You Don't Know You're Beautiful

So, as it turns out, Steph wanted to act a little crazy and we left for Toronto quite late the night before the boys’ first game. I wasn’t entirely sure of what her plan was exactly, but I went along with it. As long as I got to see Kris, I was happy. A part of me was nervous, yes, especially with the crazy thoughts about him hiding something from me keep running through my head, but I was excited to see him nonetheless.

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

First morning in Toronto

I woke up hours before Steph. I couldn’t stop thinking about Kris. Again, they weren’t the greatest thoughts. I held my phone in my hands, contemplating calling or texting him to see what the hell was going on. Steph thought I was overthinking things, and maybe I was, but something was telling me there’s much more to the story.

I decided to wake up Steph. I wanted to get her plan in motion, so I could have something else to focus on and get these thoughts out of my head. When she woke up, we changed pleasantries. Well, as pleasant as two best friends could get after she punched me and we both took turns flipping each other the bird.

Finally, we got to the planning of our day. Of course, as with every plan of Steph’s, it all started with a smirk.

“You ready?”

I nodded towards her with excitement. “Yes! Let’s get this show on the road.”

She smiled and picked up her phone. I raised an eyebrow at her, not really sure who she would be calling, but I let her go on. I walked over to my luggage and was pulling out an outfit for wear for the day when I heard Steph mention the two of us arriving in Stratford safely. I knew she was talking to Sid. I was holding back laughing out loud as I pulled out my phone. I was half-hoping for that “good morning” text I used to get, but no such luck. Nevertheless, I texted him.

Hey. Just to let you know, we arrived safely. Hope you guys got to Toronto okay.
I was laying my outfit of the day on my bed when my phone went off.

We got here okay. Glad to hear you made to Stratford safe. I’ll see you before we leave Toronto, right?

I looked over at Steph and she was still on the phone with Sid. I guess that she said something to Sid about coming to Toronto after our Stratford trip.

We’ll see. It depends on how tired we are when we get back home

After I placed my phone on my bed, I felt a tap on my shoulder. I turned to see Steph, still on the phone. I raised an eyebrow at her while smirking as she ended her call with Sid.

“They’re heading over for practice in a few minutes, but they’re going back to the arena for the game by 4.”

I looked at ground and tried to put on my best “puppy dog face” hoping that she’d get the hint. Luckily for me, she did.

She laughed. “Get dressed, we gotta hurry if we’re gonna do this right.”

I let a small squeal escape and was about to begin jumping up and down when Steph shot me a look.

“Dressed….now!”

I gave her an army salute, gathered up my outfit for the day and walked to the washroom.

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

Kris’ POV

I smiled as I texted Kaitlyn about seeing her in Toronto. She had no idea about the surprise that Sid and I had in mind for her and Steph. We knew that they would be home from Stratford while we were still in Toronto and we had a day off. We’re planning on showing up at their school or somewhere.

While I was texting Kaitlyn, Sid was on the phone with Steph. I walked out of the washroom, to see him hang up his phone. He looked over and rolled his eyes.

“Finally, I thought you had died from seeing a gray hair in there.”

I gave him a stern look. “Don’t even joke about that, man.”

He smirked as we left the hotel room and headed to the arena for practice. When we arrived at the arena, we were the first one’s there. Sid cracked a few more jokes about my hair as we walked to the locker room. We began to get into our practice gear while we talked about the girls. I managed to let my guard down a bit and admit to Sid that I was nervous to talk to Kaitlyn. His eyes widened as he turned to me.

“Really? Why, what’s up?”

I mentally put my foot in my mouth. A part of me knew I was overanalyzing the whole situation.

“It’s stupid, just forget about it.”

But he wouldn’t let it go. He gave me a stern look.

“Kris, you know you can tell me. Not a word will leave this locker room.”

I pondered on telling him. I knew that I could trust him, but we had already had this discussion earlier. I opened my mouth to say something when the door to the locker room burst open.

