The Pursuit of Happiness (Patrick Kane)

|Three|

Kaileigh

School starts back up next week and I had just gotten all my books and classes finalized this morning. My friends were back in town meaning that this is where the fun begins. Most of the people in my friends group has been around since the beginning. For a few it's been a few years but we worked so well together. We were all very different but fought for the same things, wanted to help as many people as we can.

And life doesn't always turn out as you plan. When I was a little girl I wanted to be a astronaut. I wanted to touch the stars and discover something new that people didn't already know. But my mouth didn't really match my dreams, I might have gotten into a few scraps in my life. But I wasn't one to shut up when I needed to and sometimes it bit me in the ass. In the long run I think everything worked out, I'm right where I'm supposed to be doing what I'm supposed to do.

"Good afternoon Kay" my friend Melissa says as she lets herself into my apartment without so much as a knock. The door slams shut behind her as she walks straight to where the food should be.

"Sure come on in" I tease as I roll my eyes. Sometimes we were too much alike, but that's why I loved her.

"What's for dinner" she wonders as she opens up the fridge ready to help herself.

"I just moved back last week, there's no food in there" I assure her.

"So what have you been eating? Air" she accuses rummaging through my drinks and little condiments I kept in there. She grabs a water out before continuing to try to magically make food appear in there.

"No. Just a lot of pizza and take out Chinese food" I laugh. I knew how to cook but I just don't want to most nights.

"That's not good for you. You need some good foods, a hamburger or ribs or something" she insists.

"I did get a steak from Chicago Cut a few days ago" I tell her as she looks at me weird.

"What the hell were you doing there" she questions.

"It's a long story, something you would probably enjoy actually" I accuse. Melissa was the one in our friend group that was boy crazy, she loved a good boy meets girl story no matter how tacky.

"Ohhh spill" she cheers as she jumps on the spot on the couch next to me. She stares at me with her big brown eyes just waiting for me to spill my guts.

"Well I was walking around town just looking for a bite to eat since, you know, I hate to cook. I was about to go get McDonald's or something but I literally ran into this guy-" I start.

"OH was he cute" she begs getting a little bit closer to me.

"He was very cute. You actually might know of him" I admit. She was from Chicago so she knows about the sports teams and their history.

"What's his name" she wonders.

"Patrick Kane" I reply.

She suddenly spits her drink almost right into my face. I let out a screech as I quickly try to dry my face from what parts of her drink made it on there.

"You ran into Patrick Kane" she squeals.

"You just spit in my face" I accuse.

"Because you ran into Patrick Kane! Kay that's actually insane. What did he say? Was he as sexy in real life as he is on tv? Did he smell nice" she lists off as I continue to clean my face.

"He apologized a bunch of times, I guess he was pretty sexy but I didn't know what he looked like before now so I couldn't give you a comparison, and he smelled like axe body spray" I admit.

"Oh my god why does the fun stuff always happen to you" she pouts.

"I would hardly say sparks were flying. He was pretty much what you expected out of a athlete. But I have to give it to him, he wasn't afraid to ask questions or admit fault so he has that going for him" I shrug.

"Oh no, you grilled him didn't you" she sighs.

"Well some known needed to. I didn't say anything that isn't true" I say.

"You can't go around talking down to Chicago's golden boy. He's basically royalty around here" she defends.

"I've notice" I roll my eyes. "Plus I didn't scare him enough because he asked for my number at the end of the night."

All the sudden I feel a hand on my arm as Melissa squeezes me so tight. "KAYLEIGH" she screams.

"Calm down won't you" I beg making her let go of the death grip on my arm.

"Please tell me you didn't give him a fake number" she begs.

"I didn't" I promise as she lets out a sigh. "But I haven't texted him back either."

Her excited expression turns to the glare that I've grown to know all too well. Her eyebrows furrow as she tries to kill me with her eyes. "You're living my dream right now and you are blowing it" she accuses.

"He only started texting me yesterday and I'm just... not intrested" I try.

"You're not the least bit intrested in this man" she questions. "Now I know you're lying."

"I'm not his type and you know it. He couldn't use his name or fame to charm me and fell flat on his face because of it. That whole athlete appeal doesn't work for me" I insist.

"Well he got through dinner with you so he must have done something right" she argues.

"He's not awful" I agree. "Just not someone I think will ever understand what people have to do in order to find the kind of happiness he has getting paid millions of dollars doing what he loves."

"Well what did his texts say" she wonders.

I pull my phone out and show her the texts.

Hey Kayleigh this is Patrick.
I just wanted to say that I had thought about what you said a lot.
Are you free this weekend?

Melissa quickly takes the phone out my hand and starts typing and I feel my heart drop. I jump across the couch to get my phone back but she had a reach on me and it wasn't close. We wrestle for a while before she lets out a "ha" and let's me snatch my phone out of her hand. I look to see that she had texted him back.

I am free! What do you have in mind?

Now it was my turn to glare at her as she gives me her cheesiest smile. "Why would you do that" I snarl.

"Because Kayleigh, you're 24 years old and you're one of the most incredible minds out there. When it's all said and done I believe you will be in the history books. But your mind always seems to wander when you think about boys. I don't want you to throw this away because you listened to your big brain and not your heart" she accuses.

"My heart isn't saying anything" I defend.

"It is, but you're not listening. You could have gave him a fake number but you didn't, something told you not to. Doesn't part of you want to know why" she asks.

I let out a soft sigh because I guess she was right. Being a good public figure means I'm going to have to follow what is in front of me and that's what I was going to do.

I feel my phone vibrate in my hand and I see Patrick had texted back. I look at it to see what he had planned.

I was wondering if you wanted to hang out with me and some of my friends? I told them about you and they kinda think I made you up.

I smile a little as I reluctantly text him back.

Is it okay if I bring a friend? I promise she's cool.

Sounds good to me! I'll see you this weekend then.

"Alright, I'm hanging out with him and his friends this weekend and so are you" I say pointing my finger at her.

"I'm not going to complain" she defends.

Of course she's not.