Cursing at the Wind
Chapter 2
At practice the following day Jonathan decided to ask Sharpy if anything had happened with Adrienne the night before.
“Hey Sharpy.”
“What’s up To-Ews,” Sharpy said, purposely mispronouncing his name.
“I was just wondering if something had happened last night with my sister. She seemed kind of upset after talking to you.”
“Listen man she had a depressed cloud floating over her even when she was smiling. I had nothing to do with it.”
“Yeah, there's something up with her.”
“Guess its up to you to find out.”
Sharpy tapped Jonathan's helmet with his stick before skating away.
“Everything ok?” Patrick asked Jonathan.
“Nothing I can’t take care of.”
“So I was wondering if it was ok for me to ask your sister out.”
“Yeah, it's all right but I gotta warn you that she's not herself lately.”
“I'm sure I can handle it.”
“Hey kids, do you want to come to lunch with us?” Adam asked Jonathan and Patrick as they headed out of the arena.
“Sure, I'm starving.”
A small group of them went to lunch and then to Jonathan's house to relax in the pool, heated of course.
“Adrienne I'm home!” Jonathan yelled when he walked into the house.
“She must be out back or something.”
The guys changed into their trunks and prepared to make the quick sprint to the pool. It was January and about thirty degrees out.
When they got to the door they noticed Adrienne standing by the pool simply in black boy shorts and a t-shirt. She seemed to be angrily yelling into her phone and Jonathan knew exactly whom she was talking to.
“That is definitely my father she is yelling at,” he said to the guys.
After a couple more minutes of yelling she hung up the phone and turned to the door, surprised to see all the guys staring at her.
Jonathan opened the door.
“How are mom and dad?” he asked.
“Livid but they’ll be fine.”
“Hey let me see that phone for a minute?” Adam asked.
She handed him her phone and he looked at it for a second before passing it on to Sharpy and grabbing Adrienne.
“Oh god no!” he ran to the pool and jumped inside with Adrienne in his arms.
“God it feels good to do that,” Adam said when they broke the surface.
“I hate guys like you.”
“I bet you really love us.”
The rest of the guys got into the pool and Patrick swam right up to Adrienne.
“I'll keep you warm if you want.”
“It’s a heated pool Patrick but you get an ‘A’ for effort.”
“Now I feel special.”
She smiled and reached for the hem of her shirt, pulling it over her head.
“Adrienne you better be wearing a bra under there,” Jonathan said.
“God J, of course I am.”
“I wouldn’t mind if she wasn’t,” Adam said.
“That’s my sister you're talking about bro,” Jonathan defended.
“I'm sorry, would you rather I say she's unattractive?”
“Then we would all know you were lying,” Sharpy said, his answer surprising Adrienne.
He swam to her before pulling her away from the group of guys.
“What are you doing?” she asked.
“I can't talk to you?”
“Last time you talked to me you made me feel like an idiot.”
“Well I promise that wasn’t my intention.”
“For some reason I find that hard to believe, especially after you suggested Patrick to me. You deliberately put me on the edge just for sheer amusement.”
“Well what else is a man supposed to do when an attractive young girl tells him she's attracted to him? Besides, I know you liked the attention just like you do now.”
She looked up at him and he smiled at her, Adrienne's heart starting to speed up again.
“Now I bet your heart is beating real fast again, right?”
“Just about.”
He slipped his arm around her waist and brought his lips to her ear.
“Good to know I can do it anywhere.”
With his hand gently rubbing her stomach and his mouth so close to her ear suddenly took Adrienne back to time that had completely mentally screwed Adrienne up.
She pulled back from him, her breathing speeding up and eyes tearing up.
“Whoa, Adrienne what's wrong?” He tried to grab her hand but she wouldn’t let him touch her. “Adrienne let me…”
“No!” she yelled, the guys turning to them. “I need to go.”
She pushed herself out of the pool and grabbed her shirt before running inside.
“What the hell did you do to my sister?” Jonathan angrily asked as he got out of the pool. “First last night and now? Just stay away from her,” he said before running inside.
“Hey man, what’d you say to her?” Adam asked.
“Nothing.”
“She seemed pretty upset.”
“Well she's a weird little one. I'm going to get going, I'm not in the mood to hear Jonathan's wrath.”
