Man Behind the Mask

After three bottles of wine, two tubs of ice cream, and a tray of cookies, the five girls tired out. It was four a.m. and they’d each picked a movie to watch staring some of the most handsome men: Chris Hemsworth, George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Robert Downey Jr., and James Franco.
“This is the best movie night we’ve had in such a long time. Thanks for having a crumby day, Viv,” Sara joked.
“I think it’s Kammi’s turn next to be miserable,” Sarah pointed out.
Monica retorted quickly, “No way! Every time Kammi has something wrong, there’s no consoling her and she cries for days.”
“Hey!”
“No offense.”
“Kammi, you know its true.” Vivienne added, “Remember last time? You and Mike got into a fight while we were all on vacation. God, I can’t even remember what about, it was so petty. And you were so upset that you made Alvin switch hotel rooms with you so you didn’t have to be anywhere near him. Oh, and we all had to split into two groups to do anything the rest of the vacation.”
Kammi wasn’t too pleased, but couldn’t deny Vivienne’s recollection. “Alright, alright. Fine. Monica, you’ve been having trouble with your boss, right?” She waited for the girl to nod. “Next time, its all you.”
“My plea-” She was cut off by “Show Me Your Booty Hole”. “What the fuck is that?”
“Oh jeez. It’s my phone. That’s my ringer when my phone doesn’t have the number programmed.” Vivienne blushed and quickly stumbled into the next room to answer her phone. The girls all laughed as she ran into the wall. “Helloooo?” she asked.
“Vivienne? Are you alright?” Eric seemed concerned.
“Ooohhh noooo. I am not…not talking to you, Eric. No, no, no.”
He sighed. “Viv, please here me out. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to act that way.”
She waited for a bit before accepting his apology. Then she hung up abruptly and went back to her girls, who were still laughing about the ring tone.

A few days passed. Both Eric and Marc-Andre called Vivienne on Christmas to wish her and her family good tidings. She was still a little sour about everything, but was suppressing her anger with Christmas cheer. It was Boxing Day, and the boys were all home. The boys had a game that evening that Vivienne and her family were going to. Sid invited them to join him and his family in his box. Vivienne was looking forward to it. She decided, to stay on the safe side, that she would wear her Tangradi jersey and that none of her guests would wear Fleury’s.
Just as she and her family appeared outside of the rink, Vivienne received a call from Tyler. “Viv, we are having major problems. Eric’s been suspended by Shero upon Coach’s recommendation.”
“What?! What did he do?”
“We were in the locker room after practice. Eric saw something in Flower’s locker and watched him as he ate a cookie and he exploded. He just lept on Flower and started beating him. He was screaming something about ‘Don’t you touch her!’ and ‘Where do you get off?’ Gronk and Brooks pulled him off and threw him in the showers while Kris and I helped Marc-Andre up and got him some ice. We all kind of figure it has something to do with you. After the guys were out, Duper snooped through Flower’s locker to see if he had a picture of you or something of yours that would have set Eric off but we didn’t find anything. What the hell was that about?”
“You have to be fucking kidding me!” Vivienne received a stern look from her mother, but she ignored it. “For Christmas, I knitted both of them scarves and made them both cookies. But I didn’t think that would be a big deal. Everything else was personalized.” Her family kept trying to find out what was going on, but she kept waving them off and eventually walked off a little, gesturing to them to stay where they were.
“Some men find that to be competition I guess. I’m surprised at his reaction too, but… Well, I don’t know. Flower is a staple part of this team. We need him. And the way Eric just attacked him…it doesn’t look good. This team is known for its chemistry on and off the ice. We’re all friends, you know? You gotta get Eric to cool his jets [I have always wanted to hear someone use that expression]. He did a lot of damage to his career with the Penguins today.”
“Tyler, after hearing this, I’m terrified to talk to him! If he’s that mad at Marc-Andre for receiving those gifts, how much anger does he have towards me for giving them?” Vivienne sighed. “What do I do?”
Tyler sighed as well. “I don’t know Viv. But you don’t have much time to figure it out, especially if Eric stays in the arena and goes up to the box. Your family is with you right?” He waited for her response. “I’d hate for something to happen in front of them, let alone at Consol in public. I guess play it safe and ignore it until tonight. You need to address it soon though. Ah shit. I gotta go. Text me with how everything goes.” Vivienne agreed and they hung up.
The woman told her family not to worry or ask questions and ushered them inside. After being checked in and receiving their programs, Vivienne and her family walked around Consol, playing with the automated screens, looking at all of the local hockey jerseys, taking pictures, and finding themselves in the Lemieux mosaic [I feel like this sentence is grammatically incorrect, so if anyone can fix this so I may edit it, I’d appreciate that]. Just before the start of the game, the four entered the box. It took a bit, but Sid finally joined them. Vivienne’s brother was in awe. She tried keeping him from bothering her friend, but Sid seemed used to it and acted like it didn’t phase him. Sid didn’t mention anything about the day’s earlier events, but gave the “we should talk” look.
With five minutes left in the first period, Mr. Jorgan asked, “Where is Eric? Shouldn’t he be playing?”
Vivienne turned to Sid. As it was his team and his teammate, she felt it was his place to explain. He knew more about the situation anyway, being a witness, and she had yet to hear what the team had said was Eric’s reason for being scratched. “Uh, he got sick at practice before the game. Very achey. We think it’s the flu, and would rather him be out than spread it to everyone.”
“And he didn’t tell you?” Mrs. Jorgan wondered, looking to her daughter.
“Well there wasn’t much time…”
“He seemed fine early on, but with our rigorous activity, sometimes a small ailment turns into a large problem. He’ll be fine after missing a few games.” Sid turned to Vivienne, “You should call him when you get home though. Just to make sure he’s alright, you know?”
After the initial awkwardness, subject went back to the game. The captain was very entertaining. He took pictures and signed autographs for her family, but also gave them a chance to see who he was off of the ice, though he is pretty much the same person on both terrains. Seeing him get into the game from above both excited and saddened Vivienne. She knew it killed him not to be down there, but that he did his best to stay involved.
Everything was going fine and dandy. They were all enjoying the game, even though for the moment the Penguins were down by one. Kunitz scored their only goal against the Senators. The game was pretty tame; not many penalties or scuffles, and only three goals by the end of the second.
“Eric!” Vivienne yelled in surprise. “What are you doing here?” her tone was mixed with disgust, confusion, and faux excitement. “I thought you would have been sick at home, since your flu symptoms got you scratched from the game after practice today…”
He obviously got the hint, realizing she didn’t want to explain to her family the current situation. “I talked to the team doctor for a while. I’m going home now. Just figured you’d want to know how I was,” Eric dropped hints that he was not ok. “Maybe you can help take care of me tomorrow.” He fake coughed a few times.
“Do you need a ride home?” Vivienne’s mom asked, worried.
“Nah, I’ll be ok. I had a lot of orange juice and rest the last few hours.” Only Sid and Vivienne could tell the bitterness in his voice. “I’d kiss you goodbye, but I don’t want you to get sick, too,” he laced another meaning in his words. There was a touch of awkwardness before he left.
The rest of the evening, Vivienne was very quiet. On multiple occasions someone had to snap her out of her thoughts. Though she looked to be involved in the action on the ice, Vivienne was not in the arena; she was contemplating everything that has happened since her relationship with Eric began…

