Open Lanes

by Mary Morano

  “Together.” He whispers.

  “Together.” I respond. Then the doors are ripped open by both our mothers who have apparently gotten sick of waiting, and we are engulfed in hugs and kisses while being pulled from the car. Slowly, we make our way back to each other as the crowd, filled with neighbors and friends congratulate us, telling us how long they have been waiting for this day. Apparently, it was only me, who didn’t realize this was an eventuality.

  A few hours later, after the guests have all left, the food has been eaten, we sit around the firepit beside the pool in the screened portion of the backyard. The two of us are cuddled up on an outdoor wicker loveseat, while our moms sit across from us knitting and talking about how excited they are for our future. Brayden turns his head, sucking my earlobe into his mouth while I giggle and pull away. He is getting me worked up and now that we’re home, our options for alone time will be limited. I’m really starting to second guess the decision to leave the hotel room this morning. We will definitely need to get creative this summer. He pulls me into him, resting his mouth along the side of my ear and whispers so only I can hear.

  “Do you see what they’re knitting?” I look over, not having paid them any mind before. They’re always knitting something at night to keep themselves busy, usually it's blankets and hats that they donate to the cancer ward at our local hospital. Now that I look closer though, I can see the blankets are smaller than usual. My mom is knitting a blue one while his mom knits a pink one. I fight hard to contain my laughter as I realize they’re knitting baby blankets, for us. “At least there wasn’t a priest standing at the end of an aisle on the driveway when we got home, right?”

  I turn my head to look at him, before whispering back. “You didn’t think it was quite that funny earlier when there was a possibility that was actually happening.”

  He just smiles at me. “I guess they got their wish.”

  “I guess they did.”

  “So did I.” He whispers while kissing my temple. I did too, even though I didn’t even know it was something I was wishing for.

  August - Junior Year of College

  It’s hard to believe that it was already August. The last three months practically flew by. Between spending time with Nicole, giving hockey lessons, and coaching at a few camps, I had kept myself busy. Still, it feels like only last week that I pulled over on the side of a deserted Maine highway to find her walking along dragging that ugly ass suitcase behind her. I still get mad every time I think about the fact her ex left her on the side of the road, but I’m thankful at the same time. That was the opening I had been looking for. Five days on a road trip was all I needed to get her on board with the idea of us. It’s kind of sad, if you think about it, that we wasted all those years when we could have been together. I try not to think about that too much though. I believe everything happens for a reason, and if we had gotten together sooner, maybe it wouldn’t have lasted. Maybe we needed to understand what was in front of us before we could fully appreciate it. In a way, I am thankful to the douchebag she had been dating. But that doesn’t mean I was going to let him get away with leaving her on the side of the road. Whether she likes it or not, he was going to accidentally walk into my fist sometime soon. Maybe I’ll get one of the freshmen to start a fight with him at the bar one night, then I can jump in and get a few good punches in. You know, in the name of supporting my teammates and all. Yeah… that’s a plan I can get behind. Me and the guys would have a chat about that when I get back.

  I push my last bag into the back of my car and throw my hockey stuff on top of it. Thankfully Mom has worked her magic on it over the last week, and it is clean and stink-free. Just in time for our road trip back to school. I know with preseason starting it won’t stay that way long, but at least Nic won’t have to deal with the stench all the way back to Maine. She is a trooper, but even I knew that was asking a lot of her. I’m still surprised she stuck out the whole trip home with it in the back of the car.

  While I’m standing back trying to see if there is any way to make more room in the trunk for Nicole’s stuff, I hear my phone ring, and pull it out to see Tattoo calling.

  “Hey, what’s going on?” I answer the phone while still trying to move a few bags around.

  “Ping-Pong! How’s it going man? You and your girl back yet?”

  “Nah, we’re just packing up the car now. We’re road-tripping it back. Should be there sometime before the first team meeting.”

  “That’s like two weeks away.”

  “I know.” I say with a huge smile on my face. Two very long weeks filled with nights alone with my girl in a hotel room.

