Who Wouldn't Want To Be Me

"So this is it? Wow," Becka gasped as she walked in; the two of us carrying as many suitcases as we could handle. I'd had to make a quick two-day trip home to pack everything up to move to Pittsburgh. Uncle Rob and my mom were both in fits, worrying about me and how I was going to get around Pittsburgh by myself, etcetera, etcetera. But we were excited as hell.

"I know! Isn't it cool?" I asked, hauling my bags into the living room and putting them down. We'd taken care of most of the furnishing stuff before I'd went home, and then Becka and I had flown down together.

"Yes! You actually do have good taste in décor, for a boy," she admitted with a smirk, making me snort.

"I guess I'm just in touch with my feminine side," I rolled my eyes, and after sharing a look we busted out into laughter; side splitting, unstoppable laughter.

"Oh my God,"

"I know right?" it took a few minutes for us to get ahold of ourselves and get the rest of our stuff from my car. I loved that; my very own car. Nothing fancy or expensive; it was a 2002 black Alero, but it was mine.

"So if you're an NHL player shouldn't you drive a big-shot, hot rod sports car?" she asked, and I shrugged.

"I'm not making millions a year," I answered, and she rolled her eyes.

"So how many hundred thousands a year are you making?"

"Five hundred fifty five thousand," it had shocked even me, but then I guess I wasn't much above the baseline; the minimum you had to pay a player. But it was still freaking awesome to think that was my starting salary.

"Oh wow, they really jipped you didn't they?" she asked, sarcasm dripping off of her words.

"Oh shut up!" I said, giving her a shove. This led to wrestling and essentially a pillow fight, until there was a knock at the door.

"Hello," I answered the door, opening it to find Jordan standing there.

"Staalsy?"

"Hey! Figured I'd stop by and check out your new digs, I just," his gaze landed on Becka then, lying on the floor, both of us still out of breath from our pillow fight, and I immediately knew he had made the very sick-minded assumption of what we were doing. "Shit, sorry, I'm interrupting. I should've called; I'll come see you later," he began stuttering, trying to make an exit.

"No, it's fine! We were just having a pillow fight," Becka told him, and Jordan raised an eyebrow.

"Seriously, we were," I seconded, and warily he took another step in, enough for me to close the door.

"If you're sure…"

"We're sure,"

"So, this is your girl?" Jordan asked, and while I got embarrassed Becka nodded, reaching to shake his hand. She's obviously a better actress than I am.

"Yeah, I'm Becka Falls, you must be Jordan?" she asked, and he nodded.

"Nice to meet you; I've heard a lot about you from Cam," she told him, and I groaned on the inside. She stood beside me, and then gave me a hip-check, so I put my arm around her shoulders, feeling more awkward than I have in my entire life.

"Likewise,"

"So, you wanna sit down?" I asked. Jordan nodded, making his way towards the couch. I moved a suitcase out of the way, and then sat down across from him in the chair, until Becka gave me a look.

"What?"

"That's totally my chair; I call it," she said, completely straight-faced.

"What? That's bull! I sat in it first," I complained, and saw Jordan trying to stifle his laughter as she crossed her arms.

"Fine, fine; you win," I sighed, standing up and sitting with Jordan on the couch as she made herself comfortable.

"Smart," he approved, making Becka laugh at him.

"He's just a gentleman," she said, giving me an over-played wink. Try as I might to play along, it was awkward for me.

"So how long have you two been together?" he asked, and I looked to Becka. She seemed to have this under control.

"About four months or so, right Cam?"

"Yeah, just past four months," I nodded, and Jordan seemed to relax as we visited. It got easier to fake it, as long as we just joked around and whatever it was easy to pretend that Jordan knew Becka was my best friend and that I was really a girl. The only danger there would be letting something slip on accident.

"Well, I better let you guys finish moving in; you two should come for supper with us; we're heading out to Tailgaters," he asked, and we shared a look.

"I dunno Staalsy; we aren't old enough to be in a bar here, remember?"

"Oh come on; you're a Penguin, they aren't gonna kick you out. Besides, we'll just stay in the restaurant part if you're worried," he shrugged it off like it was no problem whatsoever.

