Seven Year Ache

September 2002

“Ry! Come on. It’ll be fun!” Rolling her eyes Riley followed behind Lindsay as they made their way down the street and toward their destination. It wasn’t hard to tell where the two fifteen year olds were headed, just down the block was a large house, all the lights were on and you could hear the music pumping through speakers from down the block. Once they got closer Riley glanced around, wondering why the cops hadn’t shown up by now, did none of the neighbors care about the noise? She wasn’t even in the house it was bothering her.

She couldn’t help but tell Lindsay, as they stepped over a skateboard that was on the walkway, “Yeah, because I really want to spend my Friday night watching you get plastered.”

Lindsay this time rolled her eyes, grabbed Riley’s arm and yanked her up the front steps. They stood outside the front door, and Lindsay turned to Riley, giving her the once over. She reached out, pulled Riley’s shirt down enough that the v-neck long sleeve showed off her newly acquired assets. She had gone through a growth spurt in many ways over the summer, so much so that it basically required her to get a brand new wardrobe. Riley pulled her shirt up, smacked Linday’s hands away when they went to mess up her dark hair, which made Lindsay sigh and tell her, “You’re impossible. Just try to have fun tonight. We were invited, it would be rude not to come.”

“Would it be rude to push you off the balcony later?” Riley muttered as Lindsay pulled her into the house and navigated their way through crowds of people. Riley knew she was in search for the Rockets, or at least whichever of them had bothered to show up.

They were found by Alex, who had been trying to crack the Rocket’s roster for two years. He wrapped his arms around them and guided them into the kitchen, “Ladies.”

Riley rolled her eyes, shrugged his arm off her shoulder and walked past the group of guys standing by the sink. She grabbed a beer from the sink full of ice and glanced up when she felt eyes on her. Shea glanced away, pretending to be intrigued by the tab on his beer; bending it back and forth. She turned away from him, watching as Lindsay painfully tried to force herself to have a conversation with Alex, she was glad that her friend was at least suffering a little bit for dragging her to this thing. Alex had been crushing on her since last year, and Lindsay wanted nothing to do with him and had made it clear to everyone but Alex.

Shea glanced at the girl beside him again, she was considerably shorter than he, her dark, curly hair was pulled up into a high pony tail, and she was wearing a long sleeve top with a pair of denim shorts, the pockets hanging out of the bottom of them. She looked up at him and raised her eyebrow, “Can I help you?”

His cheeks flushed upon being caught staring, and in an attempt to save his reputation he held his hand out and introduced himself, “I’m Shea.”

Riley stared at him in disbelief for a few seconds, she never put her hand in his to shake and she listened to his teammates snicker around them. Finally she rolled her eyes, scoffed and as she was walking away muttered, “Dick.”

Shea glanced around at his teammates in confusion and asked, “What just happened?”

Lindsay shook her head at him and disappeared, likely to go find Riley, and Alex explained to him, “You don’t remember Riley Peterson? You know, Lindsay’s friend…the one that hit you in the head with a basketball last year?”

Shea’s eyes went wide as pucks as he exclaimed, “That was her?”

“Yeah… pretty amazing what a summer growth spurt does huh?” Alex asked him, wiggling his eye brows.

“You’re disgusting.” Shea muttered.

Alex gave him a shove and laughed, telling him, “Ah, like you weren’t thinking that before you knew who it was.”

Two hours later when Shea was looking for the bathroom he found Riley sitting on the back deck alone. He grabbed two beer and opened the patio door, sliding it shut again as Riley turned to see who was coming outside. She didn’t say anything as he sat down next to her, but she did notice the fact that while she could fit both her legs between two of the railing bars he had to sit with a bar between his legs. She was suddenly aware of just how large he was now, his arm brushed hers and she glanced at it, probably twice the size of her own, and she had to guess he was at least a foot taller than her.

“Sorry for earlier.” He told her, watching as she shrugged but said nothing. He held out one of cans he had grabbed and asked with a grin, “Am I still a dick?”

She took it from him, set it on her lap and told him, “Only moderately now.”

“That’s a start.” Shea told her, fiddling with the tab to his own can. Neither one said anything to the other while they drank, Shea wasn’t sure why he even came out here honestly. Sure he felt bad, but he could have just apologized, given her the beer and left. He knew his teammates would probably make fun of him if any of them knew he was doing this. Especially after making an ass out of himself by introducing himself to someone he already knew.

