Young & Wild & Free

Since Taylor’s accident in warm ups a week and a half ago, he had more than ample time to hang around the Horcoff house and come to each and every one of Blake’s games and some of her practices. He was having trouble driving, too, so Blake was getting full reign of his luxurious SUV.

However, the past eight days had been very Taylor-filled and she was ready for a little personal time. The same thought flitted through her mind as she woke up from her pregame nap wrapped tightly in Taylor’s arms.

Peeling herself out of the cocoon he had constructed, she slipped into the bathroom, brushing her teeth and throwing her hair up into a ponytail before then walking into her closet to grab her warm ups to wear to the arena.

“Babe?” He grumbled, turning over in bed to face her as she rifled through the drawers in her closet.

“Morning!” She chirped, “Gotta run, but I think Phoebe is making breakfast later!” She said, pulling on her warm ups and car keys before walking over and dropping a kiss on his head. “Bye babe.” She bid him adieu before flitting out the door and closing it behind her.

Taylor sighed, rolling over in bed again. He could feel Blake pulling away from him. She was always bouncing in and out of his life. She suddenly had a lot of plans with new friends, her teammates, and even blowing him off to hang out with Ryan. He closed his eyes again and exhaed slowly, curling tighter into the blanket. Only the soft rumble of a vibration made him open his eyes again. However, it wasn’t his phone that was buzzing, but a white iPhone on Blake’s night stand.

He knew he shouldn’t have grabbed it, but they didn’t have any secrets and it was probably just Shawn or one of her teammates trying to get ahold of her.

From: Dean
you on your way or what?

Taylor was pretty sure there was someone on her team named Dean but he couldn’t stop from scrolling up. It seemed that Dean did most of the messaging in the scroll.

From: Dean
Dinner after practice?

From: Dean
Murph and I are having people over tonight. Ditch your woman for once and come with.

From: Dean
Everyone misses the pink bra.

Taylor was seeing red and deleted the converation, slamming the phone down onto the nightstand and rolling out of bed. He still looked very zombie-like with his discolored skin and stitching, but he was looking better than he did a week ago and wasn’t going to let this slide. He stepped in and out of the shower connected to Blake’s room and changed as quickly as he could into his jeans and a clean t-shirt he pulled from Blake’s dresser drawer.

Even against his better judgement of driving, he grabbed he keys to his car, saying a quick hello to Phoebe and the twins before ducking out of the house. The drive to the Young Arena wasn’t long, but he could feel a headache coming on. He grabbed a toque from his passenger seat, smashing it down over the top of his head after parking in the player’s lot beside Blake’s car.

He wasn’t really sure what he was doing, surely she was getting ready for practice, knowing she had to be on the ice in fifteen minutes, but that didn’t stop him from barging into the player’s entrance. Some of the guys were arriving late and recognized him right away. He caught the look of one of the younger guys.

“Grab Blake.” He instructed. The kid nodded and dodged into the player’s lounge right away. Not a moment later, she appeared in her breezers, sandals and a t-shirt, her hair already piled on top of her head and prewrap acting as a headband.

“Hey babe, what’s up? Did you drive here?” She suddenly looked worried.

“Is there somewhere we can talk where half your team isn’t staring at us?” He asked, not caring who heard him and making her turn red in embarrassment.

“Uh yeah, this way.” She said, turning her back to him, leading him to one of the trainer’s rooms that she knew would be empty. “Is something going on?” She asked as soon as the door closed behind him.

“Who’s Dean?” He asked right away, a migraine pulsing angrily behind his eye.

“What are you even talking about?” She asked, her eyebrows furrowing together.

“Dean, y’know, the guy who’s been texting you to ditch me and hang out, and asking about your bra?” He asked holding up her white iPhone. He pulled it away from her when she reached to grab it.

“Okay so first of all, you’re going through my phone? Dean works for the team and he’s a friend.” Her face was flushing an even deeper red. “And if you had half a brain in your head you’d see that I always turn him down. The bra thing is a joke because I once left a neon pink sports bra in the locker room and I took a lot of shit for it.” She explained. “Give me my fucking phone.” She seethed as he moved it out of her reach again.

