Gravity

by Tal Bauer

“I have watched you play for two years. C'est bon de te rencontrer enfin.”

“Hi,” I squeak. “I wear your number.” “Enchanté.” Bryce's grin grows. “I wear your number, too.”

“I thought they meant, like, an actor or someone like that,” Phillips says. “I was hoping for Zendaya.” “We’re the NHL, dude. We don’t get Zendaya.”

Together, we rack up five goals in six minutes.

WHAT

We’re a storm. The wind. The puck is a feather in a hurricane. All I can see is him.

It's like I can't escape him. Et non, I do not want to. He can trap me in his gravity pour toujours.

Did kissing me ruin your game? Am I that bad of a kisser? Was it that awful?

This is the man I have been missing. Not my hero. Not the man from the posters on my teenage walls. The real Bryce, the man from midnights and empty drives and lonely rivers, and the man who looked me in the eyes and dared to risk everything because, somehow, I made his heart beat faster.

He looks too much like he does in my dreams when my imagination of him whispers, “Je te desire. Mon coeur bat la chamade pour toi.”

I have never felt beautiful until he said the words.

“Tout ira bien, mon capitane.” “Oui. Oui, tout ira bien. Je marquerai pour toi, monsieur.”

“Tu me fais tourner la tête,” I tell him. “Je brûle de désir pour toi,”

“How is nasha zvezda?”

OUR STAR are u kidding

“Stop. Close your eyes. Lay down your head. We are here.”

I lean in and kiss him on the lips, this time surrounded by our teammates. Our family. And when I pull back, everyone is beaming.

I'll cradle his hopes and keep them safe until he can take hold of them again. I'll build scaffolds for his dreams, too, and I will lift him on my shoulders until he can touch the stars.

I thought you died in my arms, and my biggest regret was that I hadn't told I loved you yet. So I'm going to tell you every day now: I love you. I love you, and I want everything with you. I love you. I love you. I love you.

Tu es la lumière de ma vie. Tu es l’homme de mes rêves, de ma vie. Tu es tout pour moi.

“Je t'aime aussi, mon amour.” My voice is more breath than sound, a whisper strained through silence. But these words have shape and weight, and they move from my lips to Hunter's ears. “Je t'aime de tout.”

“Slava, this is broken,” the trainer said. “We need to get you an x-ray and a boot, and you might need surgery. Look at those bones.” “Surgery isn't happening tonight,” Slava grunted. “No, which is why we need to immobilize it until—” “Immobilize it in a hard, plastic boot, áno?” The trainer nodded. Slava picked up his skate. “This looks like a hard, plastic boot to me.”

i love him

I see joy, love, pride. Exultation. Glory. I see my teammates, my brothers, my family.

I keep staring into Hunter's eyes. Without you, mon amour, this wouldn't have happened. Without you, I would be nothing. Tu es l'amour de ma vie. Tu es mon rêve devenu réalité.

“Nous voulons prendre soin de lui comme il se soucie de toi, chéri,” Leo said.