Curiously Riley asked him, “Shouldn’t you be getting a blow job upstairs by now?”

He choked on his beer, coughed, sputtered and then calmed himself. He turned to look at her and asked incredulously, “I’m sorry, what?”

“Well it’s almost midnight, isn’t that usually when the bob squad gets to work upstairs at these things?” She said it so casually that Shea thought he might have misheard her.

When it was clear she wasn’t going to elaborate he asked, “The what?”

Her cheeks flushed but she couldn’t help but chuckle, “Oh, that’s right. You guys don’t actually know that’s what they’re called.”

“I’m so confused.” Shea muttered, making her laugh again.

When he shot her a look at her laughter Riley asked, “Oh come on, don’t play innocent. You know for a fact that you could convince about 99% of the girls in this house to give you head in the bathroom.”

“99%? You think so?” Shea joked, making her roll her eyes. He couldn’t help but ask with a grin, “Does that include you?"

He let out a booming laugh as she told him, “Dial your ego back a few hundred notches buddy.”

He watched as she cracked open her beer and took a drink, before he asked her, “You have that strong of an opinion on all hockey players?”

She shrugged, “Haven’t met one yet that isn’t exactly like the last.”

“What’s it gonna take for you to take me out of that category?” Shea asked her curiously, watching as she pursed her lips and tilted her head slightly in thought. He watched as a piece of her hair that was tucked behind her ear fell forward, he watched her tuck it back behind her ear and he looked away when she glanced his way.

She grinned and told her, “More than a free beer.”

“So how about a date?” Shea asked her, smiling when she practically snorted she started laughing so hard.

“Not a chance.” She told him with a smile once she stopped laughing. When he raised his eyebrow she told him, “You’re so not my type.”

September 2014

"Are you alive?" Shea pulled himself out of his thoughts, shaking his head at himself and turned his attention to the blonde that was seated beside him.

He smiled at her and apologized, "Sorry, what were you asking?"

"I asked if you were married. You don't have a ring but these days you just never know." She said with a smile, leaning toward him.

She was close enough that he could smell her perfume, her long hair brushed against him as she placed her hand on the back of his shoulder. He looked down at his hand, which held no ring, before he looked at her, smiled and told her, "Nope. Not married."

"But there's someone, isn't there?" Shea shrugged at this but didn't elaborate. The blonde, Tiffany, Taylor, Tina he couldn't remember, asked him, "She know you're here with me?"

"My guess would be no. I'm not from here, remember?" Shea asked, watching as she nodded. Of course she knew that, she knew that when they walked into the lounge, she knew that when he sat down next to her. She knew who he was before he had even laid his eyes on her.

She ran her hand over his shoulder and down his bicep before she asked, "So… you wanna get out of here?"

Before he could say anything Pekka stood in between them and told her, "No he doesn't. Have a nice night."

Shea didn't say anything as his teammate grabbed him by the shoulders and pulled him away. It was a common occurrence lately when they were on the road, Pekka kept his eyes on Shea and was ready to swoop in before things got too far. Something Shea knew was for the best but was also extremely annoying.

Shea felt the need to explain to the goaltender, "Nothing was going to happen."

"Sure." Pekka stated as they waited for the elevator. He glanced at Shea as they fell into a silence, he seemed to be the only one in the locker room that noticed the change in their captain since last season. Which was exactly why he felt the need to keep Shea from doing anything stupid. He didn't know what was going on but he knew something was.

"You can stop hovering." Shea muttered as they stepped into rhe elevator and he leaned over to hit the button 5.

Pekka sighed, stuffed his hands into his pockets and approached the subject with caution, "Riley know you keep the company of so many women when you're on the road?"

The sigh was enough, the hand through the hair was the icing on the cake. When the elevator came to a stop and the doors open Shea told Pekka, "Riley has nothing to do with this."

With that he left Pekka in the hallway and went into his room. He changed out of his suit and dropped into bed, pulling the covers over himself before he laid on his back and stared at the ceiling. There wasn't much difference between being at home and being on the road anymore, the biggest difference was that on the road there was no body in the bed feet away from him, there was no skirting around each other and avoiding conversation. On the road he didn't have a roommate he once called his girlfriend.