My Girl (Jonathan Toews)

2

Jonathan

I turn the corner of a side street a little outside of the heart of Chicago and come up on a broken down road. At the end of it was a little diner, the same diner I saw that Alexis worked for the other day. So I walk over in search for her to see if she's doing okay or if she still needed help. I haven't been able to get her off my mind and I was hoping some type of closure was in order here so I can focus on the problems of my own I was dealing with.

So I walk into the diner and look around. It was pretty busy but wasn't exactly a high end diner, not even close actually. Anything in this part of town tends to be a little sketchy. Eventually a man comes up to me and realizes who I was. His eyes widen and he starts to smile.

"Jonathan Toews, what a honor it is to have you in my diner" he says and I nod. At least I know he's the owner and that he can help me find Alexis since he runs the place.

"Hey there. I was wondering if Alexis is around... I need to talk to her" I say carefully and his face falls.

"Oh... her" he spits as he rolls his eyes. "She was fired this morning. She hasn't showed up for work in three days and I can't save her a spot here, I need someone who is going to show up to work. Around here it's either you work or you're gone and you're replaced with someone who will work" he explains and I scrunch up my face.

"Her sister is sick" I defend.

"Her sister isn't the one who applied for a job she couldn't hold. I gave her a chance to come in today and she still didn't come in. Therefore she's done for" he says and I sigh. Well that's not what I wanted to hear at all.

"Do you know where I can find her" I ask and he raises a eyebrow at me. I'm sure he was confused by my repeated attempt to see her but I was getting a growing feeling that she isn't okay like I hoped she was.

"She lives two buildings down on the first floor. So you think that she would be able to make it into work" he mumbles.

"Thank you... kind of" I say.

I leave the little diner and embrace the cold bitter weather we were blessed with this winter. It was the beginning of January and we just got hockey back after a lockout that lasted way longer than it ever should have. But now it's 2013 and we're trying to get back into the swing of things, and now I have this on my hands too. I didn't have to check up on her or make sure she was okay, but I would have felt like complete shit if I didn't follow up with her.

I come across the apartment building I assume the man was talking about and go inside to get out of the cold. I go to the first door I see and hope it was hers before I start to knock.

"I said I'll have the rent money tomorrow" a woman yells out.

"I don't want your money" I say and it falls silent. I hear the locks on the door get undone and the door opens up. Alexis appears in the doorway and her eyes go big as she looks me over.

"It's you" she says softly.

It was in that moment where I realized that she had zero clue as to who I was or why me doing this was kind of a big deal.

"It's me" I reply as I start to shiver.

"Oh my god, come in come in. It's freezing out there" she says as she pulls me inside her apartment. It wasn't much better in here but at least there was no wind.

I walk into her apartment and look around. There wasn't all that much here but it was a cute little set up. I see a bunch of stuff on the couch and laying around it and it looked like she lived in the living room.