Twelve Days || Book I

Day Five

It just so happened, that the team had a two-day break after the win over the Ducks. And lucky for us, coach Claude Noel allowed the team to stay one extra day in California.

He called it: a reward for winning.

Whatever it was, Ondrej and I were thankful for it. Although we had gotten to see many of California's sights, it was only for a short while. We had always wanted to spend time; to look around and experience everything the state had to offer.

And that's what we were going to do.

After all, these twelve days were meant to be spent doing things we had done (or wanted to do) when we were younger.

"Let's go to Hollywood." Ondrej suggested, nudging my arm.

"Ondrej, that's like an hour away," I cried, "I-I."

"Come on, babe," he begged, "Remember how we used to talk about seeing the sign, and the Walk of Fame?"

I nodded inanely.

"Now look," Ondrej said, "We finally have the chance to do so. Together."

"What do you say?"

I kissed him, then, catching him off guard. I bit my lip, and nodded.

"Let's go."

Before I knew it, we were in our rental car, on our way to Hollywood. Though, there was one problem.

"Where the hell are we going?" Ondrej asked, puzzled.

I was in the passenger seat, skimming through the map of California.

"I don't know," I retorted, flipping pages through the atlas, "You're the one driving!"

I watched as Ondrej's fists tightened around the steering wheel, causing his knuckles to turn a bright shade of white. The look on his face signalled for me not to talk to him until he cooled off.

Although, in all honesty, I thought it was mighty attractive.

"Did you want to put on some music?" He asked, breaking the silence.

"Uh, sure."

I pressed a few buttons, and found myself on a local 80's rock station. I left it there, only because that was the only genre of music Ondrej and I could decide on.

"Hey," I chimed in, turning down the music, "How did you manage to get Paul to let us stay for an extra day, and let us go all the way to Hollywood?"

"It's a secret," he smiled, "I have my ways."

After being friends with Mr. Pavelec for over a decade, I've learned to let those things go. He always wanted to do something special for me, but always wanted to keep it a surprise.

Sometimes, I even believed he treated me better than he did any of his actual girlfriends.

"Whatever you say, Ondra." I said with a soft chuckle.

Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed him look over at me for a couple seconds. I had noticed that a lot, actually. He would always take a few moments; just to look over at me. It was almost as if he was checking up on me. Because, honestly, whenever I felt him staring over me, the voices vanished.

He really was my guardian angel.

Not long after, though, we had finally arrived in the - highly-anticipated - city of Hollywood. I rolled down the windows then, allowing the hot and steamy humidity of California grace my face.

Ondrej and I both looked around at all the palm trees, as we drove up to the hotel that we'd be staying at for the night. Not only was the scenery astonishing, but the hotel our reservations were at was absolutely stunning.

"Anna?" Ondrej questioned, his voice scared me. Instead of being in the driver's seat next to me, he was outside the vehicle, and talking to me through the window, "Did you want to actually go inside, or are you content with staring at it from the outside?" I watched as his eyebrows raised from behind his sunglasses.

"I'm coming." I nodded.

Ondrej had already had all bags out of the trunk, and within minutes, we were up in our hotel room.

"You know," I started, examining the room, "You really didn't have to do this for little old me."

I searched the room, then. The bedroom was huge, with a king-sized bed and a large flat screen TV. On the far wall, was a balcony with the most amazing view of the Hollywood sign.

"What do you mean, 'Little old you'?" He asked, approaching me. He placed his hands on my shoulders, forcing me to stare him directly in the eyes. "You're much, much more to me than you'll ever know, love."

"I love you, Mr. Pavelec." I smirked playfully, causing Ondrej to grin from ear-to-ear.

"And I love you, Ms. Mickova."

It was then, that he placed a soft kiss upon my lips.

"Let's go."

In the matter of a few hours, Ondrej and I were exhausted. It was already dark, and we had only visited the Walk of Fame, the Hollywood Sign, got some dinner, and saw a movie.

It was 11:00 by the time we finally settled in bed.

"So," Ondrej started, "How have these past five days been for you?"

I frowned upon hearing those words. We were almost halfway done our 'Twelve-Day Experiment'. Honestly, I didn't want it to end. The voices were completely gone, and the thoughts I had had disappeared, too.

Kind of like the darkness when the night turns into day.

The look upon Ondrej's face had indicated that he had noticed the large frown across my face, as he inched closer to me. Concern was evident in his beautiful blue eyes.

"These five days have been nothing less than perfect, Ondrej."

And that's when Ondrej had held me the closest he ever had.