Just My Luck

On a very sunny day in Thunder Bay, the Class of 1999 were celebrating the fact that they graduated high school and were now heading to university to start their adulthood. Patrick stood by the bleachers with Chris as their father took their picture. It was a very happy day for the Sharp family with the youngest son’s graduation and the fact that he was leaving in two weeks to head off to the States. He was accepted to the University of Vermont where he would be playing for the Vermont Catamounts. Life for Patrick was almost perfect.

As he talked to some of his high school friends, he could see Carrie run over to him from the distance. He quickly excused himself before heading off in her direction. She jumped into his arms, wrapping her slender arms around his neck and he picked her up from the ground. When her feet reached the ground, she smiled up at him. Her eyes crinkled together as she smiled up at him when she felt his damp lips touch her forehead.

“I can’t believe we graduated! No more curfews and no more parents telling us what to do!” She said excitedly, “After dinner with you family come over my house! We’ll go to the lake!”

Patrick laughed, “Calm down and stop screaming. I told you I can’t hang out tonight because my grandparents are in town. I promise tomorrow I’ll be all yours.”

“You better keep your promise because starting tomorrow, you’re mine for the next two weeks,” she said with a devilish grin that made his heart race.

Moments like that always made Patrick think that he still had a chance with her, no matter how many times she rejected him. He believed that if she didn’t like him back, she wouldn’t constantly flirt with him in the way she had been doing ever since they had hit puberty. He chose to ignore the fact that she flirted with just about any guy that would give her the time of day.

He looked at her with so much innocence and treated her like she was a fragile girl. In reality, everybody including his own parents knew that Carrie wasn’t that girl. She loved the wild and crazy guys who drove motorcycles and had tattoos. She was a sucker for guys who played guitar and didn’t give a shit about what anyone thought. Patrick thought if he tried hard enough, he could change her mind to make her see that he was really the perfect guy for her.

The night before Patrick had to leave for Vermont, he and Carrie sat by the lake together. Their feet dangled off the docks as they sat in silence together for the last time. Her head rested on his shoulder as his arm went across her body as if it were a seatbelt. Her thumb rubbed his skin softly, giving him a warm feeling inside that even he knew he shouldn’t be feeling. Regardless of the nagging voice in the back of his head telling him to pull away, his arm stayed where it was because he knew that he may never feel that happy again.

“I can’t believe you’re leaving tomorrow,” she said sadly. “Stupid hockey training camp.”

He laughed quietly as her grip on his arm tightened. “I’d take you with me to Vermont if I could. I’m afraid of who they’re going to stick me with as a roommate.”

“I’m going to miss you a lot when you leave. Home isn’t going to be the same without you,” she removed her head from his shoulder to look up at him. She suddenly turned her body so that she was now facing him as her legs were crossed in a pretzel. “Come on,” she quickly patted his leg, “turn around and let me see that pretty face of yours.”

As always, Patrick did as Carrie wished and sat the same way she was sitting. Their bare knees touched each other as she raised her right arm up to hold out her little pinky. He laughed deeply as he wrapped his big pinky around hers. Pinky promises were often done between the two over the years but he was the only one who ever kept his end of the deal.

“What are we promising each other?” He asked her quietly.

Sitting up straight, Carrie looked into his eyes before speaking seriously. “Promise me that you won’t settle for just any girl, okay? You deserve a girl who will treat you right.”

“You know that I only want you.”

In a matter of seconds, he could see her facial expression quickly change into an angry one. She yanked her arm away from his and narrowed her eyes at him. “Why do you always have to do this?” She asked furiously, “I told you before I don’t look at you in that way.”

“I can’t help it. You’re always giving me mixed signals and I don’t know how to take it.”

“I flirt with everybody!” She snapped, “Don’t do this to me right now! You’re leaving tomorrow and I didn’t want to end our friendship like this! God, just grow the fuck up and just accept the fact I don’t love you Pat!”

