Before

“You said that to him?” Kailey asks, laughing. “Hey hand me that eyeliner.”

I do, and laugh with her. “You should have seen the look on his face.”

“Terrified beyond all reason?” She asks, putting on her makeup. I do the same.

We’re almost done getting ready for the team party tonight. With every passing minute I’m getting more and more nervous about this. I’ve only met some of the guys, even though they were all at the team breakfast I crashed. This is a completely different setting though, and besides I wasn’t Patrick’s girlfriend then. Things might change now. I’d never admit it but I’m scared to see how that happens.

“No,” I answer her question, pushing aside my inner monologue to fix my own eyeliner. “More like game on.”

She snorts, tossing the pencil in her clutch. “Why am I not surprised?”

“Because it’s him?” I suggest, smirking.

She laughs again. “Yeah exactly, because it’s him. And he’s just like you.”

I almost stab myself in the eye I’m so shocked by her words. “You think we’re alike?”

“Well yeah,” she shrugs. “You used to say the same thing, before.”

Before. Before she hooked up with Jonathan and against all odds they made it. There were actual bets taken on this too but I’ll never tell her that or she’ll throw the fit of a lifetime.

It’s a little strange to think about Before. It’s almost like that was happening to two different girls. I was stuck in physical therapy after my knee surgery and she was at college. The most we had to worry about was grades, sometimes boys. Nobody but our friends and family knew who we were. Kailey’s picture wasn’t splashed all over the gossip boards or one of the search results when you Googled ‘Jonathan Toews girlfriend.’ Now it’s the first one that shows up, despite them not even going public yet. Now she goes on twitter and people are bombarding her with questions.

It’s not all related to her new relationship. Some of it is her own accomplishments. But it’s still so different to anything she’s ever lived with before.

Now it’s about to be my turn for that. The thought makes the knot in my stomach triple in size.

“Hey, Earth to Jen,” Kailey waves her hand in front of my face, trying to get my attention. “Hell-ooooo come back from Jen Land and join us here in Chicago. We have important things to do and now is not the time to go radio silent on me.”

I shake my head at her. “Have you always been this weird?”

“I’ve been saving it up just for you,” she responds. “Now hurry up and finish or we’re going to be late. The guys are waiting for us downstairs.”

I finish my makeup silently.

“What gives?” she meets my eyes in the mirror. “You’re never this quiet. You’re like the queen of energy.”

I shrug. “I was just thinking about what we would be doing if it was still, you know…”

“Before,” she finishes. She looks thoughtful for a moment. “We would probably be complaining because there was no hockey on tonight. Then we’d go somewhere—probably the mall—because we were bored, before heading back to my house for food and to hang out and do nothing.

“Or we would say screw it, come down here and probably make idiots of ourselves trying to find something to do.”

I laugh at her recitation because that’s probably exactly what we would have done. “Why’d we always hang out at your house anyway?”

“So you weren’t dragged into doing stuff for people.”

Oh, that’s right. “Haven’t had to do much of that lately. I’ve been too busy trying to keep up with you and captain annoying down there.”

She snorts again. “Oh please don’t even give me that.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I put on my best innocent look. Unfortunately that’s never been very convincing with people who know me.

“You’ve been too busy trying to keep up with the second half of the Dream Duo down there. Jonny and I have nothing to do with it lately.”

I stick my tongue out at her, but I don’t put up a fight. She’s right, I have been with Patrick a lot lately. And now that he’s my boyfriend, I’m going to be spending even more time with him.

“Hey now you need to sit down,” I follow her directions, for once doing what I’m told. “What’s going on?”

“I’m still Before,” I tell her.

She frowns, confused. “I really want to help you but I have no idea what that means.”

I shake my head. “I don’t have my picture all over the internet. Fans don’t know my name. No one tells me that I shouldn’t be in my relationship. No one comes up to me when I’m on the street and asks for pictures with my boyfriend. No one knows who I am,” I look up at my best friend sadly. “No one knew who you were either, before you started dating the captain of the Blackhawks. But then your name went everywhere.

“Now I’m dating one of the most known, if not the most known player on the team, and I’m not sure I’m ready for my name to be everywhere,” I admit. “I don’t know if I want to be known as ‘Patrick Kane’s girlfriend’ and have people judging me every step of the way. How can I possibly be ready for something like that?”

Shock meets my admission. “You can’t,” Kailey whispers. “There is no way anyone is ready for something like this to happen to them. There’s nothing you can do to prepare for it. There’s nothing you can do to keep it from happening.

“But I’ll tell you a secret: it doesn’t matter what people say or what they do or what they think because at the end of the day you are with the person you want to be with. And guess what, he wants to be with you too.

“Now, do you want to be with Patrick?”

“Yes,” I answer. “Of course I do! That’s the stupidest question I’ve ever heard.”

“Well, being with him means dealing with all of that other crap that you just mentioned, plus a hell of a lot more. People are going to pry into your life. They’re going to talk about you like you can’t find what they’re saying. They’re going to think they’re allowed to tell you how you should be living your life. They’re going to say you’re too young, too inexperienced, to be dating him. A lot of them are going to say you’re changing him. You’re going to be criticized every step of the way. A lot of the people doing the criticizing are going to be people who care about you,” she looks at me sadly. “It’s going to suck and it’s going to be hard, and you’re going to be ready to pull your hair out some days because people just don’t get that it’s not their business!

“But if you want to be with him, then none of that stuff matters. Because if you really want him, then you should be with him. And when you’re with a person you care about that much,” she smiles at me. “Nothing in the world is enough to make you willing to lose that feeling.

“Now,” the smile disappears, and she’s serious on me again. “I’ll ask you one more time. And be sure this time. Do you want to be with Patrick?”

“Yes,” no hesitation, no regrets. I know that I want to be with him. I’ll deal with the rest of it later, but Kailey’s right. I don’t want to lose the feeling I have when I’m with him.

She nods. “Thought so,” then the seriousness is gone, and it’s my best friend staring at me again, instead of the relationship counselor. “Now let’s go down and show those boys exactly what they got themselves into.”

I smirk. “Oh this should be fun,” we walk down the hall and I can hear the guys talking downstairs. I see Kailey straighten her dress out of the corner of my eye. That reminds me, “How’d you sell Jonathan on that dress?”

She laughs. It’s a laugh full of such evil mischief that I’m practically bursting with pride.

“That was easy,” she tells me. “All I had to do was threaten to go to Victoria’s Secret and do a little fashion show.”

I can’t help laughing at that. “And he wasn’t all for this?”

She smirks. “Not when I told him Saad would be the one coming with me,” she gives me a sideways look. “They both know I’d never cheat, but it doesn’t matter. Jonathan hates other guys looking at me. He is the most jealous guy I’ve ever met. He agreed on the dress before the threat was even finished.”

I’m laughing so hard I lean on the wall for support. “You are pure evil.”

She just shrugs. “I learned from the best.”

A/N: thanks for the comments on my last update! love hearing some of your favorite teams :) hope you like this one and if you do please vote and comment! I know this one is kind of odd, but I'm hoping you guys like it. Thanks so much for reading! :D