[as I typed this, there was a horrible commercial with an old, old man sitting in a “safe step walk-in tub”. his body was so gross and old T.T]

When the game was over and she and Sid said their goodbyes to Vivienne’s family, the woman turned to the team captain. “Can I go see Marc-Andre?”
“Do you think that would be a good idea? Maybe you should just call Eric…”
“I don’t want to talk to him. I want nothing to do with him. After how he talked to me before you all left for Christmas, and then his actions today…No.”
Sid made a face. “Is that fair?”
“I don’t care. It isn’t fair of him to accuse me of being a slut. So why should be fair to him and not speak to my friend? I want to make sure Marc-Andre is ok.”
The captain sighed. “I guess its alright. Just don’t cause any more problems.”
Vivienne wove her way through Consol to the locker room she was becoming familiar with. After the press moved out, she walked in. A series of “hey”s came from wet, drippy, toweled and partially clothed men.
“TK told us this whole thing was over a scarf. Is that true?” Gronk came up and asked her, slipping boxers on under his towel.
Vivienne shook her head. “Its more than that. But that’s part of it. Anyway, where is Marc-Andre?”
“He’s around here somewhere…” Jordan started looking around, “Ah! Flower!”
Marc-Andre turned around. His cheek was dark and swollen. Vivienne quickly walked up to him and cradled the other side of his face in her hand. “Oh Marc-Andre…I am so sorry. This is all my fault,” she mused while inspecting how bad it was. “How did you see with this? Your eye is all puffy.”
“I’ll be ok. It isn’t so bad. We play hockey. I’ve taken harder hits. And it sure as hell isn‘t your fault. I guess we are too close for Eric’s comfort…”
“That’s ridiculous. We are friends. I don’t want to stir up any bad feelings, but you just got out of a very long term relationship. Did he think I was just waiting for that? That I’m a puck bunny, and needed the opportunity to get with you and filled my wait with him? Fucking preposterous.”
“Wouldn’t you be jealous if Eric hung out with one of your coworkers all the time?”
“No! And I sure as fuck wouldn’t punch her in the fucking face! That was completely out of line. Who punches their teammate in the fucking face?”
“I’m not that worried about it. In a week it will look like it never happened.”
Kris butted in, “Makes him look sexy. All the ladies love battle wounds.”
“See?”
“Thanks Kris. I feel so much better about him getting punched. The Flower will get laid because of it. Awesome.”
“Glad you’ve joined the optimistic side of things,” Kris commented before walking off.
“Where does this leave the team now? What’s gonna happen when he comes back? Everything will be disrupted.”
“This is our job. We get paid millions of dollars a year to play this game. If he doesn’t act professional, he will get what he deserves. The rest of us might suffer at first, but eventually we will get back on track.” Vivienne just sighed and let it drop.
Later that evening, as Vivienne prepared to go to bed, her phone rang. As predicted, it was Eric. “What do you want?”
“Wow. Nice way to answer your phone.”
“Long hair, don’t care.”
“Really?”
“I’m not doing this. You don’t deserve my attention any more. I am not a slut. Or a puck bunny. Or a whore. Fuck you for thinking I am. I refuse to do this any longer. Stay the fuck away from me and don’t talk to me anymore. And touch any of my friends again and I will personally make sure you suffer for it.” Then she hung up. It rang again. The caller id said it was Eric; Vivienne just turned her phone off.
The next morning, Vivienne’s voicemail box had more messages than she wanted. They were all from Eric. The last declared that they were over [no sweat off of her back]; it was a relief that she wouldn’t have to contact him and clarify that. This also meant that her dinner party would not be awkward. Vivienne did feel a little bad for Eric though. He got suspended from the team, lost his friends, and lost his girlfriend. His plans for New Years abruptly changed, and he had to cancel the trip he planned for the all-star break, or, well, at least half of that trip. He’d have to explain to his parents why they weren’t meeting Vivienne, and he had all of this guilt. Vivienne didn’t suffer at all. She’d been thinking of ending things with him. She didn’t lose her job or a number of important people to her. It was too late to change things though; they couldn’t go back and, though she felt bad, Vivienne didn’t want to them to.