Somebody's Heartbreak

If you were a movie, this would be your soundtrack

“What’s the point of 4G if it doesn’t even work? C’mon baby, work for me.” she pleaded with her phone as she waited for her map application to guide her through the unfamiliar city. As her heels clicked against the sidewalk, she continued to wait for her phone to direct her. Turning a corner, she felt herself run into what felt like a brick wall. Bouncing off the ‘wall’ and dropping her phone, she felt her weight shift to her heels and the rest of her body followed before two arms wrapped around her waist, equalizing her balance. “I’m sorry!” she instantly said in harmony with the man she had walked into. They both bent down to pick up her phone and pretty much like a movie cliché, they touched hands as they reached for the phone.

“No, it’s my fault,” he said with a classic British accent, “I should watch where I’m going.” He handed her phone to her as they stood up. “No,” she blushed as she was pulled into his chocolate brown eyes with green rings around them, “Umm, no, I shouldn’t have my head down when I have no idea where I’m going,” she smiled with her braces.

“Yeah, I can tell you’re not from around here,” he reciprocated her smile as he noticed her non-British accent, “Where are you headed?”

“Umm… this address,” she showed him her phone. “That’s a bit far from here,” he said as he furrowed his eyebrows, trying to remember where the address indicated. “Don’t tell me I’ve been walking in the wrong direction for 10 minutes.” She said with frustration. “Yes ma’am,” he said sympathetically, “I can give you a ride there if you’d like.” He offered with a smile.

“Uhh… I don’t know about that.” She said hesitantly. “C’mon, I’m not some crazy axe murderer or something,” he flashed his smile again. “Oh, alright.” She gave in, simply not wanting to be late for work.

“I’m Tom, by the way.” He stuck out his hand. “I’m Tayler,” she shook his hand.

“So where are you from?” he said as they walked toward his car. “I'm from Canada.” she said proudly.

“So that’s where that accent comes from.” he said with a smile. “What accent?” she laughed as she hit his arm lightly. “Nothing, nothing. There’s my car.” He pointed to a black mini-Cooper.

Tayler went to the right side of the car and before realizing what she was doing, “Sorry! Force of habit.”

“No, that’s totally understandable,” he said as he gave her a reassuring smile. He ran over to the passenger side door and opened the door for her and helped her in. “Thanks,” she tried to hide her blushing from him.

“So what brings you across the pond?” he asked as they drove down the street. “I’m here for a summer exchange slash internship through my university,”

“Oh really, what are you studying?” he asked. “I’m studying for my bachelor in kinesiology so I can hopefully become a physiotherapist,”

“You’ll have no problem doing that,” he smiled at her. “How can you tell?” she looked at him with scepticism. “You seem like a very intelligent girl. I mean, it takes a certain type of person to go halfway across the world in order to push their education farther.” He said. Tayler hung on his every word. She loved his accent and everything just sounded so wonderful the way he said it. “So what do you do?” she turned towards him in the leather seat, watching him drive.

“Wait, you don’t know who I am?” he said. Tom was one of the poster boys of the 2012 London Olympics and after a year, he was used to people knowing who he is without having to introduce himself. “Should I?” she looked at him with confusion, “Hold on, you are some mass serial killer aren’t you?”

“No, I’m not. I can assure you that I have no criminal records.” He laughed, “I’m just… Okay, I’m a professional diver and I was at the Olympics last year. You’re actually the first person to not know who I am.”

“My family’s more centered on winter sports… y’know, hockey, snowboarding, all that jazz.” She rambled, “Is it a bad thing?”

“No, not at all – I dunno, I like that you don’t know who I am. It gives me a chance to talk about myself more without feeling like I’m just repeating the things people don’t know about me or rather, forget to remember.” Quite honestly, Tom didn’t know how to explain it. He was so used to people knowing every single detail about him and his life that meeting a person who he’s a complete unknown to is baffling. He wanted to know more about her. He wanted to get past the rare combination of blue eyes and dark brown, wavy hair but he had just pulled into the parking lot of where she was headed and he cursed himself for not making the car ride last longer.

“Here’s my stop. Thanks again, Tom Daley.” She smiled as she shook his hand again but he held on longer than she expected. “If you’d like, we should trade numbers and I can show you around the Plymouth area sometime.” He fished, hoping she’d take his bait.

“I’d really like that.” She smiled sweetly as she typed her number into his phone as he did the same. “Great, I’ll call you sometime,” he said as he smiled like a goof towards his phone.

“Don’t say you’ll call me and end up not calling me, Tom Daley.” She gave him a quick peck on the cheek and exited the car all in one fluid motion. Before Tom could even react, she was gone and halfway up the cement staircase leading to the door of the building. “I will definitely call you, Tayler Eberle,” he read the name off of his phone. “Yes!” he did a little victory dance in the driver’s seat.

Tayler understood how Tom felt… people not knowing who you are. Back in Canada, she was known as “Jordan Eberle’s little sister” and will always be in his shadow. She wasn’t blessed like her older sister who doesn’t share the same combination of wavy brown hair and ice blue eyes. They were basically spitting images of each other. Some call it a genetic miracle, Tayler called it an inconvenience.

Like Tom, she never knew who she could trust. The only friends she trusted were her team…
“Tom!” Tonia snapped her fingers in front of his face, startling him and waking him up from his daydream, “You alright, bud?” she said as they warmed up in the gym. “Yeah, I’m fine,” he said with a smile.

“That’s a creepy smile you’ve got on, Tom.” Chris Mears pointed out.

“Tom. I haven’t seen you like this since” Tonia gasped mid-sentence, “No way!” she read her best friend’s face.

“Would you all leave me alone?” he playfully pushed his friends away as he walked towards the foam pit.

“Tom, I’ve known you since you were four feet tall and used hair gel to turn your hair into spikes, you can’t hide anything from me, bud.” Tom effortlessly did a backflip into the foam pit and sat in there longer than usual. He was always so focused but somehow, one girl is his enigma. Tonia did a front flip into the foam pit alongside him, “So c’mon, what is it? What’s rusted the iron will of Tom Daley?”
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Cute, huh?

Let's call this my "pilot" chapter as I don't know how many readers like Tom Daley AND hockey. We shall see.
Feedback would be great =)

And thanks for reading!