a good game,” I said,
staggering alongside Georgia.
“It’s always a good game when Johnny plays,” Georgia
said. I rolled my eyes.
“Don’t you go chasing after him, too. ”
Gigi shook her head.
“Nope. He’s all yours. I don’t know if I could have
dealt with all that crap as well as you did.” We went to the box office and I
gave them my name; true to Johnny’s word, they had seats reserved for me — right
behind the glass, where Johnny loved to see me watching him play. Georgia and I
stopped at the concession stand, which I knew was mostly a rip-off, but I was
starving and tired. I got coffee and a couple of hot dogs and fries, and
decided that that would keep me afloat while I watched the game.
Georgia and I got to the stands and started talking
about the whole crazy trip. “I caught part of that press conference!” she said.
We were careful to keep our voices low, since there were so many people in the
stands behind us.
“It was intense,” I said, shaking my head.
“It’s obvious Johnny really loves you,” Gigi told me,
nodding solemnly.
“I know he does, but what brought you to that
conclusion?” Georgia grinned.
“I could see him looking at you every few minutes,
like he needed to see you to keep going. He’s totally gone on you. You’re so
lucky. You met the love of your life the first day you moved in.”
“Hold up, hold up,” I said, laughing and shaking my
head. “We don’t know that he’s the love of my life. We’ve only been dating for
a couple of weeks!”
“Oh, please. You’ve been through hell together and you
didn’t run away.” Georgia poked me in the ribs, nearly upsetting my large
coffee. “If you can do that after only dating a few weeks, you’re going to be
together forever.” I rolled my eyes.
“Don’t jinx it, okay? We’ll just take things how they
come and see how it all plays out.” I thought about everything that had gone on
between Johnny and me; I had been so scared so many times since we had first
met. I had not known what to think about Johnny — whether he was a good guy or
some kind of sociopath, whether he was a player or someone I could trust. I had
gone from being convinced he would never truly be interested in me to having a
fight with my parents over him and standing at his side at what had to have
been one of the most difficult moments in his life.
I had told Johnny about the fights I’d had separately
with my mom and dad about what they had done. He had laughed at the fact that
I’d cursed both of them out, telling them that I would never forgive them. I
told Georgia as we sat waiting for the game to get started; she had known I was
upset, and she had known that I had expressed my upset at both of my parents,
but she hadn’t known the details. It felt good that it was all behind me,
though I knew that it was likely that my parents didn’t look at it that way.
They probably thought that I had been absolutely terrible and that I should
apologize to them over and over again for how I’d “overreacted.” But they had
very nearly ruined Johnny’s life. I didn’t feel any regrets over what I had
said to them.
I was so tired, even as I slurped down coffee, that I
wanted nothing more than for the game to be over. I was gradually starting to
appreciate hockey, but I didn’t think I would ever fully love it for the sake
of the game. I would enjoy it because it was something that Johnny loved. I
just wanted Johnny to get out there and score points, and I wanted the game to
come to an end with us winning, and I wanted to go back to the frat house with
Johnny — or maybe sneak him up to my room in the dorms — and make up for all
the lost opportunities of the past several days. I fidgeted in my seat; as
tired as I was, the prospect of sleeping with Johnny was definitely a powerful
one.
I looked around and saw that there seemed to be an
awful lot of journalists covering the championship. I knew that championship
games tended to
Learning to Kill: Stories