Leave Me Alone
Five.
Max felt an odd sense of relief after telling Adam how he felt about Cori. He felt that he could trust Adam with this after seeing how loyal he was to her about keeping the mysterious event that happened last year a mystery. Man, was he dying to know what happened, he wanted to be able to understand what she went through, he wanted to help her, he wanted to hold her, he wanted to be with her. He needed to be with her. A piercing scream knocked Max out of his thoughts and back into reality. Adam and him sprinted in the direction of the noise; Cori’s locker room.
The room was a mess. Gear everywhere. A towel drenched in blood that Max could only assume was from the deep gash on the side of her head. A Blackberry, or the remains of a Blackberry, lying against the wall opposite of her. And then there was Cori. Legs pulled up against her chest with her head in between her knees, shaking uncontrollably. Sitting in the corner of the room looking so innocent and small, yet terrified beyond belief.
Max rushed over to her and tried to comfort her when she started sobbing.
“Don’t touch me.” She pleaded through her tears.
“DON’T TOUCH ME! Where’s Adam? Where is he?!” She was starting to shake again.
“I’m right here. Max, move over. I’m right here. What happened? Please, hey, look at me. What happened?” he pleaded with her.
“H-H-He called. I heard his v-voice” was all she could get out before she was taken over by her sobs.
Adam didn’t say anything, but just held her against him until she had calmed down. Although I could see his knuckles turning white from being clenched into fists as he held her, which made me suddenly realize that this had something to do with last year.
“He called me Adam. He called me from jail. I have a new number. How did he find it out? What am I going to do? Why now, what did I honestly do to deserve this?” The last question being aimed at herself rather than to us.
“Well, for one. You’re going to the hotel now. Don’t worry, the afternoon ice is cancelled anyways. I’ll get someone to cover and then I’ll drive you there.” He stated matter of factly.
“Um, I can drive her if you want. I mean, if that alright with you Cori. Since I have nothing else to do for the rest of the day and I still haven’t gotten to my room yet.” I said, feeling slightly intrusive on the conversation.
“Yeah. Yeah that’s a good idea.” Agreed Adam.
“Do you mind if Max drives you to the hotel instead of me Cori?” he softly asked.
As she thought about it, her eyes travelled from Adam, to me, to the smashed up phone and then back to me. Her eyes met mine and she seemed to be looking right through me. As she was looking at me, I couldn’t help but take in how beautiful she was. Her long brown hair that she had pulled back was the exact same colour as her eyes, which contrasted perfectly with her slightly paler skin. I noticed something else though also. On her neck. There was a horrible looking scar, which shone bright white against her skin. I immediately felt bad for checking her out when she obviously wasn’t having the best day, and I did not want to do anything to make it worse for her.
She had agreed to let me drive her, on one condition. That none of the other guys came along with us. I couldn’t help smiling at that because I was having the exact same thought going through my head. I quickly texted Sid to tell the guys to get Marc to drive them to the hotel later and that I’d be kicking Geno’s ass the next time I saw him, then went and got all of Cori’s gear and carried it out to the car for her.
“You don’t really need to do that. I can carry my own stuff.”
“Well as I see it, you’ve had a bad enough day already, I think you deserve to be treated like a princess right now.”
The princess comment got a small smile out of her and she just laughed. Her laugh was gorgeous. It lit up her whole face and almost made her seem to forget about the first half of her day, almost.
“Well thank you for doing all this. Carrying my stuff, driving me. I feel like a burden so I’m sorry.”
“You’re not a burden, not at all. Believe me; I’d rather be doing all this stuff for you, than being with my teammates right now, especially after what Malkin did to you. I should be the one apologizing not you. He can be a real asshole sometimes, as you’ve clearly witnessed. But if you give him a chance he’s not too bad.” I could feel myself rambling. Mentally, I told myself to shut the hell up.
“I guess that could be true. I’m a strong believer of never judging a book by its cover, but I think I’ll wait until my face heals to try and become Malkin’s new bff.”
