“White cotton. Cotton is better because it breathes,” I said, quoting my mom.
April pretended to bang her head against the wall. “God give me patience. I knew you were socially stunned, but I didn’t realize the extent of things.” She took a deep breath and put her shoulders back. “Okay, we’re getting you a whole new wardrobe today. And when you get home, you have to promise me to throw out your old baggy jeans and any t-shirts with hockey stuff on them.”
“But jeez, that’s pretty much my entire closet.”
“Exactly,” said April, nodding. “And I’ll be over later to make sure you’ve done it. It’ll be like an episode of What Not To Wear. Look, Kelly, you came to me to look better, right? And it’s not just for a guy. Looking good makes life go more smoothly.”
I doubted this idea, but April was full of self-confidence on the subject. I submitted quietly to her advice and bought everything she told me to. My mom would be thrilled that I was finally using my clothing allowance, and hopefully Nicklas would think I looked nice. Whoa, where did that thought come from?
Back at her place, April sat me down at her dressing table. “Okay, makeup time.”
“Really? I don’t want to wear a lot of makeup,” I protested. This date was turning into a way bigger deal than I thought.
“Don’t worry, Kelly. After all these years, I know you.” April and I had been friends ever since I moved to North Van seven years ago. “Close your eyes.”
I closed my eyes, felt April’s fingers near my eyes and then a sharp pain.
“Ouch! What are you doing?” I asked. My eyes flew open, and she was holding a pair of zebra print tweezers with one of my hairs in them.
“Do you know how long I’ve been wanting to clean up your eyebrows? You have nice brows, but when I take out a few stray hairs, it’s really going to open up your eyes.”
“But it hurts,” I protested. My eyes were watering as she kept plucking.
“Don’t be a baby. I’m sure getting slammed into the boards hurts more than having your eyebrows plucked.”
Well yeah, but at least in hockey I had equipment on to protect me. Afterwards, April got some ice to cool my sore skin then continued with makeup. Other than the eyelash curling, nothing else hurt.
“A natural look is totally your style. You have great skin; so just some mascara, tinted lip gloss, a touch of eye shadow in a nice neutral colour.” She worked on me as she spoke. Then she brushed my hair. “No ponytail tonight. Wear your hair down.”
When she finished, she put me in front of a mirror.
I looked totally different.
I had on these dark navy jeans that were tight at the top, low-rise, and flared. I wore a navy cotton top with a deep v-neck and I had cleavage—yes, cleavage—for the very first time, thanks to the engineering magic of La Senza. I also had a thong on, which was pretty hard to get used to, and it made me think more about sex and Nicklas. I borrowed a crazy fringed jacket from April, and I was ready to go to the movies for my charity date.
10
The Fake Date
After fixing me up, April even dropped me off at the movie theatre on Esplanade. She wanted to stay and have a look at Nicklas, but she had a date of her own. While I was waiting in the lobby, I saw two girls from my hockey team there. I figured they were spying on me, so I went over to chat.
“Sorry, Kelly. Laura did not believe you 100%, so she made us come. We’re seeing the new Katie Holmes movie anyway. Don’t worry, we won’t follow you into the theatre or anything,” said one of them, a d-man named Hilary.
“You look really nice,” said the other girl, called Sara M. to distinguish her from the two other Saras on the team. “I like your top.”
I didn’t think anyone had ever liked my top before, so April certainly knew what she was doing. The second sign that I looked different came when Nicklas walked right by me without noticing. To be exact, he checked me out but never got as high as my face, so he didn’t recognize me.
“Hey Nicklas.”
“Kelly? Kelly! You clean up nicely.” He seemed surprised, and smiled.
“Nicklas, this is Sara and Hilary. They’re on my hockey team.”
“Hello,” both girls said at the same time. They had these goofy expressions on their faces. Nicklas seemed to have this weird effect on women.
“Ladies,” Nicklas nodded at them. Then he turned his megawatt smile on me. “Shall we get the tickets?”
