Amazing Grace (Jonathan Toews)

A Girl Like That

Jonathan

"Why do you look like someone killed your cat" Patrick asks as he comes in the door of our hotel room.

"I don't really want to talk to you right now" I mumble as I roll over in bed so I didn't have to look at him anymore. His face just annoyed me.

"What is your problem" he asks kinda concerned and kind of drunk.

"Leave me alone Kaner" I sigh as adjust my pillow so it was more comfortable.

"No, I'm not going to. We've been away from home for like eight days now and you haven't gone out with the boys once. You haven't even touched a drink and quite frankly I don't know who I'm rooming with anymore. It's kind of scary" he claims.

"Well my problems don't concern you... so just drop it" I demand.

"Have you meet me before" he laughs and I roll my eyes.

"Unfortunately" I sigh.

I feel my bed dip and I knew that I wasn't going to get rid of him. Not until he gets what he wants at least. Or I switch rooms with Sharpy.

"Tell me what's going on" he pries.

"Why do you care" I ask.

"Because for some god forsaken reason it's you that I've been stuck with since the beginning of times and it's you I'm going to be stuck with until the end of times. And even though I hate you more times than I like you... you're still my best friend and I still care about you. I don't like it as much as you do, but that's how it is" he claims and I let out a sigh.

I roll over and sit up in my bed. I let out a long sigh as I stare off into the middle of nowhere.

"Before I left for this trip... I told Gracie that I loved her but I was still scared of being in love" I admit.

"Oh buddy, you're not supposed to tell a girl that" he says.

"She's not just any girl. She's special and she wants to know what I'm feeling so I told her" I explain.

"Okay then. What did she say" he wonders.

"She was awesome. She told me that she loved me too and that's why she hates what our situation is like. But she also loves me in the way that she will do anything to stay with me. And that should make me feel good that a girl like that wants to be with me in that way, but I don't want to hurt her" I say.

"This is love you're taking about, you're going to get hurt. But the best relationships know that the pain is well worth it" he says.

"She's so worth it" I insist.

"Then don't hold back. Love her unconditionally, don't let her dad dictate what you guys mean to each other. I mean what you guys have is amazing, I don't get why you're holding back" he admits.

"Because losing something as great as we can be is so scary" I whisper.

"But isn't it a great feeling, having something that's worth so much in the first place" he asks.

"Yeah, it is" I smile.

"There you go" he teases and I roll my eyes.

"What do you know about being in love" I ask.

"I was in love once. It wasn't anything like what you and Gracie have, but it was there" he claims.

"When are you going to fall in love again" I wonder.

"I don't know. I like what I'm doing right now even if it's unhealthy. But if you need someone to come with you to your little ballroom meetings sign me up, I could go for a goody two shoes for once" he says and I laugh.

"I might take you up on that. Then they can throw their daughters at you instead" I say. "But just so you know, none of them are like Gracie" I warn him.

"I'm not ready to fall in love yet anyway" he claims.

"I wasn't either" I remind him.

"Yeah, but like you said, I'm not going to find a girl like that."

After a while Patrick finally jumps in the shower and gets ready for bed. The trip was almost done but it honestly couldn't get over quick enough.

I hear my phone start to buzz and I look over to the nightstand where it was sitting. I was going to ignore it because it's probably just Sharpy prank calling again but instead I see Gracie's picture pop up and I smile to myself. I roll over so I could grab my phone and quickly answer it.

"I thought you were going to send me to voice mail" she answers and I laugh.

"And I thought you were Sharpy calling because he took something from my room again" I admit.

"He does that" she giggles.

"Don't let him fool you. His body might be 28 but his mind is 12" I insist.

"Abby told me about what he does to you guys but I though she was joking" she admits.

"Nope. That is a small child in a grown mans body" I assure her.

"Well believe it or not, I didn't call to talk about Sharps maturity level" she says and I laugh.

"I sure hope not" I admit.

"I wanted to know if you had a good day today. Did you do anything fun" she wonders.

"Not really. It was a travel day so we didn't have practice. I stayed in the hotel and read" I admit.

"You don't seem like the type of guy to sit around in his hotel room and ready. You're 21 Jon, you're legal and free. I know Patrick went out and his 21st birthday isn't until Thursday" she says.

"I wasn't feeling it, but I was feeling this book" I admit.

"What's are you reading" she wonders.

"It's not a novel, most people have probably never heard of it. It's about self reinvention. About finding yourself in other people" I say.

"You Are the One You're Looking For" she says and I stop. "Is that the book you're reading" she asks.

"Yeah, how did you know that" I ask.

"One of the few perks of having a lot of money and not being able to leave the house without a guardian  is having all the book I wanted. If my daddy wouldn't let me go to college I was going to teach myself" she claims.

"And what did you learn" I ask.

"I learned that what I've been told my whole life is a lie. I sat there and silently educated myself, and what I found was nothing like what I knew. It was scary, to learn things about yourself you didn't know. But looking back I see that that was the best thing for me. And I hope you find the same" she claims.

"Are you still scared about what you learned" I ask.

"Yeah. I am. But I'm more scared of being the same and knowing it's not good than changing" she claims.

"Yeah, that's true" I admit.

The line falls silent as I lay there. I look at my book and the page I was on and let this all sink in.

"Hey Jonny" she says softly.

"Yeah Gracie" I reply.

"I really love you. You know that right" she asks.

"Yeah baby, I do" I smile. "And I really love you too."