Chapter Eighteen; Amis

It has been a crazy long time, hasn't it? Well, I finally give you a new chapter! Also, a good friend of mine has also gotten back into writing recently. We have both been writing for years now. So, if you could check out her stuff that would be awesome. Her story is called I'll Meet You There. Love you, haleys_famous_  !              

Chapter Eighteen: Amis

                Kailey sat back in the swing and tried to sort through the countless thoughts that were swirling around in her head. Was it really obvious that I have feelings for Marc? She thought. I do love him, but I really didn’t think that it was that obvious. Well at least the strain of Jared’s clinginess is over. She had loved Jared, she really had, and she still did, but his jealousy was getting to be too much to handle. On one hand she was happy that she was free to talk to the Frenchman she loved as much as she wanted, but on the other she was sad that her year long relationship with a life-long friend had come to an end. We’ll still be friends, won’t we?

                Upon deciding that giving her now ex-boyfriend some time before they started hanging out again as friends she pulled her cell phone from her pocket and moved Marc to number two on her speed dial. Once the change to her contacts list was made she pressed and held the newly assigned button. “Bonjour Kailey, ca va?” 

                “Bonjour Marc. Well, it’s over.”

                “What’s over?” He asked, now a bit worried.

                “Jared broke up with me.” She didn’t feel as sad as she had after past break-ups.

                “Oh Kay, I’m sorry.”

                “It’s fine, really. I think it’s what’s best. If anything he was only getting more clingy.”

***

                As the summer went on the rumors of a lockout were turning into truth and both Marc and Kailey knew that their chances of seeing each other anytime soon were slim. The end of August came and it was time for Kailey to head off to school. As she had hoped she would be attending Robert Morris University and playing for their hockey team. Hockey didn’t start for a couple weeks so her focus was on her classes and the start of the American Hockey League season that was quickly approaching. Marc would be playing for the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins and he as well as Kay hoped that they would be able to see each other before too much time past.

***

                Days and weeks passed more quickly than Kailey has expected that they would. Classes, homework, hockey practices and games took up the bulk of her time; but she never let more than a few days pass before she talked to Marc again. If she had still been dating Jared she would have no time at all for herself. Not having a boyfriend is for the best. She thought one night between her last class and hockey practice when she was supposed to be concentrating on an English paper that was due the next day. I do miss Marc, though.

                All of September and October came and gone and soon Kay would be going home for Thanksgiving break. Robert Morris wasn’t far from Pittsburgh, but with all that occupied her time at school and no NHL season she hadn’t been home since the start of the school year. Luckily there were no hockey games over the break so she would be able to go home and see her family and friends for a few days. And Jared, she thought. She hadn’t seen him since the break-up.

***

                When Kailey returned to Pittsburgh her first day was spent catching up with Nikki and Amy. Amy and Nikki both had work in the evening, though, so when they left Kailey found her hockey stick in her bedroom and headed out to the yard.  She had been outside for about forty minutes when she left something cold on her cheek. Snow. She looked up to the sky and watched the flakes fall for a few minutes before a voice pulled her back to reality. 

                “Hey.” She would know that voice anywhere, even if she hadn’t heard it in months. 

                “Hey, Jer.”

                He stood with his hands in his hoodie pocket, playing with a rock with the toe of his shoe. It was awkward on both sides of the conversation. “My mom had me bring a pie over for tomorrow and I figured that you would be out here. You were always out here when you were home.”

                “It’s good to see you again, Jared. How have you been?”

                “I’ve been pretty good; hockey and school. It’s good to see you again, too. Is this the first time you’ve been home?”

                “It is, I’ve been busy with school and games and practices.” Silence filled the space of a few minutes. “You wanna shoot for a bit?” 

                “Sure.” Kailey has brought out a second stick without even thinking about it. She walked to the side of the house to grab it and handed it to her ex. “I’ve miss you, Kailey.”

                “I’ve missed you, too.” After a few shots on net things seemed to be back to the way they had been before their feelings for each other were known. Back when they had just been friends. Perhaps it was finally time to be friends again.

Chapter Seventeen; Jared

It has definitely been too long, but please enjoy this and all of my other stories. Comments are greatly appreciated. Go Pens! <3


Chapter Seventeen

Kailey pulled into her drive-way about five hours later. As soon as the car was out of gear and turned off she pulled her phone from her pocket and called Marc. “Hello Kailey.”

