Fire & Ice

nine

It took me a few second to realize what exactly happened. That's when pain started to settle into my side. My left shoulder and arm are throbbing and it took a second to shake the daze from my head. Toni, Becca, and Stacey all came over and helped me to my feet. Together they skated me over to the bench where the team trainer took over for the girls and led me right back down the tunnel to the locker room.

            Once I was back in the locker room Marissa helped me get my helmet and pads off so she could take a look at my arm.

            "You're shoulder popped out a little bit I'm going to put it back in, this is going to be uncomfortable. I'm going to do it on three okay." Marissa said after feeling all around my shoulder.

            "Do whatever you have to to get me back on the ice." I said.

            "Alright, on three, one" Before Marissa even got to two she pushed my shoulder back into place and it felt even worse than it did when Tatiana ran into me and I couldn't help the scream that escaped my mouth. 

            "It's okay, it's all done. I'm going to help move it around to check your range of motion, as long as it feels okay you can get back into the game." Marissa said and I nodded.

            Marissa went through stretching my arm out and it did start to feel better. Someone I hoped I never would see again is back and I know she is going to pick a fight with me every chance she gets. Tatiana and I played for rival schoold back home in Massachusetts. Everyone would always pit us against each other because we were the only girls on an all guys team.  I never really had any hard feelings against her. I thought she plays a very physical game and she is very good at what she does.

            During my junior year of high school I started dating a girl from my school. Things were going really well between us. When she started coming to my games I found out from one of my teammates that she actually was with Tatiana when we first started going out. The girl explained her side of the story that Tatiana wasn't good to her and would push her around from time to time and she broke up with her when things with me got serious. I believed her and we ended up getting serious.

            As time went on Tatiana saw us happy together and got pretty jealous. Whenever we played against each other she would always lay extra hits against me and I had to constantly watch my back. Things boiled over one night at a party. One of my friends on the team invited us all to a party and at the time I didn't realize the party was at one of Tatiana's friend's house.

            When I walked through the door I could feel the vides in the house weren't right. I didn't want to stay for long and my girlfriend agreed. Before we were going to leave, Tatiana cornered my girlfriend after she got out of the bathroom and started grabbing her to make her stay at the party. Travis told me about what was going on and I got in the middle of my girlfriend and Tatiana. Tatiana didn't like that and threw a few punches. I ended up with a black eye and a split lip and a cracked knuckle. I was able to land a few hits of my own before we were separated by the rest of our teams.

            My girlfriend helped clean me up and things continued on between us for a little while longer. Then things feel apart at home and I even though I wanted to try and stay together, we broke up because it wasn't fair to her while I was trying to recover. We have stayed in touch throughout it all but things were never the same. But we both know if we need someone we would always be there for each other.

            Things between Tatiana and I will always be tense but I thought that after the fight she would back off. She didn't and I made sure to always one up her when we played. I think it made a difference when it came down to the final recruitment draft when I was selected as the number one recruit in the country. Tatiana feels like she still has something to prove to me and I'm not going to stoop to her level.