“You're going to have to answer to him eventually.”
“Not today. Later guys.”
“See you Sharpy.”
When he walked inside he could hear Adrienne crying upstairs and Jonathan trying to calm her down. He felt bad, he really did, but he just didn’t know what he had done wrong. He shrugged and dried himself off before getting dressed and leaving.
“Adrienne what is going on?” Jonathan asked through her closed room door.
“Leave me alone Jonathan.”
“No. I don’t like seeing you like this. Did Sharpy touch you? Is that why you're upset?”
“It’s not him.”
“Really? Because it always seems to be him that upsets you.”
“Jonathan I hate myself.”
“Adrienne I don’t like to hear you say things like that. Please just open the door.”
There was a moment of silence and she finally opened the door.
“Thank you. Now tell me what's wrong. What happened to you?”
“I'm ashamed to say.”
He sat her down.
“You can tell me anything.”
“Back in New York I was um… Fuck, Jonathan I was raped.”
Jonathan stared in disbelief.
“What?”
She dropped her head in shame, crying even harder.
“Who did… why didn’t you tell me?”
“I was too humiliated. I've always been so tough and would never let something like that happen to me but it did and I just couldn’t bring myself to admit it.”
He pulled her into a hug.
“God Adrienne, I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry I wasn’t there to protect you.”
“It’s all my fault Jonathan.”
“Don’t even think about blaming yourself for this. Whatever fucking asshole did this is the only one you can blame. How did it happen?”
“It was at a Sigma Pi costume party. I didn’t want to go, I mean you know I've always hated fraternities and sororities but my friend begged me so I went. I had been drinking but not to the point where I didn’t know what I was doing. I had seen my friend taken upstairs by some guy and wanted to make sure she was ok so I started up. I was walking down the room hallway when this one guy came up behind me and put his arms around my waist. Everything happened so fast. He pulled me into his room and locked the door, turning the music up real high so nobody could hear. I tried to fight him off but he had my wrists pinned down over my head and he just…”
It broke Jonathan's heart to see his younger sister so broken.
“Hey hey, it's ok. You don’t have to say anymore.”
“I confronted him the day after and he told me not to sweat it, that I was great. He made me feel like some sort of achievement. I tried to stay at school but I saw him everywhere and I couldn’t take it anymore. You're the only person I could come to J. You’ve always been there for me no matter what and I just needed my big brother.”
“I'll always be here for you, no matter what and I swear I'm going to kill the guy that did this to you.”
“No, it's over with Jonathan. He’s not worth your time.”
“He can't just get away with it.”
“It’ll come back to him. He’ll get what he deserves. Promise me you won't do anything.”
He nodded.
“I promise.”
He ran his hand through her hair and kissed her forehead.
“So with Sharpy, why do you get so upset around him?”
“I haven’t been this close to someone since it happened. His hand around my waist and when he spoke into my ear… god this has completely screwed me up. How am I ever going to be able to be with someone and not be able to think about it?”
“It’s going to take time but you should know Sharpy is a good guy.”
“He probably thinks I'm crazy.”
“I'm sure he’ll understand when you tell him.”
“Tell him? No way, there is no way he can ever know about this. Not him or any of the other guys.”
“What if you end up getting close to one of the guys?”
“When the time comes I'll decide what to do. As for now I just need to try and get over freaking out whenever someone gets too close. I know not everyone is out to get me but it's not easy.”
He rubbed her arms.
“I know. Do you want me to tell the guys to go home?”
“No. I'm gonna shower and get out of the house for a while. Go see a movie or something.”
“By yourself?”
“I'll be fine.”
“All right but you call me if anything.”
“I will.”
He walked out of the room and she jumped into the shower, soon on her way to the movies.
“Is she ok?” Adam asked Jonathan when he got back into the pool.
“Yeah, she's just dealing with some stuff right now.”
“Are you all right man?”
“I’m not but it's out of my hands.”
The guys decided not to press and changed the conversation.
Two weeks later
Another win for the Blackhawks meant another night of celebrating. The guys were surprised when they saw Adrienne walk through the door of O’Malleys with Jonathan. She had been missing in action since the day the guys were over at Jonathan's house and if they hadn’t asked Jonathan about her they would probably think she had moved out of Chicago. The only one that had seen her was Patrick who formed a pretty close relationship with her, similar to Adrienne's relationship with Jonathan.
