Remember Me

I lost the opening faceoff to Travis Zajac, the Devils #1 center. Ilya Kovalchuk skated up past our blue line with it, dropped it to Bryce Salvador, and just like that, a mere 15 seconds into the game, the Devils were leading this game, 1-0.

I sat on the bench after the goal, letting the second line go out. I looked down at my skates, wondering what went wrong in those 15 seconds. But I was taken out of my thoughts by Chelsea Dagger.

Andrew scored and I missed the whole thing. Tied game. Only 58 more minutes until the end of this.



Overtime and I have a love-hate relationship. I still have yet to figure out who loves and who hates.

But today, it hated me.

Kaner and I have a 2-1, about a minute in. Pat passes it to me and I have a wide open net. I pull my stick back, ready to take the shot, but when my stick comes back down, it goes right over the puck.

The crowd groans and as I skate to the bench, Patrik Elias scores on Corey and the game ends.

The whole Devils bench skates over to Brodeur, patting his helmet and telling him he had a good game.

I sit on the bench, looking at my stick wondering what the hell went wrong.

"Yo, Toews!" I hear Devon yell.

I look to my left, and see Devon standing on the other side of the glass. I wave and get up. When I pass by, I hit the glass, making her smile.

"Don't dwell on the loss, Tazer, sometimes it's meant to be." Coach said, as I walked into the locker room.

"Same for everyone! It was a 5-4 overtime loss. We kept up with them the entire game and we came out with one point. Go home, get some rest, practice starts at noon."

I finished my normal after-games routine in about 20 minutes. I ignored the press, not wanting to answer the question I knew all of them would ask. What happened in overtime? Did you anticipate that you would fan on the shot? Were you happy with your performance tonight?"

I found Devon waiting by my carn freezing herself.

"Jesus Christ, why didn't you just wait for me in the hallway or locker room?" I asked, throwing my sweatshirt at her.

"Sorry," she answered.

"I just want to sleep." I said, pulling out of the parking lot.

"Do you have practice tomorrow?" I nodded.

She groaned. "Say you're sick."

I chuckled. "No, Devon."

We sat at a red light in silence.

"I remember the first time we met." she told me softly.

"What?"

"I remembered it. What I was wearing. What you...weren't wearing. Who hit on me. What Uncle Joel said. Everything that happened."

"That's great." I said. "Do you remember anything else?"

Devon shook her head. "No, sorry."

"It's fine. It's good that some of it's starting to come back, though."

She nodded and looked out the window at the snow falling.

We sat in the apartment the rest of the day. Viktor and some of the others came over around 5. I didn't want them to come inside, but Devon gladly let them in, only because they had chinese with them.

"I don't understand how you eat so much chinese food and don't get fat." Dan Carcillo said to Devon.

"Jon eats a lot of it, too." she said.

"Yeah, but he works out almost everyday."

"Are you calling me fat, Carcillo?" she said, raising her voice.

"I think you look vackert, Devon." Viktor said, winking at her.

"What does that mean?" Nick Leddy asked.

"Beautiful." Viktor said, shooting a smile at Devon. She returned it with an eyeroll.

"Thanks, Stalberg." she said.

"No problem, babe." he said.

"Watch it." I warned.

"Get the stick out of your ass, Jonny." Kaner said, walking into the living room.

Devon laughed softly as Pat sat next to her on the floor. "See. Even your girlfriend agrees."

"Va te faire foutre." (Fuck off.) I said.

"Don't speak French at me, say it in English, you pussy." Kaner snapped.

Devon punched his arm. He turned to look at her. "Don't say that word."

"Pus-" she glared at him. "Sorry."



"I didn't knw you speak French." Devon said, as she pulled the covers on the bed back.

"Ce n'est que lorsque je ne veux pas que quelqu'un sais de quoi je parle." (Only when I don't want someone to know what I'm talking about.) I said smiling.

"What?"

"Nevermind." I layed down next to her.

She poked my stomach, smiled at me, and then closed her eyes.

"Bonsoir, belle." (Goodnight, beautiful.)