I held them up. “Way ahead of you,” I replied. I kept looking at his lips. Seriously, I just wanted to kiss him again. What was wrong with me? This was charity on his part, and I had to be cool.
“Excuse us then,” he said to the girls, who were apparently struck silent. He put his hand on the small of my back. Electricity again! I took a huge breath in, which caused him to focus on the V of my top.
“You sure look different, Kelly. You look—hot.”
“Um, thanks,” I replied with automatic politeness. Another first, no guy had ever called me hot before, unless I was actively sweating.
We sat down in the theatre. Nicklas started telling me about how his team was doing and who the best teams in his division were. As he was talking, he kept leaning towards me and getting really close. Once, he played with the fringe on my jacket, and his knuckles brushed my breast. I pretended not to notice. Finally he paused and gave me this intense look.
“You know all the time we played hockey, I never knew you had a body like this underneath the equipment.”
“Well, I probably didn’t. I mean I was only 13 or 14 when we last played together.” Wow, could I have sounded any dumber if I tried?
He laughed. The movie was starting, so I was spared from making any more stupid comments. As the previews began, he put his arm over the back of my seat.
“What are you doing?” I asked. Really, I couldn’t stop my inner eleven-year-old from hijacking the date.
“I figure if your teammates are watching, we need to make things look good.”
“I don’t think they’re here. They were going to another movie.”
“You never know, Kelly.” And he pulled me in a little closer to him.
The movie was actually pretty good, in a cartoony way. I liked that there was a strong female hero. But honestly, I was distracted by Nicklas the whole time. He was so close, his arm was touching me, and I could smell his masculine scent of cologne, soap, and sweat. He seemed to be able to generate the whole electrical thing without even kissing me. I was feeling a little dazed when we finally got up to leave. It was a good thing that this date was almost over, ’cause I needed time to gather my wits.
In the lobby, I turned to him and said, “Thanks for going through with this whole thing for me. It was really nice of you.”
He grinned at me and put a hand on my shoulder. “Whoa. I was thinking we could go for coffee or something. It’s still really early.”
“I thought you were meeting your friends after.”
“It’s more fun with you. I’ll call and let them know I’m not showing.”
He pulled out his cell, and I heard his side of the conversation. “Yeah, I’m not going. Nope, just chillin’ here. Yeah, it’s Kelly. No, you don’t know her.” He looked at me and grinned as he said, “She is. Definitely. Later.”
“What am I?”
He laughed and didn’t answer. We walked to a coffee shop around the corner, and he got a coffee and I got a hot chocolate. Then we went to the waterfront park across the street and sat on a bench, sipping our drinks and looking at downtown Vancouver across the water.
Nicklas held my hand as we walked back by a series of concrete walls that were part of a garden/walkway complex. He pulled me around by the hand and leaned me against a wall. He looked down at me and spoke softly. “God, Kelly, it’s so weird. You’re not my type at all, but I haven’t been able to stop thinking about you since yesterday.”
“Yeah, I know.” That was exactly how I felt too! Nicklas was not the kind of guy I ever hung
out with, yet here I was.
Then he kissed me again, and kept on kissing me. Zap! My whole body was vibrating again, and I kissed him back. It was wet and messy and warm, and my brain switched off completely. I pushed my body against his and it felt great. He paused for a moment and looked at me hazily.
“You’re so fucking hot. I can’t believe I never knew that before.”
I looked at him closely. His eyes were this turquoisey shade of blue, and although his hair was golden blond, his brows and lashes were dark. His teeth were white and even, his lips were thin, and he had a perfect nose. His skin was super pale and he had this amazing bone structure, all cheekbones and chin. He was basically gorgeous, and I couldn’t believe I hadn’t seen that before either.
It was starting to rain lightly, so we headed back.
“Have you got a car here?” he asked.
“No, I got dropped off.” I had been planning to bus it home.