“Whoa! What a treat we have here,” Adam said to her.
“Hey guys.”
“Where have you been?”
“Around.”
“Not us.”
“Nope, that I haven’t been.”
“Well take a seat girl.”
She sat down between Sharpy and Duncan and ordered a beer.
“Finally the kid is back,” Patrick said, gripping Adrienne's shoulders.
Once she had her beer Sharpy nudged her shoulder and motioned for her to get up and follow him. He led her to a quiet booth and sat down with her.
“How have you been?” he asked.
“Good you know, just busy.”
“With what?”
She shrugged.
“Just kind of wandering around the city, trying to find something to entertain myself with while Jonathan is out of town or playing. I spend a lot of time with Kaner actually.”
“Oh yeah? You guys must be close then.”
“We are.”
“Hm.”
“Oh wait but not like that. God no. I look at Patrick and see Jonathan.”
“So there's no one that you're seeing?”
She shook her head.
“No.”
“Look Adrienne that first night we met I was an asshole, I'll admit it. Then in the pool I did something that really upset you and I want you to know that wasn’t my intention at all.”
“I know. It wasn’t you Patrick, it was me. I've been going through some things and as embarrassing as it is to admit it they’ve kind of messed me up.”
“Have you talked to anyone about it?”
“The last time I freaked out with you Jonathan got it out of me but he's the only one that knows.”
“You can tell me.”
“I can't. I mean I could barely make myself tell Jonathan. You would be impossible.”
“Well if you ever do want to tell me I'm here to listen.”
“Thanks Sharpy.”
Cautiously he put his arm around her.
“Is this ok?”
She chuckled.
“I've progressed since we last saw each other.”
“Yeah?”
He leaned forward and brushed his lips against hers.
“That is progress,” he said when she didn’t flinch.
“You still make my heart beat real fast though.”
“That I'd like to keep the way it is.”
He swooped in for another kiss but this time he really kissed her.
“Good lord, will you look at Sharpy and Adrienne,” Adam said.
“Jonathan how are you going to kill him?” Duncan asked.
“I'm not. If she likes him and he likes her then I have no objections.”
Jonathan watched as Sharpy caressed Adrienne's face and kissed her forehead. You only treated someone that way if you really cared about them and he knew Sharpy cared about his sister.
Adrienne and Sharpy spent the entire night talking and occasionally making out.
It was close to two when Jonathan came over.
“Hey Adrienne you ready to go?” he asked her.
She nodded; Sharpy getting up so Adrienne could slide out of the booth.
“So I'll see you tomorrow, all right?” Sharpy said to Adrienne.
She nodded and he pulled her up to him to kiss her.
“All right all right, I'm right here,” Jonathan said
Adrienne rolled her eyes and pulled away from Sharpy.
“Night.”
Sharpy smiled and watched the siblings walk away, Jonathan putting his arm around his younger sister as they headed out the door.
“I'm really happy you're opening up to Sharpy,” Jonathan said to Adrienne on their way home. “He may be a pain in the ass but he's a good guy and I can tell you're happy with him.”
“Well we were able to talk and he understands.”
“So you told him?”
“No but he understands it's really personal and if I ever do decide to tell him he’ll be ready to listen.”
“You know he's close to eight years older than you right?”
She shrugged.
“I don’t really care.”
Jonathan chuckled.
“My little sister dating a teammate. Why am I not surprised?”
“I guess looking back at everything else I have ever done or dated you wouldn’t be,” she said, sounding disappointed at herself.
“Hey.” She turned to him. “I admire you because you never went with the crowd and always made your own decisions. Never feel bad or regret the things you have done.”
“Except one.”
“You didn’t do that, a monster did.”
She leaned her head back on the seat.
“I guess mom and dad lied when they said they didn’t exist.”
Jonathan looked over to her but she was looking out the window. If he could get his hands on the guys that did this he would do serious damage.
It was close to ten in the morning when the doorbell rang at the Toews house. Jonathan picked up his bowl of cereal and went to open the door.
“You're here early,” Jonathan said to Sharpy.
“Thought I'd take Adrienne to breakfast.”
“Well go on up and ask her.”
“You don’t want to come?”
