I ran down hall and down to the lobby where the mailboxes were, I looked for my number and quickly opened it. There were three white envelops in it. I huffed and slammed the door shut. I walked back to my apartment and shut my eyes. ‘Random letter’ I chucked it on the floor, The next envelope was plain and had my name written on it. I sat down and opened it, my fingers shaking like crazy. I pulled out the paper, and my heart caught in my through when I saw the Dallas Stars emblem on it. I carefully scanned through it, every word. I was looking for a ‘congratulations‘, or a ‘you got the job’. I kept reading. “..We wish to have you as our team photographer. You seem more than qualified for the job..” I let out a glass shattering scream and threw the papers into the air. Tears ran down my face and my emotions went through the roof. I was excited that I would be able to be with my favorite team, but I had to leave Tristen, Jordan, Kris, and Max. Sidney and Marc were on my get hit in the mouth with a puck list. I ran to my phone and dialed Jordan’s number through tears. “Hello?” He yawned. “I got the job!” I squealed. “Please, save that for later, I’m already headed on an emotional roller coaster trying to decide if I want to completely give up on Marc” I whispered and laid down in my couch. “Next season! I might not even be there! My contracts up at the end of this season” “Maybe you’ll get traded to someone by Dallas” I said smiling cheekily. “Nah, I’m sure the Penguins will take you back in a heart beat, you’ve been the best since Sidney turned into an-” “Alex. Enough please, he already thinks you’re gone. Tristen and I have been doing exactly what you say, the only people that know we’re talking to you are Max and Kris. “That’d be nice. You can give us the weaknesses of the team so we can whoop their asses” he laughed. “Even though you probably wouldn’t go that because I’m guessing the longer the teams playing the more cash you make” He laughed. “You’re brilliant, Jordan” I laughed. I could picture him smirking right now. “Well, I’m tired. So you can go tell Tristen and whoever else you want, alright. I’ll talk to you tomorrow” I yawned. Think of the positives. Marc will be able to get over his girl friend, easy. I will get a fresh new apartment, make new hockey friends, snap some awesome pictures, and watch my favorite team. That’s good. I’ll get to not see Marc or Jordan in the next year, or Tristen! Or Kris and Max. Shut up, shut up. Positives, I’ll be making a decent amount of money. I might run into old friends.. Wait, I didn’t have any. Ha, no.
“That’s.. Great, Alex” Jordan said lightly. “You know we’re going to miss you.. Right?” He whispered.
“I could call him and tell him, and see what he thinks”
“Tell Sidney I did it because he’s an egotistical asshole” I smiled to myself through my downpour of tears. “No, I’m kidding” I sighed and turned onto my stomach, staring at the letter on the floor. I wiped my eyes and picked it up. “They want me there by March first”
“That’s a week” He whispered, I wasn’t good with something’s, but it sounded like he was going to start crying. “I can’t believe you’re actually going to leave! I’m going to miss you! Agh!” Jordan whispered. I smiled.
“Well, you’ll see me when you play Dallas-”
“Surprising since you can’t keep your trap shut about anything else!” I barked. We both shared a laugh and sighed. “I’ll call you all the time if I go” I whispered.
“it might be a bad idea to go to sleep so soon. You’ll probably get about fifty text messages from Tristen, Sidney, and Marc” He laughed and hung up. I rolled my eyes and put my phone down on the receiver. I wonder why I bother to tell him anything. I rolled my eyes and stayed on my couch, staring at the cracked ceiling.
My phone buzzed meaning a text message. I flipped it open and smiled. ‘Why are you going to DALLAS! Are you insane! Huh? I apologized fifty bazillion times, you can’t leave us’. I shut my phone and shook my head. Of course the first person Jordan tells is Sidney. I sat up and grabbed the letter and looked for the number at the bottom of the envelope. I dialed it and waited.
“Hello, who may I ask is calling?”
“Uhm.. Alexandrie Pierce?” I whispered.
“Alex! So glad to hear from you so soon. Glad you responded, I have to say, your pictures are breath taking” The man said.
“Uhm.. Thank you Mister…”
“Jackson.. Mister Jackson” He said laughing. “Well, You understand that your schedule will have to be the games and then other thigns, correct?”
“Yes, Mr. Jackson. I’ll be new to the area, so I wouldn’t have much else to do” I said smiling to myself. Michael Jackson. Ha.
