulled my arms over my head and my body hit the ice with a silent thud. The air was pushed out of my lungs and the right side of my body instantly felt like it was in fire. I stayed on the ice. Lying there, my arms over my head, I felt the tears coming.

“Summer? Est-tu cela? (Is that you?)” I looked up and furiously rubbed my eyes. I liked this guy, not as much as I liked Jordan but I really did like him. “Bonjour Kris.” I smiled he was in front of me in seconds, helping me off the ice. He helped me onto the bench and I sat down. My right side still on fire and my leg was throbbing.

I felt Kris move and looked up. He was kneeling in front of me. He places his hands on my cheeks and whipped the tearstains away.
(Whole conversation in French)
“You okay?” I nodded and smiled again, just to assure him. “I just fell.” He nodded and let his hands drop from my face, in someway this disappointed me immensely. “You look like it was more than just a tiny fall.” That moment I knew there was no way around it and I felt the need to tell him why I was breaking down. The pain in my side was gone, but my leg felt like a truck had run over it.

Kris sat down next to me and took my hands into his.
“I started figure skating when I was like three years old. And let me tell you it was my live. I trained seven days a week, minimum of three hours every day of the year. I was home schooled and besides the girls at the rink and people that my people associated with I didn’t have any friends. But as long as I had the ice, my skates and my music, I was perfectly fine with that. Skating was my everything. And I guess I was like Sid. Always the first at the rink and always the last to go home. My parents supported me fully, my dad used to be a professional football player (soccer) and he wanted me to fulfill my dream, which was to become a gold medalist. I was at skating camps and even lived in Russia for a while to take up extra ballet lessons to improve my classical dance skills.”

I stopped for a minute, remembering how I met Evgeni when I had lived in Russia those couple of months all those years ago.

I felt Kris press my hands lightly, motioning me to continue. “When I was fourteen, training for the 2006 Olympics I was walking home and was hit by a car.” Tears sprung into my eyes as Kris pulled me into his arms and held my while sobs escaped my lips. After a while he pulled away and with the sleeves of his jacket, once again, brushed away my tears.

“My right leg was broken four times and I had to get three operations to fix it. I never got to go to the Olympic games, and I’m pretty sure I could have beaten Shizuka Arakawa.” I smiled a little bit. “So why didn’t you try?” Kris was holding my hands again. “You saw what happened when I tried that Salchow. I can’t do any jumps, because my right leg is my landing leg and I just fail at landing on my left.” After talking for a little while longer we decided to get some breakfast, since it was only seven a.m.

***

“So after your accident, what did you do?” I placed my fork on the plate and swallow the piece of pancake I had just stuffed into my mouth. When my mouth was empty I sat straight and place my hands next to the plate. “I started studying. I finished high school at 15 and in Germany (where I grew up) you go right to university if you have a Gymnasium graduation, we have different level’s of high school there. I majored in sport science with a minor in Media studies and Business management, when I was nineteen.”

I let out a giggle when Kris’ jaw fell lightly agar. “And then after that when I was still nineteen (I studied four years) I looked for a job and through connections I got hired by the New York Rangers.” “Wow, you are an over achiever.” I slightly kicked him under the table. “Heey.” He scowled at me with a huge smile on his lips.

“So one more question. Or well actually three.” I nodded and took a sip of my latte to get my pancake down. “How do you know Max and Geno, how come you speak French with an actual French accent and why did you come to Pittsburgh when you lived in New York City?” I smiled a bit.
“Okay, um lets start the interrogation right?” We both laughed and I sat back.

“When I was just out of High school I had to wait half a year before my study started so I took part in an exchange program and got put into the Talbot family. Max and I dated for a couple of months but broke it off when I left back for Europe. I met Geno when I was training in Russia, just before the accident, but we somehow lost contact after a while.”

I watched as Kris also leaned back and ran his hand through his hair. I felt a warm feeling in the pit of my stomach and I lightly bit my lip. “I speak with a French accent because I learned French from my Godfather who is Eric Cantona, the French football (soccer) star and former Manchester United player. And last but not least, I had a messy break up and I just needed a change of scenery.”