Hidden in the Shadows

March 20th, 2011
Sunday
Milan’s Parents House, Vancouver, BC, Canada
9:30 A.M.

When Raina woke up it was like every other day she had been in Vancouver, it was still rainy outside and she found Sheena, and Jasmiina sitting around the table eating breakfast. She got a bowl of cereal and sat down next to Jasmiina who could see the sadness on Raina’s face. She smiled at her and said

“We’ll be back in Boston soon Ray, I just know it.” Raina smiled at her and said

“Hopefully,”

“We should go baby shopping, and then spend the day in Vancouver.” said Sheena.

“That sounds good,” said Raina. Since arriving in Vancouver the three of them hadn’t done much together and it would make her feel better.

They finished breakfast and got ready for the day. Raina grew increasingly happy as she thought about the clothes she would dress them in. As she was getting dressed she looked at herself in the full length mirror on the back of Milan’s door. She was getting bigger and she hoped that she wouldn’t grow much more than she already was. Pregnancy was new to her body and she remembered what Tatiana Chara had told her about the first baby being the hardest.

When they arrived at the baby store Raina felt like a kid in a candy shop when she saw the racks of cute dresses for little girls and the shelves of stuffed animals. She went straight to the dresses and said

“These are so adorable!! I really hope I have girls!”

“Buy a few and then if you have boys you can save them for later, if you and Milan ever have a daughter.” Raina picked out three frilly pink dresses and then they moved onto the toy section.

“Look at this!!” said Jasmiina. Raina turned to see her looking at a mini dirt bike.

“They don’t need that,” laughed Raina. “When they’re older.” Raina bought a set of pink and blue blankets. It was frustrating not knowing what color or type of clothing to buy. They paid for everything and then left the store and went to a Starbucks across the street for something to eat.

Milan woke up and checked out his schedule on his phone. He had a game tomorrow, and a practice later that morning. He got up and got his hockey things together before eating breakfast and calling Raina.

“Hey,” she said sounding a lot happier than she had when he’d left.

“Hey, you sound a lot better than you did yesterday.”

“Ya Sheena, Jasmiina, and I are out shopping. I bought these adorable dresses for our daughters!” she said.

“Who said we were having girls?” asked Milan.

“I want too! They have such cute clothes to pick from!” He laughed and said

“Where are you guys at now?”

“Starbucks,” said Raina. “There aren’t any Dunkin Donuts here.”

“I have a practice this morning, and a home game tomorrow.” said Milan.

“Tell my dad I said hi and I love him,” said Raina.

“I’ll pass on the message,” said Milan. “I went out with Nathan last night to the Sox game I think we’re going out again tonight too so don’t worry about me being bored.”

“That’s good, keep yourself busy.” said Raina. Milan finished his breakfast and said

“I’m going to practice, I’ll call you later on to check in.” he said.

“Alright I love you,” she said. Milan felt relieved to here her cheerful voice, it made him happier. He hummed along with the radio on the way to practice and when he got out he met up with Tuukka who was also walking in.

“I saw that video of you and your brother killing each other.” He said.

“What are you talking about?” asked Milan.

“Raina sent me a video of you and one of your brother’s wrestling.” laughed Tuukka. “It was pretty funny.” The two walked into the locker room and began getting their gear on together. “So how’s Jasmiina?” asked Tuukka. “I’ve been calling her every night but did she seem happy when you were there?”

“Ya, she was happy, she’s getting along well with my family.”

“Good, when she gets back we can continue on with our lives and I can finally propose to her.” Milan noticed Nathan sit down on the bench next to him and start getting his gear on.

“So are we going out somewhere tonight?” Milan asked Nathan.

“Ya, Timmy, Seidenberg, Krejci, and I were thinking about going to Boston’s Greatest Bar at 8:00 for drinks. You wanna come too Tuukka?” said Nathan.

“Sure,” Milan was about to ask if Tammy and Brittany would be there when Claude walked in and began giving them an update on the different things they needed to work on and improve. At the end of his speech the majority of the players had gotten fully dressed and were ready to get on the ice.

“Let’s go,” said Claude leading his team out from the locker room.

