Tomorrow's a New Day

After a long week of away games, Marcus was ready just to relax. The team was finally home and didn't have games until the following Thursday. But since Marcus left his chores until after the road trip, it was time to start them.

He swept through the house picking up any garbage lying around, put the dishes in the dish washer, and began sorting his laundry. When he went to put the detergent in the washer, he found out it was all gone, "Great."

Grabbing his keys and wallet, he drove over to the nearest Target and searched for some Tide, while picking up a couple extras, and headed to the check out.

The store wasn't very busy for a Sunday afternoon which was a plus for Marcus; no one will recognize him. He can just get his stuff and go home.

He picked the check out line with no people in it, and the Target girl was flipping through a magazine. He put his items on the conveyor belt and watched as the dark haired girl swiped all of it over the scanner, "Your amount is $19.56." She told him. He pulled out his wallet and handed her a $20 and laughed when he realized who this girl was. "You've got to be kidding me." Lily said, her cheeks turning red.

"I didn't know you worked at Target." Marcus said.

"Yeah, well, one of my many jobs."

"I'm just learning more and more about you."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. So what are you doing? Chores?" She asked, turning the attention off herself.

"Yeah, I didn't do any of them before we left."

"Must be nice being home."

"Yeah, just gonna relax and stuff. How long you working for?"

"Um..." Lily looked at her phone, "I'm off at 1:00."

"That's not far from now. Do you want to get some lunch or something?" Marcus asked, his mouth working faster than his brain.

"Uh, sure, I guess."

"Meet at the diner?" Lily nodded and waved at him as he left the store.

"Lily?" She turned attention to the girl in the next cash register, "Who the hell was that? And where can I get me one?"

"Aisle 5."

Lily couldn't believe she agreed to meet Marcus at the diner. He's got a girlfriend! But if it was that big of a deal, he wouldn't have asked...right? Lily felt guilty for being giddy at the thought of lunch with Marcus. He was a decent guy, he felt bad when her pizza was taken and even got her a new one. Instead of going home after their first encounter, he met her at the diner and talked to her, listened, and accepted what she had to say, I think.

But he's got a girlfriend!!!

At 1:00, Lily sat in her car contemplating if she should really go through with this, "I can't cancel...I don't have his number!" She said out loud, slightly frightening the woman getting into her car beside Lily's.

"What harm could come of it?" She asked herself, turning the car on and heading towards the diner.



Marcus tapped his fingers on the table impatiently. She was late. He looked at his phone, "1:10" So she's only ten minutes late. You're the one that decided to come early and wait, He argued with himself.

The bell over the door chimed and in walked Lily, a guilty smile on her face when she spotted Marcus waiting for her, "Sorry, I got held up. Have you been waiting long?"

"Just a couple minutes." Liar "So how was work?"

"As exciting as working the cash register can be. How's...your laundry?" She asked.

"Clean finally."

"That's good." She joked.

"Wow, I didn't know you came out in the day time. I was convinced you were a vampire." Dan the owner of the diner said as he sat next to Lily on her side of the booth.

"Didn't you hear vampires can go in the sun now? They just sparkle." Dan let out a hearty laugh. He took the two's orders and let them be.

"I thought you were a ninja?" Marcus joked.

"Ssh, don't tell the guys. They'll put me in some freak show for being a sparkly ninja." Lily took a sip of her water, "So how was your road trip?"

"Tiring. We won two out of four which is...okay I guess."

"I gotcha. So is Zach excited to be going to the All-Star games?"

"Yeah, that's good for him."

"It is. I wasn't sure if I should of been happy or sad. I mean, it's great that he's going but it's sad Brayden can't."

"Yeah, but those things happen."

"So besides hockey, how's the rest of your life treating you?"

"Pretty good. I'm looking forward to not having a game till Thursday. Gives me most of the week to relax. What about you? You haven't had a hockey game to work for a week. Must of been lonely."