A new side of her was starting to show which pleased me because it meant that she, hopefully, didn’t hate me as much as she came off to this morning. As I thought about this theory, her voice broke me out of my thinking.
“I know you said I shouldn’t apologize to you, but I need to. I have a problem trusting people now, and this morning I was really rude to you guys, so I’m sorry about that. And I also wanted to thank you for helping me escape from Malkin and Marc as well. You seem like a genuinely nice guy although I wouldn’t really be the best judge though since I’ve never actually met that many nice guys.”
“Well I accept your apology and don’t worry I’ve dealt with much ruder people, one being Marc if you hide his shampoo on him.” She found the image of Marc swearing in French about his shampoo being stolen particularly funny.
“As for this morning, just call me your knight in shining armour. I’m glad you see me in that light because I do try my hardest to be that kind of guy.” I said as I put down the bag and turned to face her.
“I’ll go get the car if you want to wait here. Here take this.” She was only wearing a light t shirt and shorts so I gave her my Penguins hoodie that I was wearing to stop her from shivering. Although it was summer, today was an oddly cold day.
As I walked towards the car, I looked back to see her sitting on the bag all wrapped up in my hoodie, which brought the biggest smile to my face.
As I pulled the car up to the curb, she had an expression on her face that confused me.
“What? You don’t like my car? I asked, pretending to be hurt.
“No, it’s just that. This is like, my dream car. I’m in complete and utter jealousy of you right now actually.” She said with a laugh.
I have to admit, this car was a beauty. Bright canary yellow mustang gt 500, she has good taste.
“I’ll put your gear in the back if you want to get in, and you might want to pick your jaw up off the floor before we leave.” I said, laughing at the fact she was still staring at my car.
“Sorry, it’s just so... I’ll just get in now and shut up.” She said with a yawn.
“I’m so tired, it’s ridiculous.” And with that she disappeared into the passenger side of the car.
It didn’t even take me a couple of minutes to get our gear in the trunk, but when I got back into the car, I glanced over to see her fast asleep with my hoodie on still. I couldn’t help but smiling at her, lying there, looking so peaceful. I grabbed a penguins blanket from the backseat that was lying there, and laid it over top of her just gently enough not to wake up her. Looking at her face, knowing she was probably somewhere far away from here in a dream, was when it hit me.
I was falling in love with her.
The room was a mess. Gear everywhere. A towel drenched in blood that Max could only assume was from the deep gash on the side of her head. A Blackberry, or the remains of a Blackberry, lying against the wall opposite of her. And then there was Cori. Legs pulled up against her chest with her head in between her knees, shaking uncontrollably. Sitting in the corner of the room looking so innocent and small, yet terrified beyond belief.
Max rushed over to her and tried to comfort her when she started sobbing.
“Don’t touch me.” She pleaded through her tears.
“DON’T TOUCH ME! Where’s Adam? Where is he?!” She was starting to shake again.
“I’m right here. Max, move over. I’m right here. What happened? Please, hey, look at me. What happened?” he pleaded with her.
“H-H-He called. I heard his v-voice” was all she could get out before she was taken over by her sobs.
Adam didn’t say anything, but just held her against him until she had calmed down. Although I could see his knuckles turning white from being clenched into fists as he held her, which made me suddenly realize that this had something to do with last year.
“He called me Adam. He called me from jail. I have a new number. How did he find it out? What am I going to do? Why now, what did I honestly do to deserve this?” The last question being aimed at herself rather than to us.
“Well, for one. You’re going to the hotel now. Don’t worry, the afternoon ice is cancelled anyways. I’ll get someone to cover and then I’ll drive you there.” He stated matter of factly.
“Um, I can drive her if you want. I mean, if that alright with you Cori. Since I have nothing else to do for the rest of the day and I still haven’t gotten to my room yet.” I said, feeling slightly intrusive on the conversation.
“Yeah. Yeah that’s a good idea.” Agreed Adam.
“Do you mind if Max drives you to the hotel instead of me Cori?” he softly asked.
