On the Way Down - Andre Burakovsky

Ch. 12: "Can you hit him now please?"

 It was the NHL's bye week! Before I started working for the NHL I hated bye week because a week without hockey was one of the worst things I could imagine, but now I understand why they needed it. Janell, Tom, Andre, Jakub and I were all headed to the bahamas for the week and I couldn't be more excited. I had never been anywhere outside of the states so this would be a first for me. I woke up way earlier than everyone else so I could shower and get dressed then I started making breakfast. Janell, Tom and Jakub had flown in the night before and were all sleeping in my guest room or on the couch. Andre came into the kitchen while I was in the middle of cooking some bacon and walked up behind me and laid his head on my shoulder.
  "That smells amazing. You know you didn't have to cook we could have stopped on the way to the airport and grabbed something."
  "I don't mind. Besides, needed to use up this food so it doesn't go bad while we're gone."
  "Makes sense, do you need any help?"
  "No really, but you can start taking the stuff thats done over to the table if you want." he kissed my cheek before gathering up the pancakes, butter, syrup and eggs that were sitting on the counter and brought it all over to the table. As he was grabbing the carton of juice out of the fridge Tom walked into the kitchen and wrapped me into a huge bear hug.
  "Mornin Tommy." I giggled. "Now put me down before I burn the bacon."
  "Nelly and Kub are still sleeping and I'm scared to wake them up." Tom grumbled as he grabbed a piece of the bacon that was done off the plate, I slapped his hand.
  "Stop that or there won't be enough. Why are you scared to wake them up?"
  "Well, I went to wake them up once when she stayed over and we had to leave for practice and I saw way more of Kub then I ever wanted to see."
  "You really think they're up there naked in my house though?"
  "I mean, have you seen them? They practically fuck with their eyes everytime they look at each other."
  "Oh, my God. You need to stop." I laughed. "I guess I will go and wake them up since you're such a baby." I turned off the stove and handed the plate to Andre before walking up the stairs and knocking on the guest room door.
  "Hey, we were just about to come down, Kub smelled bacon and got excited." Janell chuckled opening the door quickly after I knocked.
  "Tom was scared to come wake you up so he sent me. I see he was overracting as usual."
  "I mean he did get quite the view the last time he tried to wake us up so I guess I understand, but I made Kub sleep with clothes on this time." she winked at me and I threw my head back in laughter.
 When we landed in the Bahamas I sighed the biggest sigh of relief I ever had. There was so much turbulence that I thought more than once that we were all going to die. Andre threw his arm around me as we stepped off the plane and kissed my forehead.
  "Hey, we're on the ground, everything is fine."
  "That was the worst thing I have ever experienced." I shook my head.
  "Hey, we're fine Chels. Breathe. Lets go get a drink or something to calm you down as soon as we get our bags to the hotel." Tom said as he walked up behind me and Andre. I nodded and we quickly grabbed a cab and headed to the hotel.
 Sure to his word, as soon as our bags were in the rooms Tom dragged me to a bar. The bar we ended up at was actually inside a pool and it was the coolest thing I had ever seen. We swam up to the bar and ordered some drinks and then relaxed in the water and watched the sun go down. The couple of hours we were down there more than made up for the scary ride here, and for that I was grateful. We swam around for a bit before deciding to call it a night so we could get up early enough to get a full day of activities in the next day. When Andre and I got into our hotel room we quickly showered before changing into some sweats and climbing into the big bed. I could already feel a slight sunburn forming on my skin, but it didn't hurt my skin was just at that perfect point where you could tell you were getting color because an hour after being in the sun your skin was still warm. As we laid down I snuggled into Andre and sighed.
  "Whats wrong?" he asked, looking down at me with concern written all over his face.
  "Nothing, I'm so happy. If the rest of this vacation is anything like the few hours today were then I know I'm going to have the time of my life here this week." I smiled.
  "Well, thats my plan baby. I will do anything to make sure you are the happiest you've ever been here this week. Even if I have to beat the shit out of Tom because he's annoying you." I laughed.
  "I'd almost pay to see that, but lucky for him he hasn't gotten on my nerves yet."
 By the time the week was over, I was extremely sunburnt and when we climbed onto the plane to fly back to Colorado I was in so much pain. I curled up into my seat and winced.
  "I told you to put on sunscreen." Tom teased as he sat across the aisle from me and Andre. I shot him a glare.
  "I put on sunscreen thank you so much."
  "Maybe you didn't reapply it enough."
  "Andre, can you hit him now please?" Andre chuckled and slapped Tom on the back of the head before coming to sit down next to me.
  "Do you want me to put some more aloe on it?" he said, concern shining in his eyes.
  "I just put some on before we left the hotel, but I took some tylenol to see if that would help, but if nothing else it will at least help me sleep. But thank you." I smiled at him. I fell asleep almost immediately once the plane was in the air and slept until we landed. Andre grabbed my backpack and carried it for me so I didn't have to put it over my shoulders which I was immensly grateful for because I'm pretty sure I would have cried if I would have had to put that weight on my shoulder.
 When we finally got back to my house we threw all the bags on the floor in my living room and we all piled on the couches.
  "I don't think I can move. I'm just gonna mold into the couch and we're going to become one." I groaned and everyone mumbled in agreement. I'm pretty sure we all fell asleep on the couches and slept the rest of the day, because when I woke up I looked at the clock and it was 8 pm and when I looked around my living room everyone was passed out. My stomach grumbled in hunger, reminding me that we hadn't eaten all day. I grabbed my phone out of my pocket and quickly ordered some pizza and quietly slid off the couch trying not to wake up Andre. I grabbed my backpack and went upstairs to take a quick shower. When I walked out of the bathroom Andre was sitting on the bed and held up the bottle of aloe and I smiled.
  "You're the best." I layed face down on the bed and he put the aloe all over my back and shoulders, making me jump at the coldness of it.
  "Sorry."
  "Thank you for doing this. I thought you were still sleeping."
  "I woke up and you were gone but I heard the water running so I figured you were going to need this." he chuckled.
  "I did." I smiled at him. "I ordered pizza too, it should be here soon. When I woke up I realized none of us had eaten today." right as the words left my mouth there was a knock at the door and Andre went to answer it while I got dressed. When I walked downstairs everyone was in the kitchen with pizza in their hands. I was going to miss my friends when they went home, it was nice having this time with them. We had made more plans for after the season and I was excited and just hoped I could get through to then without going crazy.

This one kind of sucks lol but I'm probably close to done with this story because I'm running out of ideas. Tell me which one you want next. Colton Parayko or Jake Debrusk :)