The Ice Hockey Player

Pay Attention

Hiding out in the bathroom was never pleasant. There were always new stains on the tiles or the toilets and the cleaners didn't seem to care about proper maintenance or how to remove shampoo and soap scum off the shower walls. It drove her crazy being in there, and even though she had a stack of cleaning products in her room, she couldn't go back and get them. Jas and Lila would make her change.

Miserably, Skye sat on the toilet lid and watched the time tick down on her watch. They were leaving in fifteen minutes. Fifteen minutes to hide in the woefully dirty bathroom and then there would be no time to change.

"Skye, I know you're in here," Jas said, walking in.

Skye lifted her feet off the floor and stayed silent.

"Don't make me look over the stalls again," Jas said, tapping her foot.

Still, Skye said nothing. If Jas wanted to get written up again for staring over toilet stalls, that was her business.

"Did you find her?" Lila joined Jas in the bathroom.

"She's hiding in one of the stalls again," Jas said.

Lila walked over and started to bang on the stall Skye was hidden in. Skye jumped. Her knee knocked the toilet paper dispenser and the plastic cover fell off with a bang. Oh crud, she thought.

"There you are. Come on, we promise we won't say anything about what you're wearing," Lila said.

The game was up. Skye slid off the toilet seat and left the stall. Jas and Lila had both dressed nicely, jeans and tops with pretty jackets and matching black boots.

"You are not wearing that!" Jas said, outraged.

Lila shot her a dirty look. "Why don't you wear jeans instead of sweat pants? You can keep the jumper on."

Skye knew the jumper was worse than the sweatpants; it was old and faded and baggy, and she looked like she had folds of skin hanging off her. But it belonged to her brother, and it was a mark of Lila's friendship that she didn't even try to get her to take it off.

"Please, Skye? For us? Just a pair of jeans," Jas said. She opened her eyes wide to give her a puppy dog face. Skye found herself agreeing.

"Do you have the address?" Lila asked as Skye changed into jeans.

"I have it somewhere," Skye said, rummaging around in her work pants and bag until she found the measly scrap of paper Finn had given her at the diner. "It's not far, we can walk."

Skye tagged along behind them. If she had some more restraint, she would never have poured salt in Finn's cup and then dumped it over him. He wouldn't have been able to hold anything over her, and she would never have had to go tonight.

She knew that all night Finn would talk about ice hockey. Ice hockey this, ice hockey that. Every time he mentioned how great it was, or how he couldn't believe she didn't like it slowly grated on the wound in her heart. The wound she had slowly started to heal.

Lost in her thought, Skye didn't hear the car. Jas and Lila started to scream at her and just as she snapped her head up, the car hit her side.

A horn blared at her and she lay on the ground, the asphalt digging into her head and back, her hip aching and pain acing through her side. She heard crying and shouting and slowly sat up, checking for any broken bones or blood. It was always good to sit up slowly after being hit by something – or someone. There was less of a chance to jar injured limbs.

"Don't move! I've called an ambulance," a man said to her.

"I don't need an ambulance," Skye said.

But the man wasn't listening to her. He was babbling to anyone who would listen how he didn't' see her until she was right in front of him and it was accident. Skye didn't need an ambulance; nothing was broken. All limbs moved the way they were supposed to without pain. She'd have a few bruises, and there were a few grazes on her hands.

"Oh my god, Skye, are you okay?"

She looked up to see her tear-stricken faced friends and gave them a shaky smile.

"I'm fine guys, really, it's just a graze. Nothing is broken."

"What happened? Is she okay?"

More voices joined the fray and Skye rolled her eyes. Finn, Jay and two other boys she had never seen before, ran over to the scene. Everywhere Skye looked she saw concerned faces and worried expressions and it made her uncomfortable. She was fine, she just didn't pay attention.

"I'm fine! Seriously, a bruised hip and scraped hands, that's all!" Skye said loudly, getting annoyed at the fuss. She'd had worse injuries than this. The scars on her back and shoulder were testament to that.

Finn walked over to her and people started to stare and whisper. Skye's frustration raised to another level when someone took their cell phone out to take a photo as Finn knelt down beside her.

"Are you okay?" he asked her gently.

Skye glared at him. "Are you def? I'm fine!"

Finn chuckled at her rudeness. "Then stand up."

Skye's hip ached as she stood up and she winced at the flaring pain, but she ignored it. The pain would recede soon. Jas and Lila stood off to the side, hugging each other and still crying.

"The ambulance is here!" someone yelled and people scattered to allow it through.

Skye threw back her head and groaned. This was too much fuss for someone who hadn't been hurt! The paramedics came over and started to ask her questions. What happened? Where did it hurt? Where are you bleeding?

They took her to the back of the ambulance to check out her eyesight and her head, to make sure she couldn't get a concussion.

"'m fine," Skye protested.

They cleaned her hands with antiseptic and wanted to bandage them, but Skye put her foot down on that one. She did not need bandages, they were grazes. She hadn't even needed them to clean her up.

Then the police showed up to interview both her and the driver, and with them came the camera crew to interview ice hockey player Finn Hammond and why he was on the scene. Skye's irritation was at boiling point and her blood was bubbling underneath her skin. Why couldn't they all just leave it alone? She wasn't hurt, no one was hurt, and Finn Hammond wasn't that amazing!

"Come on, you can go now," Lila's small voice cut into her thoughts.

"Finally," Skye muttered and stormed away, heading back home. She was done for the night. They had already spent an hour here, on the side of the road, for no reason at all. Finn Hammond grabbed her arm.

"Jay's apartment is this way," he said.

"My room is this way," Skye.

"You have to still come," his eyes brightened "otherwise maybe I'll put in a complaint with your manager," he said mischievously.

For a brief moment, Skye thought about slapping him. But there were camera crews everywhere and the police.

"Our deal still stands," Skye said as he lead her across the road.

She used her free arm to block her face from the flashing cameras and even managed to shove Jas in front of her. Jas and Lila happily blocked the camera's from getting to Skye's face and shoved theirs in the way instead. It was times like these Skye was glad she had them as friends. They knew how much she hated cameras.

Finn slipped his hand around her waist just before they entered the door and she shoved him away from her angrily. "No touching," she snarled at him and he put his hands up in the sign of surrender. 

Exactly how it should be.