The I Love You Challenge

Nov 3, 2012

Chelsea woke up the next morning with a headache, no surprises there. She didn’t usually drink very much, she could never hold down her alcohol so drinking so much the night before was probably not the best idea. She looked over at the clock that was on the table next to her bed. 11:09 it read. She groaned slightly as she sat up, got out of her bed and looked around her hotel room. It was a mess and it was obvious that Chelsea had struggled with getting in and changing last night. Clothes were scattered all over the floor and the bathroom was a wreck.

She didn’t remember much after the cab ride back to the hotel but she did remember what had happened before that, especially her and her friends’ little challenge. Chelsea was going to school in Pittsburg majoring in journalism, which gave her the choice of any player from the Pittsburg Penguins. There were many hot guys on the team when she first thought about the roster for the Pens. Chelsea was a bold, daring, competitive girl and she knew just how she was going to hook in her hockey superstar and exactly who she was going to go for.

Her phone ringing on full blast interrupting Chelsea from her train of thought and she answered it.

“Hello?”

“Hey Chelsea its Lizzie,” she heard Lizzie’s voice come through the phone.

“Oh hey,” she replied.

“The other girls and I are having lunch together at my parents place again today and we wanted you to join us,” she told her.

“Yeah I’ll come what time do you want me to show up?” she asked.

“Is 12 too soon? Melissa is already here and her flight leaves at 3 and she wants to be at the airport early.”

“No 12 is great, I’ll see you then.”

“Awesome! See you soon!” Chelsea hung up the phone before setting it down on her bed and rushing to the shower.

Chelsea accidentally showed up at Lizzie’s house at 12:30, only because she had to pack and there was unanticipated traffic. The girls were already having lunch when she arrived and she grabbed a plate full of pasta and salad that was prepared before sitting down with them.

“So about last night,” Lizzie started while everyone was eating.

“What about it?” Melissa asked.

“The bet, are we still going through with it?” Lizzie replied looking at all of them.

“I was still planning on it. I already have my strategy planned,” Chelsea was the first to speak up. Melissa rolled her eyes, Lizzie looked slightly amused, and Jamie looked impressed.

“I guess if you still want to do it then I will too,” Lizzie said nodding slowly.

“Yeah whatever I’ll compete or whatever the fuck you want to call it,” Melissa replied.

“If you guys still want to then I will too,” Jamie agreed. Leave it to Jamie to make her decisions based on what the other girls wanted. It was like high school all over again.

“Well in that case I think we need to set some rules,” Lizzie said. “You know to make sure it’s fair and everything,” they all agreed and spent the next hour deciding on rules and guidelines to set for the bet.

“We should have a name for it, don’t you guys think?” Chelsea asked when they finished with the rules.

“It was your idea, you come up with the name,” Melissa told her and she thought about it for a minute.

“How about the ‘I Love You’ Challenge?” Chelsea suggested and they all decided that it sounded good. Melissa and Chelsea both had flights to catch shortly after that since Lizzie and Jamie weren’t leaving until later in the weekend. Lunch wrapped up quickly among the girls. They hugged each other goodbye and wished each other good luck on the Challenge before Chelsea and Melissa headed out the door.

“I’ll email everyone a copy of the rules!” Lizzie told them as they walked out the door.

Chelsea got back to her dorm in Pittsburg around 10 p.m. and turned the TV on to the channel that would have the Penguins game on it. To her luck, the game was home and about to end. She took another shower before getting ready for a night out in the clubs. Chelsea was of average height and weight with light brown hair that ended right in the middle of her shoulders. No matter what she tried her hair was always super straight, it wouldn’t even hold a curl for more than 15 minutes. She was curvy in all the right places, and guys were usually drawn to her, yet another advantage she thought she had over the other girls. She chose a dress that hugged her in all the right areas. It was a pretty turquoise color that made her eyes pop to help the makeup she was wearing. When she thought that her outfit made Chelsea the perfect guy magnet, especially for certain hockey players, she decided to go out. The best bet she had to find the Penguins after the game was to go the bar that she had spotted them at before. Chelsea crossed her fingers before walking in and hoped that they would eventually show up.

She had only been at the club for 15 minutes and only dancing for 10 when they walked through the door. They were smiling and laughing which she figured meant they had just won. The whole team wasn’t out but a whole lot of them were making it hard to distinguish the difference between players but she was able to spot her target almost instantly. Walking in practically first yet still off to the side you could see the joy on the young captain’s face even more than his fellow teammates. That’s right folks; Chelsea was trying to get Sidney Crosby to tell her he loved her.

She automatically started dancing wilder, trying to draw as much attention to herself as possible. His teammates picked up on her and started talking about Chelsea with excitement, but all Crosby was doing was staring. He was hard to read and she was quick to learn that dancing from afar was ineffective. He was sitting at the bar with a few of his teammates when she walked right through them and ordered a drink. The players around her went silent, and looked at me. Chelsea looked over at Crosby and made eye contact with him. The first thing she observed was how pretty his brown eyes were up close. In fact, he himself was even better looking than he was in pictures. She quickly snapped out of her thoughts, it was game time. She was here to win, not to stare at his face.

“Hi,” she said flashing a flirtatious smile.

“Hi,” he replied smiling as well.

“I’m Chelsea,” she told him as she grabbed my drink from the bartender and reached down to grab her purse to get money to pay for her drink.

“No let me,” he said to me and she took her hand off her purse.

“Thanks,” she said putting my hand on his arm. He said something to the bartender who nodded.

“I’m Sidney,” he told her. Chelsea pretended like she didn’t already know this.

“I love that name!” she told him smiling again and laughing slightly. He laughed too and grinned.

“Thanks.”

“I’m going to go dance again if you would like to join me,” she said before walking away and winking. She went back out to the dance floor and started dancing trying to make it sexier than before. Soon after Sidney was there dancing with her.

“Couldn’t resist me?” she teased him.

“Not someone as beautiful as you,” he replied.

He’s a sweetheart. This could be easier than I thought, she thought to herself.

They danced for a long time, close together and fast. She couldn’t deny that she was attracted to him and she could tell he was attracted to her. The point of the Challenge wasn’t to get in their pants though; it was to get them to say I love you. Before it could get any further she leaned up and kissed him on the cheek, letting her lips linger there for a second.

She moved her head slightly, whispered, “Call me sometime,” into his ear, and put a slip of paper with her number on it into his hand. She smiled before giving a slight wave and turning to walk out of the door.

On the cab ride back to her dorm she couldn’t stop thinking about how successful that had been. Here she was already getting her hockey player’s attention while the other girls probably hadn’t even started yet. Chelsea would have Sidney Crosby telling her he loved her in no time and then she could be the winner. She would be done with Crosby in no time, no strings attached.