Open Your Eyes

The girls had been confident that they could figure out how to get back to the expressway. Once they were on, they would have only had to follow the signs, pointing them back in the direction of downtown Chicago. However, with no knowledge of the suburb the Sopel family called home, that was easier said than done. Aimee had begun to worry ten minutes ago, knowing they should have returned to the expressway by now, remembering only driving a few blocks when they had exited it before.

Alyssa yawned from the passenger seat, her corseted Snow White dress starting to constrict her breathing after the long night she and her best friend had just had. Aimee glanced at her from the driver’s seat as the road they were on took a winding turn through a wooded area. “Shouldn’t we have hit the expressway entrance by now?” Alyssa asked, her brown eyes showing worry as she glanced around at their surroundings. Aimee sighed from the driver’s seat, and Alyssa did not take that as a good sign.

“I think,” Aimee started. “I think we’re lost.”

Alyssa’s eyes widened as she looked at her best friend from the driver’s seat, and then to the clock on the dashboard of the car. 3:15 AM. Aimee kept driving forward, nothing but dark woods ahead of them, beside them, and behind them. It was enough to make anyone nervous. “Maybe you should turn around,” Alyssa suggested. “We can go back where we came from, and make it back toward Brent’s house. We can own up to being morons and getting lost,” she said. “I don’t care, I just want to get out of here. These woods are creeping me out.”

“I know,” Aimee sighed, slowing the car down as she went to make a u-turn. Alyssa ran a hand through the hair on the back of her head, sucking in a breath as the car turned around and they headed back in the direction that had just came from.

“This seriously looks like a scene from that stupid fucking show, Aimee. I am never watching that shit again, especially after some ghoul or whatever grabbed me in that Haunted House.”

Aimee let out a laugh, glancing at her friend as she sped down the dark and winding road. “You had Marian to protect you,” she grinned.

Without realizing what she was doing, Alyssa let out a small squeak as she bit her bottom lip. Aimee grinned more. While the woman knew her best friend definitely had a thing for the big and burly Ben Eager, she could clearly see she also had a thing for the sweet and smooth Marian Hossa, whether she was ready to admit it or not. And Aimee had to admit she thought the Slovakian would be a better fit for her best friend than Ben, as much as she loved the guy.

Keeping her eyes trained on the road ahead of them, Alyssa frowned as she felt the car beginning to slow down. “Why are you stopping?” she asked Aimee, her voice bordering on frantic.

“I’m not!” Aimee said, her voice just as frantic and she pressed the accelerator as hard as she could. “Something’s wrong with the car!”

“Oh god,” Alyssa breathed, bending forward in her seat and putting her head in her hands as she started to breathe heavier. Aimee grimaced, knowing that while her friend had irrational fears, she also had a very real anxiety disorder. That, mixed with the situation they were in, was not going to equal anything good.

Aimee pulled to the side of the road as best she could, frowning when the car made a couple of funny noises before the engine died. “Well, fuck,” she groaned.

“Do you have AAA or something?” Alyssa asked, her head between her knees as she tried to regulate her breathing.

“Uh,” Aimee hesitated, knowing her answer would send Alyssa into hysterics. “No.”

“Oh my god,” the brunette groaned, flinging herself back onto the seat.

“Should we call Ben and Adam?” Aimee suggested, raising her eyebrows as her friend immediately whipped out her phone and dialed a number. A few seconds later, she heard Alyssa say Ben’s name, her voice almost hysterical as she tried to fight back the tears she knew would come. She had to be extra emotional from the amount of alcohol she’d consumed at the Halloween party, too.

“Ben?” she asked again, and Aimee frowned, removing the Blackberry from her ear and putting it on speaker phone. “Ben?”

“Alyssa!” he greeted on the other end of the line, and Aimee sighed, knowing the man was drunk.

“Ben,” Aimee interrupted, listening as she heard some muffled noises. “Ben, we need you.” More muffled noises, and the call was disconnected. “Try Adam,” Aimee told Alyssa, knowing the man had been just as sober as Aimee when they left the party forty five minutes before.

“Hey, gorgeous,” Adam greeted, answering the phone, making Aimee pinch the bridge of her nose. Alyssa looked on the verge of tears, her big, brown eyes darting everywhere around them as if she was waiting for something to come through the trees toward them. “Come back and do shots with us!” he suggested boisterously.