“Got my breakfast right here,” he said, lifting up his bowl of cereal as he walked back to the kitchen.
Sharpy shrugged and walked up the stairs.
Adrienne sat on her bed with her laptop in front of her when there was a knock on the door.
“Come in.”
“Are you decent?”
The voice wasn’t Jonathan's but Sharpy's.
“Somewhat.”
“I'll take that.”
He walked into the room and sat down next to her.
“Morning.”
She smiled as he kissed her.
“What are you doing here so early?”
“Wanted to take you to breakfast.”
“All right let me get dressed.”
She went to stand but he grabbed her arm and pulled her back down.
“Not so fast.”
He started kissing her and gently pushed her back onto the bed. Everything was going good until he grabbed one of her wrists.
“Stop,” she said, pushing him off her and sitting up.
“I'm sorry, what did I do?”
“My wrist, you grabbed it.”
“I didn’t mean it in a bad way.”
“I know, just don’t it again, please.”
“Yeah of course.” He pushed her hair out of her face. “I'm sorry.”
She gave him a weary smile and stood up.
“I'm going to get dressed.”
“I'll wait downstairs.”
“Ok.”
He walked out of the room and shut the door behind him.
“You all right man?” Jonathan asked Sharpy when he walked into the kitchen.
“Yeah, she just kind of freaked out again.”
“I don’t want details but were you rough with her?”
“Not intentionally but I guess grabbing her wrist sort of was.”
“Don’t do that man. Don’t do anything you think is too much. In fact if she doesn’t do it then you shouldn’t.”
“Why? What happened man?”
“I'm not entitled to say. If she thinks you should know she’ll tell you but don’t press her or pressure her into anything because then I'll have to kick your ass.”
“I promise I won't Tazer. You haven’t found that playoffs shirt of yours yet have you?”
“Nope but I'm pretty sure I know who has it.”
“Beats me,” Sharpy said with a sly smile.
Of course he had taken it but he would never admit it until he was ready to return it.
Adrienne walked into the kitchen.
“Ready?” Sharpy asked.
She nodded.
“Bye J, I love you.”
“Love you too Adrienne. Take care of my sister Sharpy.”
“Always.”
“Hey Sharpy.”
“What’s up To-Ews,” Sharpy said, purposely mispronouncing his name.
“I was just wondering if something had happened last night with my sister. She seemed kind of upset after talking to you.”
“Listen man she had a depressed cloud floating over her even when she was smiling. I had nothing to do with it.”
“Yeah, there's something up with her.”
“Guess its up to you to find out.”
Sharpy tapped Jonathan's helmet with his stick before skating away.
“Everything ok?” Patrick asked Jonathan.
“Nothing I can’t take care of.”
“So I was wondering if it was ok for me to ask your sister out.”
“Yeah, it's all right but I gotta warn you that she's not herself lately.”
“I'm sure I can handle it.”
“Hey kids, do you want to come to lunch with us?” Adam asked Jonathan and Patrick as they headed out of the arena.
“Sure, I'm starving.”
A small group of them went to lunch and then to Jonathan's house to relax in the pool, heated of course.
“Adrienne I'm home!” Jonathan yelled when he walked into the house.
“She must be out back or something.”
The guys changed into their trunks and prepared to make the quick sprint to the pool. It was January and about thirty degrees out.
When they got to the door they noticed Adrienne standing by the pool simply in black boy shorts and a t-shirt. She seemed to be angrily yelling into her phone and Jonathan knew exactly whom she was talking to.
“That is definitely my father she is yelling at,” he said to the guys.
After a couple more minutes of yelling she hung up the phone and turned to the door, surprised to see all the guys staring at her.
Jonathan opened the door.
“How are mom and dad?” he asked.
“Livid but they’ll be fine.”
“Hey let me see that phone for a minute?” Adam asked.
She handed him her phone and he looked at it for a second before passing it on to Sharpy and grabbing Adrienne.
“Oh god no!” he ran to the pool and jumped inside with Adrienne in his arms.
“God it feels good to do that,” Adam said when they broke the surface.
“I hate guys like you.”
“I bet you really love us.”
The rest of the guys got into the pool and Patrick swam right up to Adrienne.
“I'll keep you warm if you want.”
“It’s a heated pool Patrick but you get an ‘A’ for effort.”