“Great, let’s go in my car.” We walked a few blocks and stopped in front of a silver Volvo SUV.
“Is this your dad’s car?”
“Nope, it’s mine.” His voice was casual but proud.
Once we were inside the car, we started kissing again. Since it was more private, we got even more into it. The gap between the bucket seats was a bit of an issue, but we managed to make out with our upper bodies intertwined. Nicklas ran his hands down my shoulders and over my breasts. Was it too soon to do this stuff? I wasn’t sure, but it felt fantastic. The whole electricity thing was happening all over my body. When we finally broke things off, the windshield was totally steamed up.
“Wow,” I said. “You’re, like, the best kisser ever.” Of course, I didn’t exactly have a big reference group; only Phil, and that was ages ago.
Nicklas smiled; he seemed to like the compliment.
“Hey,” he asked, “are you free tomorrow night?”
“Yeah.” I paused to think, “I’ve got a game at 5:00, so I’ll be done by 7:00.”
“Great, there’s a party—some guys from the team. Do you want to come with me?”
“Sure.” I was into exploring this electricity thing some more. And I was guessing that the charity part of the fake date was over now.
11
Blown Off
Phil
“Shit, is that Kelly Tanaka? When did she get so hot?” Marcus leaned back to stare. I cleared my throat and he gave me a nervous glance. “No offence, Phil.”
We were in the cafeteria for lunch, and Kelly was two tables away. All the guys looked over. Instead of her usual baggy jeans and t-shirt, Kelly was wearing these dark, tight jeans, and a white top that you could sort of see through, even though she had another top underneath it. When she turned around, I could see she had makeup on, and her dark brown hair was down instead of being in a ponytail. She saw us looking at her, and waved in her normal friendly way, like nothing was different. There were a few crude comments on her great ass, on the fact that nobody knew she had boobs, and on how cute she was.
But I knew all this already, so it bugged me that everyone was going all apeshit over her. Were they going to start hitting on her next? And why did she look so different?
I wanted to know what the hell was going on, but I didn’t see Kelly all afternoon since we had no classes together and the senior boys soccer team had a game after school. After dinner, I was about to phone her when I got a call from Dave Vanderhauf.
He sounded nervous, and we shot the shit for a few minutes. Then he said, “Hey P.D., did you know that Kelly is dating Nicklas Ericcson?
No fucking way.
“Where’d you hear that?” I asked.
“Well, Ericcson brought her to a party on Saturday; a bunch of guys from the team were there. I actually didn’t even recognize her, because she looked more, um, grown up than the last time I saw her. But she was all friendly and chatty, so I knew it was her.”
“Are you sure they were together?”
“Uh yeah, he was all over her.”
Shit, no way Kelly was like that. Now, I really couldn’t believe this, although I couldn’t think of a logical explanation. I grunted in reply.
“Well, I didn’t think it was a big deal for you, I mean you’re dating that girl from my school, right? But in case you wanted to know.” Hoff was a good friend, and I had talked to him about Kelly more than a few times. He was cool though, and didn’t make a big deal out of it.
I was pretty stunned and didn’t end up calling Kelly after all. This was something we needed to hash out in person, so I figured I’d go to school early and talk to her.
Kelly seemed completely normal when I caught up with her at her locker before school.
“Morning, Phil.” She smiled at me and I felt relieved. I was sure there was nothing up. She pulled off her jean jacket, and she was wearing tight clothes again. Just a regular top and jeans, but they showed off her body. Usually I was all for girls wearing revealing stuff, but with Kelly, I wanted to put her jacket back on. Was all this dressing up for Ericcson’s benefit?
“It’s not true, is it?” I asked.
“What’s not true?”
“I heard that you’re going out with Nicklas Ericcson. That can’t be right.”
“Why not?”
There were only a hundred reasons, but I blurted out the first one that came to mind. “’Cause he’s a douchebag.”
“He’s not a douchebag!”