"Well then, I guess I better get ready," Becka said, grabbing two suitcases and hauling them down the hall and out of sight, into one of the bedrooms.

"I guess we're going then," I shrugged, not knowing what else to say. Jordan laughed, and put a hand on my shoulder.

"You'll get used to it. You learn after living with a chick for a while to just go with it; they make a lot of the decisions for you,"

"Thanks for the heads up," I told him, chuckling. Even I knew that with Becka things were mostly her decision; she's a very up-front and in your face type of person, which kind of counter-acted my personality but somehow worked for us.

"Can I ask you a weird question?" Jordan asked a moment later, and I nodded.

"How the hell does someone as quiet as you date someone as… out there as her?" I started to burst out laughing, having wondered when he would come out with this. Jordan and subtlety just don't mesh.

"I don't know; us being best friends has just always worked out. We've been best friends since we can both remember, it's always worked," I told him, not knowing what else to say. Ever since we were like three it had been that way; not that we hadn't had some ups and downs in our friendship caused by Becka's outgoing, do whatever attitude and my more quiet and responsible one, but once we figured it out we knew where the boundaries were and not to push them.

"It just doesn't seem like it should work, you know?" he asked, and I nodded. On more than one occasion I'm sure we'd asked ourselves the same question, as had everybody else who knew us.

"Yeah, I know what you mean. What time were you guys gonna go?" I asked, looking towards the hall. Becka could take hours to get ready.

"Probably in about an hour and a half or so,"

"I don't know if she'll be ready by then or not," I admitted, making him laugh.

"High maintenance?"

"No, just picky. She worries about what people think," I said, and he nodded, sobering up a little.

"That's harsh. Well, how about I go back to my place, then Torrie and I will come back and pick you guys up: I'm guessing you'll get yourself lost on the way there,"

"You're probably right," I rolled my eyes, and after we laughed nodded. "Thanks by the way."

"No problem Cam. See you in a bit," he said, and after a moment he left. I grabbed my bags and wandered down the hall, not sure which bedroom Becka had taken.

"I'm in here! Help me do my hair!" she said, so I dropped my bags and walked in. Becka never had been good at straightening the back of her hair. As I sat on the floor beside her to help her I felt a pang of regret; just last month my hair had been long and pretty like hers was, and I winced to think of the short, choppy cut I now had; one that wasn't very different from Jordan's.

"You miss your long hair, don't you?" she asked, and I nodded, taking the straightener from her and going to work on her hair.

"Yeah. I just about cried when I cut it off," I told her, and she nodded.

"I still don't know how you did it. I don't think I could part with my hair, not after spending so much time growing it out,"

"I know what you mean,"

"Can I try to style it for you?" she asked a moment later. I raised an eyebrow at her, and she rolled her eyes.

"Not style it like a girl's! Spike it up or something all 'manly'," she said, before giggling.

"Okay, whatever you say," I nodded, before both of us burst into laughter again. What I wouldn't give to be letting my best friend put makeup on me and the whole girly thing I normally didn't care for, to be dressing up like a girl and going to a party or a club.

"Hey, don't be a stick in the mud, you wanted to be an NHL player," she reminded me, and I sighed.

"Yeah, but it's nice to be a girl sometimes," I allowed, and she stared at me in mock shock, eyes wide open and staring open-mouthed.

"No way; tomboy of the millennium said what?" she asked, before we started to laugh again.

So after having as close to a 'girls night' as we could without me doing any of the girly stuff, and after Becka made my hair look cool and spiked up we sat in the living room watching TV and waiting for Jordan and Torrie to show up.

"Oh! Just thought of something!" Becka announced, grabbing my hand and pulling me towards the bedrooms.

"What?" I asked, and she rolled her eyes, pulling out a tenser.

"Are you serious? I think this does the trick," I said. I had a sports bra that flattened out my basically non-existent chest, but she shook her head.