"It was. I thought I was going to go insane. But I had school and other jobs to keep me content."

"So you're a sparkling ninja, you work at the BCA and Target, and you go to school. Anything else about Lily I should know?" She shrugged.

"I teach gymnastics."

"You're a gymnast?" She nodded, "That's cool. So you can do all those flips and stuff?"

"If I'm gonna be a ninja, I gotta be able to flip, right?"

"True, but you need to know how to flight too."

"I was thinking about having Finley teach me." Marcus laughed.

"I'm sure he can teach you a thing or two. So what about you're home life? What was life like for little Lily?" Lily looked down at her glass, playing with the ice cubes with her straw. From the way she wasn't responding, Marcus took that as a sore subject.

"Home life is...life, I guess."

"Are you from around here?" Lily shook her head.

"I'm from New Hampshire."

"That's a long ways away."

"That was the point." Lily didn't mean it to come out mean but talking about her home life wasn't a topic she enjoyed. Usually when people asked, she'd steer the conversation somewhere else. Thankfully, Marcus got the hint and dropped it.

Through the rest of lunch, the two chatted about nothing, but they never stopped talking. The topic would be the most random topic ever but they chatted about it. Occasionally during their conversation, Marcus would feel his phone vibrate in his pocket, but he ignored it. He was having a good time with Lily and the last thing he wanted was for someone to be interrupting them.

"Well this was nice but I need to get back and do some homework." Lily said, the two of them standing from the booth. Lily had convinced Marcus to split the bill with her for about an hour and he had finally agreed.

"Yeah I need to go...sleep." Lily rolled her eyes.

"It's gotta be tough life for you."

Lily and Marcus walked out of the diner and stood on the sidewalk, "This was fun. We should do it again sometime." Marcus said, smiling at the thought of meeting up with Lily again.

"Yeah, maybe after one of the games this weekend."

"Then I'll see you Thursday?" Lily nodded.

"See ya Marcus."

As she walked away, Lily kept her giddiness from before in check. She never would've thought meeting at the diner was going to be traditional, especially with a guy like Marcus...or a guy at all. This is unbelievable! But there was still that haunting fact that affected everything...

He's got a girlfriend.



When Thursday arrived Lily wasn't able to work down in the locker room area, but instead she walked around the suites making sure everything was good there...

And it wasn't. For some reason, everything just seemed to go wrong and Lily was stressed to the bone with trying to make everything right.

All of this was just the cherry on top of the shitty ice cream that was her day. It had started off with getting up just in time to rush to class, she forgot a pen for notes, she speed-finished her homework due by midnight, AND her car wouldn't start meaning she had to take the city bus.

The only good thing that has come out of the day was the Amerks won and Lily could go home with a small smile on her face.

Wait...I can't go home...I'm suppose to be at the diner...with Marcus. She let out a groan. Not even an Amerks win could make up for the fact that she had to tell Marcus Foligno she couldn't go to the diner tonight.

Lily walked down to the locker room, saying good bye to everyone that passed. Some of the guys came out and waved, recognizing her as "Pizza Girl" and asking when the next pizza is coming.

When Marcus came out, he was looking down at his phone, texting away vigorously with a frown on his face. Looking up, he smiled, happy to see Lily. Usually when she was working, Lily wore khakis and the red Amerks jacket. Today she was more dressed up; a nice blouse and skirt with a pair of heels. She looked...She looks beautiful.

"Hey, you ready to go?" He asked, approaching her. Her smile faltered and Marcus could tell something was wrong. He seemed to be able to do that with this girl.

"I can't go tonight. My car broke down and I need to catch the bus." Marcus rolled his eyes.

"I can give you a ride."

"No, that's alright. I don't want to be a burden."

"You're not. It's no big deal." She wanted to comment on the girlfriend thing. She could of been waiting for him back at his place, or hers. This didn't seem right but...they were just 'friends.' Lily would never come between a couple and if she started to between Marcus and Tiffany, then she'd stop being friends with the Amerks forward.

