Moments

Hey guys! So, I'm just letting you know that, if I write this out as it is in my head, there's only two parts after this. But, as I said on Mibba, if you have a suggestion for who I should write about next, leave a comment and let me know! I'm not 100% positive that I will write a whole 'nother story, but I would definitely write a so called "one shot." Also, thank you all so much for continuing to read and comment. I really appreciate it.
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“You are so confusing,” Peyton said to me, watching as I carried another box inside of the apartment. “Just over six months ago, you move out to find yourself. I replace you with a new, mildly smelly, barely speaks English and doesn’t pay the rent room mate. Now, barely speaks English is living on the street, and you’re back. I’m confused.”

I had stopped mid-way through the hallway to turn and stare at her in the living room as she spoke, shaking my head. “Your roommates name was Natalie and she was from Burnaby. Why are you lying to me about her?”

“Burnaby’s version of English and Vancouver’s version of English are not on the same page. Do you know what the bitch referred to Chiliwack as? The wack. What the hell, right?”

I laughed, setting the box down in my room before turning and walking back out to where Peyton was sitting in the living room with a giant bottle of Mountain Dew. “I missed you, Peyton.”

She grinned, pouring me a glass of Mountain Dew. “I know.” She handed me the cup she had just poured for me, picking her own back up and taking a sip. “So, you’re back.”

I nodded, taking a drink from the cup. “I’m back.”

“How does it feel?”

I sighed, letting my head fall back against the couch with a shrug. “I don’t know. I almost feel like I’m in the same position, but that’s probably just because I feel so lonely now. Once I get past that, I’m sure I’ll see all the good Pittsburgh did for me.”

Peyton nodded, leaning forward to set her cup down on the table. “You’re not alone, though. I’m here, and even though I feel as if my level of awesome is high enough that you don’t need other friends, Max, Marc and Jordan already made plans to come see you, and Kris will be here all next week.” She studied my face for a moment before nodding in understanding, “Oh, I see. You mean lonely because there’s no…. boy.”

I let out a half laugh, “You can say his name, Peyton. It’s not like I won’t hear it thirty times a day on the TV or radio.”

She grinned, “I’m sure all the posters of him celebrating that big goal in the Olympics being plastered all over the city doesn’t help either, huh?”

“Not really.” I admitted, sighing. “I just can’t believe that I’m back here already. I was starting to believe that Pittsburgh was my new home. That I’d never be coming back here unless I was visiting. I guess it’s just hard to swallow, that’s all,” I tried to explain to her.

Peyton gave me a small smile, letting out a sigh. “Well, sometimes life has different plans for you. Besides, working as an assistant to the Vancouver Canucks main photographer? I mean, that’s a pretty rad deal, Hanna.”

“Yeah, I guess it’s okay,” I joked, taking another drink from my cup before letting out a groan. “I can’t believe I’m back in this apartment.”

“Can you smell the Thai food? It’s the only thing Natalie would eat, and I swear that eventually it made everything taste like Thai food. Everything. Even cereal.” She leaned forward so that her face was only a few inches from mine and asked, “Do you know the terror of putting a spoonful of Foot Loops into your mouth, and tasting Tom Yam?”

I pushed her face away from me, letting out a loud laugh. “Oh my goodness, Peyton. I don’t know how I survived six months without you.”

“Well, clearly you didn’t do too well,” she joked, earning a push from me.

“I don’t even know what Tom Yam is, but the amount of dirty jokes I want to say now is just unthinkable,” I added, letting out a long sigh as I leaned forward and set my cup down on the table, looking around at the apartment.

“It’s hot and sour soup. It’s also not delicious.” Peyton stood up from the couch, stretching her arms above her head before she glanced back down at me. “Well, let’s get to unpacking your stuff. Also, I need to explain to you why there’s now a whole in the bathroom.”

“There’s a whole in the bathroom? Where?” I asked, standing up and following her down the hall to where my room was.

“In the wall,” she answered, pausing to glance back at me. “I don’t want to get to into it right now, but it may have involved me trying to kick Natalie, and missing.”

I laughed. “I can’t imagine why she was so eager to move out.”

“I don’t know either! Bitch drank all the milk. If anyone should have wanted to run out of the apartment, it should have been me.”

I could only roll my eyes at her.

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“Hanna, are you listening to me?”

I nodded, trying to pick up the papers I had just dropped. “I am. I’m just…I’m really nervous, Jory, that’s all.”

Jory, the main photographer for the Vancouver Canucks, only chuckled at me as I nervously followed after him. “This is the dressing room, as I’m sure you can tell,” he said, letting me step into the Canucks locker room. “Media and photographers are only allowed in if one of the coaches or the media coach says so. Usually, I’m allowed in before and after games pre-media scrum, but not only. It depends on the game,” he said. “Also, you can only be in here taking pictures, or in the hall where the equipment is taken care of. No sneaking off to try and snap a picture of Kesler in the showers.”

I felt my face burn with embarrassment, earning another laugh out of Jory. “Okay.”

He shook his head at me, half laughing still. “Hanna, you need to lighten up. This is a fun job. All of the players are really nice, and really funny guys.” He paused, furrowing his brow for a second. “Well, except Alex Edler. I mean, he’s really nice, but he’s also really quiet. Sometimes, I worry that he’s only so silent because he’s plotting all of our deaths.” He turned to look at me, seeing the disturbed look on my face and patted my head. “Don’t worry, he’s too shy around girls to do anything to you, other than smile and scratch his neck awkwardly whenever you talk to him.” He sighed, “Anyways, feel free to marvel in the beauty of the best locker room in all the NHL.”