“What’s up fuckers?”

Max walked in and walked over to his stall. Sid gave me a look and I knew that our conversation wasn’t over, it would just have to wait.

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

Kaitlyn’s POV

Steph and I arrived at the arena and found our seats with little trouble. I didn’t know how this would go over if the guys saw us. I turned to Steph.

“Are we trying to have them see us? We’re kinda close to the glass, don’t you think?”

She shrugged her shoulders. “I don’t care, really. It’s the element of surprise.”

I smiled a small smile and nodded as we waited for the boys to come on the ice. When they did, we cheered along with the crowd. We tried to keep a low profile throughout most of the practice. Steph began to whisper jokes about Sid, and I had to control my laughter.

“Look at that ass, I mean, really, you don’t get much better than that.”

I raised my eyebrow at her and smirked. “You mean, you don’t get much bigger than that.”

She lightly slapped my arms as I bit back a chuckle. I looked down at Kris and whispered a little more loud than I thought.

“God, look at that hair.”

Steph snorted a chuckle. “Okay, I can’t comment on my man’s ass, but you can comment on Kris’ hair? Right, that’s not how this is gonna work, my friend.”

My jaw dropped as I turned to her.

“Excuse me, all I said was to look at that hair. I didn’t say you couldn’t get much better than it. Although, I’d be lying if I said any man had better hair than he did. Plus, it’s really soft.”

Steph smirked at me. “Well, you would know, wouldn’t you?”

I blushed as I reached down for my purse that fell out of my lap when I heard someone a couple of rows ahead of us yell.

“Hey Sid! Isn’t that your girlfriend?”

I looked over at Steph and notice her eyes widen and she looked around to see if the girl was talking about someone else. Both of our gazes went to the girl who shouted and we saw that she was, indeed, staring at Steph. Steph pointed to herself and the girl nodded. I looked over at the players on the ice and sure enough, the girl yelled loud enough to get their attention. All of their eyes were on me and Steph. Steph and I turned to each other and in sync, we turned our heads slowly towards the players on the ice, gave weak smiles and waved. I found Kris’ gaze and locked my eyes on his for a solid 10 seconds before widening my smile just a bit. He smiled back before giving his attention back to the coach.

I turned to Steph who looked like she was busted for a crime or something. I let out a soft chuckle. She turned and gave me a stern look. I raised my arms in defense.

“Hey! I told you that we were sitting close to the glass, but no, you like that ‘element of surprise’.” I smirked.

She rolled her eyes and we continued to watch the remainder of practice.

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

After practice

Steph and I waited until the crowd cleared out the stands before standing up. The boys hadn’t been off the ice for five minutes before her phone went off. I looked in my purse and began to feel sad once again. Steph showed me the text from Sid and my face dropped a little bit. She gave me sympathetic smile.

“What’s up?”

I shook my head. “Kris didn’t text me.”

She shrugged her shoulders. “I bet he told Sid to text me for both of us. Come on, let’s go see our boys.”

My smile came back a little bit, I knew it wasn’t as big as it normally would be, but it was getting there.

We made our way past security and Steph knocked on the visitor’s locker room. I began to feel nervous. I didn’t quite know what I would say if I saw Kris, but I knew that I couldn’t turn back now. Steph laughed when we heard Max scream from the other side of the door.

“Stephanie! Oh, Stephanie, could it be?” He opened the door and beamed at us. “Kaitlyn too! Oh lordy, two boys in this locker room are pretty damn lucky, I must say.”

Steph rolled her eyes and we walked into the locker room. Max was pointing us out ot everyone in the locker room, letting them know that we were here. I laughed at him, wondering what was in the water he drank every morning to be this cheery all the time. Steph left my side and I peeked over the corner of my eye to see her walk over to where Kris and Sid were having what looked to be a serious conversation. I shrugged it off and hoped it was nothing as Max was pulling on my arm screaming happily at Jordan and Pascal that Steph and I were here. I heard footsteps coming towards me and looked over to see Kris walking in my direction. I felt my breath get caught in my throat, trying to think so something to say when he reached me. But he walked pasat me and out of the locker room, I looked over at Steph. I wanted to follow him, but I didn’t know what I would say. Steph walked up to me and gave me a hopeful smile.