But Lily followed him to his fancy SUV, letting him hold open the passenger door for her, and drive towards Dan's Diner.

"So...I hope you don't mind...but I told the guys you worked at Target...and that's you're a gymnast." Marcus said breaking the silence. Lily raised an eyebrow, unsure why this was being brought up, "The guys have been asking about you. You kinda just came out of no where."

"They're not gonna stalk me at Target now, are they?"

"...I didn't even think of that. Sorry." Marcus blushed.

He didn't think answering the guys questions was going to get Lily in some kind of trouble. They had been bugging him about Lily since he got the pizza for her. It was no secret from the team that #71 found a friend in the quiet Amerks worker. And when Marcus had to tell Zach that he couldn't drive him home, more questions were asked.

"Guys, she's just a friend."

"You're getting pretty close to her if she's just a friend." Travis said.

"I've only seen her working here and that one time at Target."

"You better be careful Marcus. She might get the wrong idea."

But Marcus ignored them. Lily knew he was dating Tiffany, she saw it with her own eyes. And it was kinda nice to have just a girl as a friend to talk too. And he can do that with Lily. She listened to him talk. She asked him questions about all kinds of things. If they talked about hockey, it went beyond the Amerks. They talked about the NHL teams, other AHL teams, they talked about different players, the changes around the NHL, everything.

But they also talked about each other's childhood. Well, Marcus' childhood. Whenever he asked her a question on that topic, she give a short answer then moved it back to him. She was hiding something and Marcus wanted to know what it was, but didn't want to be pushy.

Maybe he could get something out of her tonight. He wanted to know more about her, but he couldn't if she didn't let him in.

"So besides gymnastics, did you do anything else when you were younger?" He asked, scooping up some of his milkshake and eating it.

"No, I only did gymnastics. I didn't want to get injured playing another sport, then I couldn't do either." He nodded in understanding.

"Did you compete?" She nodded, "Did you win?" This time she cracked a grin.

"Yeah, I won a few."

"Do you still compete?"

"I'm getting too old for that." She joked.

"Please, I'm sure you could still compete."

"Maybe if I was in the Olympics but for now, I'm just gonna stick with teaching."

"How did you get into gymnastics?"

Lily hesitated, "My mom got me to do and I stuck with it since."

Now, we're getting somewhere. Marcus thought, "You're mom must of been proud of you, winning and now teaching." Lily shrugged. Okay, taking the conversation off the mother. "Do have any siblings?"

"Um...no, I'm an only child," Before Marcus could continue she added, "We should get going. Some of us still have school in the morning." Lily pulled out some money for her half and set it on the table. Marcus did the same.

The ride to Lily's college was quiet, the music playing on the radio was the only thing keeping the tension not as tense as it could be. Besides the little directions Lily gave him, nothing else was said.

"Here's good." Lily told him as he pulled over alongside the road. He parked his car in front of a small building he assumed to be her dorm. "Thanks, for driving and everything."

"Do you want me to take a look at your car?" He offered.

"My roommate's got a friend that'll check it out, but thanks."

"How 'bout I give you my number? If you still need a ride tomorrow I can pick you up."

"You don't have to do that. I can take the bus or something."

"I don't want you taking the bus. You never know who's on them." Marcus was genuine saying that. He didn't want someone like Lily to be on a bus with some rapist or something.

Lily let out a sigh and got her phone out of her bag and handing it to Marcus. He typed in his number and sent himself a message.

"I'll see you tomorrow, Lily." She smiled and walked to her dorm, swiping herself in and turning to wave at Marcus who waited till she was inside.

Marcus watched as she walked into her building before he put his car in drive. Just before he got on the road, his phone buzzed. He smiled, thinking it was Lily messaging him but when he saw Tiffany flashing on the screen, he groaned.

"We need to talk. She said.

Fuck