The practice was run stricter than usual, Claude really wanted them to do well the next game which was against the Canadians. Milan sometimes felt like Claude was pushing him harder because he was going to marry Raina.

“Come on Milan move faster!” he heard Claude yell as he carried the puck down the ice towards the net. He took the shot at Timmy and he caught it in his glove. “I want to see you move a lot faster when you skate and when you take the shot on net.” said Claude. Milan skated back to the other end of the rink and got at the back of the line.

“Don’t you just love this shirt!” said Jasmiina excitedly. Raina, sitting on a bench in the dressing room, watched as Jasmiina tried on clothes.

“It looks good on you.” said Raina. “I say buy it.” Jasmiina went back into the dressing room again to try something else on. Since all Raina could fit into was maternity clothes, she had been sitting and watching Jasmiina and Sheena try on clothes for over an hour. She was getting bored and said

“We’re going to a maternity clothing store next.” said Raina. “And then you guys can sit and watch me try stuff on,”

“That’s fair,” said Sheena coming out of a room with a new sundress on. “We can make it our last stop before dinner.” Weighed down by several other shopping bags they made there way over to the maternity shop where Raina bought some new summer clothes. By the time they left the store it was already 6:30.

“I hope Snezana’s not mad we’re late for dinner.” said Sheena.

“She only gets mad at her sons,” laughed Raina. “She loves us too much to get angry, and besides,” she said lifting the five bags she was holding in her hands. “She’ll be delighted to see what we bought.”

Milan ate dinner alone in front of the TV that night. He ordered a pizza, not feeling like turning on the oven and attempting to cook something. He turned on the movie Shutter Island until it was time to meet Nathan at the bar.

When he arrived the party already seemed to be in full swing. Music blasted, people were dancing, and it seemed as if more than half the people there were drunk. He spotted some of his teammates sitting at the bar and went over to Krejci and Tuukka.

“Hey guys,” he said.

“What is up my man?!” said Krejci loudly, obviously drunk.

“He’s been like this since he got here,” said Tuukka. Milan laughed and took a seat next to him.

“So where’s everyone else?” asked Milan looking around.

“I don’t know, dancing maybe. I saw Nate here ten minutes ago, not sure where he went.” said Tuukka. Milan hadn’t been to this wild of a party for a long time.

Everyone sat around the table eating as the girls talked about their day out. Raina had shown Snezana the dresses she’d bought and she was excited to know more about what the girls had done that day. After dinner Raina went upstairs to shower and decided to curl up in bed and read a book from Milan’s bookshelf.

Milan knew he was in trouble; he had drunk six beers in a competition with Greg Campbell and won. Now he was completely wasted. He was dancing around wildly with Vlad and had no idea what was going on, all he knew was that he was having fun and feeling good, that’s all that seemed to matter in his distorted world. When Brittany came up to him and pressed herself to him he giggled and said

“You’re trouble missy,” Brittany smiled up at him and said

“Am I?”

“You just stay away from me,” he said smiling at her.

“But Looch,” she said. “I’m supposed to be with you,”

“Nooooo,” he said giggling again. “You leave,”

“But I don’t want to,” she whispered into his ear as she pushed her body up against his. She pressed her lips up against his, tasting the strong alcohol. She half expected him to pull away and come out of his drunken state. But he didn’t and instead she felt him kiss back. She put her arms over his shoulders and neck. He pulled her even closer by wrapping his arms around her waist. Tammy, close by, snapped a picture of the two in mid kiss. Saving it on her phone, she sent it to Raina.

“What are you doing?!” said Tuukka. Milan broke the kiss and looked up at him with a drunken gaze.

“Gonna get laid,” said Milan. He tried to turn back to Brittany but Tuukka grabbed him by the arm and pulled him away.

“Milan you’re engaged to Raina,” He giggled and said

“She can share for one night,” He tried to pull from Tuukka’s grip but was unsuccessful.

“You’re coming with me,” said Tuukka. Brittany grabbed his other hand and said

“He wants to stay with me,” Tuukka gave her a disgusted look and said

“You just love being a home wrecking whore don’t you?”

“I’m taking back what’s mine,” she growled. Milan looked content with what was happening.