“Now I feel special.”
She smiled and reached for the hem of her shirt, pulling it over her head.
“Adrienne you better be wearing a bra under there,” Jonathan said.
“God J, of course I am.”
“I wouldn’t mind if she wasn’t,” Adam said.
“That’s my sister you're talking about bro,” Jonathan defended.
“I'm sorry, would you rather I say she's unattractive?”
“Then we would all know you were lying,” Sharpy said, his answer surprising Adrienne.
He swam to her before pulling her away from the group of guys.
“What are you doing?” she asked.
“I can't talk to you?”
“Last time you talked to me you made me feel like an idiot.”
“Well I promise that wasn’t my intention.”
“For some reason I find that hard to believe, especially after you suggested Patrick to me. You deliberately put me on the edge just for sheer amusement.”
“Well what else is a man supposed to do when an attractive young girl tells him she's attracted to him? Besides, I know you liked the attention just like you do now.”
She looked up at him and he smiled at her, Adrienne's heart starting to speed up again.
“Now I bet your heart is beating real fast again, right?”
“Just about.”
He slipped his arm around her waist and brought his lips to her ear.
“Good to know I can do it anywhere.”
With his hand gently rubbing her stomach and his mouth so close to her ear suddenly took Adrienne back to time that had completely mentally screwed Adrienne up.
She pulled back from him, her breathing speeding up and eyes tearing up.
“Whoa, Adrienne what's wrong?” He tried to grab her hand but she wouldn’t let him touch her. “Adrienne let me…”
“No!” she yelled, the guys turning to them. “I need to go.”
She pushed herself out of the pool and grabbed her shirt before running inside.
“What the hell did you do to my sister?” Jonathan angrily asked as he got out of the pool. “First last night and now? Just stay away from her,” he said before running inside.
“Hey man, what’d you say to her?” Adam asked.
“Nothing.”
“She seemed pretty upset.”
“Well she's a weird little one. I'm going to get going, I'm not in the mood to hear Jonathan's wrath.”
“You're going to have to answer to him eventually.”
“Not today. Later guys.”
“See you Sharpy.”
When he walked inside he could hear Adrienne crying upstairs and Jonathan trying to calm her down. He felt bad, he really did, but he just didn’t know what he had done wrong. He shrugged and dried himself off before getting dressed and leaving.
“Adrienne what is going on?” Jonathan asked through her closed room door.
“Leave me alone Jonathan.”
“No. I don’t like seeing you like this. Did Sharpy touch you? Is that why you're upset?”
“It’s not him.”
“Really? Because it always seems to be him that upsets you.”
“Jonathan I hate myself.”
“Adrienne I don’t like to hear you say things like that. Please just open the door.”
There was a moment of silence and she finally opened the door.
“Thank you. Now tell me what's wrong. What happened to you?”
“I'm ashamed to say.”
He sat her down.
“You can tell me anything.”
“Back in New York I was um… Fuck, Jonathan I was raped.”
Jonathan stared in disbelief.
“What?”
She dropped her head in shame, crying even harder.
“Who did… why didn’t you tell me?”
“I was too humiliated. I've always been so tough and would never let something like that happen to me but it did and I just couldn’t bring myself to admit it.”
He pulled her into a hug.
“God Adrienne, I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry I wasn’t there to protect you.”
“It’s all my fault Jonathan.”
“Don’t even think about blaming yourself for this. Whatever fucking asshole did this is the only one you can blame. How did it happen?”
“It was at a Sigma Pi costume party. I didn’t want to go, I mean you know I've always hated fraternities and sororities but my friend begged me so I went. I had been drinking but not to the point where I didn’t know what I was doing. I had seen my friend taken upstairs by some guy and wanted to make sure she was ok so I started up. I was walking down the room hallway when this one guy came up behind me and put his arms around my waist. Everything happened so fast. He pulled me into his room and locked the door, turning the music up real high so nobody could hear. I tried to fight him off but he had my wrists pinned down over my head and he just…”
It broke Jonathan's heart to see his younger sister so broken.
“Hey hey, it's ok. You don’t have to say anymore.”
“I confronted him the day after and he told me not to sweat it, that I was great. He made me feel like some sort of achievement. I tried to stay at school but I saw him everywhere and I couldn’t take it anymore. You're the only person I could come to J. You’ve always been there for me no matter what and I just needed my big brother.”
