Until Hell Freezes Over

I turned around to see one of my best friends from Michigan. He hadn’t changed much since the last time I saw him; expect for the eyebrow piercing. I knew that he was going to get that so it doesn’t count as something different.

“Get over here, ho.” I demanded as I stood up so that Ashton could come over and give me a proper hug.

“Good to see you, too, bitch.” He greeted me with his signature teasing grin as we embraced. I smiled and then remembered that I hadn’t seen him since my dad’s funeral. He was the only person that I had taken the time to visit, so I was wondering about all of our old friends, “How’s everyone been doing?”

“They’ve been fabulous! Everyone was pretty down for a while after your dad died. Other than that, how have you been? You look stunning in this outfit!” Ashton always knew how to compliment a girl; he was a fashion maestro after all. He picked out both of my prom dresses. He had been going to school at the U before transferring out to New York to intern with one of the big new scene designers. I believe he was starting out with Hot Topic. He had been so ecstatic when he called to tell me his big news. I could practically see him grinning from ear to ear as he announced it to me.

“Inspired by you, Ash. I thought that I’d make up for you not being here.” I informed him, shrugging my navy blue Ralph Lauren button-up over coat that had been designed for team USA to wear for the Olympics this year.

“I love it, girlfriend! I’m actually here to do an interview for Vogue with you and see if you could come do a photo-shoot this summer.” He admitted, “I’m also here to party it up but that’s beside the point.”

“I was gonna say.” Claire commented, stepping between us and throwing her arms over our shoulders, “There’s no way, YOU, Ashton Gearhart could possibly be here just on business.” We all laughed, knowing that our Michigan Unv. habits had been dying hard. Last year, our posse had all escaped down to New Orleans to take part in Mardi gras festivities. But that’s a story for another time. Let’s just say for now… what happens in New Orleans stays down there.

“Um excuse me, but aren’t you going to introduce us to your friend.” Pat interrupted our ‘love fest’. I looked past him to see Jon looking, questionably at me. ‘Later’ I mouthed to him; Jon nodded and turned around to face the ice.

“Guys, this is our triplet: Ashton Gearhart. He’s the Fashion Diva and the Party King behind this establishment.” I informed my teammates, motioning between the three of us. Ashton gave me a sour look, “Sorry, I mean Party Queen.”

Kaner, Parise, and Johnson all looked between themselves in confusion. I guess they were all trying to sort out what I had just said because I saw Pat mouth, ‘Queen?’ I don’t think that they quite understood what I meant. That’s great. I open my mouth to say something, but Ashton beats me to it,

“Yeah, so are you gonna introduce them to me, Claire-belle?” Really, he was asking her and not me? She’s only met Brain and Patrick when it comes to team USA.

“Um… Why don’t you ask Dillan to? I mean, they are her teammates.” Claire suggested, motioning to me, “Yeah, douche, they’re my teammates.” I sassed, rolling my eyes at how immature we were all being,

“Okay, the blond one that spoke up before is Patrick Kane, he and I play together for Chicago. The next one is Zach Parise of the New Jersey Devils. Then we have Ryan Kesler, Ryan Miller, Phil Kessel-“

“Alright, I know how the rest of them are. Jeez, you didn’t have to introduce the whole goddamn team.” Ash interrupted, as I began to point out everyone sitting in my row. I sent him a death glare but Ashton knew how to take it. I was saved by the bell when Zach popped up from behind me.

“Hey, Dillan, wanna go with me to get popcorn?” Zach invited me out of nowhere. I nodded to confirm that I would then we walked up the stairs to the venders.

“Hey, um… your friend: Claire is she dating that guy?” Zach asked me once we were out of earshot. I almost fell over and began rolling on the ground laughing at his question but I could tell that he was serious so I restrained myself, “No, not anymore. They’re ex’s.”

“Then why’s he here?” I rolled my eyes. Why, God, are guys so dense? The only truly enlightened ones were father and fags (No offense) because they had been around women and girls long enough to know better than to ask stupid questions and gay guys just had a female intuition so they blended better with us.

“He’s my closest friend. I’ve known him since we were in diapers. He’s my original little bro.” I explained, “My dad died at the end of last year… Ashton’s family to me. I needed someone to come support me besides Claire.” To be completely honest I had no idea that he was going to show up with her today. They used to avoid each other like the plague. “Why are you so interested?” Zach’s blush was all the answer I needed.

“Claire’s hot. I wanted to ask her if she’d go out with me. But, after seeing her with Ashton I thought that she was already taken and didn’t want to make a fool out of myself.” He admitted.

