The Hockey Life - A Patrick Kane Fanfic

Party Seventy-Six - Rookies

PART SEVENTY-SIX: ROOKIES

The preseason continued and the Hawks were doing well. Dylan played a couple more games in order to adjust to being in the NHL and he definitely did a good job of showcasing his talent. He was already gaining popularity, especially with girls. I couldn’t help but follow the media sometimes - it was interesting to see what they were saying about the players, the coaches, even myself. Sure, there were ridiculous rumors and negative articles, but I just tried to ignore them. The press was just like a bunch of high school girls. They liked to make up stories and create drama but there was no reason to fear them or take their words to heart. Luckily for Dylan, all I could find on him was positive stuff.

“Have you gone on any dates lately?” I asked him one day after practice.

“Why do you ask?” he seemed a little taken aback.

“I don’t know. A lot of girls like you now that you’re in the NHL,” I smiled.

“Yeah?”

“Yep. You should go on Tumblr and look yourself up. You’ve got yourself quite a few fangirls,” I chuckled.

“Maybe I need to meet these fangirls, then. I haven’t been on a date in a long time,” he admitted.

“What’s this I hear about Dylan and fangirls?” Melanie wondered, joining in on the conversation. She had been getting settled into her team photographer position, and she was going over some of the photos she had captured during practice.

“He has a ton of them and yet he doesn’t have a love life,” I spilled.

“Oh, don’t be too hard on him. He’s probably too busy being an NHL star,” Melanie laughed.

“Don’t make me too cocky. I’m still a rookie here. Trust me, I would know. I get addressed by that nickname at least a hundred times a day,” Dylan rolled his eyes.

“You better get used to it, rookie,” Bryan Bickell contributed, clapping Dylan on the back as he walked by.

“Hey rookie, don’t forget to get yourself a Halloween costume sometime. I’m having a party at my place on the twenty-ninth,” Sharpy added. The party originally was going to be at the apartment that Patrick and I shared like it was the year before, but with our wedding getting closer, the team didn’t want us to have to worry about planning yet another party. Pat and I were very grateful that Sharpy offered to throw the party at his place, but he acted like it was nothing. He did have kids that loved the holiday, after all, and he knew they would have a blast.

“Oh yeah. I have absolutely no idea what kind of costume I’m going to get for that,” Dylan realized.

“Well, maybe if you got a date for it you’d have someone to help you decide,” Melanie suggested, winking at me. Probably one of the best things about the newest additions to the Hawks team and staff was that I now got to mess with Dylan almost every day and I had Melanie to help me.

When Patrick and I left the United Center, we headed to Halloween City to meet up with Jonathan and Tess. A trip to a Halloween shop wasn’t exactly the nicest double date, but it was better than nothing. I think we all just wanted a chance to relax and have some fun, honestly. Tess was always helping me with wedding ideas and Jonatan and Patrick were busy with hockey, as was I. The hockey, I could deal with. The wedding, not so much. At that point, I wasn’t as much excited for the wedding as I was looking forward to getting it over with. I was tired of planning, making calls, emailing, searching, buying, checking, then double-checking, and worrying. Halloween was going to be a chance for me to be anything I wanted and not have to think about my real life problems. Or that was what I thought, at least.