Chapter Text
Foreword by the author, LMAO:
I feel like this chapter almost wrote itself. So much to unpack, so many things to cover! I actually look forward to seeing the final, edited version of this printed on paper. It makes everything so much more real than when I simply think about it in my head.
Without further ado, I will start right at the beginning.
_____
Saturday, 30th October, 2021.
10:15 a.m.
I have a new favorite person: Yuna Hollander.
I will try to steal her from Shane to be my future manager!
Yuna is a force to be reckoned with. She is quite scary. Just like her son.
If you didn’t know Shane Hollander, you’d never believe how intense he could get with a snap of his fingers when the situation required it. The situation could be fighting for a puck in the corner in the last minute of the third period or simply telling me I should be more careful when I washed laundry. Like the last time I was on laundry duty. I accidentally put his old red Montreal sock in the washing machine with otherwise white laundry. You can imagine the effect.
Back to Yuna Hollander.
I think I didn’t do her justice. She is sharp as a needle and not afraid to get pointy with me!
LOL
The mother and son share the same dry wit that is almost unintentionally funny.
David Hollander, on the other hand, is a mystery to me. He doesn’t speak much, but he has kind eyes and seems to be a good listener.
Kind of like Shane too.
I should have probably started with this:
Shane’s parents visited the Hollander-Rozanov household on the morning of the Halloween party.
Yuna told me Shane had decided that I was in charge of the party decorations since I had an artistic eye for it.
I blushed.
They handed me boxes of Halloween decorations. Unfortunately, some of the decorations were quite ancient (read: from Shane’s childhood), so I might have to go and buy some extra ones. I thanked them and promised to do my best to bring Halloween to life.
Yuna then sat me down to have a cup of coffee with them. I never say no to coffee. She completely owned the kitchen, and I was the one who lived there, not her!
I said I was sorry they had missed Shane and Ilya. They had some captaining to do with the coaching staff. The pair had responsibilities that they took seriously.
Yuna said she could see her sons whenever she wanted. I loved that she thought of Ilya as her son too.
Then she said she was more curious about me.
“Tell me about Luca. Who is he?”
I must have balked a bit because David laughed at that and told me not to be intimidated by his wife.
We actually had a nice chat together. I tried to pry information about Shane and Ilya’s Halloween costumes.
She told me that, obviously, they knew but were not allowed to tell me. She did tell me she had put her sewing machine to work, as she had made the costumes. Apparently the idea behind the costumes had gone over her head, but she’d really enjoyed flexing her handiwork muscles for a good cause.
Now I was dying to see what C and A would be wearing.
David asked what my costume would be.
I debated briefly whether I should tell them.
One look from Yuna and I gave in.
The Hollanders were overjoyed. Yuna even gave me some tips to make the effect more authentic.
She is a gem!
An hour later, I was left to start the decorating. I did pop out the door to get some pre-carved pumpkins and lanterns. I also made a Spotify playlist with suitably spooky music that was on theme but not too on the nose.
Then I cleaned everything the guests might set their eyes on.
I wanted it to be a nice surprise for the menfolk.
Shane and Ilya didn’t come back until around four p.m., and they were really impressed with everything.
Shane even gave me a sideways hug and said, “Thank you, Luca.” He complimented my work and said everything looked so much better than he had ever been able to imagine.
Ilya said I deserved a raise.
Very funny.
After a quick snack, they went upstairs to shower and get ready for the night.
I put the mood mix on, poured myself a glass of wine, and went to get ready too.
For future reference, these were the songs on my spooky playlist:
1. Thriller
2. Heads Will Roll
3. Disturbia
4. Somebody’s Watching Me
5. Superstition
6. Bad Moon Rising
7. Season of the Witch
8. Toxic
9. Monster Mash
10. Ghostbusters
_____
5:00 p.m.
Mia came in next.
She messaged me that she was outside and asked if it was okay to come in. She was a bit early, an hour early, really. I still wasn’t fully dressed, but it was okay. At least I had showered already.
I let her in.
She said “wow” about a hundred times as we walked through the house. It wasn’t just the decorations, obviously. She said she was nervous about attending her first-ever NHL party.
I told her we were just regular people.
She said she knew that, but it still felt funny.