Aimee grabbed the phone from Alyssa’s hands, pressing the ‘end call’ button as she slumped in her seat. Putting on a brave face for her intoxicated and paranoid friend, she put a hand on the girl’s knee, giving it a reassuring squeeze. “Aimee?” Alyssa whispered out.

“Yeah?”

“Call Tomas.”

Aimee blinked, staring at her friend. “What?”

“Call Tomas, please, Aimee.”

Aimee sighed, nodding her head as she looked over her friend who still glanced out all of the windows, grateful the night had been too cool to drive with the top down. She wasn’t sure she could have handled sitting completely open in the middle of a dark, forest lined road. She watched as Aimee put her Blackberry in the palm of her hand, the ringing sounding throughout the car.

“Alyssa?” Tomas answered on the second ring. “Is something wrong?”

“Tomas, it’s Aimee.”

“Oh, Aimee? You didn’t have to steal Alyssa’s phone to get my number.”

“Shut up, Tomas. My car broke down on the way home.”

The cocky Slovakian turned serious, clearing his throat. “Where are you?”

“That’s the thing,” Aimee started. “We don’t know. We never got on the expressway because we got lost.” When a smart ass comment didn’t come, the woman continued. “We’re surrounded by woods. Alyssa’s kind of freaking out,” she said, glancing at her friend in the passenger seat.

She heard Tomas breathe a sigh. “I need you girls to find a street sign for me,” he told her. “I’m turning back toward Brent’s house now, so I’m on my way, but I need some help.”

Aimee nodded, pulling her keys out of the ignition and unbuckling her seatbelt. Alyssa shakily did the same, nodding her head as Aimee climbed from the car. Aimee kept the call connected as Alyssa grabbed onto her arm, starting to walk ahead of them, hoping they’d find some sort of marker that would help Tomas find them.

“We’re still here,” the girls heard Marian say on the line and despite being nervous, Aimee quirked a smile. Alyssa instantly relaxed slightly and the sound of the man’s voice.

“Okay,” Aimee said, spotting a sign. “We’re at the forest preserve, Harper Road entrance, grove eight,” she told him, pointing to the red signs that could be found in almost all stretches of woods in the Chicagoland area. “Does that help you?”

“Yes,” Tomas said as they heard the distinct sound of beeping, most likely their GPS. “Go back to the car and wait for us. We’ll be there in… fifteen minutes.”

Quickly running back to the car, the girls were able to relax a little knowing that help was on its way. Aimee frowned, the reality that something was wrong with her beloved Camaro hitting her. “I hope it’s nothing serious,” she sighed, running her hands over the steering wheel. “This thing’s been with me for ten years. It was a piece of crap when I got it, but I fixed it up.”

Alyssa nodded her head, “Maybe it’s time for you to get a new car.”

“I’m not getting something lame like your foreign little thing.”

“It gets great gas mileage,” she defended, crossing her arms over her chest.

The girls laughed and were able to keep their minds off of the situation they were in for a little while. As they sat, surrounded by darkness and trees, suddenly a pair of headlights came toward them. “Oh god,” Alyssa gasped as the car slowed to a stop and pulled up behind them. “Please be Tomas and Marian.”

The girls forgot to breathe as the doors of the car they couldn’t quite make out swung open and two figures climbed out. Alyssa didn’t care that she was acting like a baby when she shut her eyes and gripped onto the leather seat underneath her. When there was a knock on her window, she let out a shriek. Aimee’s hand on her arm made her open her eyes, and she slowly glanced to her right, sighing in relief when she saw Tomas’ concerned face.

Pushing the door open, she launched herself past Tomas and into Marian’s arms. Tomas pretended to be offended as Aimee came around the car to stand by them. He wasn’t surprised though, knowing Alyssa was still intoxicated and Marian had been the one to help her out of the haunted house she never wanted to go in. “Are you girls okay?” Tomas asked, turning to Aimee as Marian hugged Alyssa against his chest.

Aimee nodded, thanking Tomas for coming to get them. She narrowed her eyes as another car pulled up behind the boys’ truck. “What’s that?”

“I called a tow truck, too. I knew you wouldn’t want to leave your car here on the side of the road.”

Aimee smiled, wringing her hands together. “Thanks for that, too.”

