==2==

Chapter 2
Jonathan’s POV

My alarm clock went off exactly at 6:30 and I hit it immediately, eager to start another day. I didn’t have to go anywhere until 11:30, but it was nice to get an early start off to a day. I took a cold shower like every morning. Showers were not supposed to be relaxing or a time to think, they are strictly for the purpose of good personal hygiene. There is no point of using hot water then, it just makes you want to stand there even longer and waste even more time. The only time I took warm showers were after games, so my muscles didn’t go from extreme heat to extreme cold, causing them to bunch up. I wrapped a towel around my waist and walked down to my kitchen. There was nothing better then getting up every morning and seeing the beautiful view of Chicago. I poured my organic granola and sat down at the bar with a pad of paper. I carefully planned out my day, having to make changes often to it. Today was a game day; I had to make sure everything went perfectly right. If even one little thing went wrong or was out of time, the whole day would be ruined. I went to my coffee maker to have my daily cup of plain black coffee with no abs-ruining sugar or cream in it. There was none left. See, something as easy as this could wreck my game tonight. I sighed and tried to think what I could do. I finally came up with a solution; I can go to the small and quiet coffee shop down the corner. To make this fit into my schedule, I ripped up my previous sheet and carefully planned it again. I sat down on the couch with my clipboard and watched the DVR of the pre-season game last night and wrote down everything that we have to improve on before the season starts. Sure, the guys make fun of me and call me “Captain Serious”, but some one needs to do it and they appreciate it. After about an hour or two of starting and pausing the game, I finally finished. I looked at the short list satisfied, this was going to be a great season, and I just know it. It was time to go get my coffee, so I went into my room to change. I got down the white pressed shirt and the dark jeans that I hung up the night before. There’s nothing worse than rushing around in the morning, so I always get everything done the night before for a smooth, relaxing morning. I grabbed my black jacket and tennis shoes, everything was practical. There was no point in buying something that you don’t absolutely positively need. Luckily here in Chicago, I could just walk around down the street and most of the time people left me alone. I started thinking about all the things we had to do to win tonight, and for once I got distracted. Distractions are many things. Distractions are shiny, bright things, something interesting, and the biggest distraction of all are girls. Girls don’t help your game whatsoever, they ruin it. That’s why I stay away from them, just the occasional one night stand when I’m bored and the girl’s hot: a lethal combination. I’m not at all like Pat though; his phone is a black book of the finest strippers of each city we go to. I didn’t even notice the girl walking in front of me, which is quite hard to do. She has dark, red hair and a pair of flip-flops on. Who wears flip-flops in Chicago in October? Flip-flops are just a piece of rubber that girls call shoes. They are not reliable at all and that’s what all woman need, a reliable pair of shoes. She spilt hot, scalding coffee all over my chest. Great, this is just what I need.
“Fuck!” She yelled and at the same time she dropped all of her books. It wasn’t even like she noticed; she just pressed a paper towel against my chest. “Here, use this to clean off?” She said, but in a questioning tone. Because of this crazy girl in front of me, I was going to lose the pre-season game tonight. It was all a sign.
“You did enough, thanks.” I snapped taking her hands pushing them off of me. I didn’t know what just possessed me to do that, you never touch a lady when she doesn’t want to be touched. I was screwing up everything today. Haste makes waste.
“Sorry, You don’t need to be rude, I didn’t mean to do it.” She said defensively. She was definitely a nice girl that just needed some organization classes and she would be set with life. I ran a hand through my hear, I just broke the number one rule that my mother taught me: never hurt a woman’s feelings. “You’re right, I’m sorry. This is just very stressful.”
She rolled my eyes at him. “If getting coffee spilled on you is the worst thing in your life, then your pretty fucking lucky.” Okay, now it was my turn to be mad. A stranger has no right to curse at me. Cursing is ignorance. The only time I course is when I’m in hockey mode: on the ice or hanging with the guys. Cursing is part of hockey, so it’s all right.