“Hey Marc, I just got home.”

“I’m glad you made it safely, we’re on our way to Bridgeport.”

“Tell her I say hi!” Came from the background.

“Was that Colby?” Kay asked, smiling.

“Who else would it be,” he laughed.

“Shit,” She had just looked out the driver’s side window and saw what a few months ago would have made her happy; Jared was coming across the street. “Jared’s coming across the street so I’ll talk to you later.”

“Okay, bye Kay.”

“Goodbye Marc,” she closed her phone and shoved it in her pocket as she got out of the car. “Hey Jer.”

“How was your trip?”

Her trip was fine; she had been away from him. When did she start thinking like that? She loved him. She did love him but with each passing day he was becoming more and more clingy. Always asking where she was and who she was with when she wasn’t with him. He hadn’t always been like this, had he? She had only started to notice is lately. Only since she had told him that she wasn’t able to hang out with him because she was driving across the state to see another man. He had no reason to be untrusting. She was friends with Marc and nothing more. She went to see him because he was in within a window that was considered a reasonable drive time and they hadn’t seen each other in months. “It was good, I had fun. The won one and lost won. All of the guys were pretty cool. I think my favorite though was Colby Armstrong.”

“I’m glad you had a good trip. How’s Marc?”

Was he genuinely curious about the well-being of the man who he had claimed was his friend or he trying to figure out what all had happened when he wasn’t there to watch his girlfriend. Kailey was seriously questioning the trust issues happening in her relationship. She hadn’t done anything to make him not trust her, had she? “He’s doing well. How was school while I was gone?”

“It was school, I have your homework.”

Kailey ended the conversation as quickly as possible by walking to Jared’s house with him to get the list of homework that was due for her on Monday. She would do as much of it as she could tonight. If she could do all of it she would, but she was sure that most of the books she would need were still in her locker at school. “Thanks Jer,” she said when they had walked back to her house again. “I’ll see you in the morning.”

“Okay, I love you.”

“I love you too.” A hug and a kiss followed and soon Kailey was sitting in her room trying to focus on her work. She had missed three days of school and had a ton of work to do. Now if only she could focus. Deciding that the only way to relieve her stress was to go out back and take a few heavy slap shots she put her pen down and went outside. Her ‘outside stick’ had been leaning against the back of the house but was now being held loosely in her hands as she lazily stick handled the ball. She took the ball to the edge of the concrete before letting a hard shot fly. After about then or twenty shots, it was probably closer to twenty, she felt a little better.

She loved Jared, she really did, but he not trusting her wasn’t going to fly. Kay didn’t want to confront him about it because then he would ask questions and she would have to tell him about sleeping in the same bed as Marc. She couldn’t lie to him. Kay would just let things play out. Maybe the time away from Marc would help, although did hadn’t the last time.

***

The Baby Penguins series with the Sound Tigers went to seven games, the Penguins were victorious. They went on to play the Philadelphia Phantoms, the Hartford Wolf Pack and finally the Milwaukee Admirals. The Admirals swept them, four games to none, in the Calder Cup Final. All of the guys as well as Kailey were obviously devastated.

It was the beginning of June; Kailey, Jared and Amy had all just graduated from high school, Marc was returning to Canada and Jared and Kailey’s relationship hadn’t gotten any better or worse.

“Can I come over?” Jared asked Saturday morning.

“Sure, I’ll see you in a few minutes.”

Less than five minutes later Kailey met Jared at the front door with a loving embrace. A kiss followed. “Can we sit down?” Jared motioned towards the swing. They sat down Jared taking Kailey’s hand. “Kay, I love you”

“I love you too Jer.”

“I really do love you and I want what’s best for you.”

“Where are you going with this?”

“I know that you love Marc and I want you to have the chance to be with him when he’s ready. I don’t know how he feels about you, but why wouldn’t he love you. You’re you. Please don’t try to talk me out of this, I’ve made my decision. Trust me there are no hard feeling and we can continue to be friends. That is if you want to, I hope that we can. I love you Kailey.”

“I love you too.”

“Thank you for an amazing year.” With that he kissed her lips and then stood and started to walk away without another word.