“Here’s a hint on asking out Claire. Let her get to know you before you do. Otherwise, she’ll say ‘no’ 99.99% of the time.” I warned, “And if you just want a one night stand, go ask a jersey whore. She’s better than that.” Zach gulped,

“Thanks of the advice. I wouldn’t ever do that to a girl.” He promised, after that he smiled and went off to order his popcorn with a new spring in his step. He came back with 6 jumbo sized tubs of popcorn, so it looks like he lost a bet and had to get popcorn for the whole team. He handed me 2 and left 4 to carry himself. 2 for each arm, I suppose.

“Trying to show off a little, eh?”

“Eh? You’re spending way too much time with those Canadiens.” Zach teased. I let out a scoff and then I decided to mock him back,
“Um… if you haven’t like noticed, the majority of the NHL is made of Canadiens.”

“Thank you, Captain Obvious.”

“No, that title belongs to Tazer.” I informed him. Zach gave me a look, “I thought that he was Captain Serious.” I nodded to confirm that,

“He is, but we call him Captain Obvious in the locker room.” We both laughed at that. It’s true because there are times when Jon states the most obvious things. It’s really funny.

By the time that Zach and I showed back up, the game was about to start, well technically they were about to play the national anthems. So I, quietly, crept back to my seat. Low and behold, Tazer was sitting right in front of me. He is such a loser sometimes. No, not really. I love him. It felt good to admit that to myself and him. Claire was right all along just wait until I tell her that and then she’ll be predicting wedding bells in my future. Marriage? Did I want to marry Jon? Dilana Toews had a nice ring to it, but Jon and I haven’t been official for even 24 hours yet. I couldn’t possibly think about that right now. Besides I definitely wasn’t expecting him to tell me that he loved me. I thought he was still pissed at me for joking around about Lord Stanley’s Cup. But no, he poured his guts out to me. It was really touching.

I tapped on the plexi-glass that separated us. Jon turned around to me and smiled. I grinned back at him before saying, “Je t’aime.” He looked surprised for a moment before he responded,

“Je t’aime, aussi. Tu parles français?” I nodded, “Oui, Il y a huit ans j’étudie et parle français.”

“You should use it more often.” He winked at me. I blushed a little bit because I knew what he was implying.
“I’ve never used my French in that manner.” I admitted.

“Well, maybe I’ll have you do that when you’re with me.” He suggested. I smirked, shaking my head at him and laughing,

“Focus on your game, fool. Go out there and score a goal for me. You owe me one.” It was Jon’s turn to roll his eyes at me,

“Come on, you didn’t even know that I was there until after you scored.” Jon complained. I just stuck my tongue out at him as he turned back around to face the rink.

“What was that first part of your conversation about?” Patrick inquired. I didn’t want to tell anybody without Jon. We were going to do it together. We’d probably tell our Chicago teammates first because we have to deal with them on a regular basis while everyone else we saw few and far between with exception of conference rivals.

“Oh, nothing, just giving him a little bit of a pep talk before he goes out on the ice.” I covered. Brian gave me a knowing smirk as I sent a glance in his direction.

“That’s totally not what you guys were saying.” Brooks declared. Ah shit, I forgot that Brooks is teammates wit Max Talbot and Marc-André Fleury; two of the biggest Frenchies in the league. He then went on to make a kissy face symbolizing what had transpired between Jon and I.

“That’s totally not what we said.” I denied, trying to cover up the annoyed under tone in my voice, “Now leave me alone. I want to pay attention to the game.” Everyone after that settled down to watch Canada play Norway.

Okay, let’s just face the facts: Canada made Norway look like babies! I know that’s mean because these guys are supposed to be representing the best that their country had to offer, but Norway was getting eaten up. I felt bad for both their net minders. They let a total of 8 shots in; they did everything they possibly could. Yet, Roberto Luongo denied every one of their team’s attempt to get on the board. Not a single shot saw the back of the next with him. Good thing that there isn’t any fighting during Olympic hockey. No wonder why Luongo had been voted the Cannucks Captain, he fucking stood on his head the entire game.

“Come on, Norway! Thor Hushvod could skate faster than you!” I taunted, but in all honesty I was trying to push them to see if they could get riled up enough to score, unfortunately they didn’t. All of my teammates just rolled their eyes at me. Yeah, I know I’m a freak. Get. Over. It.

It was seconds later that I was cheering for my boyfriend. Yeah, I’m just going to call Jon my beau to make things less complicated.