“Really? Because I dated a girl who had just gone out with him, and I think ‘insanely selfish’ was how she described him. Or maybe it was ‘egotistical a-hole.’”
She shook her head. “Nicklas is not like that at all. He’s a really nice guy.” This was typical Kelly, she always saw the best in everyone. But she also had a bullshit detector, which should have gone off after five minutes with Ericcson.
“So you are going out with him?”
“Kind of, I guess.”
I felt shocked to hear her say that. I guess I didn’t really believe it until this moment. “But Kelly, what about your promise?”
“My promise?”
“You promised that when you were ready to go out, you would tell me.” She had also said she’d want to go out with me first, and that was something I had counted on.
“But you have a girlfriend. You always have a girlfriend. Besides, it kind of happened by accident. It wasn’t like I made this big decision to start dating.”
“Kelly, are you nuts? How can you accidentally be going out with someone? That’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard.”
“I don’t know, it started with a dare, and then things, uh, progressed.”
“How far have they progressed?”
“Are you the dating police, Phil? I’m not telling you anything else.” Kelly’s temper was starting to flare up, and I knew I was pushing her too hard. But she was making me crazy. The whole idea of Ericcson laying one finger on her was so wrong. She slammed her locker shut. “Do I ask for all the details on you and Anakin?”
“It’s Anika, and I would tell you if you wanted to know. She’s history.”
“Does she know that yet?”
I swallowed. “Well, not yet, but she knows things are not going well. We don’t have a lot in common. But really, Kelly, why him?”
She paused for a moment, and I wondered if she was going to even answer me. Then she looked up at me, her eyebrows raised. “It’s… the electricity.”
“Electricity?”
“Yeah, don’t you feel it with Anika? Like when you touch or whatever? It’s electricity that goes through your whole body and makes you feel alive.” She sounded like she was asking me a question that she really wanted the answer to, but I had no idea what to say. All I knew was how fucked-up everything was.
“And Nicklas Ericcson makes you feel this way?”
I didn’t give her time to answer, because I didn’t want to hear any more. I walked away quickly. When I turned the corner, I saw that she was still watching me.
12
H.J. 101
“Okay, Kelly, how about Saturday night?”
I put the phone on my shoulder and looked at the calendar. “Sorry, Nicklas, I’ve got a late game in Richmond. Sunday?”
“Can’t, I have a school thing in the afternoon and then I’m meeting my dad for dinner.”
Coordinating my schedule and Nicklas’s was ridiculously hard. We had been going out over a month, and I could count the times we’d been together on one hand. He had two practices and two games a week, endless homework, and tons of extracurricular activities at his private school. I had school, dry land training, and at least three ice times a week. If our parents had planned that hockey would keep up from getting into trouble, it was working.
Nicklas growled in exasperation, and there was a brief silence. “Oh wait, I’ve got an idea, you’re off school early Friday, right? I’ll come and pick you up and we can hang out then.”
“Don’t you have school though?”
“I’ll skip my last class. It’s not a big deal.”
“I don’t want you to get in trouble or anything,” I told him.
“I want to see you,” he said firmly.
Yeah, and I wanted to see him too. Well, more than see him. When we did get together, we usually started out at a party he knew about, left early, parked somewhere, and made out. The car was basically the only place we had to be alone. My mom was a ceramic artist who had her studio in our garage, so she was always home. Although his mother and stepfather worked, they had a fulltime housekeeper who was home days. I think she used to be his nanny. In any case, there were too many people around all the time.
On Friday, I was waiting for Nicklas in front of the school. Phil, Marcus, and Ryan passed by and said hi, but didn’t stop to talk. Phil had been avoiding me ever since he found out I was dating Nicklas. Phil thought I should have asked him out first. I felt guilty about that, but it wasn’t like he had been waiting around for me. And while I really liked Phil, but I didn’t like him in the same way I liked Nicklas.
Hockey Is My Boyfriend: Part One Page 5