Notbroken

The skills competition came and went quick highlighted by a Montreal Canadian wearing Skinner’s jersey. Other than that I fiddled on my iPhone, chatted with Lex, because she called midway through, and talked with Pat and Jon’s parents who had arrived in our box in time for the competition. The Kanes told me my parents seemed to be oozing with pride whenever anyone asked them about me. It wasn’t a shock because I knew they loved me but to hear it from others made me all warm inside. The Toews on the other hand talked about Shattuck and how weird it was that a lot of people from the hockey team had made it far for both girls and boys.

Most of the girls had gone onto division 1 and Olympics while a few opted for division 3 with a large amount of my guy teammates went onto the NHL or division 1. Shattuck was just beginning to take over the hockey world and I guess it started with us.

Jon and Pat, after the skill comp., headed out to dinner with their families as I headed back to the hotel via a cab I forced Jon to call me. He insisted on driving me back but they had limited time with their family and I had no desire to interrupt that.

“I’ll be fine, you guys have keys right?” I said as I sat down in the back seat of the cab.

“Yeah but…” Pat mumbled, not wanting to offend the driver, “What if you don’t get back safely?”

“Pat. I have a phone. Have fun, I’ll see you later.” And with that I shut the cab door, told the driver my hotel and waved goodbye to the Toews and Kanes.

As soon as I got back to my hotel room I changed into my bikini and headed down to the hotel’s pool/spa. It was empty, thank god, so I had prime choosing of seating. The chairs were the typical black metal ones with comfy pillows for the butt and back, all of them facing the pool. The pool itself was beautiful, dotted with blue, green and white tiles with a picture of an oasis in the middle. Fake palm and tropical looking trees spotted the outside edge, glass walls faced out onto the hotels backyard golf course which was still visible this late at night.

I set my towels down and removed the large t-shirt I had warn down. My toes slid into the water first off, feeling the warm temperature of the water I decided to just dump the rest of my body in head and all. I spun around under the water and ran my fingers through my hair. The water made me feel so free, stress-less, so normal.

My head emerged from the water as I swam over to the steps that led into the water. My arms push the rest of myself up onto the underwater stairs as I laid down and looked towards the ceiling. My eyes began to close and I lost myself in my own thoughts, something I hadn’t done in awhile.

“Ah, Hello? Bonjour…?” I heard a soft voice say behind me.

“Uhhh… Hi?” I said as I sat up from the water and looked at my wrinkly fingers, How long was in here for? I turned my head around to see a medium sized, muscular man with orange-brown hair looking down on me. I was clearly in the way of getting into the pool so I scooted myself off the stair.

“Sorry I just thought I recognized you…” He blushed a little as his, what seem to be French accent, flooded my ears, “Sorry.”

I smiled back at him, he was literally the cutest guy I had ever seen, “Don’t worry about it, but if you don’t mind me asking, what’s your accent?”

He smirked and moved into the water, “French Canadian, take it as you’re here for spring break or something?” His smile was quite infectious.

“Nope! I’m here with friends for hockey!” His smile faded and a concerned look washed over his face.

“I know who you are now…” He mumbled as he sat on the underwater stairs and looked at me, “Shauna, the Buffalo Sabre.”

I gave him a confused look and pushed myself a little further out into the water. “Yes… that’s me…”

“You really don’t know who I am?” He asked as a smirk moved back onto his face.

I answered with a shake of my head. His face looked kind of familiar, like someone you see on TV once or twice but then again it didn’t.

“You know you should know your rivals.”

Rivals, Rivals? Maple Leafs? “You play for the Maple Leafs?”

It was his turn to shake his head, I must of sounded so dumb. “I’m Claude Giroux,” He paused chuckled a little and then continued, “Of the Flyers.”

It hit me, Claude, the latest killer of Buffalo Sabre dreams.

“Ohhhhhhh! Sorry I’m bad with faces.” I actually was pretty good with identifying famous NHL faces but i guess my lack of interest, before a few weeks ago, in the NHL had gotten th best of me.

“Uh huh, Sure…” His paused a little and looked around, “Mind if I come in for a cool off?”

“No, I mean I don’t own this pool soooo…” He smiled and push himself off the side of the pool, swimming all the way to the other side underneath the water. His chiseled arms and back glimmered underneath the water, I couldn’t help but look. I’m single right now, I’m defiantly single. I giggled to myself as he popped up out of the water and shook his head off. Good thing I’m legal. He looked back towards me and smiled as he ran his fingers through the shaggy hair that was capturing a lot of my attention.

He wagged his finger at me as he began to speak again, “Bad idea little one, bad idea.”

