The Middle

When I woke up the next morning, Ryan was looking at me with a scowl on his face. I raised my eyebrow at him, not understanding just exactly what he upset about.

“Hey, buddy. What’s with the face?”

His scowl didn’t leave his face and I began to worry a little. Ryan held out my phone, as if to hand it to me. My eyes widened slightly, but I tried to remove the “worst-case scenario” from my mind.

“Who’s Jordan and why is he asking about your date tonight?”

My eyes widened even more and I ran my hand over my face. This was not how I wanted to tell Ryan about Jordan.

“He’s just a guy. I met him while you were in treatment yesterday. We’re just going out for dinner tonight. It’s not a big deal.”

Ryan’s mouth dropped open.

“Not a big deal?!? Are you kidding me? What about Pat? I thought you two were like, a couple of something?”

I shook my head as I didn’t know what to say when it came to Pat. A part of me will always have feelings for Pat, especially with how well he is with Ryan. However, he made it clear that the feelings I’m having are not returned.

“I don’t know if it’s gonna work with me and Pat. But that does not change anything between the two of you. I’m not getting in the middle of your friendship with Pat, I’m just not going to date him.”

His shoulders slumped and I felt a small piece of my heart break. I didn’t want to disappoint him, but I knew that hearing I won’t be dating Pat crushed him.

“Oh.” He looked at his hands in his lap. “Okay, then.”

I walked up to Ryan, sat beside him on his bed and put his hands in mine.

“Look, buddy, you like Pat, right?”

He nodded his head.

“And you like spending time with him, right?”

He nodded again. I smiled a small smile.

“Well, none of that has to change. The only thing that changes is that I won’t be dating Pat. Come to think of it, that’s not much of a change, since we were never dating in the first place. So, you have nothing to worry about. Pat will still come to visit you when we go back to Chicago.”

Ryan smiled and pulled me into a hug.

“Thanks, Claire. Why do you always know what to say?”

I scoffed, then laughed lightly.

“I don’t always know what to say. You are the one who patches me up when I need some stitches. I just got lucky this time.”

He smirked and squeezed me a little tighter. When he let go, he looked up at me.

“So, what’s this Jordan guy like?”

I smiled and told him most of what I knew about Jordan. When I got to the point that he was a Pittsburgh Penguin, Ryan laughed.

“Just can’t get away from them hockey players, can you?”

I stuck my tongue out at him.

“Hush you, I’m not going out with him simply because he plays hockey. That’s not my kinda thing to do, you know that.”

Ryan stuck his tongue out slightly before nodding his head.

“Okay, okay. So, what time are you leaving?”

I shrugged my shoulders.

“Not til after his practice, so any time after 3.”

Ryan clapped his hands and a huge smile spread across his face.

“Well then, I challenge you to a duel…….Mario-Kart style.”

I smirked and grabbed the controllers out of the door before standing up to turn on the
Wii. After I turned it on, I turned to face Ryan.

“You’re on, bud.”

The next three hours, Ryan and I bonded over video games, lunch and making silly jokes. I couldn’t remember the last time we had so much fun, just the two of us, since I took him to the Hawks game back in Chicago.

Around 1:30, a nurse came in the room and told Ryan and I that he had another treatment session. Ryan nodded and continued playing Mario Kart. He was playing on his own at the point, while I was eating my lunch. The nurse came up to me and tapped me on the shoulder. I looked up at her and she signaled to meet her in the hallway outside Ryan’s room. I told Ryan I would be back shortly and scooted out of the room. The nurse met me with a somber look on her face.

“Miss Davis, I’m sorry to pull you away from your brother, I just thought I’d give you a heads up.” I nodded as she continued. “The treatment that Ryan’s getting today will be a bit stronger than the one yesterday. When he gets back into his room, he may be very tired. It’s completely normal. If he starts to act funny, like starts to see things that aren’t there, let one of the nurses know, okay? It’s not a major side affect and it can be easily treated. Again, this is not to worry you, I just thought you’d like to know what’s going on with him.”

