Chapter 27 – February 10, 1980
Disclaimer: This chapter is somewhat Rated R for dialogue.
Marie stirred in her sleep when she felt Silk's lips touch her temple. She smiled when she heard him say rise and shine, but groaned when she opened her eyes. "It's too early."
"I wasn't the only one that kept us up and finally got some sleep after three," he told her, "not that I'm complaining. I'm as tired as you are."
"What time is it?"
"It's six-thirty. The bus is leaving in a half an hour. Jannie isn't here yet, but if he were, he'd be out in the hall waiting," he said.
Marie sat up in the bed and rubbed the sleep from her eyes. Silk had sat down next to her, leaned in and kissed her, and then he kissed her bare shoulder. "Dave, about last night…"
Silk looked up and asked, "Don't tell me you now regret it?"
"No!" she said. "See… I… didn't really plan to… nothing would have happened if Jannie had been here."
"Nobody plans anything," he said. "When did you buy the protection?"
"On a whim when we went to one of the Duane Reade drug stores yesterday. I put two in my purse last night because… I had this feeling, I guess," she started to explain. "Strange, I know, but I had no plan to do anything last night."
Silk tucked a piece of her blonde hair behind her ear and placed his hand on her cheek. "Don't worry about it. I was surprised, but it was a good surprise. I'm glad it happened."
"I wasn't sure," she replied, smiling at him. "I'm sorry if I ruined anything. I felt like I had to explain."
"Ruin what?"
"The morning after moment. I never did that with the ex's. Will…"
Silk leaned in to cut her off with a kiss. "I don't care. Whenever, wherever, go with it. Forget the past, go with now. One thing though, when did you put the condom in the elastic of the boxers?"
Marie told him, "When I was waiting for you to come out of the bathroom. I thought it would be cool way to seduce you. Get you turned on by producing it that way."
Silk nodded, making a impressed expression. "To me, it was hot. It worked."
Marie said, "Ok." She leaned in this time and gave him a kiss.
They heard the door open, but stop when the link on the door caught. "Silky, let me in."
"One minute," Silk called out as he watched Marie ran into the bathroom.
Marie heard Jannie ask if anything happened last night, but Silk told him no. When she exited a few minutes later, she was surprised to see Rob, Regan, Connie and Rizzo in the room. She didn't hear them come in. Before the girl's left, they told the guys they'd see them later. Once the girl's entered the elevator and the doors closed, that's when the questions started up.
"So did anything interesting happen last night?" Regan asked.
Marie was playing with her ring on her middle finger on her right hand. She could lie to them, but she really wanted to talk about it. "Yes, we had the most mind blowing sex." She looked up and almost laughed at the looks on their faces.
"What?" Connie asked. "You're serious, aren't you?"
Marie smiled. "Twice."
"Holy cow," Regan said smiling. "I never would have thought you'd actually go through with it, but twice?"
"We saw the condoms, but didn't know you had them with you," Connie told her.
The doors opened and the girl's walked out into the lobby. It was pretty quiet in the hotel considering it was almost seven in the morning. "I guess my story buying the Tylenol was worthless. Actually, yesterday before we left, I had only put two in my purse."
"Two?" Connie inquired.
Regan put an arm up and was trying to hail a cab. "Why two?"
Marie's hair blew softly behind her when the wind picked up a little. She signed before she began. "There is a chance that a condom will break when it gets put on. Didn't you guys ever experience that?"
Regan shook her head. "I just knew that condoms aren't 100 percent accurate. They do their jobs sometimes. It can't protect you from everything."
Marie nodded. "Right. Well… it happened to Will and I once. I never told you guy's this, but one time with Will, we didn't notice until after and I had a pregnancy scare."
Connie shrieked, "What!"
Marie told them, "I didn't skip a period. Will had blown it off like it wasn't a big deal, like it wasn't a matter of life or death."
A taxi finally pulled up to the curb. The girl's got in, told the driver the address. Regan turned to Marie who was sitting in the middle. "Does Silky know?"
"No," Marie said, "Maybe I'll tell him one day."
"Was that why Will went to Jessica?" Connie asked quietly. "I'm sorry to bring it up."
Marie replied, "Yeah, most of what he said was because I got scared after the incident. I would tell him that a certain position was to risky. That I thought the stuff he wanted to do would make me have another scare."
"So… how was it last night?" Regan asked. "Does the Boston Boy know what he's doing?"
Marie's smile widened. "All I can say is, he certainly does."
"How'd it happen?"
Marie thought back to the night. "I wasn't sure if I was going to do it. He was in the bathroom getting changed, he got excited, because I was wearing one of his t-shirts and boxers."
"Rizzo did that once, also," Regan told them.
Marie and Connie laughed. "What do guys find so attractive in us wearing their clothes?"
"Makes them think about after," the cab driver told them.
All three girls looked at the driver and cracked up. They didn't think he could hear them. "I'm sorry, sir."
"Don't be," he replied. "My first customers of the day, I had to be waken up somehow."