I took a step further into the room and took it all in. Jory wasn’t lying when he told me to marvel in it. The room was circular, so that each stall faced into the centre of the room, and every player could see each other and be seen, no one being stuck in a corner. It left far more open space for walking around and for the media to pile in after practices or games. Behind the actual locker room was the players lounge, a room filled with comfortable couches, a kitchen and table, three big screen TV’s and all kinds of game counsels. Then there was the sauna room, where there was a giant hot tub, as well as an ice bath, and, well, the sauna. Showers were somewhere in the same area, but Jory didn’t show me them since he was convinced I might use my camera for “evil.”

The coaches offices were surrounded in glass, so they could see the players out in the hallway, even though most of the time, the players weren’t around the offices anyways. I didn’t get a tour of the equipment room, but I could only imagine that it was superior to most other equipment rooms.

“Jory, I have a question for you,” I said as he lead me back out of the change room and towards the tiny room that was called his office. “How did I end up with this assistant, apprentice, whatever job?”

He laughed at me again, something I was beginning to learn would be a typical exchange between us. “It was Bowness who showed me some of your pictures. I guess he got them from a friend of yours, or maybe a friend of a friend? Anyways, you’ve got potential. You’re good at the portrait style photos, so when the season starts up, you can help with headshots for the stat cards and website, as well as photos at practice. There’s a lot of standing around listening to the coaches plays at practice, so you can get some good still photos. We’ll get you a proper camera for live action shots, because that one,” he pointed to the camera in my hand, “won’t work.”

I had to shake my head, trying to absorb everything that he had just said. “So, was it Vero who sent in pics for me?” I asked.

Jory glanced at me, a small smirk forming on his face. “Well, who do you think it was?”

I sighed, following him out of his office and towards the actual arena, even though it was void of ice due to the summer time. “This job,” I started, “it’s an actual job, right? You’re not just making something up because my friend made you feel sorry for you?”

“Sorry for you?” He asked, almost laughing again. “Hanna, I am 36 and balding. I tried to grow a playoff beard faster than a cheeta pet this year, and I failed. You think I’d feel sorry for you because you’re 21 and don’t have a permanent career yet?” He did laugh this time, reaching out to ruffle my hair. “You’re silly. You can help me write the captions for the photos, I think. Maybe. We’ll see how funny your ideas are.”

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“Hanna!” Peyton answered the door, standing in my way as I tried to enter the apartment. “You are home earlier then I thought.”

I eyed her curiously. “What are you hiding from me?”

Peyton sighed, moving so I could enter the apartment finally. “It was going to be a surprise.”

I tossed my purse onto the floor, walking towards the living room. “What was supposed to be a surpri-”

“HANNA!” Max yelled, tackling me to the floor before I could even finish my sentence. “Oh no, you fell down!” He yelled, already standing back up.

“Shit, Max, I think you broke my hip bone,” I whined accepting the hand he extended and allowing him to help me up.

He chuckled, letting go of my hand and stuffing it into his pocket, using his free hand to point at me with a wink, “Not the first time I’ve heard that from a lady.”

I made a face, peering around him to see Kris and Jordan sitting on the couch. “You guys are here too!” I yelled, startling Kris who dropped the bowl of chips he was holding. “I mean, I expected Kris since he’s dating Peyton, but Jordan!”

Jordan stood up from the couch, clapping his hands and jumping over to me. “It’s a surprise visit!” He yelled, grabbing my hands and making me jump with him.

I laughed, my laughter escalating when Max, after watching the two of with a curious expression, came over and joined the jump circle, letting out a squeal when I almost fell into him, the intensity of my laughter having knocked me off balance and into him. “Oh my God, Hanna, your got clumsiness all over my favourite shirt!” He yelled, making me have to sit down from the overall ridiculousness of the moment.

Peyton came over to help me up, shaking her head at the three of us with a small laugh. “I miss these moments. I feel like I missed so many of them while you were off in Pittsburgh.”

I nodded, wiping away the tears that my fit of laughter had caused. “Yeah, but I have a feeling there will be many more of these to come, whether these boys are here or not.”

Peyton grinned at me. “This is such a Hannah Montana moment. Seriously, if one of us had a bad braid in their hair, I’d feel like we were ripping the show off.”

Once I had finally gotten over the shock of seeing Max, Jordan and Kris again, Peyton and Kris began whispering to one another, stopping occasionally to glance over at me before whispering again. “What are you guys talking about?” I asked, seeming to catch both of them off guard.

Peyton sighed, running her hands up and down the tops of her thighs nervously before finally just saying, “Sidney is coming over tomorrow. He wants to talk to you.”

“Peyton, she wasn’t supposed to know until he was here,” Kris said. “Remember, he said he didn’t want her to know ahead of time because he was worried that she’d spend too much time being afraid of how it would go.”

“Wow, you two are terrible at keeping secrets,” Jordan mumbled, making Max chuckle.

“He’s coming over tomorrow?” I asked. “When?”

Peyton shrugged, “He didn’t say exactly. His flight gets in early, like nine am or so, but he might not come straight here. And he’s only staying for a day, then he’s hopping on a plane and going to Alberta for something about the Olympics. Apparently some of Team Canada live out here and he’s going with them, but he wanted to stop by first.”

I nodded, letting out a nervous breath of air. “Well, I’m glad you told me. If he had just shown up, I probably would have crapped myself.”

“That’s a pretty typical reaction for him, he probably wouldn’t even notice,” Max said.

I shot him an unimpressed look, fighting back laughter when he picked up a cup to throw at me, not realizing that it had pop in it which resulted in him dumping the cup on himself.

It was good that he, and Jordan and Kris and Peyton, were here for momentary distraction. Because, as much as I was trying to act like it was no big deal, my palms were already moistening with sweat from the nerves Sidney’s news had caused.