Man Behind the Mask

As Vivienne was entering the living room, there was a loud crash, a yell, and a ton of laughter coming from behind a crowd of people. Vivienne pushed through to see what was going on. She saw pillows of one couch completely disoriented, the other couch flipped over, and Marc-Andre sitting on Sidney, who was in a Superman shirt, a red cape, and underwear on the outside of his pants.

Marc-Andre was laughing so hard he could barely talk, and Sid was confused as hell. “Told you the Caped Crusader is better than the Man of Steal!” he eventually got out.

Sidney looked at him. “We had that conversation last month. Have you been waiting that long to do this?” Marc-Andre nodded. “Wow man. You need a life. That’s sad,” he laughed and pushed the fool off of him.

Marc-Andre went to talk to Vero and laugh with her about it, but as he looked around the room he noticed she wasn’t there. Vivienne could see his expression fall and knew he was gonna look for her. She had a feeling that the night wasn’t going to end well for her closest Penguin friend. She figured that it would be best to leave him alone, so instead she went over to Sid.

“How ya feelin?” she asked, helping him reset the couch. “Is your head ok?” She was referring to the concussion.

“Yea I’m fine. Last minute I saw him out of the corner of my eye. I braced myself on the couch. It saved me the headache. He jumped from the other couch onto me! I swear he flew.”

They laughed. “He is pretty crazy. I am happy not to have fallen victim to one of his pranks. Yet.”

“Your lucky.” After a shooting her a sneaky smile, he changed the subject. “So, its come to my attention that a certain hockey player has a thing for you.”

Vivienne played dumb, acting like she didn’t know. “How would you know? And who is it?”

“You mean he didn’t say anything yet?” Vivienne looked at him like he was stupid, so that he would think she really didn’t know. “Oh. I don’t know if I should tell you…”

“Why not? You brought it up. Now you have to.”

“I guess.” He sighed, “Its Eric. I overheard him calling Edible Arrangements. So I asked him about it.”

“Oh. Well what do you think?”

“Huh?”

“What should I do? I mean, first and foremost I don’t want you guys thinking I’m just a puck bunny. But if he does make a move, I don’t want to tell him no. He’s a really nice guy. I’d go on a date or two with him. Who knows. At the same time, I’m not sure how interested in him I am. I don’t have the greatest luck with men. I put up walls and have specific things I look for. We haven’t talked much, so I don’t know if he has what I’m looking for. If it doesn’t work out, I don’t want to hurt him.”

“I think you should give him a chance. What bad could that really do? Eric will treat you nice. And we know you aren’t a puck bunny. If you didn’t in the amount of times you’ve been around us on the ice and whatnot, you definitely did at the last party by not jumping all over the opportunity to lose your clothes or mack on TK.”

“Alright. I’ll see where this takes Eric and I. By the way, I already talked to him. I just wanted to see what Superman had to say.”

“You’re a bum,” he joked.

“But I’m a cute one. So its ok,” she laughed. “I’m going outside to get some air.” He nodded and made note, just in case someone needed her or something happened.

Vivienne opened the door to the crisp November air. It felt nice; Jordan’s house was hot and stuffy because of all the people. Before she completely stepped outside, she noticed Marc-Andre sitting on the step, head in his hands.

“Marc-” she was cut off.

“She left,” he said quietly but audibly.

“What?”

“Vero. She left me.” In his right hand he played with the engagement ring Vero was wearing earlier that evening. Vivienne sat beside him and pulled him into a tight hug. Neither said anything for a while. They just sat in silence with her arms around him in a friendly embrace. After a few minutes, Marc-Andre began to speak again. “She thinks I’m childish. That I’m too wrapped up in what I want. She said I forget her needs. But everything I’ve done is for her. I play hockey because I love it but also because it gives me the opportunity to give her everything. We can have a comfortable future, we have a nice house, we go on exotic trips. I don’t understand.”

“I’m sorry, hun. You know, sometimes people are afraid of what they have. Maybe you were just too good to be true, and it scared her. You guys have been together for a very long time. That could be part of it. She probably is scared that she hasn’t seen what life is like without you, and its intimidating.”

“I’m not scared. I don’t want to be with anyone but her. I haven’t been with anyone but her. I’m not scared. Why is she?”

Vivienne shrugged. “I don’t know. Some people are stronger than others. Give her a few weeks or months. She’ll come around. If not, its her loss. There are millions of girls out there who wish they could have you. You might only want her, but I can guarantee there are a few other matches for you. Come on. Lets go inside. Its getting chilly. I’ll get you a drink.” Vivienne pulled him up and into the house, trying to make a beeline for the kitchen.

They were on their way when Monica spotted the two. “There you are, Viv! I’ve been looking everywhere for you. We are karaoke-ing. I know you want to join.”

“Not right now, Mon.” Vivienne gave Monica the “I’ll tell you later” eyes. Monica understood and nodded, letting Vivienne and Marc-Andre go to the kitchen. Vivienne mixed Marc-Andre something strong. After what he had all night and this, he was ready to pass out. She checked with Jordan to make sure it was ok for Flower to crash there, and tucked him in (on his side, just in case). On the bed stand, she left some pain relievers, a few cups of water (for dehydration), a banana (for potassium [a/n: still gets me that the elemental sign for it is K. sometimes I feel like that Kellogg’s cereal is misleading. Anyone know if it contains a ton of potassium? Showing real signs of nerdiness here…]), and a note telling him to call her so she could make sure he was ok.

Since it was nearing three a.m., the remaining awake people, few in number, helped Jordan tidy up a bit. Among these people was Eric, so Vivienne decided to clean with him and talk. They flirted a little back and forth and set a date for their “date”. Each would pick one of their favorite movies, and they would eat the fruit basket and order in Chinese. Vivienne was actually kind of excited.

Eric and Vivienne’s date went very well. Eric picked _insert manly action film or comedy here_ and Vivienne picked _insert not chick flick here_. They had a great time, ate most of the fruit, shared their favorite Chinese food, and just talked for hours. The two clicked for the most part, and decided that they were a couple. Nothing else happened that night though. The two planned another date and decided that Vivienne would be at the next weekend practice. Things were looking good for them.

Marc-Andre, on the other hand, was having a rough time. Bylsma had him sit out of the game after the party because he was in such bad shape. Vivienne tried helping him out, but there wasn’t much she could do to make him feel better. She and the team were worried about their friend. The more they talked, the more she found out. Vero was having second thoughts for a few years, but hoped that their problems would be fixed. With Marc-Andre’s increasingly good seasons, though, things didn’t go as planned. Work consumed him and she got less and less attention until she couldn’t take it anymore and called their engagement off.

Vivienne was very worried about Marc-Andre. When she wasn’t going out with her new boyfriend, she spent a lot of time trying to pull Marc-Andre up from his slum. Since Eric was his teammate, Eric didn’t mind if the three hung out occasionally, so Eric and Vivienne would plan little outings to take Marc-Andre on. The team really needed their star goalie back, and Eric was willing to do anything to get back on a winning streak, even if that meant sharing his girlfriend.

The team started dragging Marc-Andre out to clubs a lot, just to get his mind off of Vero and onto other women. It didn’t work. Slowly but surely he made gradual progress. Marc-Andre was beginning to become himself again on the ice and during the day. In the evenings, though, he still missed Vero; clubbing with her, laying with her, whispering in the dark to her, everything.