The Crowd That Kept Us Apart // colorado avalanche

chapter 1

If you asked me when I saw her for the first time if she would be the woman I fall in love with, I would have said no. I'd always give her high-fives when a game was over. It was my first full season in the NHL and the girl in row 5 seat 11 was my first fan. The sign that she made me always managed to grab a little chuckle from me. '#40 has my heart,' I still remember what it says. But she was nothing more than a fan, I had a girlfriend, and we were happy. At least I thought we were happy. She wasn't a huge fan of hockey, and, being in the big league, I needed all the support. She delivered, but it almost seemed half hearted. It was fine at first, she was busy with school, I played in a state over 300 miles from her school. She would 'refuse to pay for her flight' even though I offered many times to help pay, but she would brush off the thought. I never wanted to tell my mom about it, but you can be sure I told mon chum, Samuel girard. He was always supportive of the two of us, but I always felt like he held back some secret opinion.

The day I told him what he'd probably always suspected, we were at practice. He often arrived early, but I happened to arrive at the same time he did. As we walked into the locker room, I felt my phone buzz in my pocket. I pulled it out. 'lincoln.logs mentioned you in their story?' I thought. Curiosity struck me, I didn't get many story mentions. So, naturally I opened it. I found that it was a picture of me and it read 'amazing goal last night! Thanks for the high five.' I smiled and Girard nudged me.

"What's that?" he asked.

"Nothing, just a fan," I said, quickly swiping out of the app. I felt blood rush into my cheeks. Why was I blushing? I've never had a fan before, maybe just a rush of appreciation?

"That didn't seem like nothing," Girard stated, putting his bag down.

"Just a fan like I said before," I huffed, sitting down next to him.

"No fan has made me blush like that before," he let out a little cuckle. I sighed and sat still for a while.

"No, sorry," I said, slipping my shin pads on. Other guys started entering the room.

"Hey, wabba!" a little pause, "everything ok?" Landy asked, taking a seat across from us. I just nodded as a reply. It scared me sometimes how easy it was for our captain to figure out something was wrong. "Well if you have any problems don't hesitate to tell me."

"Aw is wittle wabba having wittle issues?" J.T. Compher teased from the corner of the room. All the guys started laughing. I joined in but I didn't enjoy it. I knew he was joking like we all do but that little statement made my blood boil. I could feel Sammy's eyes on me, I tried my hardest to ignore them.

"Alright let's get on with it boys!" Coach Bednar boomed, bursting into the room. We all filed out of the room, me and Sammy the first ones out.

The first few minutes were rough. I missed the net more than I could count.

"You better not be playing that way during the game tomorrow!" I heard coach yell from behind me.

"Yes sir!" was all I could squeak out. A few guys laughed making the whole situation worse. I skate towards a puck not noticing the one by my foot, I wipeout. The ice was cold despite the many layers I had on. Laughter erupted.

"Man you'd think a first round pick would be better than that!" nagged a voice from behind, I stood on wobbly knees and spun around to see Dermy. Standing at 6' 6" , 6 inches taller than me. Great, even the new guy was teasing me. Usually I wouldn't take any of the chirps to heart but today I was not in a good mood and the guys were not helping. Tears stung in my eyes. I tried hard to hold them back, but I couldn't take the tension, emotions overwhelmed my mind. Fast tears ran down my face. My cold dry cheeks stung as salty tears trickled down them.