  “You’re going to miss my first party of the year this weekend!”

  “Yeah, sorry about that.” No, I’m not. I have my girl now; I couldn’t care less about going to a party with a bunch of drunk people. “What’s tonight’s theme?”

  “Anything but clothes.” He says, the pride in his voice ringing through the line.

  “Wait… What?” I ask through a choking cough.

  “You heard me. You can wear anything but clothes. A garbage bag, a box, whatever you want, as long as it’s not clothes.” This is such a bad idea. I could already see Coach’s veins popping out of his head when he hears about this. Damn, am I glad I am so far away.

  “Uh… that should be interesting. So, what are you wearing?”

  “An orange street cone.” Yep, Coach was going to lose his mind when the pictures got back to him.

  “Interesting, but I gotta run. We gotta get on the road soon. Make sure you send me pictures.” I tell him before we say goodbye and hang up.

  Once I have my stuff arranged as compact as possible, I close the back of the SUV. Getting into the car I back out of my driveway and directly into hers. I pull right back to the pile of her belongings and get out. Looking at the pile, and then back to the car as I try to figure out how we’re going to fit all this stuff she’s bringing. Coming home for the summer she just had one giant bag and a carry-on. Now to go back it looks like she’s bringing the whole house with her.

  A smile splits my face as I look around realizing she went shopping and bought stuff for our apartment. That’s right. I was moving out of the Hockey House, and she was moving out of the dorms. We were moving into our own apartment off campus. Big step? Yes. But when you know, you know, and I have known for years that she was my endgame. I’m not saying I wasted my time pining over her because I didn’t. I got my fair share of pussy and partying out of the way. Now, it was all about her. The guys on the team were still giving me a hard time about it, but they didn’t need to understand. One day it would hit them just as hard, and I would sit back and enjoy watching it knock them on their asses like a 250-pound defensemen with a one-point lead in the last thirty seconds of game seven of the Stanley Cup. I couldn’t wait to watch them fall on their asses after all the shit they gave me this summer, both in person and by text.

  I looked at the pile again, then back to the trunk one more time. Moving around to the side of the car I pulled the back seats down flat. Then I moved my few bags further forward before I returned to the trunk to play Tetris with all the stuff she was bringing. Good thing I spent a lot of time as a kid playing video games, huh?

  Just when I finish putting the last piece in, she walks out with another suitcase and a backpack. I look from the bags to the car, and back again, as her father stands in the doorway laughing.

  “Get used to it, son. Just when you think you can’t possibly fit anymore, they go shopping and come home with more bags.” Her father says as he raises his coffee cup in silent solidarity. With a sigh, I open the trunk back up and start unpacking everything to make extra room. Eventually, he comes out to help. Then my father wanders over with my mother, as they prepare to say goodbye. By some small miracle, the three of us get everything to fit. We even have the sense of mind to pack the bags filled with what we need for the trip in the back where we can easily get to them, without having to open t
he back gate. Score one for the home team!

  Knowing we won’t be back home until school ends for the year because the hockey season runs through both Thanksgiving and winter break, we say a long goodbye and hug just a little bit tighter. Our parents remind us to check in and to let them know as soon as we get my schedule. They want to plan a trip for one of the holidays, but also want to be able to catch the most games possible while they’re there. I can’t wait to see our Floridian parents who claim fifty-degree weather requires parkas and thermals, walking around in Maine in December, where the average temperature never makes it above freezing. We would probably already have at least a foot of snow on the ground. I was already laughing just thinking about it.

  “Oh, I forgot something.” Nicole says as she runs back into the house. With a sigh, I glance at the trunk of the SUV wondering how much more stuff she thinks we can fit in the car. I’m already mentally preparing myself to unpack everything in order to find space for whatever else she has. When she comes walking back out with nothing but her e-reader and a photo book in her hands, I silently say a little prayer of thanks to whoever is listening.