I nodded and gave the nurse a small smile.

“Thank you very much for informing me. I probably would’ve asked about him being tired, so it’s a good thing you told me. If anything out of the ordinary happens, I will let one of you know.”

The nurse nodded and we both walked back in Ryan’s room. Ryan had turned off the Wii and was out of his bed, dressed and ready to go down for treatment. Before he left he gave me a hug. I smiled at him.

“Good luck, bud. I may not be here when you get back, but I won’t be gone long, okay?”

He nodded.

“I’ll try and stay up and hear about your date. Love you.”

I waved to him as he walked down the hall with the nurse.

“Love you too.”

I looked at my watch, it was quarter to two, I had a lot of time to get ready, so I decided to hop in the shower. I didn’t have the greatest clothes to wear, but at least I had clothes that were clean.

As soon as I got out of the shower, I noticed that my phone had a text message. It was from Jordan.

Hey. I’ll pick you up around 4. We’ll find somewhere to go when I pick you up.

I smiled and replied with a smiley face and agreement with his plans. Looking at the time, I saw that I still had some time before Jordan would be here. I decided to lay on Ryan’s bed and watch some tv to pass the time.

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2 hours later

I got up off Ryan’s bed around 3:30. I had dozed off, but set my alarm to wake me up in time to get up and finish the final touches to getting ready, makeup, hair, etc. Jordan had texted me that he was on his way just as I finished applying my eyeliner. I applied a small amount of lip gloss and ran a brush quickly through my hair and was ready to go.

I left Ryan’s room and walked to the nurses’ desk. I let them know that I was leaving the hospital for a little while, but gave them my cell number incase anything happened to Ryan. I knew they had my number, but I thought it was better to be safe than sorry.

I went down the elevator and text Jordan to let him know that I was down in the main lobby of the hospital. I figured I would wait down there rather than make him come all the way up to the 4th floor of the hospital.

A few seconds after I got out of the elevator, Jordan walked through the front doors of the hospital. I smiled, happy that he didn’t dress up too much. Rather than the board shorts and t-shirt he was in the day before, he was wearing jeans and a button up shirt. He smiled and me and held out his arm.

“Shall we?”

I giggled at his attempt of being a British gentleman.

“As long as the accent goes away, I’ll go wherever you want.”

Jordan’s face fell for a few seconds before he cracked a smile. With that, we were out the door and off to wherever he was taking me.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When we arrived at the small diner, I couldn’t help but notice that there was hockey highlights on the TV above the bar. I groaned when I saw Pat on the screen, but tried to make it go unnoticed by Jordan. I didn’t tell him about how I knew Pat or how attached he was to Ryan. I didn’t know how hockey players were when it came to these things. It didn’t help that a part of me still had feelings for Pat, so seeing him on the TV, and sitting here with Jordan, didn’t help the fact that guilt was beginning to rise in the pit of my stomach. Finally, a waitress came up and asked us if we were ready to order. I looked at Jordan and he gave me the go-ahead to order first. I didn’t take the time to glance on the menu too much, so I had to make a quick choice. Luckily, I found something that I enjoyed tremendously.

“I’ll have the grilled cheese with a side of potato chips, please.”

I looked back and forth between the waitress and Jordan. They were both holding in laughter and I didn’t realize why. I raised my eyebrow to Jordan.

“What’s so funny?”

He shook his head.

“I’m sorry. I don’t mean to laugh. You, however, did just order off of the kids menu.”

My mouth dropped and I looked down at the menu. Sure enough, I did order off of the kids menu. No wonder the price was decent. I thought to myself. I let out a nervous chuckle and changed my order.

“Sorry about that. I’ll have the Chicken Caesar salad. But I have a small request with that.”

The waitress smiled at me.

“Sure, what is it?”

I let out yet another nervous chuckle. I had hoped that Jordan wouldn’t think that I was being picky. I just had one little thing I changed about a Chicken Caesar.

“Instead of Caesar dressing, can I have Ranch? I know it’s weird.”

