I'll Be Right Beside You

Jordan

“Hey Geno,” I didn’t look up from my laptop as he walked back into the room. I’d just grabbed a sub from down the street and came back to the hotel room to eat it.

“Hey. Guess what happen,” he urged me as he sat down on his bed and took his shoes off to take a nap.

“What?” I really wasn’t in the mood for much of anything right now, and he stared at me for a moment, appearing to be judging my mood before telling me.

“Run into Giroux at restaurant,” he started, and I nodded, trying not to laugh at the way he mangled the guy’s last name. French accents just did not mix well with Geno.

“Okay…” I waited for him to continue, and he took a deep breath.

“He ask for Cam number,” he finished, and I felt a little shocked. She wouldn’t have given him her number, would she? He was a Flyer, he lived far away, had a hectic schedule… and she couldn’t be over us that quickly, could she?

“O-oh?”

“They swap. She say no like him, but…” he shrugged, obviously not quite sure of what to make of the situation. My stomach churned slightly at the thought, and I shut my laptop before laying down and pulling my pillow to me to try and go to sleep.

“Sorry Gronk. Thought should know,” Geno explained, and I nodded.

“I know Geno, thanks for that. I’m not mad at you or anything I just… that hurts. A lot,” I allowed, and felt his huge paw of a hand on my shoulder momentarily.

“Hurt bad, but will get better?” he asked, and all I could do was shrug.

“I hope so, but I love her Geno, I don’t know if that’ll just stop. I’ve never loved anyone the way I love her,” I told him, and saw his brown eyes darken as he understood what I said.

“Sorry Gronk,” he whispered, and I nodded, rolling over as he reached to close the blinds so we could get some sleep.

~~

I felt the apprehension coming from the whole team as we sat in the locker room listening to Dan’s pre-game speech. I kept stealing glances at Cam, who looked a little pale. I didn’t blame her – every time she’d played Philly something bad had happened.

We filed out onto the ice, immediately noticing the sea of orange jerseys in the crowd, and how loud the place was. We did our warm up and then sat down as Sidney, Neal, and Cam stayed out as the opening line. A change Dan had made since we got into our fight, and now that she and Neal were so close they were playing really well together. Not to the same extent we had, but still really well.

Things seemed to be going good for her – no dirty hits, nobody seemed to treat her any differently than when they’d thought she was a boy - and I had to wonder if Giroux had anything to do with that, because more than once I caught him watching her from the bench when she was on the ice. She moved so gracefully, and she flew when she dug her skates in. But he watched her with a bit more interest than as a fellow hockey player, which had my temper flaring.

Chris, TK, and I nearly scored during our shift, and as Giroux had the puck I saw the perfect opportunity, and laid into him, pinning him hard to the boards. TK stole the puck and it set us up for another good cycle and opportunity.

The game went by quickly, and intensely, going to overtime where Cam managed to flip a little backhander over Bryz as she tripped backwards, and soon the line had dog-piled her where she lay on the ice, making her laugh. It was a good start to a road trip, and as we filed into the locker room we all seemed to be in good spirits.

“You didn’t need to fucking lay into him like that – I know what you’re trying to do,” James hissed as he walked past me, and I sent a glare his way.

“What’re you talking about?”

“Nailing Giroux like that – we both know you’re just pissy about him asking for Cam’s number. I know Geno told you,” he replied, before continuing on his way.

“It has nothing to do with that – she can do whatever she wants,” I growled, even though it killed me to say the words. I didn’t want her with Giroux. Sure – he was a nice enough guy and whatever – but nobody would ever be good enough for her. Not while I still wanted her, even though I knew that I wasn’t good enough for her either.

“Well then start acting like it,” he snarled, and I clenched my fists, trying to get a hold of my temper before I did something stupid like punching my own teammate. I might feel better after doing so, but the rest of my team and my coach would all be on my ass about it; and getting myself benched wouldn’t help my mood at all.

“Leave her alone Jordan. She was happy talking with him earlier, so let her at least try to get her life back on track before you start intervening,” Steve warned me as he passed me, and I kept my mouth shut and my eyes on the floor, not wanting to let my temper get the best of me and anger him. I liked Steve – he was a great guy, and he had Cam’s best interests at heart, but I didn’t want to hear anybody say that I should let her be with someone else.

“So Cam, do you know which place?” James asked her as I walked to where the rest of the team was. She shrugged, her face turning red as she tried to shut him up. That was a nearly impossible feat, as anybody on the team already knew.

“What place for what?” Marc asked, immediately interested. She kept trying to shrug them off, but soon Kris and TK were on her case about it to.

“Just got invited to go out for a drink, that’s all. Just some friends,” she insisted, but they kept pestering her, until James’s shit-eating grin let them all know that he knew the details and was willing to indulge them.

“Just a couple of guys from here asked if she wanted to hang out after the game, nothing serious,” he told them, and soon they were all teasing her as if she were one of the guys who’d gotten asked out to a bar by a hot chick. As if I wasn’t standing right there and able to hear everything they were saying.

“Well is somebody going wit’ you? We don’t want anyt’ing to ‘appen to you – I’m sure whoever it is wouldn’t do t’at, but you never know, you know?” Marc worried, and James laughed.

“Yeah, I’m going to go with her just in case,” James assured them, and they all relaxed a little bit.

“So… who asked you? Just some random dude?” TK bugged her, and she shrugged as James let out a snort of laughter.

“What? Don’t want to admit he’s one of them?” he teased her, and they gasped.

“NO! Not a Flyer!” they all groaned as her face turned bright red.

“Calm your tits guys – he’s just a friend – nothing more!” she insisted, but I knew their teasing would be relentless, and even worse if they knew that it was Claude Giroux. The guy was dead in my books.