You Don't Know You're Beautiful

When Steph and I got back to the hotel, all I wanted to do was curl into a ball on my bed and cry. I didn’t want to bring Steph’s mood down, so I decided to slowly make my way to the bathroom. Once I walked in, I locked the door. I didn’t want to shut Steph out, I just wanted a few moments to myself. I didn’t know that saying goodbye to Kris would hit me this hard. I knew I’d see him again. Sure, I wasn’t sure when or where, but I did know that that wasn’t the last time I’d see him. I leaned against the bathroom door and let a few tears fall from my eyes.

I finally wiped my eyes and walked out of the bathroom. I looked over at Steph and still had tears in my eyes.

“How do you do it?” I felt my lip begin to tremble as I continued. “How do you say goodbye to Sid and be okay so easily?”

She let of a soft sigh and patted the space on the bed beside her. I sat down and turned to face her. She gave me a sympathetic smile.

“I’m not okay. I know I may look it, but I’m not. I hate saying goodbye to him. Those moments, when I did, have been the worst moments of my life to date, including today. But one thing gets me through it.”

Before she could continue, her phone went off. I knew that it was probably Sid. The smile on her face as her eyes grazed the screen proved it. She put her phone out in front of me, silently asking me to read what the screen said.

Just got on the plane. Call you when I land. Love you.

I gave her a small, sad smile, and nodded before she continued.

“That, those little texts, the phone calls, and the chance that I’ll get to see him again soon, is what gets me through it.”

I nodded once again. “I know, and I guess I should be used to this, after the first time, but..”

She cut me off, “you don’t have to be used to it and today was different from last time. Last time, you said goodbye to Kris Letang, a new-found friend that you had begun to develop feelings for. Today, you said goodbye to Kris Letang, your boyfriend. This was much, much different. It will get easier, but not right away. It, like anything else in life, takes time. Kris will call you or text you soon, rather to tell you that he’s made it safely to Pittsburgh, or just to say he misses you. Either way, today wasn’t goodbye forever, it was a see you later. You’ll see him again before you know it.”

As I listened to her words, I felt my confidence grow a little bit more. I knew in the back of my mind that I would see Kris again, but at that moment, it felt like I was saying goodbye for good. The smile on my face grew a little bit more as I pulled Steph into a tight hug.

“You’re awesome, you know that?”

She brushed off her shoulder and cocked her head to the side.

“So I’ve been told.”

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Kris’ POV

Stepping onto the plane, I couldn’t help but think about how I wished I had told Kaitlyn I saw those text messages. I didn’t want it slip out in a conversation we had on the phone in a couple of days and have her shut me out. I sat in my seat next to Brooks, and leaned my head back. I closed my eyes and thought about all the things I wish I had said. I had wished that I at least had a sense of when I’d see Kaitlyn next, so I could make sure my apartment was clean if she came to Pittsburgh, or that I could book a hotel room if we were going to be somewhere else. I never cared about not knowing where I was going to be on certain days or what I was going to be doing that day. Sitting on the plane, finally opening my eyes only to stare at my feet, the only thing I could think of was Kaitlyn.

I was lost in my thoughts when I felt someone nudge me. I figured it was Brooks so I didn’t turn my head to face him.

“You okay, dude?”

I should’ve known it was Sid. I slowly nodded my head.

“Yea, I’ll be okay.”

I heard him sigh and felt his hand on my shoulder.

“Call her.”

I turned my head and looked up at my captain with my eyebrow raised. I over-heard the Coach say that we were about to make phone calls on the flight, something we weren’t able to do before. I thought about phoning Kaitlyn, but the idea left my mind once the text messages came back into my mind. I heard Sid chuckle lightly.

“Dude, you look exactly how I felt the first time I left Steph. Go, call Kaitlyn.”

The more I sat there, pondering the idea of calling her, the more it made sense. I gave Sid a small smile and stood up from my seat. As much as Sid and I are in the same boat, having our girlfriends stuck in Toronto, in high school, I still wanted some privacy.

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Kaitlyn’s POV

Steph and I were laughing about me going to Quebec with Kris someday when my phone rang. Looking down at the caller ID, my face lit up. I didn’t have to even look at Steph for her to know who was calling. I looked up at her anyway and we shared a silly grin. Answering the phone, I stood up and walked back towards the bathroom.

“Hello.” I didn’t want to sound like I had been waiting for his call, even though I didn’t hide it very well. “I thought you weren’t allowed to make calls on the planes?”

“Well, Coach is allowing it all of a sudden, so I thought I’d call you.” I felt my heart swell and a part of me hoped that was where he would end it, but he continued. “I wish you were here, ma belle.”