I tilted my head and acted as if I had no idea what he was talking about. Was there really anything wrong with looking? Bobby wasn’t my boyfriend and the ‘fathers’ weren’t here, I was somewhat in the clear, minus the barely legal thing.

“Bad idea? I’m just trying to swim Giroux.” I said in a deceitful tone. He smiled and pushed his way off the far wall again and ended up about 3 feet from me, close to the steps. His head popped up again and he smiled as I turned around. He was the one flirting, not me.

“So 19 eh? A Shattuck kid? You’re just golden aren’t you.” He winked as he swam around me so we faced each other.

“You know so much,” I smirked, “and yet… so little.” And with that I lifted myself up and out of the pool. His eyes scanned my long legs as I looked down on him. “Want something?” I asked with my arms crossed across my chest and my body weight shifted on one leg, the ultimate bitch stance.

His eyes went wide for a second and he licked his lips as he shook his head. “Food?”

I tried to think of what he meant, if it was an innuendo or not, but decided it wasn’t especially by his facial expression. “McDonalds is the only thing I know of…”

“Chick-Fil-A, I’ll drive, you seem down enough to be able to hang with me.”

I gave him an eye roll and agreed, Maybe we did just meet but I was hungry, and he seemed decent. He told me he’d have to change, and obviously I’d have to too, into different clothes and then we’d meet down in the lobby. Incognito was not an option so if a different NHLer happened to see us we’d both be screwed but I took luck of the draw.

My outfit was simple, no need to impress a Flyer, black Adidas shorts and a pink V-neck with Nike shoes. I slipped my hair back into a ponytail and headed downstairs. He was already waiting with his truck pulled up, he explained along the ride him and the other allstar Flyers had driven down together. I told him about my ride, Pat and Jon, which he somehow already knew about, and how Ennis had basically disappeared after the plane ride.

We arrived at Chick-Fil-A 10 minutes later. It was dead so we decided to eat in, the boys wouldn’t be back for a while anyways and Claude said his guys would probably think he’s out drinking. That lead to the whole age conversation, somehow that always came up in conversations surrounding me.

“So how old are you?” He asked as he stole one of my fries, he’d actually paid for, and dipped into his chocolate milkshake. For an allstar he eats just like me, weird.

“19 as of January. What about you?”

“23... As of January my darling.” He winked and took a swig of his milkshake.

“4 years, gross much? Shouldn’t you be married by now?” I playfully said with a raised eye brow.

“Oh ok Shauna, you’re here with me aren’t you? And anyways I’d be a senior and you’d be a freshman in university, it‘s not illegal!”

I nodded off and continued eating my food, He’d win this battle. But you are a Flyer.

We continued small talking for a good hour before he dropped a hint that’d he wanted to do this again. I laughed it off while sipping my drink, I think he was ignoring the fact that I was his rival. Our conversation was effortless, it almost made me forget that minor issue. Claude dismissed himself after a while to use the restroom while I finished off my milkshake and answered my parents texts.

“So wanna get out of here?” Claude asked with a devilish smile appearing across his face as he crept up behind me.

“Sure, Jon and Pat texted me saying they’d be back in two hours at the earliest.”

“Daddy watch?” He let out a soft chuckle and swung his arm around my shoulders, “Just kidding, We have plenty of time then eh?”

I smiled and nodded up at him as we left Chick-Fil-A with full stomachs. “Don’t you want to party with your allstars though? I mean I brought my Laguna Beach DVDs, I can handle a night alone.”

“Partying with a bunch of drunk men or hanging out with a Buffalo Sabre… you’re so right…” He joked as he opened my door and closed it, like a gentleman.

I waited for him to climb into the other side “Well now that you put it that way… ew, you’re Flyer, Bring me home.”

“Nope I’m going to… uhhh,” He blushed and looked out his window before putting the truck in reverse and driving out of the parking lot, “I forgot what the word is.”

I couldn’t help but laugh, he gave me a sad puppy dog face then spitted out random words, most of them correlated with ‘kidnapped’ but I let him keep going until he gave up.

“I don’t know the word, help me!” He looked at me as we came to a red light.

“Tell me where we are going and I’ll tell you the word.”

“A state park, now tell me!” I smiled back at him, A state park? What’s there even to do there.

“Kidnap… duhhhh” He stuck out his tongue at me as he turned up the country station on his radio. Brad Paisley’s “Water” started playing as we pulled into the park. The sun had gone down a while ago so the woods looked beyond sketchy, Then again it was nothing compared to family camping trips up in the Adirondacks with black bears roaming freely.

