Frozen (I Need to Be Thawed)

It felt pretty damn good playing in between these familiar pipes. And apparently I’m still in pretty good shape, although we were tied at 0 going into the third period.

Only a week and a half had passed since I had last seen Alexandre Burrows, but I hadn’t spoke to him much since then either. We had both been busy with our hockey careers, especially since playoffs were just 2 short months away.

The sound of the buzzer rang in my ears, ripping me out of my thoughts; Third period was beginning.

I tapped both posts with my stick and positioned myself between the pipes. I was ready to play my ass off.

The puck left the referee’s hand, and Wayne, whom I met a month ago, won the faceoff, slapping it over to our captain, Blake Kielczynski.

He carried the puck over the blue line, and into the offensive zone. The other team, The Raptors, moved in quick to cover him. Blake dropped the puck back to Tyler Pumo, who was our allstar of the team.

Tyler faked a shot to his left, and slid the puck to Wayne; he tapped the puck into the open side of the net. Cheers from the packed stands exploded. The score was 1-0.

Not much action more action filled the third period. And the minutes dwindled to seconds, and the seconds reduced to 0:00 on the clock.

I was smothered in the arms of my teammates. A shut out was pretty rare after a goaltender had been out for three months with an injury. I gagged, smelling the disgusting stench of the male hockey players. “Ughhh, you guys reek! Get outta here!!”

Slowly, they began to peel themselves away from me, allowing fresh air into my lungs instead of stale sweat. I finally was able to get to my locker room to change.

As I was changing, I remembered something Carey told me before my game.

“Hey, Machete, I have a surprise for you after your game. But I won’t be able to deliver it to you personally. I’m having a good friend deliver it to you for me.” Carey’s face was set on the road ahead of him, I couldn’t read his expression on what the surprise could have been.

“How am I suppose to know who your ‘good friend’ is?” I asked.

“He is tall, black hair, brown eyes…he’s kinda hard to miss.” He checked the time, “Well, we have to get going. Good luck with your game today.”

I slipped the hat I received from Alex and shoved all my goalie gear (except my leg pads) in my bag.

Throwing my tied-together leg pads over my shoulder and grabbing my stick and bag, I kicked the door open to leave.

I saw the door smack into someone, and a loud, “Owwww!” escaped from the victim. I dropped my stuff on the ground to see if the person was okay.

I noticed he was tall, with black hair. I couldn’t see his face or his eyes. But I didn’t need to see them to know who it was. My mind was in disbelief, unable to register that he was here.

“Awesome job out their, Mac. I was worried that I wasn’t going to make it in time to see your game, but Carey thinks he is Lightning Mcqueen, and sped at 80mph from the airport to here.” He chuckled, taking me into his arms.

I breathed in his scent. I missed it so much. It was still a mixture of cinnamon and ice; His “man-scent’ as he called it.

“Alex, what are you doing here? You weren’t supposed to be here for another four days. And you have a game tomorrow.” I punched his arm, “You better not miss it!”

Burrows grinned, “I bought a plane ticket out here, but sadly, I’ll have to leave on the 4am plane out of here. I brought you a present.”

He held out a thick rectangular box.

I looked at it, and then at him, “Can you hold onto it for a little bit? I still need to get my gear into my corvette.”

Alex bent over, picking up my hockey bag, “I’ll help carry your stuff then.”

I sighed, “Fine.” I didn’t really like getting help from people. But of course, Burrows was an exception.
Retrieving my stick and leg pads off the ground, we walked to my car and loaded all the gear in.

I felt Alex’s eyes glued to me, so I turned to face him, “What?”

He smirked, then let out a small chuckle, “Nothing. Just admiring how you are still wearing my hat. Aren’t you tired of this Canuck?”

My face warmed up slightly, I knew I was blushing. “Of course I’m not tired of you. You are too spontaneous for that.”

He kissed me lightly with those irresistible lips. I was addicted to those sweet lips, the pierce eyes, that gentle voice, this man.

“Ewwww! Get a room, Marissa!!” was heard from across the parking lot. I looked around Burrows’ body to see Blake approaching us.

“Collins, we have an early practice tomorrow. It’s a 5am. Get enough sleep.” He smiled. His bleach blond hair matted down with sweat, and his cold, icy blue eyes glittered underneath the winter sun.

I returned his smile, “I’ll be there. Oh! Skii’s, this is Alex. Alex, this is Blake Kielczynski, our captain.”

They reached out to each other and shook hands, Blake smiled, “Pleased to meet you, Alex. I can see why Mac has been wearing that Vancouver Canuck hat now.” He patted Alexandre on the shoulder and continued on his way to his car.

Alex gave me a questionable look, “He seems nice.”

I rolled my eyes, “Don’t let those words deceive you, Alexandre; he’s the devil in disguise.”

We climbed into my car, a pulled out of the parking lot.

Alexandre was silent, but he was looking at me…like he was worried.

“Whaaat? Why do you keep giving me those looks? It’s freaking me out!” We were stopped at a light.
“It’s just, I had this dream the other day, it was just like how today has been, but something else happened…” He paused as the light turned green. “There was this truck--- shit, Marissa, look out!”
By the time Alexandre had warned me, it was too late.

-flashback-
“Hey, Mac, do you ever have that feeling that something is going to happen?” Carey asked me. We were stopped at a red light.

“Sure. I used to have dreams about things that happen, and then they happen a couple days later. Why?”

“I had a dream last night. We got into a car accident and you fell into a coma. And you didn’t wake up for several months.” Carey’s voice was quiet.

“Nothing like that would happen. You would protect me from that, silly!” I smiled, god, I love him.

“What if I couldn’t? What if I couldn’t save you from something like that?” He was thinking about this so deeply.

“I would still forgive you. I love you, Carey Price, nothing can change that.” I leaned over and kissed his lips. The light turned green, and I moved forward. I was halfway across the intersection when a large truck slammed into my side of the car.
*end flashback*

I woke up, Carey Price sitting in a chair next to me, looking weary and stressed. I looked around; there were wires and needles stuck in me. “C-Carey?” I strained out.

He looked up quickly, saw that I was awake, and grabbed my hand, “Oh my god. Marissa?!” He looked around, “Doc! Doc come here quick!!”
A doctor rushed into the hospital room, “What is it, Mr. Price?”

“She’s responsive. She just said my name!!” He pointed at me, appalled, and clearly ecstatic.

The doctor looked over me, my eyes open. I gave him a smile, “Good morning.” I whispered.
The doctor sighed, relieved, “Rest up, okay? We’re going to run a few tests in a couple hours to check how stable you really are.”
I nodded slowly, as the doctor left.
Carey took my hand into his.
I forced out, “Carey? Where’s Alex? Where’s Alexandre Burrows?”
He looked at me strangely, “Burrs? Why do you want to see him, he’s a Canuck.”
I was confused, “But we were dating…I thought…” My eyes welled up with tears.
Carey squeezed my hand, “Mac, you’ve been in a coma for three months. Whatever relationship you had with Alexandre Burrows, was just a dream.”