The Middle

I couldn’t wrap my head around the fact that I may run into Pat at the game tomorrow. I was debating on telling Jordan that I couldn’t go, lying to him, saying it was because Ryan had treatment. Walking into Ryan’s room, I saw him have a huge grin on his face. At that moment, I decided that he would love to see Pat play again.

“Hey buddy. I got a surprise for you.”

Ryan’s eyes went wide. “Oh! What is it?”

I held out the tickets. The smile, if possible, grew on Ryan’s face.

“You got tickets?! To the Pens and Hawks game?!”

I raised my eyebrow to him. “How did you know it was a Pens and Hawks game?”

Ryan wouldn’t make eye contact with me for a few seconds as he pulled out his own set of tickets. My eyes went wide as I began to think the worst.

“Where did you get those?”

I saw that Ryan hesitated before answering me.

“The….nurse gave them to me. She said I had been a good sport through my treatment and I deserved a treat. I was trying to think of her name, but I can’t remember.”

A smile broke out on my face. I first thought that Pat had given him the tickets, but when he told me it was the nurse, I felt my heart melt a little. Ryan had been through a lot the last two days, so the nurses giving him tickets to the game was really nice of them.

I looked between his tickets and mine. I noticed that there wasn’t much difference in the seats. I looked at Ryan.

“Okay, well I’ll text Jordan that we’ll go to the game, but we’ll be sitting in different seats.”

Ryan nodded.

“Okay. Tell Jordan I said thank you, but I’d rather sit in the seats from the nurses.”

I nodded and smiled. I pulled out my phone and shot Jordan a text. Shortly after I felt my phone go off.

Okay. No problem. I’m happy you’re going to the game. Tell Ryan he’s welcome.

I smiled at Jordan’s understanding. I told Ryan that he was welcome. Ryan smiled as my phone went off again.

I forgot to give you the locker room passes. After the game, someone will come to your seats and bring you to the locker rooms. I just need to know where you’ll be sitting

My eyes went a little wide. I wasn’t expecting to get passes from Jordan. I was a bit hesitant to accept them, knowing that Pat will be in close proximity. However, it would something that Ryan will get to experience that he’ll remember for a long time.

Oh! Ryan would love that. We’ll be sitting at ice level beside the Hawks bench.

Oh sitting over beside the opponents, eh? I see how it is ;)

I couldn’t help but giggle at Jordan’s last text. I tried to come back with something just as witty, but to no avail.

Well, you’ll have to take that up with the nurses here. They’re the ones that got the tickets. =P

I looked at Ryan. I was debating on telling him that we got backstage passes, but I decided it would be better off as a surprise.

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

The Next Day

Ryan couldn’t contain his excitement. I woke up with Ryan hooting and hollering about seeing the Hawks play again. My heart ached a little every time he mentioned Pat or the Hawks. I still couldn’t find it within myself to let Pat go. I told myself that I was never dating him and I shouldn’t have feelings for him. The one thing that kept me holding on was the fact that he was so good with Ryan.

Ryan and I got dressed and of course, Ryan had his Blackhawks jersey on. I had opted to not wear a jersey at all. Ryan had tried to beg me several times to get my to wear my Blackhawks jersey, but I told him it wasn’t nice to Jordan. Ryan rolled his eyes.

“Who cares about what Jordan thinks? You’re a Hawks fan, right? You gotta wear your Kane jersey, Claire. You just gotta! For me, please!!!”

I looked at him and saw that he had the puppy dog face on and I just couldn’t say no. I slipped on my red jersey and we were off to the Consol Energy Center. I was just hoping that Jordan wouldn’t get the wrong idea. I really liked him and he brought me out of my funks when I was feeling down. I knew that I had only known him for 2 days, but that didn’t mean that I couldn’t be happy.

Arriving at the CEC, Ryan wanted to get something to eat. I sighed and hoped that he didn’t want something too filling. He had just eaten before we left.

“Okay, what do you want?”

Ryan surveyed the menu at the concession stand. He was trying to decide what he wanted.

“You start talking to Pat again.”

