Summers, Sunsets and Shoulder Surgeries

The next morning Lauren rolled over to discover she was wide awake at 7:57 in the morning. Even more baffling was the fact that here she was supposed to be two hours behind her normal time, how was it that she had woken up earlier than anyone ever should during summer? She groaned as she realized this meant that probably no one else was up. Chalking her early awakening, up to the fact that she had a four hour power nap the previous afternoon, Lauren grabbed a change of clothes as she headed towards the bathroom. That's when it hit her. She didn't even remember going to bed last night. The last thing she had remembered was scooting closer to Ryan during the horror film. Turning the steaming water on, Lauren stripped and relaxed in the soothing water as she continued thinking about how embarrassing it was that she had fallen asleep in the middle of the movie and someone had to carry her to bed, like a five year old. It was bad enough that she was so young, she definitely didn't need Ryan thinking she was a baby. She couldn't put her finger on it but something about Ryan was so warm and kind and inviting that in the short time they had spent together the previous day, she had found herself laughing and forgetting about the sad sorta funk she had been in recently. Eventually Lauren dragged herself from the warm confines of the steamy shower and pulled a change of clothes on as she threw on some light makeup for the day. {http://cdn.stylisheve.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Spring-summer-2013-outfits-with-shorts-for-women-by-stylish-eve_01.jpg }

Lauren grabbed her computer before she quietly padded out to the kitchen and sat on one of the bar stools opening up her laptop. She was scrolling through social media and all her friends posts with pictures of the fun things they were all doing together and all the exchange students who had already come back to visit, created some mixed feelings within Lauren. She was kinda sad she was away from her friends and yet a little jealous that they seemed to be having so much without her, furthermore she was mad that you-know-who hadn't even mentioned her not being at his arrival party, she knew then that anything between them was definitely over, although if she wanted to be honest with herself she would have to admit that it had been over for a long time and was probably over before it ever really started; they were two teenagers, living in different countries, on different continents, thousands of miles apart, speaking different first languages.

In an effort to distract herself from her pity party Lauren decided that 8:42 in the morning was as good a time as any to start preparing breakfast. In all honesty she wasn't the best cook, she could make a killer homemade pizza and anyone could boil water for pasta but she never did anything too fancy. She had decided on making pancakes (she surprisingly found Taylor's cupboards full with food choices, had Kelsey gone shopping? because certainly it wasn't Taylor) and she was rummaging through some drawers looking for a bowl to make the batter in and a pan to cook them in. Eventually she found a pan and as she went to pull it from it's confines, her hand slipped and she dropped the pan, it knocked into some other pots on its way down causing a loud series of clangs and bangs. Lauren sucked in her breath, as though staying quiet now would prevent anyone from waking up, if they hadn't been woken up by the pots and pans then certainly her breathing wouldn't have caused any problems, but as Lauren stood in the kitchen, as quiet as possible, she heard a door down the hall open. Dammit she thought. She had wanted to surprise everyone with breakfast, now she had just managed to wake them prematurely, it was still not even nine and she imagined off-season professional athletes liked to sleep in at least a little.

"Everything okay Lauren?" Ryan said with a hoarse morning voice as he appeared in the kitchen.

"Yeah, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to wake you up" Lauren apologized profusely.

"No worries, and Lauren?"

"Yeah?"

"You don't have to apologize so much, you do it a lot, even when you've done nothing wrong" Ryan smiled at her across the room.

"Oh sorry......... errr sorry bad habit..... oh my gosh that was twice in one sentence" She giggled as she realized she had just made Ryan's point even more clear.

"So what's for breakfast?"

"Pancakes, that okay?"

"Sounds perfect. Here let me help"

For the next thirty or so minutes Lauren and Ryan glided around the kitchen grabbing ingredients from the cupboard, stirring the mix, and taking turns flipping pancakes. They were having fun making jokes and just telling stories, it was easy for them to talk, conversation just came easy between them. Before they knew it time had flown by and just as they were cooking up the last of the batter, Taylor and Kelsey emerged from down the hall.

Lauren fully expected that Kelsey would be eating breakfast with them and thus she had set out four plates. Needless to say she was slightly shocked when Taylor and Kelsey walked into the room and Kelsey was saying goodbye.

"You aren't staying for breakfast?" Lauren asked confused.

"No, I have to go to work! I'm going to be late as it is and I have to stop at home and change, but it smells delicious, I trust your cooking, Ryan's not so much. I'm sorry to run Lauren, but maybe we can have some girls time later and we can get to know each other better?" Kelsey said with a big smile across her face.

"Sounds perfect" Lauren responded as she opened her arms for Kelsey's hug. Kelsey gave a quick squeeze to Ryan and a peck on the lips to Taylor before she quickly hustled in the direction of her car. Lauren felt bad that the girl was going to be late for work.

"Thanks for breakfast Ness" Taylor said with his mouthful, making Lauren laugh. She sat down on a bar stool between Ryan and Taylor and started digging in herself.

"So are we doing anything fun and exciting today?" she asked after chewing her first bite of pancake.

"I dunno, I was thinking maybe we could go skating? It must have been a while since you've last been and I haven't been on the ice in a while and it'd be good to spice up my workouts a little with some on ice time." Taylor said with his head down, still enthralled with his pancakes.

"Well what about Ryan?"

"Well I mean he could come if he wanted." Taylor said between bites. Lauren looked at Ryan.

"I mean can you skate Ryan?" Ryan stared at her for a moment before he remembered his shoulder. Instead of answering he just unhooked his sling and slid his arm free. Lauren's eyes widened. Ryan chuckled as he assured her he was fully allowed to move it, in fact encouraged to keep moving his arm, but he wasn't allowed to lift using or exert pressure with his shoulder and left arm. Lauren still seemed hesitant, she did not want to be the responsible party for breaking one of the Oilers' star players.

"It's fine Lauren I won't even shoot or anything, just glide around. I've been itching to get back on the ice for a few days now and this is the perfect opportunity". Finally convinced Lauren nodded her head.

"Okay let's go!"