“Tug O War!” he said gleefully. He turned to Tuukka and said “Tuuk I want some pussy tonight,”

“You’ll regret it,” said Tuukka. “I’m saving you from the worst mistake you’ll ever make. Remember Raina? Your six month pregnant fiancée in Vancouver?” Milan seemed to come to a realization and batted Brittany’s hand away and let Tuukka pull him by the arm through the crowd and out of the bar.

Raina sat in bed reading in the silence of Milan’s old room. She heard her phone vibrate on the nightstand. She thought it was Milan sending her a text until she saw an unknown number across the screen. She flipped open her phone and pressed “Read now.” It took her a few seconds to realize what the picture was of and when she did she felt a cold wave of shock wash over her. It was of Milan kissing Brittany at, from what she could see in the background, some party or bar. They were extremely close together, wrapped in each others arms. She felt sick to her stomach and the she felt tears coming to her eyes. She tried to tell herself the picture wasn’t real and someone had photo shopped a picture together and sent to her as a cruel joke. But as she continued to analyze the picture there was no way it could be photo shopped with the way the two were wound so closely together. She stood up out of bed and couldn’t hold back a loud sob as she felt her world come crashing down on top of her. Sheena and Jovan must have heard her because they came in looking concerned. Jovan saw her tear stained face and said

“What’s wrong?” She handed him the phone and he looked down at the message. She saw him bite his lower lip in anger.

“What the hell does he think he’s doing?!” said Jovan in a low enraged voice. Sheena looked over his shoulder at the phone and said

“What the hell?!” she took the phone from Jovan to get a closer look at the picture. Jovan went over and pulled Raina into a tight bear hug and tried to comfort her. “This can’t be real,” said Sheena. “I bet she went online and put this together herself.” Snezana appeared in the doorway with Jasmiina and Dobro.

“What’s going on in here?” said Snezana. She saw Raina and said “What’s wrong sweetheart?” Jovan looked at his parents and said

“You will never be more pissed off at Milan.” Sheena handed the phone to Snezana who looked utterly shocked as she stared down at the picture. She handed it to her husband who got red in the face.

“He thinks he can cheat and get away with it?!” said Dobro. “I’ll wring his neck!! I thought I taught him better!!” Jasmiina looked like she had just woken up and she let out a wide yawn before saying

“What’s happened?” Dobro gave her the phone and Raina saw her eyes go wide.

“Is this real?” she asked. “Is this a joke?” Raina felt an explosive amount of anger kick in and she said

“I’m going back to Boston; I’m going to teach him a lesson.”

“Do you want someone with you?” said Jovan.

“No, I’m going to do it myself.” She said. “I’ll get on the next flight out, I don’t care how late it is.” Jovan pulled out his Blackberry and searched for flights.

“The next one leaves at 11:30, you have 30 minutes to get to the airport.”

“Are you sure you’re going?” asked Snezana.

“Yes.” said Raina.

Twenty minutes later Raina was walking through the Vancouver International Airport. She had been dropped off by Jovan and had already purchased tickets. She only carried her purse with her. She held back more tears and let the anger course through her. She knew this would happen, how could she trust him? The flight left in ten minutes and she pulled out her cell phone and decided to make a quick call to Tuukka. He answered on the second ring.

“What the hell is going on?! WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH HIM?!” She didn’t care if she was causing a scene.

“Raina calm down, I have him here with me.”

Tuukka was driving his car back to his house. Milan sat in the back seat with his head in his hands feeling miserable. He had come to a full realization of what he had done.

“NO I WILL NOT CALM DOWN, DON’T TELL ME TO CALM DOWN! I’M ABOUT TO GET ON A FLIGHT TO BOSTON NOW; YOU’LL SEE ME IN THE MORNING!” She hung up and shut her phone off and went straight into the plane.

“Was that her?” said Milan.

“It was,” said Tuukka “She knows.”

“How angry is she?” he said in a miserable voice.

“Very, she found out. She’s flying back to Boston tonight.” Tuukka saw a few tears stream down Milan’s face.

“What have I done?” he said in a distraught shaky voice. Tuukka didn’t have an answer, and turned back to the road.
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