Forever and Ever;;55

I took the elevator back up to the our floor. I hoped that they all weren't back yet. No such luck. When I stepped of the elevator, there was one of the worst possible people. Aaron. He quickly saw me and came over. I hid the sweatshirt behind me and tried my best to act normal.

"Where are the guys?" I asked him.

"Downstairs at the arcade, where have you been?"

"Oh, I was just outside." I searched for my room key in my back pocket.

"What do you have there?" He pointed to the hoodie.

I heard the elevator ding, but didn't pay much attention until I felt someone tugging at my hands. Aaron mouthed something, so I turned around. Meech. He pulled the hoodie out of my hands and ran down the hallway, I ran after him and Aaron followed. Be ran down tons of rooms, and the farther we ran, the more out of breath I got. I couldn't believe I was even running, my cast wasn't giving me any problem. It felt like it was back to normal. It must have been healing well. We came up to a turn, Derek whipped right around it, as I did. I heard a 'thud' but didn't bother to look back.

I was gaining on him, a picked up my pace and was able to get ahold of his shirt. He looked down, and I jumped on his back. He bent far over to I fell right off of him. I let out a small scream before hitting the floor. That one did hurt my foot. Sharp pain started in my calve and worked its way down to my foot. "Shit." I said. "Whoa, I'm sorry."

"It's alright, I'm fine." Derek sat down next to me, both of us breathing heavily. He started to unfold the sweatshirt.

"Whats the big deal, it's just a..." He stopped and looked at me. "Oh, that's why."

I shook my head, I almost felt ashamed. He tossed it on my lap and stared at me, waiting for me to say something.

"It's not mine. It's Sidney's. He wouldn't let me wear my shirt around Pittsburgh."

"Why were you with Sidney? Does Jimmy know?"

I shook me head again. "Lunch and no.."

We both sighed at the exact same time, "I didn't want it. He insisted I keep it. I don't like the Pens one bit. I'm going to tell Jimmy about us being friends, just right now is not the right time."

"I understand. It will be our little secret." He winked.

"Thanks dude, I appreciate it. I'll talk to him though."

"Good." I didn't usually talk to Meecher like this. It was nice though.

I sat up and tried not to put pressure on my foot. Derek cringed, "That's not good."

"I know, I shouldn't have been running."

I tried to help him off the floor but groaned, "You're too heavy!"

He flashed me his guns, "It's all muscle baby!" We walked back to the room together, just now realizing we lost Aaron on the way.

"When did we lose Aaron?"

"Didn't you hear that thud? We lost him at the first turn." We laughed. "That's hilarious!"

I finally made it back to my room, we ran around the whole hotel, I hurried in the door, making sure that Jimmy wasn't in the room. I tucked the hoodie in the very bottom of my suitcase, hoping Jimmy wouldn't find it til' we talked.

Now, I was off to find the guys. They were in the exact same spot Aaron said they were. The arcade. All of the guys were surrounding the Air Hockey table. I laughed, just like them. Jimmy spotted me and came over, putting his arm around me. "I was looking for you. Aaron said you were chasing Derrick around. "Yeah.." I flinched as I put to much weight on my foot. "Whoa babe, you shouldn't be running around."

"Yeah I know. I'll be fine though." I walked over to the table and payed more attention to the game. It was my dad against Draps. They took it very seriously. Whoever lost probably had to sit in the back by the toliets on the way home, or something like that. Draps was up by two goals, and there was only 1:02 left in the game. Draps slammed the disc making my dad back out of the way. "Ding!" Draps scored, sealing the deal.

A "Ohhhhh!" came from all of us and we all piled on Kris. Making him fall. I decided I would join in. I saw a flash from someones camera, it was going to be a good picture.

***

Before I knew it, it was game time. I sat in the away locker room with the rest of the guys. They all did their little quirks that they did before most games. I looked around, knowing this was it. We had been waiting for this all season. I almost wanted to be out on the ice with them, but I knew that wasn't possible. We had been waiting for this moment all year. I wanted to take it all in.

I scanned the room for Aaron. And finally found him next to the trainer. I felt like I should talk to him before he played, it usually helped.

"Aar, you better kick some ass out there tonight, or I'll be kicking yours!" I told him as I walked over.

"Uhm I'm thinking you won't have to worry about that."

We walked out to the bench, I stood next to Jimmy who was in charge of counting face offs. I placed my hand over my heart for the national anthem. I was just glad I didn't have to hear Karren Newman's voice anymore this year. Before I knew it, the first period was underway.