“So if it’s not a big deal why didn’t you ever say anything to me about it?” He asked, “You’re always keeping things from me! I can feel you not wanting to spend time with me or tell me things anymore.” He gestured wildly with his hands, not caring who heard as he shouted.

“Stop yelling at me. I tell you everything and of course I want to spend time with you! You practically live in my room and I’ve been taking care if you since you took a header!” She didn’t understand what was going on.

“You always tell me things? Like when you were pregnant, and now when you’re talking to this Dean guy? Is he here? Are you pregnant again?” He asked, gesturing towards the door back to the hallway.

“I can’t believe you would ask me that. I apologized, I came clean and I’ve been nothing but honest with you since. I’m sorry if you feel like you need to cook something up in your own head to come at me like this, but I haven’t done anything wrong.” She shook her head. “If you’re just being a dick so I’ll break up with you, then mission accomplished.” She said, grabbing the metal door handle borderline violently. “You can leave.” She stormed out of the door and down the hallway to the locker room. Taylor wanted to follow her, but when one of her larger, bulkier teammates stepped in his way, he recalculated. He couldn’t afford to get in a tussle with a minor-team nobody, not with an injury like his.

“You should take off.” His opponent said, nodding towards the door.

“Fuck off.” Taylor snarled, his head full on pounding behind his eye.

•••

Three weeks later and Blake hadn’t spoken to Taylor. She grabbed a few things of his from her bedroom and stuffed them in a bag, asking Shawn to give it to Jordan at practice. The Crunch had a weeklong break from games and for the first time in more than a month she would be attending an Oilers game with the Horcoff family.

Donning one of Shawn’s third jerseys, she grabbed the purse she bought with Phoebe the other day when they had a girl’s day. Blake came clean with Phoebe about why Taylor hadn’t been around and Phoebe had a hard time with the breakup.

She understood why Blake ended it but she couldn’t place all the blame on Taylor. Blake had given him a reason not to trust her, even if it sounded like he had gotten a lot of assumptions in his head before coming to interrupt her at practice.

She curled her hair, spritzed perfume and slid her legs into her best looking jeans and heeled boots, walking into the arena that evening hand in hand with her favorite man – Jack Horcoff. The little blonde boy was donning a little Horcoff jersey of his own and he couldn’t get enough attention from Blake. Phoebe walked in holding Tommy’s hand as well. Lily was being watched by one of Phoebe’s girlfriends that night as she didn’t always do well at the Rexall, still being just a little too young for all the noise during the games.

She didn’t linger around the lower level long enough to run into any of the Oilers, namely Taylor, but she made sure to wave a hello to Jordan and Ryan. While she still text and hung out with Ryan, breaking up with Taylor ultimately meant breaking up with Jordan, too.

“Carry me.” Jack said, raising his arms up to Blake. Blake knew that Phoebe would prefer Jack walk, but she needed something to do with her hands and Jack was a welcome distraction as they made their way up to the box. The Oilers were playing the Blackhawks that night and Blake would never admit she was wearing a Kane shirsey under her Horcoff top.

When Shawn scored the first goal of the night on the power play, their little family exploded in excitement, cheering loudly from the suite.

“I’m going to grab something to eat, you want anything?” Blake asked as Phoebe shook her head, getting up from her seat. Many of the wives and girlfriends watched her walk away wishing they still had their eighteen-year-old body. Ben Eager’s fiancé looked over at Phoebe with a knowing look and all Phoebe could do was shrug.

When Blake returned with a cherry coke and a big bag of blue and pink cotton candy, she was suddenly Jack and Tommy’s best friend. The billet plied the little boys with the treat, knowing it would make them crash hard later. Taylor scored a shorthanded goal and she watched on eagerly, but didn’t leap out of her seat like she did for Shawn. Not two minutes later, Patrick Kane evened the score at 2-2 and she had to exercise some extreme self-discipline to keep from squealing. Horcoff or not, she would always be a Patrick Kane fan.