“I'll always be here for you, no matter what and I swear I'm going to kill the guy that did this to you.”
“No, it's over with Jonathan. He’s not worth your time.”
“He can't just get away with it.”
“It’ll come back to him. He’ll get what he deserves. Promise me you won't do anything.”
He nodded.
“I promise.”
He ran his hand through her hair and kissed her forehead.
“So with Sharpy, why do you get so upset around him?”
“I haven’t been this close to someone since it happened. His hand around my waist and when he spoke into my ear… god this has completely screwed me up. How am I ever going to be able to be with someone and not be able to think about it?”
“It’s going to take time but you should know Sharpy is a good guy.”
“He probably thinks I'm crazy.”
“I'm sure he’ll understand when you tell him.”
“Tell him? No way, there is no way he can ever know about this. Not him or any of the other guys.”
“What if you end up getting close to one of the guys?”
“When the time comes I'll decide what to do. As for now I just need to try and get over freaking out whenever someone gets too close. I know not everyone is out to get me but it's not easy.”
He rubbed her arms.
“I know. Do you want me to tell the guys to go home?”
“No. I'm gonna shower and get out of the house for a while. Go see a movie or something.”
“By yourself?”
“I'll be fine.”
“All right but you call me if anything.”
“I will.”
He walked out of the room and she jumped into the shower, soon on her way to the movies.
“Is she ok?” Adam asked Jonathan when he got back into the pool.
“Yeah, she's just dealing with some stuff right now.”
“Are you all right man?”
“I’m not but it's out of my hands.”
The guys decided not to press and changed the conversation.
Two weeks later
Another win for the Blackhawks meant another night of celebrating. The guys were surprised when they saw Adrienne walk through the door of O’Malleys with Jonathan. She had been missing in action since the day the guys were over at Jonathan's house and if they hadn’t asked Jonathan about her they would probably think she had moved out of Chicago. The only one that had seen her was Patrick who formed a pretty close relationship with her, similar to Adrienne's relationship with Jonathan.
“Whoa! What a treat we have here,” Adam said to her.
“Hey guys.”
“Where have you been?”
“Around.”
“Not us.”
“Nope, that I haven’t been.”
“Well take a seat girl.”
She sat down between Sharpy and Duncan and ordered a beer.
“Finally the kid is back,” Patrick said, gripping Adrienne's shoulders.
Once she had her beer Sharpy nudged her shoulder and motioned for her to get up and follow him. He led her to a quiet booth and sat down with her.
“How have you been?” he asked.
“Good you know, just busy.”
“With what?”
She shrugged.
“Just kind of wandering around the city, trying to find something to entertain myself with while Jonathan is out of town or playing. I spend a lot of time with Kaner actually.”
“Oh yeah? You guys must be close then.”
“We are.”
“Hm.”
“Oh wait but not like that. God no. I look at Patrick and see Jonathan.”
“So there's no one that you're seeing?”
She shook her head.
“No.”
“Look Adrienne that first night we met I was an asshole, I'll admit it. Then in the pool I did something that really upset you and I want you to know that wasn’t my intention at all.”
“I know. It wasn’t you Patrick, it was me. I've been going through some things and as embarrassing as it is to admit it they’ve kind of messed me up.”
“Have you talked to anyone about it?”
“The last time I freaked out with you Jonathan got it out of me but he's the only one that knows.”
“You can tell me.”
“I can't. I mean I could barely make myself tell Jonathan. You would be impossible.”
“Well if you ever do want to tell me I'm here to listen.”
“Thanks Sharpy.”
Cautiously he put his arm around her.
“Is this ok?”
She chuckled.
“I've progressed since we last saw each other.”
“Yeah?”
He leaned forward and brushed his lips against hers.
“That is progress,” he said when she didn’t flinch.
“You still make my heart beat real fast though.”
“That I'd like to keep the way it is.”
He swooped in for another kiss but this time he really kissed her.
“Good lord, will you look at Sharpy and Adrienne,” Adam said.
“Jonathan how are you going to kill him?” Duncan asked.
“I'm not. If she likes him and he likes her then I have no objections.”