“Wooohoooo! GO TAZER!” Kaner and I hollered together over the roar of the Canadian crowd that was present as Ryan Getzlaf scored with assists from Scot Niedermayer and Tazer. Getzlaf’s goal brought the total up for Canada up 4- luv. Which means zero in tennis. Patrick and I then proceeded to start singing the chorus of Chelsea Dagger. Aka: our theme song that the United Center played every time one of us scored.

Crosby and Iginla were Canada’s Golden boys along with Luongo. Iginla with a hat trick and Crosby with assists on all three of Jarome’s goals. At least the love was passed around and everyone got a little bit of their 8-0 shutout over Norway. I was so pumped to go meet Jonathan, Duncan and Seabs after the game. At least everyone was going to be in a good mood for tonight’s festivities. I couldn’t freaking wait for the party we were going to have.

Kaner and I stood up to get out of the mad house. When we got up Claire threw me a raised eyebrow.

“Zach, can you show Claire and Ashton where mine and Kaner’s room is while we go and congratulate our boys?” I offered him. I knew he wanted to spend some more time with Claire, I could tell by the way they were talking so animatedly throughout the game. Plus, Ashton would give them their space because he was cool like that. He understood what a guy’s intentions were when he first looked at them. Claire and I called it his “gift”

……………………….

“Dilana RaeAnne.” Patrick mocked as we walked down the tunnel to the dressing room of team Canada. We relished our passes. We were going to go watch Shaun White during the Halfpipe Finals on the 17th. A day that we didn’t have any games but unfortunately we did practice. Hopefully, it wasn’t a skate-till-you-puke day.

“Shut up.” I muttered shoving him into the wall as we continued down the corridor to find our fellow Blackhawks waiting for us. I embraced Duncan and Seabs, quickly and gave them a congratulatory kiss on the cheek. I was a little apprehensive to go to Jon; it hadn’t quite sunken in that we were now together.

Jon was standing slightly off to the side of our little group. As I moved away from Seabs, I felt myself blush. I don’t know why I was suddenly so shy around him.

“Come on, Dillan. You at least owe me a hug for the assist.” Jon reminded me, smirking because he knew that he was right.

“I don’t know. I said that you had to score a goal. An assist isn’t the same, Jonathan.” I corrected him. I couldn’t help but laugh at the dejected look he sent my way. It felt like we were in our own little world until Patrick busted in down with,

“Now if you’re going to use full names. Dillan isn’t her full name; it’s Dilana.” I groaned in complete annoyance and then went to go after him, but I was pulled back into a wide chest. I looked back to see Jonny.

“Goddamn, you Claire.” I hissed. I couldn’t believe that she had the nerve to use my full name in public and especially in front of my teammates. I was never going to live it down.

“Dilana, huh? I like that name, sweetheart.” Jon’s hot breath brushed againist my ear. I shivered and relaxed againist him. Duncan and Brent both exchanged a look and went off to hunt down their crazy younger teammate, who was no doubt trying to chat up some poor girl that didn’t know any better.

“Now that we’re alone…” Jon smiled down at me as I turned around in his arms. I cautiously looked to my left and back to my right to make sure that we weren’t being watched. Once I felt that the coast was clear I leant up, offering Jon a chaste kiss. He met me half way. Oh how I missed the way his lips felt againist mine. The kiss last only a few brief moments. It was just long enough to savor the way he tasted. As we pulled away, he got that childlike, goofy grin on his face that was almost contagious.

“I missed doing that.” He spoke first. I nodded in agreement resting my head againist his chest. Jon responded by holding me closer. We stayed like that until I remembered that we were supposed to go met up with the guys for lunch. “So we’re gonna tell’em.” It wasn’t a question.

“Yeah, we’re going to tell them. Can’t wait for them to start hounding you.” I joked, bumping my hip againist his as we walked back to where our designated meeting spot. Jon staggered a little, but then hip checked me back with enough force to cause me to hit the wall and then he continued walking down the hall as if nothing had happened. Of course, he hadn’t meant to hurt me but still. It hurt worse than getting checked into the boards by Backes when we played the Blues.

“Tazer!” I growled, before launching myself at him. He foiled my plan to jump onto his back by turning around and catching me, “No fair!” I pouted as he placed me back on the ground.

“Life isn’t fair, babe. Now, come on we’re going to be late and you know that they will get suspicious.” The responsible Jon was now taking over, the side of him known as Captain Serious. Apparently, there wasn’t any joking around when it came to how serious he actually was about making ‘us’ work.

“Well then lead on.” I granted him, giving him permission to take my hand and lead me to our teammates who were probably wondering where we were at.