Our Goodbye's

I don’t know, where you’re going
Or when you’re coming home
I left the keys under the mat to our front door
For one more chance to hold you close
I don’t know, where you’re going
Just get your ass back home.

I sang the last chorus of my new single and took a deep breathe. Hopefully that was the last time I had to sing in the studio because I just wanted to leave. All of the 13-15 hour days were finally starting to catch up with me. Sometimes I arrived at the studio at 6 in the morning and wasn’t able to leave until 9 or 10 at night. On top of that I was either writing music or thinking of dance moves whenever I had a little bit of free time. It was strenuous, but I loved it.

“Thank you Ber. I think that was perfect.” My manager Tim said through the microphone on the other side of the glass. I let out a whoop and pummeled through the soundproof door. On the other side, my best friend Bailey was waiting for me.

“Thank god! It’s 8 and we have a plane to catch.” She said and jumped off the couch. How she had that much energy, I had no idea. I was about to fall over dead, but apparently I forgot about some plane ride.

“Where to?” I asked and gathered all of my things before pulling on my Under Armor hoodie. She just shrugged and pulled out her blackberry. When Tim failed at telling me stuff, which was more than I liked, Bailey was there to help out. She was my own personal assistant. With her by my side almost 24/7, I stayed about as sane as humanly possible.

“New York for a show, then Ottawa for an event. We will be back in like two weeks.” She said.

“Two weeks for a show and event?” I asked, not believing her.

“Well, we are going to stay in NYC for a few days before heading to Canada. Then maybe stop in Michigan.” She replied as we headed out of the studio and into the parking lot. My shiny new black BMW was waiting in one of the closer parking spaces and I don’t think I will ever get rid of the butterflies in my stomach when I step into it. “You are way too attached to this car.” Bailey said while rolling her eyes.

“We need to go to my apartment to pack.” I said and pulled onto the main highway.

“Are you serious Berkeley? We have like twenty minutes. You need to hurry you ass up.” Bailey half yelled in annoyance. I just laughed lightly and grinned as we drove through the warm air of Los Angeles.
~~~~~~~~
The pounding of my heart was all I could hear as coach was saying his closing speech of yet another grueling practice. With the All-Star break coming up, he was working us just as hard as we would in training camp. After countless sets of suicides, drills, and laps, it was safe to say I was ready to sleep for days on end. Tyler stood next to me just as out of breathe as me and tried to hide it from coach.

“Why the fuck do we have to do this?” Tyler said as soon as coach was out of hearing distance.

“So we can get lazy asses like you into shape.” Pascal said with a grin and pushed his shoulder, causing Tyler to fall down. Everyone burst into laughter as Tyler tried to get his over worked legs to hold him back up.

“Assholes.” Tyler muttered as Tanger pulled him off the ice and let him stumble towards the boards.

“All-Star break four days!” Geno yelled and slapped my back with his huge hand. I grinned and nodded. My first full season with this new team turned out to be a success and the fans were noticing. I finally was voted into the game and to say I was excited would be an understatement.

“I can’t wait.” I said with a huge grin.

“I heard Drake was performing a new song.” Kris said through his think accent.

“Do you even know who Drake is?” Jordan skated up to our growing group and asked. Kris just lightly glared at him and nodded. We started talking about the game and everything that went with it when Nisky came skating up.

“Hey James, do you now who is supposed to be singing with Drake?” Matt asked with a grin. I shook my head and shrugged. It’s not that I didn’t care, but I just couldn’t find the time to actually look at the details of the upcoming weekend.

“Who?” I asked with an amused expression. Matt was traded with me last season and we usually only joked around.

“Ashton.” He replied and his grin grew even bigger. My face dropped and everyone became confused.

“I thought Berkeley was performing.” Kris said and looked extremely confused. The poor guy couldn’t keep American music or movies straight, let alone the language.

“Berkeley is her middle name. Her first name is Ashton.” Matt explained and wrapped his arm around my shoulders playfully. “James here is going to have so much fun.” He said sarcastically as I pushed him away. The last thing I wanted anything to do with was Ashton.

“Do you know her?” Geno asked.

“He knows a lot about her, probably more than any one else.” Matt said and dodged my second shove.

“Fuck off Matt.” I muttered and skated away. No one needed to know what happened and I would have rather not answered questions that I didn’t even have the answers to. What happened, happened and I finally accepted there was nothing I could do about it. Ashton or Berkeley, whatever people called her now, was gone and I could never get her back.