‹ Prequel: Cowboy Casanova
Stupid Boy
Del V
Wednesday, May 12. 2010
“You’ve been a cranky bastard ever since we took off from Chicago,” Taylor Chorney told his current roommate – as well as former college teammate – as he observed him as he was sitting in the other bed, sulking over his BlackBerry like it was the second coming or something.
“Shut up,” TJ threw back at him, not tearing his eyes away from the phone in his hand.
“I know that I'm going to regret this,” Taylor said under his breath. “What’s up with you?” he asked, frowning slightly.
“Nothing,” TJ continued to sulk. The tournament had gotten off to a rocky start, to say the least. Their first game had been one for the record books – literally – but in the final minutes of the game they had ended up losing it to Germany and their second one hadn't been much better; a 2-1 loss in overtime. The coach had even cornered him after their practice the previous day, wondering if he wanted to go back to the States considering how poorly he was playing.
He’d dreamt for years about the day when he would get to pull the sweater of Team USA over his head and represent everything he loved about his home country, and when he finally got the chance, after having been passed up for the biggest Olympic Tournament on this side of Lake Placid, then he blows it and plays like he has absolutely no reason to be there. He honestly couldn’t blame the coach for asking the question, any other day and he would have been offended, but now he was well aware of just how bad he was really playing. Not to mention, all of his teammates had pointed it out at least once as well…
“Right,” Taylor nodded sarcastically. “Cause clearly it was all the missed passes, screwed up chances and half-assed attempts at blocking shots and tackling opposing players that got you here,” he rolled his eyes in annoyance. This is what he got for being the nice guy…
“I'm being a wuss,” TJ complained, throwing his phone onto the carpeted floor at the end of his bed.
“Okay,” Taylor replied carefully, glancing towards the area where the phone had landed and silently wondered if it actually made it.
“This is supposed to be one of the highlights of my career, when I get to represent my home country,” TJ ran his fingers through his hair, immediately regretting it as it only caused him to think of one person. She’d hated it from the moment she’d seen it, and he really didn’t know what had gotten him to tell his barber to give him a perm, but it had almost been worth it seeing just how much it irked her… “And I blow it,” he quickly shook those thoughts away. “All because of a girl.”
“A girl?” Taylor asked curiously. “A special girl? A girl I should know about?” he continued. The two of them had been close enough friend back when they were still in college, they had roomed together on the road one year and they still stayed in touch ever so often and if his friend was growing up, he wanted to know about it.
“Yeah, she’s special,” TJ smiled sadly, consciously trying to keep from picturing her in front of him, needless to say he failed miserably and if he’d been alone he probably wouldn’t have been able to fully keep tears from filling his eyes. His mother always told him that crying was a part of the grieving process, even for men, but he really didn’t want to live up to that. “Very special,” he added under his breath as he closed his eyes for a moment, his mind immediately conjuring up a picture of her sleeping in his bed, her face completely void of any emotions, her lips slightly parted and her hair spread out all around her.
He loved it when she dressed up and got all cute and dolled up, but he’d quickly found that she could be the sexiest when she was dressed in a simple tank top, a pair of his much too large sweatpants and had her hair in a messy bun, no makeup on her face. Bergie once told him that it was love when you felt like that…
“So why do you look ready to start crying?” Taylor arched his eyebrow.
“Cause I did something stupid,” TJ decided to admit. He knew Taylor well enough to know that he wasn't going to stop nagging till he got what he wanted, and he knew that he needed to talk to someone, might as well be his current roommate.
“What?” Taylor probed carefully.
“I met her last October,” TJ began, knowing that what he was about to say would make absolutely no sense if Taylor didn’t have at least some back-story. “We were in Stockholm for the NHL Premier thing and during one of the events, a teammate introduces us. Due to her looks, I thought that she was your average blonde, puck slut, but she quickly proved me wrong,” he smiled at the memory. “We ended up exchanging numbers and during the rest of our stay there we met up a number of times, just as friends,” he added quickly as he saw the look his friend gave him.
“We exchanged emails and all that the same day we were flying back and when I got back to St Louis, we started Skyping each other almost daily.”
“So you finally get yourself a decent girlfriend and she lives across the world from you?” Taylor asked, sounding highly amused.