She hadn’t even thought about it until her dad had said something like, quote, he was jealous that she was getting to see behind the scenes of the sports news, end quote.
That was so Mia. She didn’t even follow hockey before she got to know me.
I told her not to worry. After a few drinks she would forget all about it. I told her she’d love the Centaurs. She said she had no doubt. She already knew Evan T, as he had been dating her friend (read: unfortunately, past tense).
I poured her wine and topped up my own glass too.
I was a bit tipsy already.
In my room I proceeded to say multiple “wows” of my own as she took off her coat. Her Ripley costume was amazing! She had a skin-colored face-hugger attached to her chest. It was nasty! The utility suit she wore looked suitably dirty and futuristic. I could totally believe she was a space traveler.
She kicked her legs absentmindedly as she sat on my bed while I pulled on the final part of my costume.
“No way!” she said when she saw what I was dressed as.
“Yes way!” I said. “Do you like it?”
“You are seriously dressing up as your landlord and captain? As Shane fucking Hollander?”
“I am. And not just as him. As Sochi Olympic gold medalist Shane Hollander.”
My costume was a collection of the real thing. I had snooped around the house enough to find everything I needed. I wore Shane’s Team Canada Sochi jersey with his signature number 24 over my own hockey padding. I also wore his authentic golden captain helmet.
I had taped my hockey stick to resemble the one Shane had used during the Olympics. I even wrote Mum ❤️ on it, as Yuna instructed. She had told me that the devil lives in the details, after all.
The only thing missing was the actual gold medal. I didn’t dare touch that!
And the skates, of course. That would have simply been crazy off the ice.
Far better than my juvenile ghost costume from last year.
“So cool,” Mia/Ripley cooed.
“You know what you still need?”
“What?”
“Freckles.” She pulled her makeup bag from her handbag. “C’mere. I’ll make you as pretty as him.”
I went.
_____
6:15 p.m.
I was a lot more tipsy by the time we went downstairs.
It felt like the evening was full of possibilities. Exciting!
At first I wasn’t sure what I was looking at when I saw Ilya and Shane in the kitchen.
Shane wore dark blue tight-ish pants and a shirt of velvety material. He had about a hundred buttons on his sleeves from shoulders to wrists. The shirt went up to his chin, completely covering his neck. He wore long black leather boots that could have been some type of horse-riding boots.
And he had an exquisite crown on top of his head.
The costume looked expensive and fancy in a way that didn’t scream homemade. It looked like designer clothing. WOW.
Didn’t think Yuna was so skilled the way she talked about “her handicraft.”
As I stared, Shane smiled at me widely. Obviously thinking I already knew the reference.
I blinked and blinked, but I still didn’t get it.
It wasn’t until Ilya stepped from behind his husband that I finally understood.
Ilya’s costume didn’t cover much at all.
He only had a small cloth in front of his nether area. And a short cape of sorts over his shoulder. The material in both was brown and silky. His skin was oiled and there was a lot of it in sight. I gaped at him.
He was revealing a lot more muscle than he did last year when he was dressed as a gladiator.
I briefly wondered if he’d leave stains on the furniture after being so well oiled.
Then I imagined Shane oiling Ilya’s skin.
What stopped my train of thought was the neck piece. And the chain. Both golden in color. The same as Shane’s crown.
Shane had a hold of the leash.
“Uh…” I said when the realization hit me.
They were dressed as Prince Laurent of Vere and enslaved King Damianos of Akielos from Captive Prince.
Just with their own hair. Thank God no wigs. (Read: I hate wigs, that’s why I wore a helmet.)
“UH-huh…” I tried again, a familiar heat creeping up my cheeks.
“Shouldn’t you get dressed already?” Shane said.
“I am. Dressed, that is,” I said, turning around to point out the obvious. As I did a full spin and turned back to face the captains, I was still unable to believe what I was seeing.
“Ah,” Shane said in a snotty way that would totally fit Laurent’s behavior.
My fantasies come true.
All my fantasies come true in the same beautiful package.
It was A—M—A—Z—I—N—G.
“He’s you. I did his freckles,” a female voice interrupted my meltdown. “I’m Mia, Luca’s friend. Hi.”
