Trip to Your Heart - A Hockey Fanfiction

I Never Imagined That You'd Make Me Feel Like This

I leaned back against the wall and closed my eyes as the phone stopped ringing and his voicemail tone started playing. I had been wrong, mad wouldn't have been the worst he could have done, not answering was much, much worse. There was a beep, as promised, and I took a shaky breath before speaking, "Hey, Robert, it's Stella. I promised that I would call, and this is me following through on that promise. Sid said you won't talk to him and I'm worried about you. If you don't want to talk to me that's fine, I just wanted to check on you. Call me... or don't. I... Uhh... I guess I'll talk to you later. I miss you," my voice broke with the truth of the statement.

My hand fell from my ear where I'd been holding my phone and I just stood there, numb to the bricks digging into my back and the sound of the base slamming out a new rate for my heart. What if he didn't want to talk to me? I had said that it would be fine, but that was a lie. I wanted to hear his voice like I wanted my morning coffee; it was a necessity, a little luxury that I didn't want to, no, that I couldn't live without.

"Stella?" I looked up to see Cara and David hand in hand. She looked worried and he looked like I'd just killed his buzz. "What are you doing back here?" Cara asked letting go of David's hand and walking towards me.

"I called Robert," I choked out.

"Did you guys fight again? You look like you've been crying," she said, giving me a hug. She smelled predominantly of alcohol, but underneath it was her usual cinnamon sugar smell that helped calm me down.

"He didn't answer, I left a message. He's uhh... He's probably sleeping," my mind rationalized and the words tumbled out of my mouth.

"Yeah, he probably is. The guys don't get to sleep much unless there's a break, right David?" She smiled at him and he nodded. 

I nodded, "Thanks, Cara. I'll see you later, yeah?" She and David exchanged a look and I shook my head with a laugh, "You kids be careful," then lower, just to Cara, "Don't do anything I wouldn't do." She just laughed and they slipped away.

I made my way back to the bar where a few of the guys had gotten to the point of drunkenness that they were trying to have a philosophical discussion. Chara and Tuukka Rask looked on, amused, as Marchand, Bergeron, Krejci, and Eriksson argued about the best way to out-deke a goalie. Rask sat sipping a beer with a smile playing on his lips as he tried to refrain from interrupting.

I leaned over and whispered in their ears, "You boys should be filming."

Tuukka laughed out loud at that, "And make a YouTube channel? Do you know how many drunk music videos we would have? I don't want embarrassing videos of my horrible singing up there!"

"That's why you don't give anyone the password!" I laughed.

"She has a fair point," Zdeno shrugged, "Or we could just keep them for ourselves and show the team, just not coach."

The other guys noticed me. "Stella!" Brad slurred, tripping over to me and wrapping his arm around my shoulders like before. "Tell us what you think. How do you best fake out a goalie?"

"I don't know, you tell me," I shrugged.

"No, no, no. We want to hear what you have to say, c'mon," Loui waved me forward into their circle.

"You could dive left and push the puck in to the right with your stick," I laughed.

"Yes! That's perfect! Tuukka, where's Tuukka? Oh, there you are. Tuukka, you always fall for that, don't you?" Bergy asked.