Patrick did the one thing that no one ever expected him to do in a million years. He got up and left her. He ignored her as she chased after him, apologizing for how harshly she had spoken to him. He stormed his way over to his car, leaving her to walk two miles back to her own house. As he sped down the dirt road, he ignored his rear view mirror, knowing that if he saw the sorry look on her face he would go back to making sure she always had whatever she needed.

He felt pathetic and was angry at himself that he didn’t listen to his friends before. They always told him that it would end badly for him but he didn’t want to believe them. When she had rejected him in the past, she was always so gentle about it. Never had she been so blunt and hurtful before. Maybe this was a smack in the face that he needed to realize that he never had a chance.

He drove around for a good half hour before he finally decided to go home. When his mother saw him walk in the house with a depressed expression, she immediately asked what was wrong. Patrick only glanced up at his mother before walking up the stairs to be alone in his room. Flicking the bedroom lights on, he stopped in his tracks when he saw Carrie sitting in the middle of his bed. He looked over at his window and saw that it was open. He knew she snuck through the window because his room was right next to a tree that he had in his backyard.

“What the hell are you doing here?” He curiously asked, shutting the bedroom door for privacy.

“To apologize. I shouldn’t have been so harsh on you, especially when you’ve been so sweet to me all these years.”

Patrick rolled his eyes. “Nice to know that the day before I leave you appreciate everything I’ve done for you.”

Carrie got up from his bed and walked over towards him. “Don’t say that. You know how thankful I am for everything that you’ve done for me. I just…can’t be with you in the way you want.”

“And why not? You’ve never given me a good enough reason to why you don’t want to be with me.”

“I love you too much to do this to us,” she said as her eyes began to water up. “You’re my best friend and what’s going to happen when break up? You’d be out of my life for good and I don’t want that!”

“Or we could be together for the rest of our lives,” he countered.

Carrie quickly shook her head, walking away from him. “We’re only 18 and you’re leaving tomorrow for Vermont. It’s not going to work out, you know it won’t.” She quickly wiped her eyes with the back of her hands, “You and I both know you’re going to be a hot shot one day and I can’t handle with being away all the time.”

“Please don’t cry,” he frowned. He walked over and pulled her into a comforting hug. She wrapped her arms tightly around his body as his hand rubbed her back soothingly. “I still don’t understand why you can’t give us a chance.”

“I already told you why,” she pulled away. “You’re too good for me, Pat. You deserve someone much better than me.” She quickly placed a finger over his lips to keep him quiet. “Deep down, you know that I’m right. We’re better off as friends.”

She slowly removed her finger away and replaced it with her own lips. Her lips were gentle yet firm against his, and before he could even register what had happened she snuck out his bedroom window without a final goodbye.


Patrick entered the frat house with a few of his teammates after they had won their game. A few people congratulated them on their win as the night went on. He was working on his fifth beer as he and his roommate Shawn were playing a round of beer pong, and losing miserably. After he and Shawn lost, Patrick walked over to where the keg was to go and refill his cup.

He found a beautiful blonde standing there, waiting to refill her own cup. She had a cute “girl next door” vibe to her, which he found very refreshing. The next thing he knew, he was walking up to the girl and tapping her on her shoulder. When she had turned around, he had been greeted with the sweetest smile he had ever seen.

“Hi, you’re Patrick, right? I think we have English together.”

He nodded his head, watching her refill her cup. “Wow, you know my name but I don’t even know yours.”

“It’s Abby. And don’t be so full of yourself, I only know your name because Professor Gordon always lets the sports superstars get away with not doing their work,” she said with a sly smile.

Patrick laughed as he decided to refill his own cup. He watched as her pink lips touched the rim of her red cup. He would do anything at that moment to replace the cup with his own lips. Abby was beautiful and witty and he found himself being drawn to her when he immediately saw how different she was from Carrie, minus the blonde hair.

“So what brings you to this party?” He asked as he followed her outside. They were both leaning on the bannister of the frat house where it was much quieter outside than it was inside. A few people were outside as well, smoking cigarettes along with who knows what. “This doesn’t really seem to be your scene.”

