I Never Promised You A Rose Garden

Kassidy's P.O.V.

“COME ON JARED!” I hollered, Alanna and I standing in front of our chairs. There was a minute left in the third and it was still a tie game. They were playing the Kitchener Rangers, and so far neither team was pulling ahead. Jared had the puck and was heading down the ice, and fired off a shot as he was hit into the boards. The shot was easily blocked by the goalie, and some guy on the other team brought it back, and try as they might the Wolves couldn’t keep them out; next thing we knew with just seconds left the Rangers scored to win the game. Needless to say it was a disappointing end to such an intense home game.

“So what… do we wait here for him?” Alanna asked, sounding impatient. I knew she’d only agreed to going so that I would come and watch, but it’s not like I put a gun to her head and told her she had to or anything.

“I think so; he said he wouldn’t be long,” I assured her, although I felt silly standing while everybody else seemed to be leaving the arena.

“Kass?” I turned when I heard my name, and smiled when I saw Jared making his way over to us.

“Hey, good game,”

“No, it sucked. Stop trying to be nice,” he rolled his eyes, obviously disappointed.

“It didn’t suck; you guys just about had them,” I insisted, and he shook his head, grinning.

“Whatever you say. Eric said he’ll just be a minute, then we can go. Any preferences?” he asked.

“Nope,” we both answered, and he smiled.

“Okay then,”

“Hey Jay!” All of a sudden Jared was wrapped up in a one-armed almost headlock, laughing while we stood there shocked at the blonde man who had came out of nowhere.

“Eric! Jesus get off of me!” he laughed. When they both stood up straight I recognized the blonde man as his oldest brother, Eric.

“Good game kiddo, tough break about not winning but you played really good,” he said, and Jared shrugged, even though it was obvious that the compliment from his oldest brother, who was an NHL captain and had won the Stanley Cup, meant a lot.

“Thanks Rick. Oh, by the way, this is Kassidy and Alanna,” he said, motioning to us.

“This is my brother Eric,” he said, and Eric reached to shake our hands.

“Nice to meet you; I usually don’t get to meet any of Jared’s friends from school unless they play on his hockey team. I was starting to wonder if he had any other friends,” Eric teased, making Jared’s cheeks turn a little pink.

“Shut up,”

“Jared! Honey you had a great game!” we both stifled laughs as Jared’s face turned a bright pink, his Mom coming up to him and wrapping him up in a hug, pressing a kiss to his cheek.

“Mom,” he complained, taking a half step away from her and giving us an embarrassed look.

“Oh sorry, I didn’t want to embarrass you in front of your friends. I’m Linda,” she introduced herself to us.

“Kassidy,” I replied, extending my hand and shaking her hand, his father following suit.

“Alanna,”

“Henry,” Jared’s dad told us, and I nodded.

“Eric, where’s Tanya?” Linda asked, and he looked around for a moment before a grin covered his face. It was so easy to tell that he’d found her, Eric seemed to glow at even the thought of his girlfriend.

“Heading over here; she’d just went to the bathroom,” he answered, and seconds later a tall, thin and beautiful blonde girl was in his arms.

“Oh hi! I’m Tanya; Eric’s girlfriend,” she immediately introduced herself, and I nodded, shaking her hand.

“Kassidy; I go to school with Jared,”

“Alanna, I also go to school with Jared,”

“Wow Jared, you sure can pick them,” she grinned at him, and again his face turned fire engine red, and mine was headed there.

“What do you mean Tanya? We’re just friends,”

“Sure Jared, how many other beautiful girls have you invited to your hockey games?” she asked, and then Eric shushed her.

“You’re embarrassing Kassidy!”

“Sorry Kassy,” she said, already coming up with a nickname for me. I liked Tanya, she was the kind of person who you felt like you’d known all your life after a short period of time. “I never get to tease Jared about this! I swear the kid hasn’t had a girlfriend since he was like fourteen!”

“Shut up! Have too!” he defended himself, while his father just shook his head at him.

“All right you two; play nice. Jared are you hungry? Should we go grab a bite to eat?” Henry asked and Eric answered that he could eat, Tanya laughed and said she could too, so they looked to Alanna and I.

“We were gonna grab some pizza with Eric,” Jared piped up, and Henry shrugged.

“So he can come with us; we did drive a lot of hours to come see you Jared,” he reminded him.

“I know, I’m not saying we were gonna ditch you, I was just telling you is all,” Jared said, sounding a little hurt. I’m guessing that being the baby of four with three extremely successful brothers was maybe a little harder than a person thought.

“Okay, sorry to offend you,” Henry held up his hands in mock defeat, and then spotted Jared’s teammate Eric.

“Ready to go grab something to eat?” Henry asked, and Eric grinned, looking at the blonde, eldest Staal brother with the same name in wonder.

“Wow, you’re…”

“Nice to meet you; good game,” Eric said, and Jared’s teammate positively beamed.

“He’s a Carolina fan,” Jared whispered to me in explanation, and I nodded. Considering Eric was an All-Star NHL player most hockey fans would be a little star-struck to meet him. Suddenly Linda seemed to be counting, and a moment after I realized why.

“We aren’t all going to fit in one vehicle,” she announced.

“That’s okay, I can just go home; I don’t want to interrupt your catching up,” I immediately offered, seeing the opportunity to not intrude on a family thing.

“Me too,” Alanna piped up, not having really wanted to come in the first place.

“No! We’ll just have to decide how to split the vehicles,” Linda reassured us over and over that we were more than welcome to come with them, even though we were a little apprehensive.

“Well, why don’t Eric and I go with Kass and Alanna? Then the vehicles won’t be right full or anything,” Jared suggested, and a few minutes later I guess it was decided that we were all going to Pizza Hut. Jared started walking outside, and Alanna and I followed behind him, Eric trailing behind us.

“Where did you park?” Jared asked, completely unfazed by all of this going on.

“Over there. Really, it’s okay; Alanna and I can just go home,”

“No, Kass I invited you, you don’t have to go home,” he firmly insisted, so I dropped it.