“Great! I think we made the right choice. But I have one question. I see here that you almost had a job in London with models, may I ask what happened?” he said seriously
“The lady that came was well, nicely, a snob. And she said that I was to American to work with a foreign company, she didn’t think I was going to be able to position the models the correct way and wait for them to get ready. She though I had no patience” I ended in a whisper.
“Ha! Well, That’s good. Here’s you’ll be dealing with moving hockey players. This job must be perfect for you Miss. Pierce. So you’re going to be here by March First?” He asked. I stared down and took a deep breath.
“Yes sir. I-”
“We’ll ship you the tickets over night! You should have them by Wednesday! Can’t wait to see the pictures Miss Pierce. See you March first” He said laughing.
“Yes. I will see you then. Good-bye Mr. Jackson” I whispered.
“Bye” He said and hung up. I put the phone on the receiver and looked up. My cell phone must have buzzed over seventy times while I was on the phone. I picked it up and I had fifteen new text messages. One was from Max, one from Kris, thirteen from Tristen. Max’s said ‘please don’t go I’ll miss you’ Kris’s said ‘It’s all Cindy’s fault and I love you and I’ll miss you’ and Tristen’s was a twelve text rant about how I shouldn’t go to Dallas and that I’m an idiot for going, and the last text message said. ‘have fun. Forget me and die. Text me everyday and I’ll miss you’. I laughed and set my phone down, a little later I started bawling. What was I doing? I was getting a professional future. Maybe I’ll switch to Pittsburgh later on, after a while with Dallas. But what if I have to sign a contract or something? And Bam! I have five years with the team, snapping pictures of them seeing everyone once a year. And what if they don’t like me! What of the players there aren’t as awesome as Sidney and everyone else? What will I do, I think I spent enough of my time friendless.
I sat up and walked over to my bedroom. Should I start packing now? Should I wait and make sure I’m really going. I slapped my forehead with the palm of my hand and let out a frustrated scream. Why’d I send that out? Why am I leaving my friends? Why didn’t I move in with Marc?!
“If I leave.. I won’t have any of those Marc related questions. I won’t have to see him, or hear from him, or deal with anything related to him” I smiled and laid down on the couch. “I will erase him from my memory”
-----♥-------
The tickets came in the mail on Wednesday, as said, and my plane to catch was at four in the afternoon on Sunday, meaning that I would get to Dallas just in time for their first game, and that’s when my job will start, I won’t have enough time to see my apartment. They said they’re people, a guy from the team, will take the things to my apartment, then at the game give me a map and a key, and that’s it. Nice, right?
“Can I come with you?” Jordan said keeping me in a tight hug. I rolled my eyes and hugged him back. I laughed a little and messed up his already messed up hair.
“You have a job here.. I’ll talk to you all the time, Jordan” I whispered and tried to pull out of his grasp but he held me tighter.
“I want to hug here, Blondie!” Tristen snapped and punched Jordan’s shoulder. I laughed as Jordan reluctantly let go and Tristen took me into a hug and then let me go. “if I don’t hear from you everyday, I will hunt you down, don’t think I won’t. Don’t underestimate me and my.. Powers” She said and took a step back, Letting Kris tackle me into a hug.
“I love you my friend” he said and gave me a kiss on the forehead and let me go, letting Max tackle me into a chair.
“It’s all Cindy and Flower’s fault! I better here that Jordan talked to you everyday, or I’m going to hunt you down” He mimicked Tristen, “Or I will hunt you down, don’t think I can’t.. I have powers, bitch” Tristen chuckled and hit Max’s shoulder. There was only one person left. I looked at Sidney and smiled.
“I’m sorry. I overreacted” I said and gave him a hug and quickly let go. I may still be a little sore from everything.
“Ha! I overreacted five hundred times worse. I shouldn’t have blamed you for us losing, I was being a dick” he sighed.
“That you were” Tristen snickered and grabbed his hand and gave him a kiss before he could say anything. Everyone laughed and stared at me. I flashed them all a smile and felt a clump in my throat, the clump that would send me to hysterics and wouldn’t go into the plane without one of them.
“Your flight should be boarding a few minutes” Jordan whispered. The clump moved a little further up. “Are you alright?” he asked, a strange twinkle in his eyes. I nodded and looked down, gripping my carry-on bag. “I’ll miss you” he said lightly.
“I’ll miss you too!” The clump came out in and I started bawling into my hands. Jordan pulled me into a hug and I bawled in his shoulder, his hands rubbing my back.
“Everything will be fine, Alright? We’ll talk to you all the time. I promise. Call me when you get there, and after all the games, before the games”
“Before you go to bed. Before you go out. Before you eat. While you sleep” Tristen said smirking at Jordan. He blushed and let me go and smiled.