I let out a small sigh. “I wish I was there too, or that you were here, but this is what it is. We’ll make this work. We will make this work, right?” I didn’t mean to keep question our relationship, but I couldn’t help it. I was paranoid that something was going to come up and stop this, and I wanted to make sure that whatever it was would come up before my heart gets too deep into this. If that was going to happen, it had to happen fast. Thankfully, Kris’ voice took me out of my negative thoughts.

“Belle, I told you, we can make this work and we will. We may not know when we’ll see each other again, but we know that it won’t be too long. There’s a lot of holidays coming up and you know that I am more than happy to pay to fly you down to Pittsburgh.”

I sighed. “Kris, I can’t have you paying for every trip I take. I’m going to get a job, plus, I have a car so I could drive down there if I have enough time off of school.”

“Well, let’s not argue about this right now. I just wanted to hear your voice. I honestly don’t know how I’m not gonna wake up to you every morning.”

I couldn’t help but chuckle at that. Clearly, I had been spending too much time around Steph and her dirty mind. I tried to keep my chuckle quiet, but I guess it didn’t go unnoticed.

“What’s so funny?”

I bit my lip before answering. “Oh, it’s nothing. I’ve been friends with Steph too long and it’s getting to my head.”

I heard him chuckle softly. “Do I even want to know? Or is it some kind of girly thing?”

I shook my head, even though I knew he couldn’t see me. “No, I don’t think you want to know.”

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Kris’ POV

I chuckled again softly. I didn’t want to end the conversation, but I knew that I had to get out of the bathroom before people would get the wrong idea.

“Well, I should let you go. I’m holding the bathroom hostage right now.”

I heard a muffled giggle, almost as though she was covering her mouth with her hand while attempting to hold back a laugh. I lightly rolled my eyes.

“Oh, lord. Woman, will you get your mind out of the gutter. I just didn’t want everyone to hear our conversation.”

I heard her giggle-fest slowly begin to fade out as she spoke.

“I’m sorry, I can’t help it. But I understand, let your teammates give the bathroom some lovin’.”

I had to chuckle a little bit at that, as corny as it was.

“okay, I’m gonna hang up now. I’ll text you, okay?”

“Okay, make sure you text me when you land in Pittsburgh so I know you’re safe.”

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Kaitlyn’s POV

After hanging up my phone, I walked out of the bathroom. I saw Steph sitting on the bed holding her phone in her hand. I could tell by the smile on her face that she was talking to Sid. I walked over to the bed and sat down beside her. She turned to me with a huge grin on her face.

“So, how’s Kris?”

I smiled back at her.

“How’d you know?” I asked, even though in the back of my mind, I knew the answer.

She raised her eyebrow at me, which only confirmed the answer I knew in the back of my mind even more and shook her phone in her hand.

“Sid says you’re welcome.”

I gave her a smirk that I’m pretty sure I got from being around Kris so much the past week. We sat and decided we debated on whether we should stay in the hotel and order room service or go out to have dinner. After a quick deliberation, we both came to the conclusion that ordering in would be best. We were both tired and if we ate in the hotel room, we could pack while we ate.

We decided on having breakfast foods for dinner. I had ordered a bacon, egg and cheese sandwich on an English muffin while Steph ordered French toast with a side of bacon.

“It’s kind of ironic that you order the French food, while I’m dating the Frenchman, don’t you think?”

She stuck her tongue out at me and giggled.

“You know, Sid can speak French too, right? He just doesn’t speak it as often as Kris and the other French guys do.”

I put my hand on my chest and feigned shock.

“Shame on him. He’d probably get a lot more… you know, if he did. Believe me, nothing is sexier than when I hear Kris speak French.”

She rolled her eyes at me.

“Okay, how about we start packing, huh?”

I chuckled lightly and rolled my eyes.

“Nice change of subject, however, you do have a point. Let’s pack.”

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Kris’ POV

When I got back to my seat, I saw that Sid and a couple of the boys had decided to start playing Call of Duty. I wasn’t really in the mood to play. I want to just sit back and wait until we got back to Pittsburgh. I missed my bed. I leaned back in my chair and looked out the window.

“So how’s Kaitlyn?”

I turned my head. I saw Sid with his PSP in his lap. I let out a soft chuckle.

“You get booted already?”

He smirked and shrugged his shoulders lightly.

“My mind’s kind of in a different place right now.”

“Yeah, I get that.” I nodded, completely understanding what he meant.

“So, you never answered my question. How’s Kaitlyn?”

I raised my eyebrow at him.

“What’s with all the questions about my girlfriend? You do have one of your own, you know.”

He let out a soft laugh.

“Yeah, I do, but, I saw that she looked just as down as you were. In fact, she looked a little distracted at lunch. Everything okay?”

