Ready For Love : Tyler Seguin Fan Fiction

Back in Brampton

Brampton, Ontario. The Flower City. My home town. A city just a little under an hour's drive from Toronto with an always growing population due to living expenses in Toronto rising every year. We are proud of our history of growing flowers on hundreds of acres of land and exporting them around the world, hence the name Flower City. You can see the flowers displayed throughout the city. It was the first major source of employment for our city. Brampton is the third largest city in the Toronto area but I have always looked at it as a small town. I always kept to my neighborhood and my friends. Growing up I would have told you Brampton was only a 3 block radius because I never ventured out further than that. I shouldn't say "I" because it was more like we. My best friend since preschool and I were inseparable. We would go everywhere and do everything together. It helped that he lived right next door. I was always shy and he was the only person I felt comfortable around. He was my protector, my shoulder to cry on, my confidant, my whole world all the way through high school.

Tyler and I had the kind of friendship that when we were kids they always joked we would get married. We would play together all of the time. I never thought he had cooties or that he was a gross boy. He was just always my friend and always there for me. As we got older we stayed close despite a lot of our friends branching off into different cliques and losing touch. We gained new friends, of course, but always continued to stay as close as we were when we first met. My friends would always joke that we should just date already but it never crossed my mind. We had too much of a good friendship. I never developed feelings for him like that.

I met my best friend AnnMarie in middle school. She immediately became my closest girl friend and Tyler remained my closest guy friend. All three of us got along perfectly so it wasn't a big deal that we added one more person to our little gang. If you didn't see me with Tyler you just knew I was with AnnMarie. That's how it was back then. We were three peas in a pod. We continued to be close all throughout high school and even until today.

After high school is where everything changed. I got into my college of choice and Tyler went to go play hockey. I thought we were going to have a month or two to spend time together before he left but one day I went over to see him and he was already gone. I was devastated. He never even said goodbye. We lost touch. I never bothered to check up on him and he never checked up on me. It was like we never knew each other to begin with. For a long time I was pretty down about the fact that he just left like that. I was so proud of him when he got drafted to the Boston Bruins but knew that it meant he would never be coming home.

In my last year of college I decided to study abroad. My major, photography, made it easy for me to travel the world and that is just what I did. I was assigned to tag along with a famous photographer and start my portfolio and eventually start my own business. I wound up staying in Europe for 2 years building my business from the ground up. My mentor, Graham Redmond, was instrumental in getting me started and I owe everything to him. I have only just recently come back to Brampton from my 2 year journey. I have so many things to catch up on and people to catch up with. I feel like I have missed so much being away but I have also grown so much as a person.

First thing I have planned is going to the Ottawa Senators game with my best friend, AnnMarie. It's kind of a law when you're Canadian if you leave the country for any period of time you have to watch hockey as soon as possible to get cleansed. Ok, I made that up. Ottawa is about a 5 hour drive from Brampton but after 2 years of traveling 5 hours is a walk in the park. We grew up in the home of the Leafs but our hearts are with the Senators. Hers with Erik Karlsson and mine with Bobby Ryan. I can hardly contain my excitement to see hockey again. I had spent so much time in so many countries where hockey is just as important to them there as it is here but had no time to go and enjoy it. Graham wouldn't allow it. "Focus on art, not sport," he would always say.

We get to the Canadian Tire Center just in time for the game to start. We hit so much traffic driving here that we missed warm ups and player introductions. I am just happy to be here watching the Sens with my best friend. We managed to get seats right behind the Senators bench where we could see everything. How am I going to keep my jaw off of the floor? "Bobby is so dreamy," I say as I watch him jump over the boards and onto the ice. "I've missed this."

"There goes Erik running his big mouth again," AnnMarie says as our attention turns to Erik complaining to the official about something.

"You would think his jaw would hurt after a while," I add.

"Your man needs a goal. It's been a while since he's scored one," AnnMarie says as play continues.

"I know. You would think since I am back here that he'd score one for me. SCORE ONE FOR ME, BOBBY!"

"They can hear you," AnnMarie says, embarrassed.

"I want him to," I reply as I watch him skate down the ice with the puck. He skates around one defender and then the other. He has open ice in front of him as he cuts to the center. It's just Bobby and the goalie. "Holy shit," I say as I start to stand up from my seat. He head fakes and shoots the puck in the upper right corner of the goal and scores. "Did that just happen? Did that just fucking happen? WOOOOO go Bobby!" He comes down the line high fiving the whole team and I sit back down. My heart is beating out of my chest. "I called that goal."

"You so did."

With just moments to go in the period the Stars are called offsides right in front of where we are sitting. One of the players lingers in front of the bench looking in our direction. We make eye contact and he continues to stare. I nervously look to the sides of me and behind me to figure out what he is looking at. "Do I have something on my face?" I ask as I wipe my mouth with a napkin.

"Why is that guy looking at you?"

"Right? he is, isn't he?" They have a faceoff and seconds later the period ends. The players skate to their benches and off the ice. The Stars player keeps looking at me as he skates by. I can't help but watch him until he disappears into the tunnel. "Well that was weird."

During intermission they show Bobby's goal on the jumbotron. "It really was a nice goal," AnnMarie says as we watch.

"He scored that just for me. We're going to get married and have little Canadamerican babies and live happily ever after."

"You kinda have to meet him first. No, you should have babies with that hot guy that was staring at you."

"I couldn't cheat on Bobby like that."

"No, seriously though, what was that?"

"I have no clue. I guess I am just irresistible. There's enough of me to go around, boys," I joke.

The rest of the game is exciting and intense with lots of shots on goal for each team but it is a goalie's duel and the Senators wind up winning the game with Bobby's lone goal. I cheer loudly for Bobby as he is named the first star of the game and skates out to do an interview. "I can't even handle this right now," I say as we watch him talk about his first goal in 20 games. We leave after Bobby's interview and drive right to the hotel we booked for the night. It is too late to try to drive all the way back home tonight. We will get an early start and make it back in time for lunch tomorrow.

The usual 5 hour drive from Ottawa to Brampton turns into a 4 hour drive if you leave early enough and don't hit any traffic so we decide to leave early and beat rush hour traffic so we can get home. I have been living with AnnMarie since I got back from Europe. I have plans to buy my own place but right now I am not in a rush to move. I was away for so long and I am enjoying catching up on the time we missed apart. Once we get home we both head to our rooms and immediately pass out once our heads hit our pillows.