“Hello,” Shane said, holding out his hand to Mia. “I’m Shane, or actually Prince Laurent for tonight.”
I sighed internally. The fairest prince of them all. (Even with his natural black hair.)
Ilya introduced himself next. “Just call me Damen,” he said.
“What a great costume,” Shane complimented Mia, or Ripley, that is.
“Thank you,” she said, then asked who they were, as she didn’t get the reference.
“Captive Prince,” I croaked, then took another swig of wine.
“Oh, isn’t that the book you’ve been raving about since we met?”
I probably flushed even more.
“It is brilliant!” Ilya said. “You should read it.”
“You can borrow my copy,” Shane said.
“Right,” I said as the doorbell rang. “I’ll get it.”
Anya was already barking at the door in her unicorn/unidog costume.
As I left the room, I realized that neither Shane nor Ilya had said anything about my costume.
It stung a bit.
_____
7:30 p.m.
Maybe one hour later the Hollander-Rozanov house was packed with people and the party was in full swing. Everyone brought something to eat and drink with them.
Ilya had told us a few days before that he didn’t want all the hassle that went into catering and that he preferred a more informal party.
Shane had wanted a caterer.
Mine had been the swing vote. Ilya had then sent a message to everyone who had RSVP’d to bring drinks and food, whatever they liked.
Now we had lots of it.
A bar full of booze.
Evan Dykstra and his wife, dressed as characters from The Flintstones, were making Halloween cocktails and mocktails for anyone who wanted one.
I wanted.
I got.
My drink had sour candy in it and vodka, obviously. And probably orange juice. It looked nasty but tasted surprisingly good.
I was getting sloshed, not going to lie.
Someone had already hijacked my Spotify playlist and song after song of rap music was playing.
There was a dance battle going on between Wyatt and his wife. It was hilarious! Wyatt was dressed as a Man in Black from Men in Black, and his wife was some kind of hot alien lady. I loved it.
I probably cheered too.
Then Cowboy-Boodram got annoyed with the rap music. Eminem had probably been the last straw. He put on country music.
The dance floor emptied really quickly. I felt bad for him, so I pulled Mia to dance with me when “Jolene” came on. We laughed so hard as we tried to dance to it western style. Eventually other Centaurs dared to join us.
A few sad songs later, everyone protested against another Dolly Parton song and my Halloween playlist was put back on.
It was Shane/Laurent who did it. He smiled at me when he noticed I saw him doing it.
Then he pulled his husband, Damen, by his collar to the dance floor and proceeded to dance goofily with him. I didn’t actually believe Shane had it in him. It was all probably Ilya’s influence.
I didn’t want to focus too much on the happy couple, so I took Mia by the hand and introduced us around. There were a lot of new-to-me faces there. But it was a party, so it was almost a requirement.
Evan T was playing a drinking game with Evan C, who obviously was invited too, even after being dropped to the farm league. I ended up joining them. They were dressed as conjoined twins.
What made it even funnier was that they looked nothing alike. Their dates were dressed as some kind of fish. Mia told me later they were supposed to be mermaids.
RIGHT.
A few drinks later with the Evans, Mia had me eat some pizza and she tried to make me drink water too. But I was having way too much fun with my teammates to take her offerings very seriously.
At one point I remember that we had a serious discussion about the costumes and how awesome the characters Laurent and Damen were and how much I wanted to kiss someone.
Dykster, sorry, Dykrstra, fuck. Let’s just call him Evan D.
(Read: Evan Dykstra, hard one to pronounce when you are sloshed.)
So Evan D heard me whine for a kiss as he walked by and said he didn’t want to kiss me.
I blew him one anyway.
He stuck out his tongue and wiggled it in a dirty way, which made Mia and me giggle.
Mia and I talked more about who the most kissable people at the party were. Then I probably overshared a lot of things that should have stayed private.
Evan D looked like he got another earful as he made a funny face when he brought us more drinks.
At some point during the evening, Mia’s face-hugger was taped on top of my helmet.
I was fed more pizza between glasses of the best wine I had ever tried. Someone had great taste in wine. It was probably expensive too.
Another bottle of wine and many shots of tequila later, I was certain this was better than Halloween 2020. I had thought that was epic. I had been wrong!