“No,” TJ glared at him. “We were just friend back then. We were getting to know each other really well and before Christmas I suggested that she should come out and celebrate New Years with me and in the end she agree,” he cleared his throat slightly. “She came out and it’s surprising how simple things were, I thought that there would at least be some awkward moment but there wasn't,” he shrugged slightly, fidgeting with a string on his sweatshirt. “We simply got along from day one,” he stated frankly. “Then right before she went home, I sort of said that I wanted her to stay, I wanted us to be together. Long story short she went back home before coming back to St Louis and agreeing that maybe we should try dating. “
“So let me get this straight,” Taylor frowned confused. “You found a girl, Skyped with her, and then when she was out visiting you, you waited till the very last moment to ask her out and then she turns you down before agreeing?”
“Kind of,” TJ shrugged slightly.
“But I don’t get it,” Taylor stated frankly, ignoring the confusion that was left lingering. “What’s the problem?”
“The problem is that I'm an idiot,” TJ once again ran his fingers through his hair. “Considering that she’s from over here, she pretty much moved in when she came back and honestly, everything was fine,” he said truthfully, cause things really had been better than fine in his mind. “And then I screwed up. I cheated on her.”
Managing to keep his mouth shut, Taylor looked straight ahead and didn’t know what to say to his friend. A part of him honestly wasn't all that surprised, he’d been there when TJ announced that it wasn't cheating if you weren't in the same sate and your girlfriend never found out about it…. The other part of him wondered just how much his friend had invested in the relationship with this girl considering just how much he currently resembled a sad puppy…
“What happened then?” he finally asked.
“I didn’t tell her about it,” TJ admitted softly. “We were on a road trip up in New York and when I got back home, I told her that I loved her and never said a word about what had happened.
“Okay, this is taking way too long,” Taylor stated frankly. “Obviously something happened, or you wouldn’t be mopping around here like some emo-kid, no offence to the emo-kids.”
“There were pictures on my phone, I got a text about them and she ended up finding them,” TJ gave him the cliff-note version. “When she asked me about them I admitted it, she said that she should never have trusted someone like me and then she walked out on me,” he cleared his throat slightly. “From what I know, which isn’t much as she refuses to talk to me, the wives and girlfriend she got to know back in St Louis are forming a united front against me and more than half of my own team thinks that I'm stupid, I've gathered that she went back home.”
“That was just stupid, even for you,” Taylor said honestly, ignoring his friend’s glowering stare. “It is,” he insisted simply. “So I take it that she didn’t take it well.”
“That’s the understatement of the century,” TJ muttered darkly. “She refuses to take my calls, she doesn’t return my texts and for all I know, she could be in Australia by now,” he sulked before sighing heavily. “Ever since she proved me wrong about assuming she was a puck bunny by just judging her on her looks, I've known that she was too good for me,” he admitted softly. “She’s the kind of girl that deserves someone stable and serious and committed.”
“Maybe that wasn't what she wanted,” Taylor pointed out softly. “Or I doubt that she would have picked up and moved across the world for you.”
“I knew that she was too good for me,” the repeated, seemingly ignoring his friend. “She’s not the kind of girl who hangs around hockey rinks just to score with the players after a game or something. She’s not interested in it,” he continued softly. “She loves the game, but that’s it,” he said softly, having had the pleasure of sitting right next to her during the last game of the season; she could get into it. “She doesn’t care that I can score high-light reel goals or that I can get her into the hottest club in town with just a look.”
“She just doesn’t care about all that,” he mumbled to himself under his breath. “Going home with that redhead was the stupidest thing I've ever done,” he admitted.
“Well, I'm not the one you need to say that to,” Taylor pointed out seriously.
“You're the only one here,” TJ glared at him, not really sure who he was more annoyed with, his friend or himself?
“So why did you do it?”
“What?” TJ frowned as he looked across the room.
“If this girl…what’s her name?” Taylor wondered with a slight frown.
“Jennie,” TJ supplied without having to even think about what he’d been asked.
“If Jennie is so special and wonderful and all around the perfect woman, why did you do it?” Taylor asked simply. “If you already knew that she was different. That she wasn't going to stick around, she wasn't going to take the money or the fame or whatever over honestly, commitment and fidelity, if you knew that she would care if you cheated on her, that she would be hurt, why did you do it?” he asked. “Why did you cheat on her?”
Looking over at his friend just as his cell phone beeped from somewhere down on the carpet at the end of his bed, TJ realized that he’d never before thought about that. “I don’t know.”