She hoped for another Oilers goal as soon as possible in order to make good on her deal with Ryan. He promised her that if the Oilers defeated the Blackhawks, he would take her down after the game to meet Kane. Needless to say when the Oilers ended up winning the game 4-3, Blake was elated – and wondered if it would be too weird to ask him to sign her shirt. Blake nearly skipped down to the player’s lounge, racing Jack at one point and giggling as her hair whipped behind her, catching up to him and scooping her up into his arms just in time for the door to swing open and Taylor to step through.

He’d be lying if he said he didn’t think she looked good all happy and playing around with Jack. After a split second of awkward eye contact, Ryan barreled out of the room as well, catching Blake’s attention right away.

“Ready?” He asked. Taylor glanced between the two as more and more people filtered through into the lounge.

“Yes!” Blake squealed excitedly, bounding up to him and linking her arm through his.

Taylor watched them leave the lounge and those standing around him could feel the heat rolling off of his shoulders. Where were they going together? Is that why she was all dolled up for the game?

Blake tried her best to keep her cool when they circled around to the visitor’s side but failed to keep a bounce from her step as she saw some of the team milling about the hallway.

“Deep breath.” Ryan squeezed her arm with a coy little smile.

“’Ey Kaner.” He called to the blonde who was dressed in his black pea coat and charcoal grey winter hat.

“Hey Nugie.” Patrick nodded, reaching out to shake his hand.

“This is my friend Blake, she’s a big fan.” Ryan explained. Blake shook Patrick’s and and just about swooned which his fingers brushed against her wrist.

“Can’t be that big of a fan.” He teased goodnaturedly, nodding to her jersey. Blake bit her lip as she tugged at the collar of the navy blue jersey, showing just the top of her Indian head shirt.

“Oh man, I’m telling Shawn.” Ryan gaped, having no idea that Blake was wearing a shirsey under her Horcoff sweater.

“Horcoff your… brother?” Patrick asked, eyeing Blake with interest.

“He’s my billet Dad.” Blake smiled.

“Oh really? Where are you playing?” Patrck was definitely interested at that point.

“I’m with the Edmonton Crunch.” She explained, “this is my first season.”

“That’s awesome, I have a friend paying for the Borealis’ if you two ever play.” Patrick replied, to which Ryan laughed.

“Pretty sure that’s the team you scored your hattrick against, right?” He asked. Blake turned and blushed facing Ryan and Patrick couldn’t help but run his eyes up and down her figure. He followed Ryan and Taylor Hall on twitter, he knew that there either was or used to be something going on with her and Taylor, but he didn’t see Hall now.

“This is kind of embarrassing, but would it be okay to ask if I could get a picture with you?” She asked, biting her lower lip.

“I was just going to ask you the same thing.” Patrick winked, making Blake’s inner fangirl die on the inside. She shyly handed her phone to Ryan and smiled from ear to ear as Patrick placed his hand on her lower back. Patrick smiled an actual smile for once and didn’t change his expression when he noticed Taylor Hall walk by with a sweeping glance. “Y’know, I would really like to know how the Crunch do this year. Do you think if I got your number you could text me some highlights?” He asked, pulling his own iPhone out of his pocket.

“Um, yeah, sure, I think that would work.” Blake could feel her pulse fluttering under her skin as Ryan looked around awkwardly. Soon enough they exchanged numbers and the Blackhawks were being rallied into a group to board their bus. They said their goodbyes and Blake looked fit to be tied as she floated back to the home side of the arena at Ryan’s side. The first thing she did was tweet and instagram the photo with Patrick where they were both smiling nicely. Her next trip would be to Target to blow it up and print it off in a giant poster size.

Practically running to Phoebe, she blasted right by Taylor, talking a mile a minute as she detailed every moment of meeting Patrick Kane.

It was then that Taylor decided he wouldn’t mind if Ryan got traded tomorrow.