It's Not Easy Romancing a Stone

My eyes were screwed shut and blasts of white lights were going off like crazy behind my eyelids. I felt his hand on my back grabbing a fistful of my costume material through my jacket, his lips moving assertively against mine. My hands were numb and I couldn’t remember anything, it was all shoved to the back of my brain as soon as our lips met. I didn’t know what was going on but I soon realized that I was kissing Tyler, as in Tyler Seguin. I was kissing Tyler Seguin at the TD Garden.

In front of everyone.

My instincts kicked in and I pushed him of me, realizing that I had to catch my breath but I couldn’t. Everyone around us was quiet. My mouth was open a bit, still trying to process what I had just done. His hand rested on my back still and he just looked at me with an expression that I couldn’t quite match. It seemed a bit of everything, waiting for me to say the first word, have the first reaction to the kiss. As I was about to speak and tell him what I thought I was cut off,

“YOU’VE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME RIGHT?” Hillary screeched unattractively as she was standing right next to us, a pair of puzzled teenagers.

“ITS YOU? YOURE THE ONE DATING TYLER FUCKING SEGUIN? THIS HAS GOT TO BE SOME SORT OF JOKE. I MEAN, I MEAN LOOK AT YOU! YOURE NAUSEATING!” Her face had contorted into an ugly scowl, a ball rose in my throat, she was right. What the fuck was I thinking, kissing Tyler Seguin?! My head started to spin; I just kissed Tyler Seguin, my first kiss gone on some hockey player who I didn’t even know. What was wrong with me?
Before anyone had time to react to Hillary’s outburst I grabbed Tyler’s hand pried it off me. “Vanessa…” He spoke quietly, only enough for me to hear but stopped as soon as I looked up at him with eyes begging him to drop it. I couldn’t think of anything I just wanted to leave.
I put my head down in complete shame, mentally cursing at myself for kissing Tyler just because I was jealous of Hillary. I wanted to go bang my head against a wall. I. was. so. stupid. I started to walk out but he stopped me by grabbing my wrist.

“No, no Vanessa you’re not leaving. I’m not putting up with this any longer.” Tyler directed his voice at Hillary and started to speak with a poison laced tone,
“First of all, you have absolutely no right to talk to Vanessa like that, you’ll be lucky if you’re half the person she ever is.” Everyone was silent, I was speechless, was he actually standing up for me? I shifted my feet uncomfortably so took a step forward so that his chest was now against my back, giving me support. “She is amazingly talented and definitely not nauseating, I happen to think she’s goddamn stunning so you can shut your mouth and never, ever talk to her like that again.”

Hillary stood there in a moment of shock until she decided she couldn’t come back with an insult. She said a few rude words and spun on her heel and walked away. I turned back to face Tyler who looked particularly irritated, thinking of a way to calm him down. I got up on my tip-toes and kissed his cheek, winding my arms around his neck and hugged him. It took a while but his shoulders eventually relaxed and he hugged me back. “thank you” was all I could think to say when he tightened his grip and I relaxed know that, at least for a while, all this Hillary drama was over. He set me down and pressed his lips to my forehead and my cheeks burned, “I wasn’t going to just stand there and just let her talk to you like that” he spoke in a low voice and grabbed my skates out of my shaky hands. “It’s fine, I’m used it by now, I get it all the time from her, but thanks for saying something. No one ever does.” I didn’t know what was going on; did I just kiss Tyler Seguin? Did he just bitch off Hillary for me? Did he say I was stunning? Did he just kiss me again? This was too much for me to handle right now, so I’ll just take it as it goes and process it all later. That seems like a good plan to me. We started to walk.

“It’s not right! She can’t just, just say those things and expect no one to say anything.” I shrugged my shoulders and looked down at the ground; I didn’t know what to think.

My phone beeped and it was a text from Rian, I was wondering where she had gone. She said that she and Nathan had left to switch cars and go out so I would be going home with Tyler. Wonderful.

“Hey…” He stopped in front of me. “Look at me,” I looked up at him with gloomy eyes. “Don’t tell me that you actually believe what she said?” I shrugged my shoulder and side stepped around him, but he beat me to it, damn hockey play agility. “Vanessa?”

I sighed “Yes, Tyler?” He searched my eyes and I laughed a bit, he would never understand. “Don’t listen to her.”

“Oh don’t worry Tyler I won’t, I’ve only been hearing it for as long as I can remember.” I bet there was no one who ever called him ugly, I mean look at the kid.

“You can’t tell me that you actually think you’re not attractive, if you went to my high school, you would have had guys throwing themselves at you!” He laughed a bit to try and lighten the mood with no success.

“Yeah, Tyler well I didn’t go to your high school, okay?!” I raised my voice and pushed past him, he caught up with me with a confused expression.

“Wait, how many, how many you know, umm-”

“Boyfriends have I had? You want to know how many boyfriends I’ve had. None. Tyler. I’ve had none! Zip, nada zero. Does that answer your question?” Why was I telling Tyler Seguin about how many boyfriends I’ve never had? Oh my god someone kill me now, it would be easier.

“You’re joking right? You have to be kidding.” Tyler had no amusement in his face; it was actually mostly shock, which made me feel a little better… considering the situation.
“Does it look like I’m joking?” I looked at him with a blank expression which soon was broken and I started to laugh.

“Oh my god that’s crazy…” He said in on breath and rubbed the back of his neck, his ears turning red.

“And for good measure,” He looked at me, waiting to hear more about my pathetic love life, “that was my first kiss too.”

“Wait what? You’ve never kissed anyone. Like, never? How old are you? Oh my God Vanessa I think my first kiss was when I was about ten!” He was laughing at me now and so was I, only at how pathetic I really was, though.

“Well I was waiting for someone special! Like the right persona t the right moment, like in some romantic setting! But obviously that didn’t happen…” His face fell a bit at that. “I mean, the side of an ice rink is sooooo romantic.” He laughed and shook his head.

We stepped onto an escalator and picked up my bag outside the locker room, heading to his car.

“So what’s going on with you tonight?” I said casually as we got into his Range Rover.
“Absolutely nothing, why you got something in mind?” He smiled and shrugged off his jacket, leaving him in a blue V-neck. I got distracted by his shape and had to tear my eyes away from him.

I grinned, “Maybe a little something, can you take a right here?”

He looked at me mystified, “Sure, where are we going?”

I smiled, “Head towards Children’s Hospital. I know some people who will be absolutely ecstatic to meet you.”