I looked down at him with wide eyes. Ryan looked up at me with sadness in his eyes.

“Ryan, where did that come from? I told you about my situation with Pat. It’s just not going to work, but it doesn’t change your friendship with Pat. If it does, I’ll have to smack Pat upside the head.”

Ryan giggled and I re-worded my question.

“So, to eat, what do you want?”

Ryan rolled his eyes.

“Uhh…. I’ll have a hotdog with a small Coke.”

I nodded as we stood in line. Thankfully we arrived to the CEC early, giving up time to wait in line while still giving us time to find our seats before the puck dropped.

Walking to our seats, I giggled as Ryan struggled with his “meal”. I tired helping him, but he wanted to carry it all on his own. So, I just followed him closely and kept an eye on him.

When we finally reached our seats, I was in awe of the building. I thought that the Madhouse was the building to watch live hockey in, but my heart was beginning to warm up to this one very quickly. Ryan and I sat in our seats. Thankfully, he didn’t drop anything, but he did ask me to hold everything while he got settled. I handed him back his hotdog and he ate it with a content look on his face.

The two teams had come out on the ice for warm-ups a few moments after we sat down. Ryan had scarfed down his hotdog, and was standing up cheering for Pat. The Hawks were skating around in front of us and I couldn’t help but notice that Pat kept looking in our direction. I had thought it was strictly because Ryan was screaming his name, but after Ryan had quieted down, he looked over at me and I swore he smiled. I looked down at Ryan and raised my eyebrow. He shrugged his shoulders then gestured me to bend down so he could whisper something in my ear.

“He didn’t think you’d show up if you knew that the tickets were from him.”

My mouth dropped as I stood up slightly and looked down at Ryan with wide eyes.

“You mean to tell me these seats are from Pat and not the nurses?” He nodded. “Why would you lie to me? We had seats from Jordan.”

Ryan sighed as we both sat back down in our seats waiting for the national anthems to start.

“I just want you to be happy. I know that you’re happy dating Jordan…”

I cut him off. “Whoa, I’m not officially dating Jordan. Yes, we’ve been out on one date and yes, he did buy us tickets to the game, but we are not official.”

Ryan shrugged his shoulders and continued.

“Well, whatever. I’ve never seen you as happy as you were when you were good with Pat. He really likes you.”

“When did he tell you that?”

Ryan looked up at me with a sheepish grin. “When you were out with Jordan. He was waiting in my room when I got back from treatment.”

My eyes went wide. I had to ask Ryan. “Um… you didn’t tell him where I was, did you?”

Ryan shook his head and I let out a sigh of relief.

“Why are you getting worked up over this? I thought you didn’t like Pat anymore.”

I sighed and noticed the anthems were about to start.

“Ryan, let’s just enjoy the game, okay? I don’t want to put a damper on tonight. It’s supposed to be a fun night.”

He smiled up at me as we stood up for the Star Spangled Banner. We stood until the puck dropped and all thoughts of our conversation left us as we both got engrossed in the game.

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

3 hours later

The Hawks were winning 3-1 and there was 2 minutes left in the third period. I was hoping the Pens could come back and score 2 quick goals. The people sitting around me were giving me odd looks as they would hear me cheer for the Pens, but I was donning a Patrick Kane jersey. To be honest, I’d give me a weird look too.

Throughout the game, Jordan looked over and smiled at me when he had face offs close to us. I would return the smile naturally. When Pat would do the same, I felt like my smile back was forced. I had hoped he didn’t notice, but only time would tell.

Time ran out and the Hawks won the game. Ryan celebrated and hugged me with a huge grin on his face. I smiled at him, happy that he got to see his favourite player not only play, but win another game. We sat back down in our seats as we waited for the stands to clear out a little bit more before we ventured away. I was about to get up when Ryan pulled on my arm. I turned and looked down at him.

“What is it, buddy?”

“Claire, I’m sorry.”

I watched his face fall and I bent down to pull him in for a big hug. When I pulled away, I looked him in the eyes.