  She walks up handing the photo book to me before putting her e-reader on the seat. Confused, I raise an eyebrow at her, and she raises hers right back at me. Opening the cover of the photo book, I don’t know what I expect, but it isn’t this. My heart gets caught in my throat, and I may even have some tears stinging the back of my eyes as I read her words on the inside cover.

  Dear Brayden,

  I expect life with you will always be a journey filled with adventure and twists and turns. There is no one I would rather travel those roads with than you. I made this book for you so you will have a tangible piece of me with you all those nights that you will spend on the road. Something filled with memories to help you remember how much I love you, and that I’m always waiting for you to return. The best part is there is plenty of room for more!

  Love Always,

  Nicole

  I clear my throat as I flip through the pages. There is a picture of us in the stockades in Salem, and one of us in front of cows at The Ben and Jerry’s farm. She even put the picture of her with the sunflowers in there for me. There are some pictures from us dressed up as characters at Universal Studios, and a selfie of us from the night we first made love, cuddled up together in bed. I fight to keep the tears at bay as I continue to flip through, finding pictures from family barbecues, and nights spent at the beach with friends. She even has one from when I got her on ice skates. Fuck. This girl is everything. I slide my arms around her and kiss her despite our audience. I don’t even care about them because this girl is my world, and I can’t wait to fill this book with a ton of more memories as we ride through life together.

  It takes ten more minutes before we finally make it into the car, after another round of goodbyes. As soon as the doors close, her scent surrounds me. It reminds me of a meadow full of daisies on a sunny day. Bright and sweet, just like her. I inhale deeply, taking it all in, it’s something I can never get enough of. I wonder if there was a way to bottle it up and take it with me when I’m on the road? I’ll have to investigate that; it would make road trips a lot more bearable.

  Buckling up, I look over at Nic. Fuck this girl takes my breath away every time I look at her. Her tan skin is fully on display, since it is hot as fuck in Florida in August. She’s wearing what she considers shorts, but I think her bathing suits cover more. Today’s shirt is black and says, ‘Just remember if we get caught, you’re deaf and I don’t speak English.’ I love her t-shirt collection; it is quirky just like her. Her brown hair was just recently cut, and barely grazes her shoulders, but it's lighter than it had been when we arrived, thanks to all the chlorine and sun this summer. Her brown eyes sparkle with mischief as she watches me gaze over her body. She darts her tongue out to lick it across those pretty pink lips that I love kissing. My cock jumps in my pants just like it always does when she does that.

  “Come on cowboy, the sooner we get on the road, the sooner we get to the first stop.” She tells me with a wink. She surprised me last week and planned out the whole road trip back home, complete with stops at strange roadside attractions. She even made reservations at hotels that she verified with online ratings. Included in our stops are places like the Ouija Headstone and the tower of cabinets that I skipped on the way down. There was so much for us to see.

  With all the plans though, it’s the first stop that is my favorite. You see, it wasn’t easy finding time to be alone together when we both lived with our parents. Our sexy time involved a lot of stolen moments and the back seat of my car, which we learned was pretty roomy when you lay it down flat. There were also lots of phone sex and FaceTime sessions. My girl, she’s on the same wavelength as me, so she planned the perfect first stop. In exactly forty-five minutes, we would be pulling into the hotel that we first had sex in all those months ago. I plan to toss her onto that bed as soon as we get there and not let her out again until checkout. Then we can get on with our road trip.

  Knowing that last night will be the last night I sleep alone is the most amazing feeling in the world. Well, at least until hockey season starts, but even then, away games are only temporary, and I will forever be coming home to Nicole. I pick up her hand and kiss the top before tangling her fingers with mine. We pull out of the driveway while waving goodbye to our parents.

  Neither of us bothers to look back after that, only looking toward our future together. A future we have meticulously planned, while laying under the stars this past summer. I’ll enter the draft senior year, and she’s going to come with me wherever I end up. She has plans to finish her first novel this semester, a story that has been running around in her mind all summer. It’s about a couple falling in love on a road trip. I laughed when she told me her idea and requested that she makes sure to tell everyone how big my dick is and how hard I make her come. She just laughed and distracted me with a blow job. Hell, she could tell them whatever she wants about me, if she keeps putting her mouth on my cock forever more.