I slowly nodded. I wasn’t ready to talk to Sid about the text messages from Trent. I decided not to bring them back up until I see Kaitlyn again. That is, of course, if I feel the need to. I trusted Steph’s word that this would all blow over and he would stop contacting Kaitlyn. She was worth so much more than what Trent could give her. He broke her heart and she deserved someone that would treat her right, and I could do just that.

“Yea, everything’s fine. She was just trying to figure out a way to stall the goodbye, y’know?”

He nodded with a small smile.

“Yea, I get that completely. I did the same thing when Steph left the Maritimes.”

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Kaitlyn’s POV

Steph and I had finished packing. We decided to lounge in the room for a little bit before heading on the road to go back home. Turning the tv on, Steph was surfing the channels, trying to find something to watch. I still had yet to bring up what I saw at the restaurant just before our Fun Day with the boys came to an end. I grabbed the remote from her hand and she turned to raise her eyebrow at me. I gave her a questioning look and ran my hand through my hair before speaking.

“So Rebecca, huh?”

She sighed and rolled her eyes.

“Yeah. God, I hate her so much. She could’ve cost me my relationship with Sid.”

My eyes widened at the thought. I knew Rebecca was vindictive, but I didn’t think anything could separate Steph and Sid.

“Seriously? What in the Sam hell did she do?”

She ran her hand through her hand and looked at her fidgeting hands in her lap. I could tell that this wasn’t something she really wanted to bring back up.

“Well, she played her game really well, I must say. I just wasn’t expecting Sid to believe it. Before Sid walked up to where we were standing, I told her that you and I were just out with friends. I didn’t say that because I was ashamed of Sid, you know I’m not.” I nodded as she continued. “I love him, but she had to hash my words back up in front of Sid. She told him that she was one of my best friends and that I never told her I was friends with a hockey superstar.”

My jaw dropped. I wasn’t expecting Rebecca to be that vindictive.

“That bitch! Why would she do that?”

Steph shrugged her shoulders. It showed that although the matter was settled between her and Sid, it was still plaguing on her mind. I knew that feeling. Steph mentioned that Rebecca’s words shook Sid up to the point that he questioned their whole relationship. I sighed and began to juggle the remote between my hands.

“Well, thankfully she didn’t.”

Steph smiled at me and leaned back against the headboard.

“No, she didn’t.” She nudged me lightly with her elbow. “Hey, did Kris give you any date as to when you’d see him again?”

I shook my head slowly.

“No, he didn’t. Did Sid say anything to you?”

She shook her head and shrugged her shoulders.

“Nope, I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.”

I nodded and my gaze drifted to stare out the window.

“Hey, you okay?”

I snapped my head back to look at Steph. I had considered telling her about the texts and phone calls I had been getting from Trent, but I wanted to deal with it on my own. I was sure I’d see him at school, so I would just tell him to leave me alone. I gave her my best smile and nodded.

“Yeah, I’m fine. Just missing Kris, y’know? It’s like you said, this time was different. I just hope I don’t have to wait too long to see him again.”

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Kris’ POV

After the flight, I got a ride back to my place with Sid. When we got in the car, we talked about when we’d see Kaitlyn and Steph next. I mentioned that I was thinking about inviting and Sid said he had an idea. When we pulled up to my house, he turned to me just before I stepped out of the car.

“I’ll let you know what I’ve got planned once I get some more details sorted out.”

I nodded and waved as I stepped out of the car and walked into my house. I was really exhausted from the flight, so I threw my bag down by my door and after grabbing a drink from my fridge, I plopped down on my couch. I picked up my phone and was going to text Kaitlyn to let her know that I got home safe, but decided to call her instead.

“Hello?” I heard after two rings.

“Hey, I’m home. Safe and sound.” I smiled into the phone, happy to hear her voice.

“That’s good. How was the rest of the flight?”

I picked up my television remote before answering.

“It was okay. I had to listen to Sid snoring through most of the flight, so I didn’t get a chance to nap much myself.”

“Ouch. Yeah, Steph tells me that can be deadly to deal with sometimes. Especially if he’s really tired.”

I chuckled lightly. “Yeah, it can get pretty brutal.”

“Yeah. Now, I’m not trying to rush this call, but you should get some rest. You got practice tomorrow, don’t you?”

“Yeah, we got a morning skate. I’m not really,” I tried to hide a yawn, but I couldn’t hold it in. “tired. Guess you’re not going to buy that, are you?”

She giggled lightly. “No, I’m not. Now, go lay down and you can call me later tonight or text me whenever.”

I smiled and turned my tv off. “Okay, I’m on my way to bed now, mom.”

“That’s a good little Kristopher. Now call me later. Thank you for this week, it was amazing.”

My smile broke out into an all-out shit-eating grin as I walked into my bedroom.

“Yeah, it was, wasn’t it? I’ll text you when I get up.”

I hung up the phone and crawled into bed, with my girlfriend the last thing on my mind as my head hit the pillow.