Chapter Sixteen; Marc

Hey Everyone! I know it's been forever since I posted anything... I had serious writer's block. A lot has happened since I last wrote but I won't bore you with that. I hope you enjoy this new chapter, short as it may be. Hopefully I'll be writing more, on all of my stories. Go Pens! <3


Chapter Sixteen

At some point in the middle of the night Kailey awoke, just as she did at least once every night. As usual she went to look at the clock to see how much time there was until she needed to wake up. When she realized that her head hadn’t been resting on a pillow the clock and time in general was the least of her worries. Instantly the memory of inviting in Marc in to talk hit her. ‘Oh my God,’ she thought. She had fallen asleep in Marc’s arms. She had fallen asleep in the arms of a man she loved, but not the one that she was dating. If Jared found out about this-- ‘Oh God,’ she thought. What if Jared found out about this? He was already jealous of Marc even though neither Kailey nor Marc had ever expressed feelings for each other—at least not out loud.

‘What should I do?’ She thought. Marc was more comfortable than the hotel provided pillows. She looked at his sleeping form, ‘Adorable,’ was all that came to mind. He was always adorable but seeing him sleep made Kay smile. ‘It’s not like we had sex for crying out loud, we feel asleep.’ Kay rested her head back on his chest and was soon sleeping soundly again.

The loud annoying beeping of an alarm brought both Kay and Marc from their sleep. Marc reached for his phone to turn off the alarm he had set the afternoon before so that he wouldn’t forget and quickly realized the weight on his mid-section. ‘Fuck,’ he thought, or at least he thought that he had thought it.

“What was that?”

“Oh. Um, this is awkward. I’m sorry; I should have left last night.”

“Marc, calm down, it’s not like we had sex or something, we fell asleep.”

“What if Jared finds out.”

“Unless you plan on telling him he’s not going to find out.” She paused and Marc opened his mouth to speak but closed it again before saying anything. “No we’re not lying to him, but he already doesn’t trust me and if we tell him about this he’ll freak.”

“Okay, if that’s what you want.” Kay nodded. “I have to go get ready for skate, meet you there?”

Marc went back to his room to brush his teeth, change clothes and grab his bag before heading to the arena. Kay quickly got ready, throwing on jeans and a Pens t-shirt and her hair in a bun, before leaving for the arena. She draped her skates over her shoulder, hoping that she would be able to skate. She needed to clear her head.

She arrived in the locker room before Marc and found Mike. “Yes,” Mike said before she even opened her mouth to ask her question.

“Huh?”

“You can skate,” he gestured toward the skates on her shoulder.

She quickly laced up at hit the ice. The team was trickling into the locker room, a few of the guys already there, but by the time Marc arrived Kay had already taken the ice. He scanned the room looking for the girl he had shared a bed with the night before. “Ice.”

“What?” Marc turned to find Colby behind him; he had to have been the one who said something.

Colby, as usual had a smile on his face. “You’re looking for Kay, right?” Marc didn’t have time to answer and Lloydminster native knew that he was right, who else would the French goalie have been looking for? “She’s on the ice.”

The tall brunette who had been smiling since he left her room that morning somehow managed to widen that smile. “Oh, how’d you know I was looking for her?”

“Who else would you be looking for man?” Marc shrugged. “Someone’s smiley today, what’s up?’

“Nothing.” Colby just stared, waiting for him to say more. “Spend the day with Kay yesterday, last night we talked and then I slept with her.”

Colby definitely had not expected that; the smile that been on his lips had been replaced by a shocked, questioning look. “Wait, wait, wait… you had sex with her?”

“No, why would you think that?” Marc was now the one who was shocked.

“You said you slept with her.”

“Yeah, we slept in the same bed.”

“Oh,” Colby sighed with relief.

That night the Pens lost to the Tigers and Kay said goodbye to everyone except Marc, she would be leaving in the morning and would miss the guys, even though she had only known them personally for three days. Once they were back in their hotel Marc walked Kay to her door and gave her a hug before saying goodnight.

In the morning Kay woke up and packed her things before meeting Marc in the lobby. “It was good seeing you again,” she said when he pulled her into his arms.

“You too Kay, call me when you get home so I know you made it safely.” She nodded. “Bye Kay.”

“Goodbye Marc,” she gently kissed his smooth check before leaving his arms and the hotel, before the sliding doors closed she turned to see Marc still standing there. All she could do was smile and wave.

She had had a great long weekend with Marc and she thought about that on the way home, that is until she thought about how Jared would be waiting for her when she got home.