This was The Epic Halloween Party I had been dreaming of.
_____
11:05 p.m.
No, that can’t be right.
It was past midnight.
I was just chatting with Harris, my favorite Centaurs-related person.
He is so special, so special.
Troy is special too, such a great player.
They were dressed as, hmmm, I forgot what.
We were just making plans for tomorrow’s TikTok video. About how we should dress up Anya and Chiron and me and Troy. What we’d do on the ice.
I had ideas. Harris wrote them down on his phone.
There was a serious debate going on about the possible editing choices when Shane interrupted us.
“Harris, Troy,” he said. “Sorry, Sherlock and Watts, I’m going to steal away young Luca here.”
”Oh, right, Sherlock and Watts,” I said happily.
“Ilya is waiting upstairs.”
“Upstairs?” I repeated as I trailed after him.
“Luca, focus,” he said. “You have been avoiding us all evening.”
“I have?”
“Yes, since the first guests arrived.”
“Oh,” I said drunkenly, I admit. “Am I in trouble?”
“No, just follow me. Ilya is already waiting for you. We have a surprise for you.”
I waggled my eyebrows at him, then realized he didn’t see me do it as he had his back to me. I laughed at my own idiocy. Best night ever!
And about to get better!
Laurent and Damen had a surprise for me!
I followed him up the stairs. Mia just grinned and waved at me as I went past her and kept on dancing with a policeman. It was probably Coach Wiebe. Or not.
Once we were at the office door, Shane opened it, pulled me in, and closed the door behind us.
I stumbled a bit when I tried to take everything in all at once.
Ilya was there as promised. He said immediately, “Happy birthday!”
I quacked.
Then hiccupped.
Shane looked at me with much more annoyance than he had before.
“Just how drunk are you?” he asked.
“Who, me? It’s a party,” I said slurringly. “How did you know it’s my birthday?”
“Your mum told us,” Ilya said. “Ilona and Gerald were sorry they missed a second of your birthdays in a row. So happy twenty-third birthday from them too.”
Shane handed me a birthday gift from my parents.
I tore the wrappers away in a hurry. It was a family photo of me, my parents, and my little sister, Corinna. Last summer in Zurich. In a really nice frame.
“Oh.”
I hiccupped again. “When, how…?”
“We had the picture printed and framed,” Ilya explained. “Shane gift-wrapped it.”
“But it is from your family,” Shane clarified.
“Oh,” I said again and looked at the hastily discarded wrapping paper now littering the floor.
The room started to spin and a wave of nausea hit me. I swallowed it down.
“Maybe you should slow down with the drinks,” Shane said.
“Right, thank you for the advice. Much appreciated.”
Hiccup.
“The boy wouldn’t appreciate the gift if we gave it to him now.”
That was Ilya.
I leaned against the desk for important reasons.
“I want all the pressies,” I admitted. “Gimme.” I made grabby hands at them.
Shane sighed.
“We got you these. We thought you might enjoy them as you lost almost all of your art supplies in the fire.”
He nudged a case of what looked to be Derwent Inktense pencils toward me, unwrapped.
“Wow,” I said. “Thank you?”
“It’s not much,” Shane said.
“You didn’t have to…” was all I could say before another hiccup turned into a full-blown puke.
On the jersey I was wearing.
Shane’s Olympic gold-medal jersey.
An heirloom.
The one that he hadn’t acknowledged at all.
The captains gasped in unison.
Then I threw up again, catching most of it in my hands. The vomit spreading everywhere from between my fingers.
“Oh my God!” I panicked. “Sorry, sorry, sorry!”
“Is okay,” Ilya said. “Luca, we need to get you to the bathroom.”
Shane wrung his hands in front of me, his nose scrunched up with disdain.
“I’ll take care of it,” Ilya continued as he saw Shane’s disgust. “Go get some change of clothes for him. I think a new shirt will do.”
“Okay,” Shane said and vanished from the room like a fairy when I blinked.
Ilya led me to the master bedroom and ensuite bathroom. He helped me clean up.
“Sorry, sorry, sorry,” I kept saying like a mantra. It was so shameful.
“He was just shocked,” Ilya said. “Don’t worry about it.”
I might have cried a little.