Tomas smiled, motioning for Marian to get Alyssa into the car. Helping her into the backseat of Tomas’ car, he climbed in behind her, unable to help from smiling as she clung onto him. Tomas and Aimee greeted the tow truck driver, Aimee giving him directions to the garage she always took her car too. Once everything was settled, Aimee climbed into the passenger seat and Tomas into the driver’s seat.

When they reached the girls’ apartment building, Marian and Tomas tried to insist on making sure they got to their unit okay, but Aimee insisted they were fine. Alyssa hugged Marian and Tomas tightly before practically running into the safety of their building. Aimee smiled and followed her actions, bidding the guys a good night, truly thankful for Marian Hossa and Tomas Kopecky too.

---

On Monday morning, with little work to do that day, Alyssa set off around the United Center, wondering if she could find herself some work to do. She popped herself into the coaches’ offices, laughing when John Torchetti immediately threw some paperwork at her. “I’ll have it done before lunch,” she promised, literally watching some weight lift off the assistant coach’s shoulders.

Coach Quenneville walked in as she was leaving, grinning when he saw she had taken some of their work from them. “You’re a life saver, Lyss.”

“I know,” she said, bowing dramatically. “Are the boys in the workout room?” she asked.

Coach nodded. “You might want to pop your head in there. I heard you and Aimee being mentioned.”

Unsure if she should be honored or nervous, Alyssa settled on just nodding her head. With the manila folders in hand, she pushed the door to the weight room open, smiling at Brent Seabrook who ran on a treadmill. “There you are!” Patrick Sharp grinned, coming up beside her as he wiped his face on a towel. “We were just talking about you.”

“Oh?” she asked, her brown eyes widening.

“We heard that you and Aimee got a little stranded.”

“Oh god,” she groaned, putting a manicured hand against her forehead. “I was drunk and terrified. If Marian and Tomas hadn’t come to get us…”

Alyssa caught Tomas’ eyes and smiled at him, immediately walking over to him as her heels clicked against the tile floor. “Hey,” he grinned, sliding off the seat of the weight machine he was working out at. Marian walked up a second later, shirtless and with his shoulder bandaged up. Quickly composing herself and tearing her eyes away from his thick and muscular body, Alyssa pointed to the shoulder, silently asking how it was.

“Just got done doing some rehab,” he told her. “It’s always a little sore for a while.”

“You’re still my knight in shining armor,” she grinned, nudging him.

“What?” Ben Eager asked, coming into the room, Adam Burish right behind him.

“Oh, you two,” Alyssa glared, pointing a finger at them. “I am so mad at you two.”

“What did we do?!” Adam asked, holding his hands up in defense.

“Me and Aimee called you to come help us, and you two fools were drunk and ignored us.”

“You called me?” Adam asked.

“Yeah! And you told us to come back to Brent’s and do shots. We were stranded in the middle of nowhere surrounded by a freaking forest and you two morons were drunk. We’d only left the party like, forty minutes before!” she continued, huffing out a loud breath as she finished.

“Oh man,” Ben sighed, running hand over his buzzed hair. “I’m sorry, Lyss.”Alyssa crossed her arms over her chest, glaring at the enforcer as he gave her his best apologetic face. “Let me make it up to you.”

“And how do you plan on doing that?” she asked.

“Let me take you out; we’ll spend a whole day together when we get back from Colorado,” he told her, referring to the away game the team had that Friday. “We’ll do anything you want.”

Alyssa sighed as she scanned her eyes over his shirtless appearance. She dropped her arms to her sides, and Ben knew he had won her over. Grinning, he moved toward her, stretching his arms out. Alyssa ducked behind Tomas, shaking her head. “You’re so gross right now, Ben. I have eight hours of work ahead of me and I do not want to smell like man sweat all day.”

“Fair enough,” he laughed, dropping his arms. “Saturday then?” he asked. Alyssa nodded. “Good, it’s a date.”

Alyssa knew she was blushing as she smiled, biting her bottom lip into her mouth. Tomas raised his eyebrows as Adam and Ben walked away, the Canadian going back to working out while Adam went back to rehabbing his knee. Alyssa turned to Tomas and Marian, a shy smile still on her face. “A date with Ben,” she repeated, smiling wider as she gave them a small wave and went back to her office, suddenly feeling like she was on cloud nine.