Jonathan watched as Sharpy caressed Adrienne's face and kissed her forehead. You only treated someone that way if you really cared about them and he knew Sharpy cared about his sister.
Adrienne and Sharpy spent the entire night talking and occasionally making out.
It was close to two when Jonathan came over.
“Hey Adrienne you ready to go?” he asked her.
She nodded; Sharpy getting up so Adrienne could slide out of the booth.
“So I'll see you tomorrow, all right?” Sharpy said to Adrienne.
She nodded and he pulled her up to him to kiss her.
“All right all right, I'm right here,” Jonathan said
Adrienne rolled her eyes and pulled away from Sharpy.
“Night.”
Sharpy smiled and watched the siblings walk away, Jonathan putting his arm around his younger sister as they headed out the door.
“I'm really happy you're opening up to Sharpy,” Jonathan said to Adrienne on their way home. “He may be a pain in the ass but he's a good guy and I can tell you're happy with him.”
“Well we were able to talk and he understands.”
“So you told him?”
“No but he understands it's really personal and if I ever do decide to tell him he’ll be ready to listen.”
“You know he's close to eight years older than you right?”
She shrugged.
“I don’t really care.”
Jonathan chuckled.
“My little sister dating a teammate. Why am I not surprised?”
“I guess looking back at everything else I have ever done or dated you wouldn’t be,” she said, sounding disappointed at herself.
“Hey.” She turned to him. “I admire you because you never went with the crowd and always made your own decisions. Never feel bad or regret the things you have done.”
“Except one.”
“You didn’t do that, a monster did.”
She leaned her head back on the seat.
“I guess mom and dad lied when they said they didn’t exist.”
Jonathan looked over to her but she was looking out the window. If he could get his hands on the guys that did this he would do serious damage.
It was close to ten in the morning when the doorbell rang at the Toews house. Jonathan picked up his bowl of cereal and went to open the door.
“You're here early,” Jonathan said to Sharpy.
“Thought I'd take Adrienne to breakfast.”
“Well go on up and ask her.”
“You don’t want to come?”
“Got my breakfast right here,” he said, lifting up his bowl of cereal as he walked back to the kitchen.
Sharpy shrugged and walked up the stairs.
Adrienne sat on her bed with her laptop in front of her when there was a knock on the door.
“Come in.”
“Are you decent?”
The voice wasn’t Jonathan's but Sharpy's.
“Somewhat.”
“I'll take that.”
He walked into the room and sat down next to her.
“Morning.”
She smiled as he kissed her.
“What are you doing here so early?”
“Wanted to take you to breakfast.”
“All right let me get dressed.”
She went to stand but he grabbed her arm and pulled her back down.
“Not so fast.”
He started kissing her and gently pushed her back onto the bed. Everything was going good until he grabbed one of her wrists.
“Stop,” she said, pushing him off her and sitting up.
“I'm sorry, what did I do?”
“My wrist, you grabbed it.”
“I didn’t mean it in a bad way.”
“I know, just don’t it again, please.”
“Yeah of course.” He pushed her hair out of her face. “I'm sorry.”
She gave him a weary smile and stood up.
“I'm going to get dressed.”
“I'll wait downstairs.”
“Ok.”
He walked out of the room and shut the door behind him.
“You all right man?” Jonathan asked Sharpy when he walked into the kitchen.
“Yeah, she just kind of freaked out again.”
“I don’t want details but were you rough with her?”
“Not intentionally but I guess grabbing her wrist sort of was.”
“Don’t do that man. Don’t do anything you think is too much. In fact if she doesn’t do it then you shouldn’t.”
“Why? What happened man?”
“I'm not entitled to say. If she thinks you should know she’ll tell you but don’t press her or pressure her into anything because then I'll have to kick your ass.”
“I promise I won't Tazer. You haven’t found that playoffs shirt of yours yet have you?”
“Nope but I'm pretty sure I know who has it.”
“Beats me,” Sharpy said with a sly smile.
Of course he had taken it but he would never admit it until he was ready to return it.
Adrienne walked into the kitchen.
“Ready?” Sharpy asked.
She nodded.
“Bye J, I love you.”
“Love you too Adrienne. Take care of my sister Sharpy.”
“Always.”
♠ ♠ ♠
Next chapter will go up either tomorrow or Monday. It also takes place at the 2010 Winter Olympics.