“I don’t think it’s appropriate to curse in front of some one you don’t know and insult some one you don’t know.” I said calmly, voicing my thoughts. She ran her hand through her wild, dark-red hair. For the first time though, I looked at her face. She was classically sexy, the kind of girl that could draw cat-whistles from construction builders. Or she could be, if she actually cleaned up her act. She had black streaks running down her face, maybe she didn’t know though. “And do you realize you have black streaks running down your face?” I asked trying to be kind. To my amazement, she just waved her hand at me. ‘Yeah I know, I was running late for class.” She explained.
Late; the worst word in the dictionary. Being late is the most inconsiderate and rude thing that a person can do to another. No matter what, you should always be on time. “Then don’t you have to get to class?” I asked confused.
“If I’m already late, why go at all.” She replied. If I were late I would be running to try and get as close on time as possible. “You could at least make an effort.”
“Nah. What’s the fun in that? How about you come back to my dorm room. I think I have some of that Tide pen crap.” I also now see the large stain right on the front of her shirt. It slipped out of my mouth before I could help it. “Then why don’t you use it on your shirt?” I expected her to be mad, but she took it all in stride, it was amazing.
“Rude, rude, rude.” She said wagging her finger at me.
“And what do you think would make me follow a stranger back to their dorm room? You could be taking me back to kill me.” I stated. I’ve watched the warnings on the news, just because they are females, doesn’t make them any less lethal.
“Oh wow, you figured me out! Damn it!” She said sarcastically before snapping her fingers. “I’m going, you can follow me or not.” She said in a smart-ass tone before turning around and marching away. Leaving her schoolbooks sitting on the sidewalk though thwarted her sassy leaving. I quickly bent over and picked them up, at least one of us had to have respect for school. “You forgot your books!” I shouted and she spun around with an impish smile on her face. “Well, you really are a gentlemen.” She said and the smile turned into a full-blown grin. Before I opened my mouth to say “your welcome,” she turned around and started walking again. Her feet clacking away on her flip-flops. I have no idea why, but my body acted before my brain did. Next thing I know, my feet are going one after another and following this mess of a girl. Her “nothing fazes me” attitude was rubbing off on me. And my schedule was screwed up anyway, so for lack of better words, to the hell with it. I followed her the whole walk to her dorm, keeping my distance and shoving my hands in my pockets. I felt like such a creeper, following a college girl back to her room. Finally, she stopped in front of her door and flashed another smile. “So what’s your name? My name is Lexi.” Lexi, that certainly seemed to fit her personality. But besides on the ice, in the real world nicknames aren’t acceptable. “Is Lexi short for something? I asked.
She narrowed her eyes. “Yes, it’s short for Alexa.” Lexi said grudgingly.
“Okay, I’m going to call you Alexa than, nicknames are silly. My name is Jonathan.” I replied calmly.
“Don’t call me Alexa, that’s what my mom calls me, Jonny.” Alexa said taunting me. She opened the door and I saw it. An earthquake must have just hit Chicago and knocked everything, and I mean everything, in this room until the floor. There is no way any one could possibly live like this. There was no room to even walk, no room to even live.
“What’s wrong?” She asked. I guess my reaction was bigger than I thought.
“How do you live like this?” I asked voicing my thoughts.
Alexa waved her hand. “It’s only a pain when I come home drunk and fall over things and break them.” She said before picking her way through the mess.
“Does that happen a lot?” I asked curiously. Even though this girl was a pig, she kept drawing me in for me. It was like an unquenchable thirst, no matter how much I drank in, I couldn’t satisfy my thirst.
Luckily, Alexa laughed. “So nosy aren’t you? But yes, probably almost every Friday or Saturday night?”
“Why do you do that to yourself?” That was probably the most hypocritical sentence I’ve ever said. I can remember some nights in my rookie year when the guys convinced me to drink so much that I couldn’t move.
“So you’re telling me you don’t drink?” She said calling me out. I smiled ruefully. “No, the job I do almost makes me required to drink, I just normally don’t get trashed.” That’s not a lie; at least my teammates pressure me a lot to “let loose” and “have fun.”
“What do you work as? A beer tester or something?”
