Patins et pilules

Chapitre 11

Liam

1er novembre

My phone is alerting me that I'm receiving a Facetime call and I smile because it's Virginie. I'm in the hotel room in Vancouver that I share with Jay and I am just waking up from my afternoon nap. Jay is watching hockey videos on YouTube on his bed right now. It's around 4 o'clock here and we'll leave for the Rogers Arena for tonight's game in about half an hour.

- Hi!

- Hi, how everything is going in Vancouver?

- Better than expected, actually! What about you?

- Euh, rough day at the hospital! But I'm happy to see you.

Virginie is currently in a palliative care traineeship. It's the fourth and last week for this particular traineeship. There are patients dying every day on her ward and she has problems dealing with that. She talked to me about that a bit in the last weeks and, for once, I can relate on her hospital things since I experienced that with my grandma recently.

- Wanna talk to me about it?

- Nah... I just want to change my mind tonight.

- Will you watch the game?

- It's so late, I'm not sure I'll be able to stay awake... Maybe I could take a little nap before it starts...

- Yeah... I play better when I know you're watching!

- And you play better  after I send you naughty text messages too! I'll send you one if you need it.

Holy shit, the way I reacted to the text message she's referring to the other night. And I almost told the whole world about it in the post-game interviews. I'm not good at these interviews, I can't hide my emotions, it must be my Irish blood. Last year, after our lost in the semi-finals, I even cried in one of these. Jay is way better than me at this, he's always calm and collected, win or lose. No wonder why they send him out there almost half of the time, especially since he's one of the few among us who can perfectly speak French and English.

- And that will make me want to do naughty things to you...

Jay gets up from his bed and puts his hand on my mouth.

- Please don't say things I don't wanna hear!

Virginie sees Jay on the screen now.

- Allo Jérémie ! Maeva n'est pas là ce soir, elle avait un travail d'équipe.

- Allô ! Oui je sais, je lui ai parlé aujourd'hui.

You see, I do understand French, I just don't speak it. It's true that he spoke to Maeva, she called him twice today already. This girl is more on the worried side, but he doesn't seem to mind so I'll keep that for me. On the other hand, I can understand that she saw him at his worst like me and that she doesn't want him to go back there. The first time she called was just after we came back from breakfast, it was probably lunch time for her. She wanted to know how Jay felt with the press conference at the hospital. When he said he was still nervous about it, she suggested that he takes a friend with him, someone who he could debrief about it after, which would not be possible with Evan. I could tell he was nervous, he tossed and turned in his bed for most of the night and his phone light woke me up at 4 AM. Maybe he was texting her, actually, it was the morning for her... or maybe his mom... his parents are still checking a lot on him... Anyway, he asked me if I wanted to go to the hospital with him, and I said that it was OK if the coach was OK with it. Jay texted him to see if I could miss the morning skate for that and he said yes. It's always easier to get things from Coach Champagne when you go through Jay, he can't say no to him. I'm not saying he's his favorite but... well... I am saying it. I don't know what they did with little Niklas, I guess he took turns on the other lines. Or maybe they made him practice his faceoffs, the kid has problems with it since the beginning of the season...