"Glad to have helped," Regan responded.
The cab finally made it to the apartment complex and the girl's exited after paying. They got into the elevator and Marie finished telling them about what happened.
"He did that?" Regan asked.
"Remind me to bring that up to Rob," Connie muttered.
Marie chuckled when the doors opened to the floor. They got their stuff together, said goodbye to Mr. and Mrs. Smith, and went onto their five hour road trip that would end at a cabin they rented in Lake Placid.
vvv
Marie got out of the shower and wrapped a towel around her. She took off the plastic shield on her left hand in order for the cast not to get wet, and grabbed an extra towel to dry her hair. She opened the door to her room and when she looked up, jumped in surprise. Silk was sitting on her bed, waiting patiently, holding the Hobbit. She went over, sat down, and gave him a kiss.
"Do you like it so far?" Silk asked, lifting the book up.
Marie nodded. "I'm enjoying it immensely."
"Have you gotten to Gollum?"
"Yes," she answered. "In the Lord of the Rings, will we see him more?"
Silk smiled. "You're already thinking of the Lord of the Rings?"
"Yeah, because I figure if Bilbo took this ring, it has to have some special meaning to it in order for a three book series," she told him.
Silk kissed her and put an arm around her shoulders. "God, how'd I get so lucky?"
Marie asked, "What do you mean?"
"Well, in college, I was trying to find the perfect girl after my ex. It didn't happen, so I decided to stop looking. Olympic try-outs come and what happens, she comes out of nowhere, looking a little lost like me," he explained. "The thing I can't figure out sometimes is why the other guys did what they did. How could they have treated you like shit?"
Marie tucked a piece of her blonde hair behind her ear. "I'm blonde. You know blondes are supposed to be airheads and all that, well that's why. Will thought I was dumb," she told him. "When Jack and I first met, he hit on me because I'm blonde. Most people don't give me the benefit of the doubt when they first meet me."
"I didn't," he told her. "I knew you were intelligent."
Marie gave him a lopsided smile. "Well, thanks."
"What? Did you want me to say all there?"
Marie shook her head. "Come on, you knew?"
"Rie, you don't have to believe me, but it's true," he replied. "You are magnificent."
Marie smiled. "You're too good for me. By the way, you're not bad yourself."
There was a knock on the door and they called to come in. Regan's head appeared, but her eyes were closed. "I don't hear anything naughty going on, so I guess it's ok to open my eyes."
"You're such a weirdo," Marie called out.
Regan acted offended, but stopped when she chuckled. "Anyway, I wanted to see if you guys wanted to check the town out and then have dinner with us?"
"Sounds like a plan," Marie said. "What do you say, Dave?"
Silk nodded. "Yeah… are we going now?"
"Once Marie gets dressed," Regan said, "unless you guys had other plans that involved staying in?"
"They know about last night?" Silk looked over at Marie.
"I couldn't lie," she told him.
Regan decided to butt in. "Don't worry, Silky. We won't tell anyone."
"Exactly what we did?"
Regan blurted out, "Every single detail. May I say… it's always the quiet ones, and yes girls are worse than guys in a locker room." She left after Marie gave her a look to shut up.
Marie looked over at her boyfriend who was staring at the door. She reached up and turned his face to her. "Are you ok? I didn't want to lie to them."
"I know it was great last night, but I didn't know I was that great," he replied.
Marie chuckled. "The best," she told him before she stood up to go change, but he grabbed her arm to stop her. He stood up, put a finger underneath her chin, and kissed her. She wrapped her arms around him, but after a minute finally headed into the bathroom to change.
Marie stopped in her tracks, focused her camera on some scenery and hit the button. She caught up to the group who stopped to wait for her.
"You know how many roles of film, Marie has? A lot. She bought like twenty packages," Connie told the guys.
Marie explained, "We might be here for two weeks. I'm prepared in case we do a ton of stuff. I already used a role last night at the game."
Connie turned to the group and pointed out a bridal boutique. The guys groaned, the girl's told them they didn't have to come in, but they did. The place was small, but there was quite a collection of dresses, head pieces, and other things. Marie didn't look through the wedding dresses, she just stood back.
Silk wrapped his arms around her and placed his chin down on her shoulder. "Why aren't you looking?"
Marie told him, "I already have a dress."
Silk leaned forward a little to look at her. She turned her head and he asked, "Really? When?"
Marie chuckled at the look on his face. "Don't worry. Not recently. When my grandma Harris died five years ago, her wish for me was to wear her dress."
"It's really pretty," Connie spoke up. "Very 1930s."
Marie whispered, "I love you, but we've been together only seven weeks. It's too early to talk about that. I want to think about us day by day, not twenty years from now."
Silk rested his chin back on her shoulder and wrapped his arms around her tighter. "Me, too. However, I do think about us when we're old and gray."
Marie didn't say anything, but she did smile. She lifted a hand up and lightly tapped his cheek before resting it against his hands. They started to laugh when Rob picked up a garter and started to fling it back and forth with Rizzo.