"Too obvious; at least with this everybody will assume an injury and not know you have boobs," she said, rolling her eyes. Begrudgingly I agreed to it, and about ten frustrating minutes later had it wrapped around myself. I slipped the tank top back over my head before re-buttoning the nicer dress shirt I'd put on, and to be honest it did sit a little bit nicer, but wasn't as comfortable.

"See? What'd I tell you?" she said, but instead of answering I rolled my eyes when I sat down on the couch again. When the doorbell rang I jumped up to get it, Becka struggling into her high heels.

"Come here," she finally sighed, and obediently I stood beside her and let her use me for balance as she got the second shoe on. I knew how hard it was to try and get into those, I wasn't gonna refuse.

"Aw, aren't you a sweetheart; you could learn a thing or two from him Jordan," Torrie teased him, and while Jordan smiled and rolled his eyes something seemed off.

"Yeah, yeah, thanks for showing me up Bates," there it was; no Cam or Cameron, he was in full 'save face' mode, this was his media face, not the regular old Jordan.

"Sorry Staalsy; she'll kick my ass otherwise," I teased, and Becka swatted me, a tiny bit taller than me in her three and a half inch heels. Torrie was taller than me by about an inch, and then was wearing heels.

"And you let her wear heels that she's taller than you in?" she asked, obviously curious about how this worked.

"They're shoes, does it really matter? I know I'm short," I shrugged, and she seemed even more surprised.

"Jordan, you haven't even properly introduced us," she swatted his arm, trying to be flirtatious I think, but Jordan was kind of off in his own little world.

"Oh, uh, sorry. Torrie this is Cam Bates and Becka Falls. Guys this is Torrie," he said, and I nodded, and Becka gave her an Academy Award-winning smile.

"So nice to meet you! Are you from Pittsburgh?" she gushed, and soon they were gabbing away like nothing, which seemed to help Jordan out.

"So, ready to go?" he asked, and we nodded, making sure we had our keys and locked the door. In the car Becka and Torrie decided to ride in the backseat, still chatting away, while Jordan and I were fairly quiet.

"You guys okay up there?" Becka asked a few minutes later, and I nodded.

"Fine, don't worry," I shot her a smile and saw her eyes flick to Jordan for a millisecond. I manage an almost invisible shrug, and she gave me the tiniest of nods.

"Wow, you guys are like so in tune with each other!" Torrie gushed after some other minute conversation.

"We've been best friends since we were like three," she explained.

"Aww! That's so adorable!"

"Well it's true,"

"Here we are," Jordan announced as he pulled into the parking lot. We got out of the car; Torrie immediately clinging to Jordan's side. Becka gave me a look and I stuck my arm out, letting her slip her arm around mine. We walked in, and the bouncer gave me a weird look, making me feel nervous.

"Whoa, Jake; he's on the team. You're looking at my new winger," Jordan told him, sounding slick and important as he talked to the man who probably could have even taken him.

"Oh, sorry; didn't mean any trouble," he insisted, letting us in the door.

"No problem," I replied, and he looked surprised before smiling to himself. Obviously he wasn't used to having a mistake shrugged off.

"There the guys are," Jordan said, and we weaved our way between tables and people to get to them.

"Hey Staalsy! And who are you two beautiful ladies?"

"Max!" Jordan's smile turned genuine as he gave his old teammate a sort of hug.

"How you doing man? How's life on the dark side?"

"It's not too bad, not too bad. Who's this?" he asked, turning to me.

"Cam Bates; I'm the new kid," I introduced myself, getting a guffaw and what appeared to be an approval from the ex-penguin.

"The new kid? Ha! I like him already!" he declared, which got a grin from me.

"So, I know this beautiful lady is Madamoiselle Torrie, but comment appelle tu?" he asked Becka.

"Becka," she answered, slipping her arm around mine again, as if she felt uncomfortable by Max's attempt at charms.

"You are the new kid's lady?" he asked, his accent butchering his words ever so slightly.

"Yessir," she replied with a grin at me, which I attempted to return.

"Aww, they are cute? No?" Marc asked, and I rolled my eyes as we sat down. We ordered our drinks and Becka and I let the conversation flow around us for the most part.