The Hockey Life - A Patrick Kane Fanfic

Part Seventy-Three - Dreamer

PART SEVENTY-THREE: DREAMER

As the summer went on, Patrick and I got busier, but in a good way. We wanted to stay occupied, so we made a lot of plans. His included hanging out with his sisters, some of his teammates, and me, of course, but that was just a given. My biggest plans were to get together with Brian as well as my intern friends that I hadn’t hung out with in a while: Melanie and Travis, the winners of the most recent internship, and of course, Dylan. As it turned out, I was able to make plans with my internship friends first, so I got together with them towards the end of June. We all went to the beach together, since the weather had gotten considerably hotter. It was close to ninety degrees when we arrived.

“Eighty-nine degrees? Are you sure your car’s right?” I questioned Dylan as I took my seatbelt off. Melanie, Travis, and I had decided to carpool with Dylan, who took his roomy white truck.

“It should be. My phone says the same thing,” he confirmed, checking his weather app as he took the keys out of the ignition.

“Well, it’s a good thing the water conditions are fine today. We’re going to be in it a lot,” Travis decided.

“Hot or not, I’m ready for some sun. Let’s go!” Melanie prompted us. We all got out of the car and grabbed towels and bags. When we had everything, Dylan locked his truck and we headed over to the sand. As soon as my feet made contact with it, they felt like they were getting third degree burns.

“Shit, that’s hot!” Travis complained. He began running across the burning sand, and Dylan just laughed.

“You know, running makes it worse. It’s better to walk on hot surfaces,” he told him.

“I don’t care what’s better, running is faster!” Travis called as he continued. He didn’t stop until he made it to the water, and he sighed in relief as his feet hit the cold lake. We all followed suit, and even though the water felt freezing cold at first, it was much better than the ground. Once our feet were cooled off, we found a spot to put down our stuff. We laid out our towels and put down our bags. We put on some sunscreen and then we didn’t hesitate to get into the water. It felt like it was only getting hotter as the sun rose in the sky.

Dylan’s P.O.V.

I had never been happier to be near water in my life, it seemed. I took my shirt off as everyone else put on sunscreen - I never got sunburned. Travis got done first, so he got rid of his shirt too and followed me into the water. It was chilly, but it wasn’t that bad. It felt good on my skin, so I went farther in to force my body to adjust to the temperature.

“Are you two coming, or what?” I hollered.

“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” Melanie answered, and she and Lena began walking our way. Lena ran her hands through her long, dark hair and that was when I realized I was staring. I snapped out of it quickly. We hadn’t been around each other much, and that had helped a lot, honestly. Distance made me forget about her. It was when we hung out that the feelings came flooding back to the front of my mind. I didn’t want to be interested in her. I couldn’t be - she was engaged and planning her wedding that I was getting invited to. I should have gotten over her a long time ago, it just never happened. I hadn’t met very many girls lately, and the ones that I had met didn’t compare.