“You’ll be fine, alright? You can make friends no problem. I’m sure the teams cool and-”
“Flight 392 to Dallas, Texas now boarding gate eight. Now boarding Gate Eight” The loud speaker crackled and I couldn’t help but sob into Jordan’s shoulder. The facts that I’m leaving them all, I’m out on my own, and that Marc didn’t even show up, just made me cry hundreds of times harder, and made me feel hundreds of times worse.
“I don’t want to leave you guys” I took a deep breath and made a feeble attempt to steady my hands. “I’ll m-miss y-you a-all” I whimpered and kept an extremely tight grip on my bag. “I-I’ll call you. I p-promise” I called as I gave everyone a hug. There was a mixture of ‘I love you’s and ‘good-byes’ and I turned my back to them and walked up to the gate, ticket in hand. I handed it to the girl and walked into the tunnel then into the plane. I found my seat and sat down, trying to get control of myself. Trying get my breathing straight.
“Miss. Are you alright?” The man in front of me asked. He had these bright blue eyes that beat Jordan’s eyes by a mile. I smiled a little and nodded.
“Home sick. Lost friends.” I said not able to put together full sentences while looking at his eyes. He nodded and gave me a little smile before turning around again. I smiled inwardly and took a deep breath. I steadied my breathing and herd the pilot instruct us to put our seat belts on and turn off all electronics. I dug in my bag and pulled out my phone and pulled the battery out of it, not even looking at the screen. I put on my seatbelt and smiled, no one next to me, wonderful.
The flight was horrible. There was turbulence and at one point three people got plain sickness at once, and the smell made other people want to throw up, so they did. The boy in front of me ended up in the seat next to me, making me focus only on him the whole however many hours the ride was.
His name was Matt, and he was headed to Dallas to see his mom who was sick with stomach cancer. He was twenty five and was a guitar tech for a band in Jersey. We started talking about music, which led to carrier’s, which led to girlfriend -in my case boyfriends- which led us to the end of the plane ride.
“I’ll see you soon” he flashed me a smile and gave me a hug.
“See you later Matt” I said and walked away to grab my luggage. I stood their scanning the suitcases rolling down the conveyer belt. I saw mine bunched together and dragged them off and set them down in a pile, two of them. I slung the duffle bag over my shoulder containing] my camera thing and waddled through the airport to the front door. I looked up and stared, there were a bunch of people walking in and out, l felt so small right now. I looked around and saw no one with a sign with my name on it or a Dallas jersey or anything. I sat down on a bench and ran my shaking fingers through my hair.
“Alexandrie Pierce, please report to the information center” it repeated three times, and I stood up and felt like the whole mob of people were staring at me. I looked up and saw the ‘Info’ sign hanging all the way on the other side of this crowded room. I squeezed my way through, similar to the way I squeezed myself to the other side of the dance floor, and walked up to the counter. The man turned to me, his bald head shinning under the light right above his head causing him to have little beads of sweat rolling down his face.
“Alexandrie Pierce? I was-”
“Hello!” A heavily accented voice echoed from behind me. I turned around and looked up. It wasn’t crazy tall like Jordan, the boy was more Marc’s height, and he had the same eyes as the boy on the plane. He had a little smirk on and wore a sweater with a pair of jeans and what looked like a vans slip-on’s.
“Alex” I smiled.
“Joel, so I was told to bring you to the game.” He took a deep breath, “So I guess I should. I will be the one showing you around” he sighed and took the suitcase from me and smiled. “You packed lit?” He asked.
“For you, I guess I did” I chuckled and followed him through the mobs of people.
“This is true. So, I herd you were friends with the Penguins” He said sending me a smirk.
“Yeah, I was friendly” I sighed and wanted to end the conversation there, and obviously he caught on.
“Sorry. Come on, I’ll show you to my car” he said. I followed behind him through rows of cars, then came to a Mercedes. I rolled my eyes with a smile and put my duffle bag in the backseat and got in the passengers seat. He got in and turned the car on.
“You have a cell phone?” he asked. I nodded, remembering I forgot to turn it on, and started digging in my bag. I found it and it’s battery and put it back together. I turned it on and Joel started driving. I turned it on, then it buzzed. I looked down, One new text message. I opened it and stared at the little white screen
Alex, I don’t think I would be able to only see you once a year. I was being an asshole, you mean more to me than anything, even hockey, I’m sorry I told you this so late, but I need you to know, that I love you.