"You guys are so immature," Silk said.
"The day that Cox got cut, he put his jock strap in Christian's face," Rizzo blabbed.
"What?" Marie laughed. She turned her head back to Silk.
Silk shrugged. "I had a moment of being twelve."
"He says we're immature," Rizzo muttered.
Silk flipped him off only in fun banter before taking Marie's hand and leading her out of the store. They waited out there for the other four. While they were standing there, Tretiak and Mikhailov walked by not really noticing them. Marie took a quick picture of them, walking away. She thought it was a cool picture. When the group finally got back together, they decided to head to dinner.
"Yeah, I forgot to tell you," Silk said to Marie. "The manager got guest passes for you guys. I gave them to Connie."
"Sweet," Marie stated. "Is there any special privileges?"
"Getting into the opening ceremony and sitting in the section reserved for the family and friends," Connie told her. "I asked."
"Also if the team gets farther than everybody thinks we will, you'll already have seats reserved," Rizzo told them. "So you wouldn't have to pay a lot for tickets when it happens."
The fell into a conversation of how was the trip up on both sides, what was it like at "orientation", and the fact that Jack's knee isn't torn and that he's not being sent home. They started to talk about the cabin the girl's rented and the one thing that Marie didn't want to be let out was.
"Is the rent bad?" Rizzo asked.
"No, actually, it's pretty reasonable," Marie answered.
"It should be," Rob said under his breath. "Ow!" He looked over at Connie.
"What's all this about?" Rizzo asked.
Marie took a bite of her rice before looking at Regan and then Connie without looking suspicious. Connie shrugged and went back to eating her meal. Regan without even realizing it rolled her eyes.
"No, seriously. You guys are acting like there's a huge secret," Silk said. "What's the big deal? Is Marie paying for the whole thing?"
Marie looked over at him while taking a sip of her water. Oh man, she thought before she quietly said, "Kind of."
"Kind of?"
"Yeah." she shrugged. Please don't ask anymore questions, she thought.
"The dress wasn't the only thing she inherited," Connie told him. "She decided to treat us to this great adventure."
Shit, she screamed inside. Marie ate a piece of her baked potato because she didn't want to say anything to anybody that she might regret. Seriously, it wasn't anybody's business.
"That is really nice of you," Silk said. "Why didn't you mention it before?"
Marie replied, "Because it wasn't important." She picked up her knife and cut off a piece of her chicken. "So what if I paid for the cabin? So what if I paid for the first three games tickets."
"Marie, it's cool," Rizzo remarked. "Don't get upset about it."
For the rest of the meal, they strayed from that conversation. It hit a nerve in Marie and the guys knew it. After they left the restaurant, Marie and Silk decided to go off on their own. That was when he started to get nosy.
"So how much?" he asked.
Marie stopped in her tracks and when their hands got to that tight embrace, he turned back. "Excuse me?" she asked offended. "That is none of your business. I haven't asked you how much you have."
"I was just curious," he told her.
Marie told him, "I'm only paying for the damn cabin. They're paying for the other stuff. With their jobs do you really think we could afford such a place like that?"
Silk shook his head. "I was just curious."
"Sometimes curiosity kills the cat," she said quietly. "I don't go around parading it because it's nobody's damn, fucking business. You know me. I hate that life."
Silk was about to circle his arms around her when she dropped her hand from his and started to walk away. "Where are you going?"
"Nowhere you will be," she spat out. She headed back to the cabin. When she got there, she went straight to her room. She sat at the edge of her bed and placed her face in her hands. "Son of a bitch," she whispered when she got up and placed around the room. There was a knock on the door and she went to answer it, hoping deep down it was Silk. However it wasn't.
Regan and her talked for about thirty minutes about what happened, sometimes raising their voices because Marie was angry not just at Silk, but also her friends. The friendship was still good, Regan knew she was being a pain in the ass and she apologized for it. When Marie was alone again, she turned her light off and sat in the dark. A few minutes later, she heard a pebble hit the window.
Going over to it cautiously, she saw Silk standing a few feet away. She mouthed, what are you doing? He mouthed back, trying my hardest to be romantic. Marie smiled when he brought out a rose from behind his back. She opened the window to let him crawl in and after they hugged, she pushed him back.
"What the hell?" he asked confused.
Marie crossed her arms. "I wanted to stay mad at you."
"Look… I'm sorry for being rude," he said. "The money you got is none of my business."
"Damn right."
"However, I do think it's cool that you're being a great friend by paying for your best friend's," he told her.
"Thank you."
He stepped forward and they embraced again. He leaned back and kissed her over and over and over again.
"Just so you know. It's enough when after graduate I don't have to apply at an agency right away. I can still work at the bar as long as I want," she told him. "That's all I'm saying."
"Ok," he replied.
Marie smiled and kissed him. She closed the window and locked it. When she turned back to Silk, she was smirking. He tilted his head in amusement when she started unbuttoning her shirt, before taking his off.