  Today was rough. Every piece of my body hurts. My damn hair even hurts. I look down into my beer trying to figure out the easiest way to get it into my mouth. All around me the guys are laughing and joking. I bet they’re all glad they aren’t me right now. First practice of the year and Coach really had it out for me. I lost count of how many times I puked in the damn garbage pail as he had me doing suicides for what felt like hours.

  Shit. I know he’s pissed about some of those pictures that went viral a few weeks back, but damn. I think he tried to kill me today. I don’t even get what the big deal is. At least I was wearing clothes in these pictures. Not like the last time when I was donning nothing but a strategically placed orange cone and some caution tape. Of course, it could have been the fact that the six girls in the pictures with me were only in bras and panties, but it was a lingerie party! Besides, I rocked those black silk boxers and matching robe—if I do say so myself.

  Coach is having none of it though. After I nearly died on the ice, I had to listen to a half hour lecture on my antics. The veins in his head practically needed their own zip code as he screamed at me. Outcome being—I need to tame it down. No more pictures, no more drawing negative attention to the team. Fine. Message received. I’ll tone it down, but I refuse to stop having fun. We work our asses off; we deserve to let loose and have fun. College is supposed to be the best days of our lives and I plan to enjoy them all.

  “Yay! Tattoo’s here!” I look up from my beer into the big brown eyes of Pong’s girl.

  Me and Nikky have become good friends these last few weeks. Even though she hates when I call her Nikky. She’s a good girl. The type of girl every guy really wants. Pong’s a lucky bastard. I’m happy for him. Really, I am. He’s one of the best, I’m glad I could help him get his head out of his ass in time to get the girl. It just sucks that we barely ever see him outside of practice now. We still talk, a lot, but he’s not partying with us anymore. P
lus it makes me think of a girl I’m desperately trying to forget.

  “Hey, Nikky. You get sick of this chump yet?” I ask while pointing behind her to where Pong is giving me the finger.

  “Well, if he thinks he’s going to be bringing his hockey equipment in to smell up our apartment that may happen sooner than later.” She winks at me before he spins her in his arms with a growl. Then they start making out with no concern for anyone around them. They do that, a lot.

  I nudge Sticks, and he slides down a chair, so we can make room for these two at our table. They’re still kissing and whispering to each other in the middle of the restaurant when the waitress stops by to ask if we want to order food. Pong pulls away from his girl and starts ordering half the menu. She slides in next to me and starts telling me about a place that is filled with brains in jars. Apparently, it was a stop on their last road trip. I don’t get it, but hey, that’s their thing. I don’t have to.

  Before the waitress leaves, I ask her to bring over a round of shots for the table. When she asks what we want, I give her a wink and tell her it’s her choice. The guys all start moaning, but it’s tradition. After the first practice we always do a shot, a cheer for the season to come. Hockey players are superstitious fucks, so even though none of us want a shot, every one of us will take it. It takes her a few minutes before she comes back and drops them all in the center of the table. I’m handing them out when Penguin, who is sitting across from me, kicks my leg.

  “Aren’t you not supposed to drink when you’re pregnant?” Penguin asks as I slide a shot over to him.

  “Dude, I know your parents sheltered you and you’re all innocent and shit, but here’s a little sex ed for you. First off, the girl gets pregnant not you, so drink up.” I tell him as I pick up my shot and nudge his closer. He rolls his eyes at me but takes it in his hand anyway. We all hold up our glasses and clink to a winning season. I feel the vodka burn its way down my throat while I pray it doesn’t come back up. I hate straight vodka. With a cringe, I put the shot glass down then wipe my mouth with my arm, before I continue. “And second, no matter what they tell you, you can’t get a girl pregnant from just kissing.”