Breaking Through These Walls

Chapter 9

Patrick's POV

We stood in the alley for a while. Rian clung to me like I was life itself. Neither of us talked. All you could hear were the sounds of her sobs that were muffled by my chest. Her grip around my waist loosens. I pull back and look at her, whipping the stray tears the stained her cheeks.
"Sorry about your shirt." She said quietly, giving me a half smile. I look down at my tear stained shirt, then look up to meet her big, brown eyes. I give her a small smile.
"That's the least of my worries."
She gives me a half smile then looks down at our feet.
"Are you sure you're ok?" I ask. My voice laced with concern.
"Yeah I just-" She struggled to find the words.
"It's ok. You don't have to explain yourself." I tell her sincerely.
"It's not everyday that a crying girl throws herself in your arms and walks away with no explanation." She says softly.
"If you want to talk about it, I'm all ears. However, if you would rather me just act like this is a normal thing then so be it."
"I feel like I at least owe you some sort of explanation." She looks up at me. Her brown eyes are still glassy, full of emotion, yet they look so lifeless. "Just not here."
"I can kick Tazer out of the apartment and you can come back to my place. We can watch movies and eat popcorn!" I give her my stupid, hopeful grin. She laughs at my facial expression.
"Ok. But you don't have to kick Tazer out. That's mean. He deserves to sleep in his own bed." She fires back at me.
"In that case, he can sleep in the hallway."
"Patrick! You are so mean!" She hits my chest. I stumble back, holding my chest, acting like she hurt me.
"Suck it up you baby! You're a hockey player! Guys push you around harder than that! Man up!" She playfully shoves me back farther, laughing while doing so.
"You would be the worst coach in the whole world if that's your idea of whipping your team into shape." I laugh at her.
Her face gets serious, "I have 6 brothers Patrick Kane. I've learned a few things from them that I'm not afraid to use on you." She gets all up in my face.
"Now I can see why they call you Grizz." I smile at her. "C'mon just laugh already! That was a good one!" She just turns away and shakes her head. I run up behind her and wrap one arm around her shoulders and one arm around her waist bringing her back to my chest. I burry my head in her neck, "Let's go watch some movies." I exclaim like a little kid.
She starts to giggle and squirm in my arms when my breath touches her neck, "Ok! Ok! Just stop ticking my neck!"
"So that's your tickle spot, huh?" I ask with a smirk as I loosen my grip on her.
She turns around and looks at me, starting to back up, "That's one of them." She says with a smirk. She starts to walk out of the alley. She starts to turn left. I grab her wrist and pull her back to the right.
"This way buttercup." I say gesturing to my right.
"I knew that I was just making sure you remembered where you were." She shoots back. "Because the last time we went with your directions, we got lost in the streets of Vancouver and almost missed my game." She fired back.
"Listen Sassy, that was one time! And I wouldn't have gotten us lost if you don't take us down the wrong street." I cock an eyebrow at her knowing I was right.
"Excuse me! But you also could have corrected me and said 'no Rian you took the wrong turn it's really this way.'" She makes her voice deep, mocking me.
"Well you had me under the impression that you had a sense of direction." I reply.
"I told you since day one that I have no sense of direction and I distinctly remember that your answer was 'Stick with me buttercup, I have a pretty good sense of direction' then flashed your stupid smirk!" She dropped her voice low when she quoted me. "What's wrong? Cat got your tongue? Or are you finally realizing that I'm right?"
"Listen up buttercup and listen well! You can stick with your story and I'll stick with mine. Fair?"
"Fine!" She gives me fake attitude. "You just don't want to admit that you're wrong." She mumbles to herself.
"What was that?" I ask as I bend my head down to her.
"Nothing! Don't worry about it!" She fires back with a smile.
We walked the rest of the way to my apartment in a comfortable silence, holding hands. We both made light of the mood with that banter, disregarding the giant elephant that was looming over us.