Walk With Me

“She shoots, and she scores! Anna Trovato scores the winning goal, assisted by Adam Burish, on legendary net minder Kari Lehtonen! The Stars have won Lord Stanley’s Cup, for the first time in over fifteen years! AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!” Laughter filled the empty ice arena, as Adam and I made fake crowd-cheering sounds, completely oblivious to the pounding rain that dropped onto the American Airlines Center in Dallas, Texas.

“You both are lucky I love you. Otherwise, I’d hit you with my stick.” Kari’s voice cut through our mockery and paused our ‘victory dance’. I stuck my tongue out at him, before skating ahead to jump on Adam’s back, to carry me into the locker room.

“You made sure to lock the door behind you, right, Adam?” I questioned, as he walked through the door to our stalls. Dropping me in mine, he proceeded to his.

“Of course. You know Joe would have all of our asses if some creep got in or something. Turn on the radio, will ya?” I nodded, as Kari began to come into the room, tossing his stuff into his stall from afar. I stood, turning to the small radio that sat in the shelf at the top of my area, and pressed the ON button to the radio.

Using the tuning knob, I changed it to one of the local Dallas news stations. “Welcome back to WBAP 96.7 Dallas. As you know, the Federal government put out the health warning about the disease that is claiming a large portion of the states above the Mason-Dixon line, and Canada.”

I sat back down, and began unlacing my skates as the medical issue continued to blare. It was old news, despite only surfacing in the past week. “Several scientists have determined that it is only hereditary. If you possess a certain gene combination, you are in severe risk of infection. We encourage all citizens to head to your local hospital for testing. There is no news, if the virus is airborne, or not. Thankfully, it hasn’t hit the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex, so we’re good for now. Remember, washing hands, and keeping clean in the household and neighborhood.”

“What a load of bullshit. It’s just another strand of that fucking flu.” I kicked my skates off, as Adam drowned out the radio broadcast. He pulled on a clean pair of pants, and began pulling a Stars shirt over his head. “Anna, let’s go get a pizza from that pizza area on the Plaza level.”

“Heck no, Terrace level has cheese!” I whined, while trying to shove my skates in the alcove below me.

“Bring me back a sausage. Don’t let Adam lick it, Anna. Or you’ll play goalie this Friday when I’m sick.” Kari chuckled, after voicing his request. I threw my shorts at him, hitting him in the head, and disheveling his hair.

“Andrew will just do it.” I slid out of my gear, tossing it into my duffle bag. Kari only shook his head, before tossing my shorts back to me. I slid into them with ease, over my spandex. Lunch, and then hitting the weights, was the perfect off-day for us.

“I’ll feed him some to!” I stepped over to Kari, over his gear, and snatched his extra shirt, that had his name and number on the back, and the new Dallas logo on the front. Wrenching it over my head once I returned to my stall, I stepped into my converse, and quickly tied them up.

“Why are you implying that my spit makes people vomit?” Adam roared, pretending to be upset. He held the door open to the Event Level hallway, waiting for me to hurry up. “Lock up the tunnel door, Kari. We’ll bring your pizza back.”

Jogging over to Adam, we quickly exited, and walked across the hallway to the elevator that would take up to the near-top level, below the Press Box level.

The elevator door opened, and Adam held his hand out as a regular gentleman would. But I knew if Adam was playing nice, something was up. We stepped into the elevator, and I leaned over to press the ‘TL’ option on the key pad. The doors slowly began closing, and they had yet to reach the halfway point, when Adam slammed me against the side of the metal transportation device, lips on my own.

“You know, sex after winning the Stanley Cup has got to be the best sex imaginable.” He teased, biting my bottom lip softly. I giggled, wrapping my arms around his neck, his large hands resting softly on my lower back, threatening to lower, as I pressed my lips to his, sucking slowly on his own bottom lip.

After a few moments, the elevator reached the Platinum level, and began slowing down while passing the Flagship and Admiral levels, reaching the Terrace Level. I pulled away from the embrace, trying to steady my breathing. “We can’t keep doing this. You know how I feel about Kari.”

“You know, before you met him, you never minded fooling around with me in Chicago and Detroit. You came here with me, met him, and turned into this hopeless romantic.” I lowered my head, the elevator opening and dinging, announcing our arrival to the terrace. When Adam played for the Chicago Blackhawks, and I for the Detroit Red Wings, our friendship clicked instantly.

His fingers grazed my chin, pulling my eyes up to meet his. “But you know what? It’s been good for you, and you’ve become a better player. I’ve been watching you, and even though it’s going to be different, it’s for the better. If you love Kari, in the end, then that’s that. But I will still love you. There’s always going to be a place for you, with me.”

I smiled brightly, as he began to lead the way out of the contraption. I walked ahead of my friend, to the pizza door that rested to our left. Pushing in the key Joe, our General Manager, gave us, we stole away to the back of the booth.

Tossing the frozen pizzas into the oven, Adam threw me a water, taking one for himself, and another for Kari. Sirens began wailing in the background, and Adam nudged my side. “Let’s go check it out.”

The pizzas still had three minutes left. I twisted open the Ozarka bottle, and took a swig, as we exited the booth, and stepped over to the giant window. Across the freeway, were some of the executive buildings rested, about fifteen police cars were letting loose weaponry on about 40 people. Some were chewing on long logs, and had blood dripping all over them.

One of the people darted to the nearest police officer, despite being shot in the arm, and bit at his face, drawing blood all over the hood of the white car. Hence the reason why we could partially tell what was going on. The air siren horn sounded from central Dallas, going batshit crazy against the police horns.

“We need to get to Kari.”