“You’ve been a cranky bastard ever since we took off from Chicago,” Taylor Chorney told his current roommate – as well as former college teammate – as he observed him as he was sitting in the other bed, sulking over his BlackBerry like it was the second coming or something.
“Shut up,” TJ threw back at him, not tearing his eyes away from the phone in his hand.
“I know that I'm going to regret this,” Taylor said under his breath. “What’s up with you?” he asked, frowning slightly.
“Nothing,” TJ continued to sulk. The tournament had gotten off to a rocky start, to say the least. Their first game had been one for the record books – literally – but in the final minutes of the game they had ended up losing it to Germany and their second one hadn't been much better; a 2-1 loss in overtime. The coach had even cornered him after their practice the previous day, wondering if he wanted to go back to the States considering how poorly he was playing.
He’d dreamt for years about the day when he would get to pull the sweater of Team USA over his head and represent everything he loved about his home country, and when he finally got the chance, after having been passed up for the biggest Olympic Tournament on this side of Lake Placid, then he blows it and plays like he has absolutely no reason to be there. He honestly couldn’t blame the coach for asking the question, any other day and he would have been offended, but now he was well aware of just how bad he was really playing. Not to mention, all of his teammates had pointed it out at least once as well…
“Right,” Taylor nodded sarcastically. “Cause clearly it was all the missed passes, screwed up chances and half-assed attempts at blocking shots and tackling opposing players that got you here,” he rolled his eyes in annoyance. This is what he got for being the nice guy…
“I'm being a wuss,” TJ complained, throwing his phone onto the carpeted floor at the end of his bed.
“Okay,” Taylor replied carefully, glancing towards the area where the phone had landed and silently wondered if it actually made it.
“This is supposed to be one of the highlights of my career, when I get to represent my home country,” TJ ran his fingers through his hair, immediately regretting it as it only caused him to think of one person. She’d hated it from the moment she’d seen it, and he really didn’t know what had gotten him to tell his barber to give him a perm, but it had almost been worth it seeing just how much it irked her… “And I blow it,” he quickly shook those thoughts away. “All because of a girl.”
“A girl?” Taylor asked curiously. “A special girl? A girl I should know about?” he continued. The two of them had been close enough friend back when they were still in college, they had roomed together on the road one year and they still stayed in touch ever so often and if his friend was growing up, he wanted to know about it.
“Yeah, she’s special,” TJ smiled sadly, consciously trying to keep from picturing her in front of him, needless to say he failed miserably and if he’d been alone he probably wouldn’t have been able to fully keep tears from filling his eyes. His mother always told him that crying was a part of the grieving process, even for men, but he really didn’t want to live up to that. “Very special,” he added under his breath as he closed his eyes for a moment, his mind immediately conjuring up a picture of her sleeping in his bed, her face completely void of any emotions, her lips slightly parted and her hair spread out all around her.
He loved it when she dressed up and got all cute and dolled up, but he’d quickly found that she could be the sexiest when she was dressed in a simple tank top, a pair of his much too large sweatpants and had her hair in a messy bun, no makeup on her face. Bergie once told him that it was love when you felt like that…
“So why do you look ready to start crying?” Taylor arched his eyebrow.
“Cause I did something stupid,” TJ decided to admit. He knew Taylor well enough to know that he wasn't going to stop nagging till he got what he wanted, and he knew that he needed to talk to someone, might as well be his current roommate.
“What?” Taylor probed carefully.
“I met her last October,” TJ began, knowing that what he was about to say would make absolutely no sense if Taylor didn’t have at least some back-story. “We were in Stockholm for the NHL Premier thing and during one of the events, a teammate introduces us. Due to her looks, I thought that she was your average blonde, puck slut, but she quickly proved me wrong,” he smiled at the memory. “We ended up exchanging numbers and during the rest of our stay there we met up a number of times, just as friends,” he added quickly as he saw the look his friend gave him.
“We exchanged emails and all that the same day we were flying back and when I got back to St Louis, we started Skyping each other almost daily.”
“So you finally get yourself a decent girlfriend and she lives across the world from you?” Taylor asked, sounding highly amused.