We drove for another half hour listening to the radio in a comfortable silence. His hand at some point reached over and intertwined with mine., which felt nice. The minute it happened I looked over at him and he gave me a cheesy full teeth smile back, like a little kid. I shook my head but kept my fingers where they were. Eventually we reached the spot as Claude turned the truck off and climbed out. He opened and shut my door again then told me to wait as he grabbed two beers from the cooler in his truck. We then started our trek down the beaten path.

The walk took about 5 minutes before the path turned into a beach. The water was illuminated by the bright moon but you still couldn’t see the other side. My question was how Claude knew of this place when he wasn’t from here. He turned around to face me and grabbed a hold of my hand, “My Hurricane friend!” He answered my question without me even asking.

I smiled back at him and let go of his hand as I went down to where the water brushed the sand. He followed down after slipping off his shoes, which was a good idea, so I did the same and threw them back up the shore.

“I want to swim…” He said with a conniving smile as he moved up next to me. I looked back at him with an eyebrow raise and a smirk plastered across my face. Nope.

“We don’t have towels.” or swimsuits…

“I know I was kidding, sit!” He replied with a wink and patted the ground next to wear he sat.

I obeyed him and sat down, looking over at where I imagined the lake ended. It was quiet, with only wildlife making sounds. There was no wind so the only water sounds were when a fish or something jumped.

“Do you like this?” Claude asked before laying down on his back and shutting his eyes. I watched as he chest rose with every breath, something about him was captivating.

“Yeah…” His eyes opened and looked into mine, “It reminds me of home.”

“Must be nice playing for them.”

“It is… I don’t think I’d be able to do it anywhere else.” He smiled but his eyes turned a darker shade. “What’s wrong?”

“I wish I could.”

“Play for your home team? Ottawa?”

“No, just go home, see my family,” His eyes shut and he folded his arms behind his head, “I get homesick easy.”

I understood where he was coming from, it was how I was at BC and Shattuck. Teammates might become family but they were never your real family, your blood.

“I understand.” I had no idea what else to say.

He smiled up at me, with his eyes opening up, and wrapped his arm around my torso while pushing himself up with his other arm. As soon as our bodies were align he dropped his head onto my shoulder.

“I like this.” He whispered as he raised his head and pushed my hair back off my face.

“What?”

“Having someone to talk to. At least for one night.”

He must of realized what I had been thinking the whole time, We’re rivals. If media ever got control of this it’d be bad, very bad.

“We should probably get going.” I needed to make it back before the boys.

“Yeah I was just thinking that…” He sighed before standing up and extended a hand for me that I graciously accepted.

We small talked the way back to the hotel again. He talked about his family, friends and past teammates. His was background was different than mine but yet I connected with every story. We were brought up similar ways, we shared the same morals and what not. He never mentioned one thing about hockey though, which actually made me more comfortable. I kept my tongue tied about Bobby, there was no point in bringing that up considering this would be the only night I spent with Claude. He also didn’t bring up my whole Pittsburgh ordeal, which was the head news of the NHL all summer so I bet he had seen it.

We got back to the hotel with perfect timing, about an hour before the boys said they’d show up. As I hopped out of the truck I couldn’t help but smile, Claude just seemed to be such a sweetheart and he was the first hockey boy, besides Pat and Jon, I could share these things with.

“You know I would like your number.” Claude said as he swiped his hotel key into the side door entrance of the hotel.

I smiled and shook my head as we looked around for any media, He mouthed ‘coast is clear’ as I strode inside. “I don’t know…”

He smiled and raised an eyebrow as the elevator door opened and we walked in. I pushed my floor’s button and he pressed his as I waited for his response.

“So do I say goodbye?” He asked after we stood in silence for a minute before the door opened to my floor.

“For tonight,” I stepped my foot in the door so that it couldn’t close, “Let me see your phone.”

He smiled as he retrieved it from his pocket and handed it to me. I added my name and number before shutting it off and handing it back to it’s owner.

“I’ll see you at the game tomorrow though right?”

“You will, better score a good one.” He laughed and rubbed the back of his neck as the elevator buzzed warning the door was closing.

In an instant I felt his lips on my cheek and his arms around my waist. At first I was shocked but then his warmth came over me, making me want to melt right there. His face pulled back and his soft eyes peered into my eyes. Smirks spread across both of our faces before I let out a small chuckle and walked away from the door with a wave back at him.

My room was dark and cold as I entered, signaling the boys hadn’t gotten there before me. I grabbed myself a granola bar and headed into my bedroom for the night. The boys would check on my an hour later, after they arrived, but would see me passed out underneath the covers and snuggled up to my pillow.

“She’s going to change this whole league you know?” Pat whispered to Jon
“She’s already started.”