Chelsea Dagger

Patrick woke up to an empty bed. For a brief second last night had seemed like a dream. Having Chelsea here with him had to have been too good to be true. He almost believed that last night had been all in his head. That was until a loud crash from somewhere else in the apartment caught his attention.

“Chels,” he called out.

“Everything’s fine. Go back to bed,” the girl yelled back. It was too late though; Patrick was already out of bed and pulling on a pair of boxers. He followed the noise Chelsea was causing into the kitchen.

“What are you doing?” he questioned. Chelsea looked flustered as she hurried to pick up the pans that were spread across the floor. The sight caused the young hockey player to smile.

She let out a sigh before responding. “If you must know I was going to make you breakfast.”

“You were going to make breakfast?”

“Yeah, well that was until your kitchen attacked me,” the girl replied shortly. “I was just trying to do something nice and this is the thanks I get.”

“Believe me I’m very grateful to have you here,” he told her with a smirk growing on his face. “But if I know you, you tried to grab a pan from the bottom and the others followed.”

“I have no comment to that,” she said. Chelsea turned away to look in the fridge, causing the conversation to end. After taking a quick look at its contents she turned back around. “There is nothing but Gatorade, Red Bull, and beer in this fridge.”

“Maybe there’s food in the freezer,” he pointed out. Truthfully he knew there was a very slim chance of finding anything solid in there.

Chelsea pulled open the freezer with low expectations. “There is only a handle of vodka in this freezer. How do you not starve to death, sir?”

“Well there are these places where people make you food and then give it to you in exchange for money,” Patrick teased the girl.

“Then why don’t you take me to one of these places? A girl needs her breakfast.”

“Sounds good I’ll just go get dressed,” he said while retreating from the room.

“You wouldn’t need to put pants on if you had food in your apartment,” she called out getting a loud laugh from Patrick. “It would save some time, for after breakfast activities.”

“Fine, well go to the grocery store after breakfast. Then we can spend more time in the apartment.” Before she could respond Pat was back out in the kitchen dressed and ready to go. “Ready?” he asked while giving Chelsea an adorable questioning look.

She couldn’t help but to take in the man in front of her. She had missed him so much. The two of them hadn’t spent more than a consecutive week together since Chelsea left for college. There relationship had been reduced to short visits and catching up. She couldn’t help but wonder what would happen with the two of them living in such close proximity. She wasn’t sure which way this change would make their relationship lean. She saw their relationship leaning towards either strictly friendship or maybe something more. Honestly Chelsea wasn’t even sure about which one she would want. She loved Patrick she knew that much was true, but she wasn’t sure if that was enough.

“Earth to Chelsea,” Pat said. The two words jerked Chelsea away from her thoughts and causing her cheeks to turn a slight pink. Patrick walked closer to the girl and gently poked her forehead while he spoke, “What’s going on up here?”

“Nothing,” she brushed off the question. “I just in shock that you don’t even have eggs. I mean what kind of person doesn’t have eggs?” she joked to distract Patrick from her little mental vacation.

“Jeez woman, could you just let me take you out to breakfast? Or do you want to stay here and pick on me some more?” Patrick took a step back from Chelsea regaining a reasonable distance.

“How about you take me out to breakfast and I continue picking on you?” she answered. The smile she gave Patrick caused a similar one to stretch across his face.

“I guess that is acceptable,” he said and with that the pair left the apartment and made their way back to Patrick’s car.

They had been sitting in silence for a few minutes before Chelsea spoke up. “So where are you taking me?” she asked.

Patrick let out a small chuckle. It was just like Chelsea to ask a question like that. She was never one to just sit back and enjoy the ride when she didn’t know where she was going to end up. She was never good with surprises.

Patrick thought back to the summer before their senior year of high school. He had made the mistake of letting Chelsea know that he had already gotten her a birthday gift. He had come home from practice to the information that Chelsea was waiting for him in his room. When he walked into his room he saw Chelsea quickly moving away from his dresser holding something behind her back.

“What do you have there?” he asked even though he already knew the answer. He sat down at the foot of his bed and patted a spot next to him. He watched as Chelsea shifted the box in her hands and sat down.

“What…I don’t have anything in my hand,” she said coolly. She was a decent liar but Patrick knew her too well. Even if he hadn’t already known she was guilty he could tell by the way her eyes were darted around the room.

“It’s ok Chelsea, you found it you might as well open it,” he couldn’t resist to see her reaction to the gift.

“I couldn’t I feel bad now.”

“Come on, Chels. You put all this effort into finding it and you mean to tell me you weren’t going to open it?” he asked hypothetically.

“Well there actually wasn’t that much effort. Honesty, Kane, the underwear drawer is one of the most cliché hiding spots even. I’m actually a little offended that you even considered that hiding,” she tried to distract the boy. This was her usual defense, but it had stopped working on Patrick five years ago.

“Honestly, Chelsea, just open it I want you to,” he encouraged the girl while she looked down at the small rectangular box in her hands.

“Fine,” she said with an exaggerated sigh, but only because you are forcing me.”

She turned her attention to the gift. She couldn’t stop the gasp that escaped her lips when she lifted the top. She looked at the small grey pouch inside as if didn’t believe it was actually there. The worlds “David Yurman” printed on it made her pause.

“Oh Pat, you shouldn’t have,” she protested.

“You haven’t even seen what it is yet,” he urged her to continue.

She picked up the small bag gently and slowly pulled in open. “Patrick, this is too expensive,” she stated when she pulled out the silver bracelet. It was beautiful, without a doubt the most beautiful piece of jewelry she had even held. The way the silver was shaped perfectly for her wrist and the two blue gems shined clearly.

“Just put it on,” he told her.

“I can’t accept this,” she said. However she was already picturing the bracelet on her wrist.

“Yes you can,” he insisted turning her head to make her look at him. “You deserve nice things. You deserve to be spoiled.”

“But you don’t have to. It’s still to much,” she argued. She quickly shoved the bracelet back into the pouch and tried to shove it into Patrick’s hands.

“Really, don’t worry about it. One day I’m going to play in the NHL and I’m going to have more money then I’ll know what to do with. Personally I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if I didn’t give you this bracelet.” He finished his statement off with a charming smile and took the bracelet back out and handed it to Chelsea.

“Thank you,” she whispered as she slid the bracelet on.

“You’re welcome,” he said. He gently took her hand so the bracelet could be on full display. “See it looks beautiful on you.”

Chelsea didn’t know any words that seemed adequate to voice how thankful she was towards Patrick. Not just for the bracelet but for being so great to her in general. She looked down at the floor for the moment before looking back up into his eyes. Without over thinking it she closed the distance between the two of them and gave her friend a quick peck on the lips. She was ready to move on when Patrick pulled her back to him. He had had his first taste of her lips and he needed more. Before long the two of them were completely caught up in the moment and each other. That was until the next day when the two of them were just friends again. Neither of them wanted to risk losing their best friend