“No,” TJ glared at him. “We were just friend back then. We were getting to know each other really well and before Christmas I suggested that she should come out and celebrate New Years with me and in the end she agree,” he cleared his throat slightly. “She came out and it’s surprising how simple things were, I thought that there would at least be some awkward moment but there wasn't,” he shrugged slightly, fidgeting with a string on his sweatshirt. “We simply got along from day one,” he stated frankly. “Then right before she went home, I sort of said that I wanted her to stay, I wanted us to be together. Long story short she went back home before coming back to St Louis and agreeing that maybe we should try dating. “
“So let me get this straight,” Taylor frowned confused. “You found a girl, Skyped with her, and then when she was out visiting you, you waited till the very last moment to ask her out and then she turns you down before agreeing?”
“Kind of,” TJ shrugged slightly.
“But I don’t get it,” Taylor stated frankly, ignoring the confusion that was left lingering. “What’s the problem?”
“The problem is that I'm an idiot,” TJ once again ran his fingers through his hair. “Considering that she’s from over here, she pretty much moved in when she came back and honestly, everything was fine,” he said truthfully, cause things really had been better than fine in his mind. “And then I screwed up. I cheated on her.”
Managing to keep his mouth shut, Taylor looked straight ahead and didn’t know what to say to his friend. A part of him honestly wasn't all that surprised, he’d been there when TJ announced that it wasn't cheating if you weren't in the same sate and your girlfriend never found out about it…. The other part of him wondered just how much his friend had invested in the relationship with this girl considering just how much he currently resembled a sad puppy…
“What happened then?” he finally asked.
“I didn’t tell her about it,” TJ admitted softly. “We were on a road trip up in New York and when I got back home, I told her that I loved her and never said a word about what had happened.
“Okay, this is taking way too long,” Taylor stated frankly. “Obviously something happened, or you wouldn’t be mopping around here like some emo-kid, no offence to the emo-kids.”
“There were pictures on my phone, I got a text about them and she ended up finding them,” TJ gave him the cliff-note version. “When she asked me about them I admitted it, she said that she should never have trusted someone like me and then she walked out on me,” he cleared his throat slightly. “From what I know, which isn’t much as she refuses to talk to me, the wives and girlfriend she got to know back in St Louis are forming a united front against me and more than half of my own team thinks that I'm stupid, I've gathered that she went back home.”
“That was just stupid, even for you,” Taylor said honestly, ignoring his friend’s glowering stare. “It is,” he insisted simply. “So I take it that she didn’t take it well.”
“That’s the understatement of the century,” TJ muttered darkly. “She refuses to take my calls, she doesn’t return my texts and for all I know, she could be in Australia by now,” he sulked before sighing heavily. “Ever since she proved me wrong about assuming she was a puck bunny by just judging her on her looks, I've known that she was too good for me,” he admitted softly. “She’s the kind of girl that deserves someone stable and serious and committed.”
“Maybe that wasn't what she wanted,” Taylor pointed out softly. “Or I doubt that she would have picked up and moved across the world for you.”
“I knew that she was too good for me,” the repeated, seemingly ignoring his friend. “She’s not the kind of girl who hangs around hockey rinks just to score with the players after a game or something. She’s not interested in it,” he continued softly. “She loves the game, but that’s it,” he said softly, having had the pleasure of sitting right next to her during the last game of the season; she could get into it. “She doesn’t care that I can score high-light reel goals or that I can get her into the hottest club in town with just a look.”
“She just doesn’t care about all that,” he mumbled to himself under his breath. “Going home with that redhead was the stupidest thing I've ever done,” he admitted.
“Well, I'm not the one you need to say that to,” Taylor pointed out seriously.
“You're the only one here,” TJ glared at him, not really sure who he was more annoyed with, his friend or himself?
“So why did you do it?”
“What?” TJ frowned as he looked across the room.
“If this girl…what’s her name?” Taylor wondered with a slight frown.
“Jennie,” TJ supplied without having to even think about what he’d been asked.
“If Jennie is so special and wonderful and all around the perfect woman, why did you do it?” Taylor asked simply. “If you already knew that she was different. That she wasn't going to stick around, she wasn't going to take the money or the fame or whatever over honestly, commitment and fidelity, if you knew that she would care if you cheated on her, that she would be hurt, why did you do it?” he asked. “Why did you cheat on her?”
Looking over at his friend just as his cell phone beeped from somewhere down on the carpet at the end of his bed, TJ realized that he’d never before thought about that. “I don’t know.”
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