Now came the biggest problem for being in the NHL. She obviously wasn’t a super fan, she would have recognized me. Still, it wouldn’t be hard for her to make a bad story about this. I always have to play on the safe side for the team. “Something like that.” I said casually. I noticed the skeptics on her face, so I quickly changed the subject. “So you know could get help or something with this room?” She sighed loudly and pressed her lips together. “If you’re from TLC or something wanting to do a special on messed up slobs, you have the wrong girl here buddy.”
TLC. That channel automatically made me thinks of the nights I woke up already confused and then to see a girl’s vagina on the TV screen seeing it push out a baby. We all know why Kaner watches it, but it certainly scars me. “I am not from TLC, trust me. All those birthing shows creep me out. My roommate on the road loves them though.” I said and I couldn’t help but shudder.
“Roommate?” She asked. Damn it, I slipped up. As the captain of the Blackhawk’s, I need to stop doing that!
“My job causes me to travel a lot, and my company is poor so we have to room together.” I quickly pieced together something that wasn’t a complete lie. Alexa picked up a granola bar and looked at it before popping it into her mouth. Does she realize how disgusting that is? How sick it could make her? She rummaged around the room more, throwing more piles of clothes and crap around. I thought back to my perfectly clean apartment, one that didn’t have fingertip marks on the window. Now that was heaven; mess and germ free. Alexa let out an “ah-hah!” noise before tossing me the Tide Marker. I examined it to make sure it was indeed the right thing and everything seemed all right, so I opened it. Next thing I know, fizzing white liquid is all over my hands and joined the coffee stain on my previously white shirt. I frowned, another unexpected thing happening today, what is going on? Instead of apologizing profusely like she should have, she just started cracking up, laughing so hard that she had to lean over to support herself.
“It’s not funny!” I pouted.
Alexa clutched onto her side. “I wish you could have just seen the look on your face. Priceless.” She said through giggles. She stopped though once I continued to stare at her.
“Okay, seriously though, let me pay for your dry cleaners bill.” Serious? I didn’t know this girl had a serious bone in her body. I waved my hand, that was the least of my worries. “That’s not necessary.”
She stomped her foot, like actually stomped her foot. I just thought girls in movies did that. “But I want to, please.”
I sighed, knowing we weren’t going to get anywhere anytime soon. “Fine. Maybe we could uh..talk about it some time.” Great. Now I just implied that I wanted to go on a date. But the words that wanted to come out of my mouth to recline the offer didn’t, they stayed put in my head for some reason.
“Okay?”
“Maybe over coffee.” I said rambling now. I hadn’t asked a girl out since I was sixteen, I was rusty. Normally it was the girl throwing herself at me in a nightclub, doing the deed at her house, and then doing the walk of shame the next morning.
“Got it. Sounds fun.” She replied more enthusiastically. Thank god.
“Like just me and you. Discussing things over coffee.” I quickly regretted those words once they came out of my mouth. They sounded so juvenile and too much like a date. “Very fun though! We can be friendly with each other. Oh wait, no. I don’t mean that! Us as two adults could calmly discuss what happened today over some hot coffee in a coffee shop, with lots of people around, just only us sharing a table.” I rambled on and it was just getting worse as I went. Where the hell was I coming up with this stuff? I’m surprised my voice wasn’t cracking because that’s what happened in seventh grade, the last time I was this awkward around a girl. I could tell she was trying not to laugh. Great, she probably thinks I’m a lunatic. “That’s what I figured Jonny-boy.” Alexa said lightly.
“Jonathan.” I corrected her.
She ignored me. “Here, let me give you my number.” She rooted around her room more and finally settled for writing it on a tissue paper with mascara. “There you go.”
I studied it, not knowing what to do, so I looked busy. I took my time putting it in my pocket and rocked back and forth on my feet. “So I’ll um call you sometime.”
Alexa could obviously tell I wasn’t comfortable. “Okay, now get out of here before you faint from my mess.” She said. I left her dorm room, forcing my self not to sprint out. I haven’t gotten myself in a mess like this in a while. The guys could never hear about this or I wouldn’t hear the end of it.