“It’s okay. I’m not mad at you. I just wish that Pat would’ve told me that he was coming to visit. He doesn’t have to hide from me. I’m glad that he came to visit you. I just wish you would’ve told me that tickets were from him. Oh, and please stop trying to push me back to Pat. I’m not ignoring him, he’s free to phone me whenever he feels like it.”

Ryan smiled up at me. I ruffled up his hair and felt a tap on my shoulder. I looked over my shoulder and saw a security officer.

“Hello.”

The man in the suit looked at me and Ryan and nodded his head.

“I assume you are Claire and Ryan?” I nodded. “Okay, follow me. Your presence has been asked for in the locker room.”

I turned back to Ryan and his eyes went wide with joy. I smirked and whispered to him.

“It’s not from who you think, but we’ll pay him a visit before we leave.”

He looked at me confused and when it clicked in, a smile appeared on his face and he nodded feverishly.

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

Walking backstage with the security dude, Ryan couldn’t control himself. He was waving to all of the Hawks that he saw in the hallway. I smiled and waved as well. It wasn’t until Ryan tugged on my hand that I stopped in my tracks. I turned my head to face Ryan. He had let go of my hand. I gazer around and noticed that Ryan had attached himself to a certain blonde. I sighed and walked over to them.

“Hi Pat.”

He looked at me with a hint of sadness in his eyes. Ryan looked up at Pat.

“Claire’s new boyfriend got us passes to come back here. Can I stay with you?”

My jaw dropped. I couldn’t believe Ryan had said that to Pat.

“Ryan! He’s not my boyfriend.”

Ryan turned around and looked at me with his hands on his hips.

“Well you went on a date with him, and he gave you tickets to his game. Come on, now.”

I scoffed. I was about to retort, but I looked up at Pat and noticed the sadness in his eyes. My heart melted for what felt like the millionth time since I’ve been in Pittsburgh.

“Hey Ry, why don’t you go see what Tazer’s up to while I talk to Pat, yea?”

Ryan walked into the visitor’s locker room and I could hear Jon greet him. I chuckled to myself before facing Patrick. He had his head down and his gaze was towards the floor.

“So…you’re seeing someone?”

I scoffed and made Pat look up at me.

“No…. yes… I don’t know. We’ve been on one date.” I ran my hands through my hair, thinking to myself how that must be my “thing” when I feel stressed or something. “Look Pat, I know that you and Ryan are still close and I don’t want to get in the middle of that, but you can’t get angry or upset with me because I go on a date with someone. You’re not my boyfriend.”

I didn’t know what I said wrong but Pat just shook his head and walked away from me into the locker room. I stood in the hallway, frozen with my mouth agape. I didn’t know if I was even able to move until I felt someone tap me on my shoulder. Turning around, I saw Jordan giving me a goofy grin.

“Hey, you get lost? I sent Denny for you and Ryan like a half an hour ago.”

I shook my head. “Yea… sorry. Ryan’s a huge Hawks fan, so he went into their locker room to talk to them real quick.”

Jordan nodded his head. “Well, when he’s done in there, some of my teammates got a few surprises for him.”

“Oh, Jordan you didn’t have to do that. Really, the passes back here were enough.”

Jordan just shook his head. “It’s no problem, really. So, when do you think he’ll be done? I wanted to take the two of you out for ice cream before you go back to the hospital.”

I shrugged my shoulders. “I’m not sure, he shouldn’t be too much longer anymore though.”

“Hey Claire, can I go out for ice cream with Pat?”

I saw how happy he was with Pat. Although I would do anything to make him happy, I had to put my foot down at some point.

“Well, Ryan it’s getting kinda late. Why don’t we just head back to the hospital.”

Ryan gave me a pouty face.

“Well, Jordan was going to take the two of us out for ice cream.”

Ryan shrugged his shoulders.

“I’m sure you could come with me and Pat.”

Pat put his hand on Ryan’s shoulder.

“It’s okay, bud. You go Claire and Jordan.”

I gave Pat a small smile. I walked up to him and I was going to give him a hug but he backed up.

“No need to thank me. Go have fun with your boyfriend.”

Pat walked away from us after giving Ryan and fist pump. I stared at his retreating back, more confused than ever.