Abby raised one of her eyebrows at him. “Oh? You just found out what my name is. What makes you think that this isn’t my scene?”

“Because you were alone when you were refilling your cup and everyone knows that girls travel in packs,” he smiled. “You either came here with someone you barley knew and they ditched you, or you came here alone which is pretty sad if you ask me. So which is it?”

She took a sip of her beer and licked her lips lightly, tasting the beer that was left behind. “I got ditched by one of my sorority sisters. The captain of the football team took a special liking to her and she ditched me about ten minutes ago. After this cup I was going to head back to my dorm.”

Patrick took a few steps forward so that he was closer to her. He wasn’t close enough to freak her out, but was close enough to make her heart race. She had no idea what he was going for and was certain he didn’t have a clue either.

“Want some company?”

Smirking up at him, she could hear how nervous he was. It was somewhat endearing but she was sure that it was part of an act. But Patrick was good looking and she was a little tipsy and there was no reason for her to not have any fun. “Why not? My roommate went home for the weekend so we’ll be alone.”

They finished off the rest of their beer before leaving their empty cups on the bannister. It was a short five minute walk to get to Abby’s dorm and they were both glad they didn’t have to wait a minute sooner. As soon as the door closed to her bedroom, she had Patrick pushed up against the wall with her lips against his. She was so eager and willing to do this that it made him excited.

It was a nice change to have a girl who wanted him as badly as he wanted her. It made the feelings he had for Carrie almost seem nonexistent when he realized that he gotten a lot more attention from his fellow female students. Why should he be hung up over a girl who didn’t want him when he had a girl on top of him who did?

Abby straddled him as he was lying flat on his back. After pulling his lips away from hers, he ordered her to sit up so he could take her shirt off. He smirked at himself when she did as she was told, feeling some sort of pride in his chest build up. Perhaps it was because he spent so many years being told what to do, it felt good for it to be the other way for once.

Once her shirt was on the floor, his hands slowly went up her back, stopping at the hooks of her bra. She bit down on her lip, preventing herself from smiling at him. She was sure he caught her by the way he was looking up at her.

“What are you smiling for?” He asked, sliding her bra straps down her arms.

Abby repositioned herself on his lap, wrapping her arms around his neck. “Well I’m sitting on top of this good looking athlete while we’re both topless. What’s there not to smile about?”

“I like the way you think,” he mumbled against her neck.

Throughout his first year of college, Patrick hooked up with quite a few girls, but only slept with two girls. If things continued the way they were going to go with Abby, she would be the third. With each and every girl, Carrie became a distant memory he wanted to forget. The main reason why he even hooked up with these girls was because he learned earlier in the semester that Carrie already had a new boyfriend.

After a solid twenty minutes of panting, sweating, and cursing, Abby and Patrick both laid flat on their backs, looking up at the ceiling. She was squished in between him and the wall as they laid in her twin sized bed. Her pink blanket covered their nude bodies as she turned her head to look up at him.

“You’re a lot better than I thought you would be,” she said with a smile.

“What? Where did you ever get the idea that I was bad in the first place?”

She rolled to her side, propping herself up on her elbow. “Shawn. He and I take bio and chemistry together so we’re pretty good friends. He told me you’ve been hung up on this girl from back home and I wasn’t sure if you would be able to go through it.”

Patrick narrowed his eyes at her, “did you only sleep with me because he asked you to?”

She shook her head, pushing her bangs out of her face. “He asked me to just talk to you because he thought I could help you out since I’m going through something similar myself. Sleeping with you was just for my own benefit.”

“Well I’m glad I was of some use,” he laughed. “But what makes you so sure that I can get over her?”

“Because you were so dedicated to her and the universe will reward you with a girl who will be dedicated to you. Like karma, you know? What goes around, comes around.”

He smiled at her optimism. “So you’re saying that Carrie will get bitten in the ass one day?”

“Mhm,” she nodded firmly. “I don’t know how or when, but that Carrie girl will regret letting you go while you are off with some beautiful girl. She’ll be jealous and will try and get you back.”