As she thought about it, her eyes travelled from Adam, to me, to the smashed up phone and then back to me. Her eyes met mine and she seemed to be looking right through me. As she was looking at me, I couldn’t help but take in how beautiful she was. Her long brown hair that she had pulled back was the exact same colour as her eyes, which contrasted perfectly with her slightly paler skin. I noticed something else though also. On her neck. There was a horrible looking scar, which shone bright white against her skin. I immediately felt bad for checking her out when she obviously wasn’t having the best day, and I did not want to do anything to make it worse for her.
She had agreed to let me drive her, on one condition. That none of the other guys came along with us. I couldn’t help smiling at that because I was having the exact same thought going through my head. I quickly texted Sid to tell the guys to get Marc to drive them to the hotel later and that I’d be kicking Geno’s ass the next time I saw him, then went and got all of Cori’s gear and carried it out to the car for her.
“You don’t really need to do that. I can carry my own stuff.”
“Well as I see it, you’ve had a bad enough day already, I think you deserve to be treated like a princess right now.”
The princess comment got a small smile out of her and she just laughed. Her laugh was gorgeous. It lit up her whole face and almost made her seem to forget about the first half of her day, almost.
“Well thank you for doing all this. Carrying my stuff, driving me. I feel like a burden so I’m sorry.”
“You’re not a burden, not at all. Believe me; I’d rather be doing all this stuff for you, than being with my teammates right now, especially after what Malkin did to you. I should be the one apologizing not you. He can be a real asshole sometimes, as you’ve clearly witnessed. But if you give him a chance he’s not too bad.” I could feel myself rambling. Mentally, I told myself to shut the hell up.
“I guess that could be true. I’m a strong believer of never judging a book by its cover, but I think I’ll wait until my face heals to try and become Malkin’s new bff.”
A new side of her was starting to show which pleased me because it meant that she, hopefully, didn’t hate me as much as she came off to this morning. As I thought about this theory, her voice broke me out of my thinking.
“I know you said I shouldn’t apologize to you, but I need to. I have a problem trusting people now, and this morning I was really rude to you guys, so I’m sorry about that. And I also wanted to thank you for helping me escape from Malkin and Marc as well. You seem like a genuinely nice guy although I wouldn’t really be the best judge though since I’ve never actually met that many nice guys.”
“Well I accept your apology and don’t worry I’ve dealt with much ruder people, one being Marc if you hide his shampoo on him.” She found the image of Marc swearing in French about his shampoo being stolen particularly funny.
“As for this morning, just call me your knight in shining armour. I’m glad you see me in that light because I do try my hardest to be that kind of guy.” I said as I put down the bag and turned to face her.
“I’ll go get the car if you want to wait here. Here take this.” She was only wearing a light t shirt and shorts so I gave her my Penguins hoodie that I was wearing to stop her from shivering. Although it was summer, today was an oddly cold day.
As I walked towards the car, I looked back to see her sitting on the bag all wrapped up in my hoodie, which brought the biggest smile to my face.
As I pulled the car up to the curb, she had an expression on her face that confused me.
“What? You don’t like my car? I asked, pretending to be hurt.
“No, it’s just that. This is like, my dream car. I’m in complete and utter jealousy of you right now actually.” She said with a laugh.
I have to admit, this car was a beauty. Bright canary yellow mustang gt 500, she has good taste.
“I’ll put your gear in the back if you want to get in, and you might want to pick your jaw up off the floor before we leave.” I said, laughing at the fact she was still staring at my car.
“Sorry, it’s just so... I’ll just get in now and shut up.” She said with a yawn.
“I’m so tired, it’s ridiculous.” And with that she disappeared into the passenger side of the car.
It didn’t even take me a couple of minutes to get our gear in the trunk, but when I got back into the car, I glanced over to see her fast asleep with my hoodie on still. I couldn’t help but smiling at her, lying there, looking so peaceful. I grabbed a penguins blanket from the backseat that was lying there, and laid it over top of her just gently enough not to wake up her. Looking at her face, knowing she was probably somewhere far away from here in a dream, was when it hit me.
I was falling in love with her.