“Go sit with Sid, I’ll go see what’s up, okay?”

I nodded, even though I felt as though I had my heart ripped right out of my chest and had no idea what went wrong, and walked over to Sid. He gave me the same hopeful smile that Steph did.

“He really likes you, you know. I don’t know what’s going on in his head right now, but I do know that he likes you.”

I sat down beside him and gave him a quizzical look. I could tell that there was something he knew that I didn’t.

“What are you not telling me?”

His eyes went wide. “What are you talking about?”

I rolled my eyes. “Come on, Sid. There’s something going on with Kris, and I feel like I should know what it is but no one is saying anything, especially Kris.”

He let out a long, drawn out sigh. “That’s not something you should talk about with me. You need to talk to Kris.”

I scoffed. “Well, do you honestly think I haven’t tried? Phone call, text, I’ve tried, Sid, he’s hiding something, I can feel it.”

His eyes widened, like he just had an epiphany or something.

“What is it, Sid? What do you know?”

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

Kris’ POV
I left the locker room, but I didn’t know where to go, so I just leaned against the wall, trying to collect my thoughts. I didn’t get too deep into them, as Steph came out of the locker room and walked up to me.

“Kris, what’s wrong?”

I sighed and ran a hand through my hair. “It’s stupid. I tried to tell Sid, but every way I say it in my head, it sounds stupid and petty.”

She gave me a sympathetic smile, the same one that Sid would give me if he were out here right now. “Well, it seems to be really bothering you, and you can’t keep it bottled up. You gotta tell someone, Kris.”

I gave her a hopeful look. “Is she upset?” I hoped the answer was no, but had a strong feeling that my hopes would deceive me.

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

Kaitlyn’s POV

I sat and listened to Sid try to tell me that he finally understood what Kris was trying to tell him all along. The irritating thing was, he wouldn’t tell me what Kris was telling him.

“Sid!! You’re not helping me here, at all.”

He turned to face me and sighed.

“I’m sorry, it’s not my place to say, but I do know that you have to talk to him. Believe me , you will both feel better when you do.”

I raised an eyebrow at him.

“Really? That’s it? That’s all you’re gonna tell me? That I should talk to him? I know that I should talk to him, but I just don’t know how to do it.”

He cocked his eyebrow and pointed towards the door.

“Well, just a hint, but leaving the locker room and finding him might be a start. The rest will come to you, I’m sure.”

I sat and pondered on the thought as he walked away to go into the showers. Finally I mustered up the strength to get up and walk towards the door. Max stopped me before I grabbed the door handle.

“You okay?”

I nodded and gave him a small smile.

“I will be, thanks.”

I opened the door and looked over to Kris and Steph talking. Kris must have heard the door open as his eyes met mine over Steph’s shoulder as he spoke.

“Will you be my girlfriend?”

I put my hand on my chest as I felt my breath get caught in my throat. I was not expecting the question, but I definitely knew my answer.

“Yes.”

I walked up to Kris as Steph backed away. She gave me a big cheesy grin before Kris grabbed a hold of my hands.

“I’ll leave you two alone. I’ll be back in there.”

Neither Kris nor I paid much attention to Steph as she walked back into the locker room. My eyes were glued to his as he pulled me closer to him. He rested his forehead on mine and whispered.

“Sorry for asking you the cheesy way.”

I could feel tears well up in my eyes. All of the negative thoughts that had been clouding my mind for the past few days quickly vanished as I reached my arms around his neck and pulled him into a sweet kiss. I let the kiss linger a little bit as I ran my hands through his hair. Pulling away, my fingertips curled around the ends of it as I whispered.

“I’m just happy you asked.”