His Name Is... Dougie

Chapter 31

Friday night, no homework… I’m spending time with the guys instead. I would rather do four hours of non-stop skating drills than go hang out with my brother and teammates. Sure, they’re great to be with; I just don’t want to get another girlfriend… not now.

Olivia has been on my mind non-stop since Monday. I tried to concentrate on my school work and my hockey drills… I just couldn’t. Everything I did made me think of her; I even thought about calling her. I was about to press the call button but my brother barged into my room. I’m glad he did that though… the first step to forgetting about a girl was to ignore her and to think of her as little as possible.

That was kind of hard to do when I was looking over photos of us. Then, there were the photos when I went to the bathroom on one of our dates in Edmonton and took millions of photos of herself. I didn’t have the will to remove them… they were too perfect. No! I can’t think about this right now! I need to get focused; I’m getting a girl tonight… hopefully.

“Dougie!” Ryan yelled walking into my room. I looked up at him. He jumped onto my bed, landing beside me. “Ready to go?” he asked.

“Yeah,” I lied.

Ryan took a peak of my phone… I had nothing to hide. I moved my phone to show him the screen. He looked up at me. “You still love her, don’t you?” he questioned quietly.

I nodded shyly. It’s been four days… can you blame me for still being hung up on her? “Dougs, for you… I’ll get you a nice girl. She’ll be faithful to you, I promise; if I’m wrong well… you can actually sue me,” he laughed.

“Ryan, I only want to have a good time… I don’t necessarily need a girl,” I stated Ryan gave me a “get real” look. “That’s my opinion… not yours, you have a girlfriend,” I reminded him.

“I’ll be your wingman.”

“Freddie already is,” I told him.

“I’ll be your wing-wing man,” he nudged me.

“I don’t even want to go!” I repeated for what seemed like the millionth time.

Ryan rested his hand on my back. “The sooner you go, the sooner you get it over with.”

I let out a deep breath. As much as I didn’t want to agree with Ryan… he had an excellent point. The faster I go, the faster Freddie gets off my back. That’s how I saw it. I shuffled my way over to the side of my bed and stood up. Ryan stood up from my bed, too. “I’ll meet you downstairs,” he announced. I nodded. Ryan left the room after that.

I looked at myself in the mirror before I left my room. Freddie picked out my clothes. He chose the gray long-sleeved shirt. I knew that Olivia loved that shirt, even if she didn’t say anything. I couldn’t wear this shirt while trying to get a girl.

I threw it off of my body and threw it in my closet. I searched one shelf. I found a jersey… her jersey. She left it on the ground when we were at Kennedi’s house. She forgot to pick it up; I was going to say something… I just forgot to tell her. I threw it at the back of a shelf – hoping that Freddie wouldn’t find it and gush about us, again.

I lifted the jersey to my face; it smelt like her. Roses and honey. I remembered the time that she told me she “hated honey”. Since then, for breakfast, I’ve only had honey on my toast. Lately, I can’t even stand to look at a honey jar; it hurts my heart too much.

I placed the jersey back where I found it and scanned through my closet until I found a dark blue shirt. It was like the gray shirt… it just didn’t carry any bad memories on it. I threw it on and grabbed onto my phone, slipping it into my pants pocket. I hurried down the stairs and met Freddie and Ryan in the living room.