The waitress just nodded and smiled at me.

Jordan ordered his food and the waitress left with a smile. I looked across the table at him and couldn’t help but feel that something was bothering him.

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Jordan’s POV

Ever since Claire and I arrived at the diner, I had this weird feeling. I had planned to ask her to bring Ryan to our game that was scheduled for the next night at the CEC. She told her brother was a huge hockey fan, and I just assumed she was too.

When we sat down in our seats, we both noticed glanced up at the TV screens. They were playing hockey highlights. Claire’s eyes were glued to the screen, so I took that as a good sign. I couldn’t help but let a smile spread across my face when I heard her groan slightly when the image of Patrick Kane appeared on the screen. I didn’t think I was supposed to hear it, but I did. So, I came to the conclusion that she was a hockey fan. This could work out quite well in my favour.

The waitress came over to us and took our order. Claire first ordered off of the kids menus, which caused me to chuckle. After that, she ordered a salad and I ordered a cheeseburger and fries. After the waitress left, I began to think of ways to ask Claire to come to the game. I didn’t know whether to wait and invite her brother as well, or just invite her and see if she asks to bring her brother. I sat for a few moments thinking of ways, looking up I glanced at Claire. Not only did I notice that she was giving me an odd look, but I could see the waitress coming with our food. I said a silent prayer in my head. With the food in front of us, there would be less talking and gave me more time to think.

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Claire’s POV

I had yet to figure out what was wrong with Jordan. I was shocked, however, to find how comfortable the silence we sat in while we ate was. We’d trade glances and smiles and just ate our food.

Jordan finally broke the silence.

“So Claire, I was wondering something.”

I gave him a small smile.

“Okay. What is it?”

I heard him sigh softly.

“Well, I don’t want you to think that I’m using my fame to make you like me more or whatever. But I was wondering if you wanted to bring Ryan to the game tomorrow night.”

My eyes went a little wide. I wasn’t expecting him to ask that. I was touched that he wanted to include Ryan. I gave him the best answer that I could.

“Umm.. I’d have to see how Ryan’s feeling. I don’t think he has treatment tomorrow. If he’s feeling up to it, we’ll definitely be there.”

I saw his face break out in a grin. I realize then that he was pondering on how to ask that since we arrived at the diner. With both of us wearing smiles on our faces, we finished our dinner in the comfortable silence that we had accustomed ourselves to. Jordan insisted he pay the whole bill. I tried to argue that my salad was more expensive than everything else on our bill put together. Of course, I wasn’t entirely sure of that as Jordan didn’t let me actually see the bill and I didn’t see what the price of his meal was in the menu. Finally, I gave in and let him pay the bill.

We got out to the diner and walked over to Jordan’s car. Jordan opened my door for me and I couldn’t help but blush. The ride back to the hospital was silent until we pulled up to the entrance. I was about to open my door when Jordan put his hand on my arm. I turned to face him and he placed something in my hand. I looked down and it was two tickets. I sighed and my gaze traveled to meet Jordan’s eyes.

“Oh, Jordan. I don’t even know if we’ll be able to go. I don’t want to take them if we can’t go.”

He shook his head.

“It’s okay. If two seats don’t get filled, it’s not going to make much of a difference.”

I smiled and nodded.

“Okay, well I’ll text you and let you know.”

I leaned over and gave Jordan a peck on the cheek. I left the car and waved as Jordan drove away. I turned on my heel and walked into the hospital. I was hoping that Ryan wasn’t too out of it when I got up to his room. I wasn’t sure if he had treatment or not, but I was hoping he didn’t. I had another chance to take him to another NHL game and knew that it would make his stay in Pittsburgh much more memorable. Looking down at the tickets, I smiled remembering the date with Jordan. Minus the awkward silence before he asked me to go to the game, we had a great time.

My smile disappeared from my face when I re-read the words on the ticket. I couldn’t rip my eyes away from them.

Pittsburgh Penguins vs. Chicago Blackhawks