“Oh, Luca. Is a mess. Don’t worry.”
He probably did worry because his accent was so thick.
“I ruined Shane’s jersey.”
“Yes…”
There was no denying it. More hot tears burned my eyes, but I fought them off.
“It was a great thing you did,” he said then.
I didn’t understand what he meant. I needed to get the dirty clothes off as I was certain I was all but ready for another round of nausea.
“Lucky we got pictures too,” he said.
“Pictures?” It didn’t make any sense.
A loud barf came out of me. I snorted. Because it was funny.
Ilya didn’t laugh. He just said, “Okay, let’s get rid of all this.”
I gently put away the golden helmet that now had a large face-hugger semi-permanently (I hoped) taped to it. Ilya helped me out of the jersey and the protective pads underneath it.
I shivered with cold as I washed my face, errant tears and the freckles away. It still hurt that neither Ilya nor, especially, Shane had said anything about my costume.
I had spent so much time trying to make it a great surprise for them.
A tribute even.
Not for the rest of the Centaurs, but for them.
For Shane.
Everyone else had said it had been clever.
Yuna and David had loved my idea.
Mia had been downright thrilled.
Had I embarrassed my captains? Was that it?
“I’m sorry,” I mumbled again as that seemed to be all I was able to say. “Tut mir leid…”
That was when Shane walked in.
“Do you think you are done throwing up?” he asked.
“No,” I answered with as much honesty as I could muster.
“Okay,” he said. “I’ll sit with you a bit. Ilya, will you leave us, please?”
“Yes, I’ll go see if the party is winding down yet.”
I sat down on the bathroom floor and hugged the toilet seat.
“Let it all out,” Shane said.
I did.
After half an hour or more, I was finished. The porcelain was painted with a variety of colors. A slice of pepperoni floated on top of everything.
I was ashamed of the smell.
I was ashamed of everything.
“C’mere,” Shane instructed and peeled a new toothbrush out of its package. “Brush your teeth.”
I brushed.
I looked at myself in the mirror. I had helmet hair. My eyes were bloodshot.
My upper body was bare. I felt naked.
Shane gave me a wet towel to wipe myself with. “I think a shower would not be a great idea before tomorrow.”
“Okay.”
Shane then led me to my own room and put something white and fluffy over my shoulders. I shivered at his touch.
“Ready for bed?” he asked as he placed a tall glass of water on the night table. And a few pills that looked like painkillers.
Someone was scratching at the door.
Anya.
Shane let her in.
Anya jumped immediately on the bed next to me, still wearing her silly horn. I petted her clumsily.
“Shane,” I said, “forgive me.”
“Nothing to forgive.”
“Shane…”
“Shhh,” he said. “Just sleep now.”
He brushed my forehead with his fingertips.
I tried to let him know something. I had to tell him. It was urgent.
“Shane,” I tried again.
Shane leaned over me, probably to hear me better.
“Luca,” he whispered, “I didn’t quite catch that.”
After that I probably blacked out because that is the last thing I remember from The Epic Halloween Party.
_____
Nothing more to add. I already wrote everything down as best as I could remember from my drunken-ass evening. Mia has since filled me in. As have Shane and Ilya.
Also, there really is photographic evidence. Like a million pictures circulating in the team group chat.
After seeing the evidence, it is safe to say that the Halloween Party 2021 truly was even more epic than the previous year’s party.
The best part: Shane was here with us.
Ilya would probably agree with me.
_____
I hope I’m not going to be too busy to write the Aftershocks chapter in the next week or so. Until it is finished,
I’ll just keep up with the regular journals of my hockey boy’s life.
What I still have to look forward to this November:
1. Full schedule of games, both home and away (Florida!!!)
2. Coffee date with Mia (I’ll have to tell her Jensen and I were not meant to be.)
3. Troy and Harris’ housewarming party (they are moving in together)
4. Hayden’s visit (Fuck him. He decided to move his Grand Audience to an earlier date when Montreal is playing against us. He’ll be staying over for a night. Talk about sleeping with the enemy… I’m still hoping something comes up and the visit is cancelled.)
5. We are going to the cottage! (A super short weekend trip to Shane’s favorite place. I have only seen it in a YouTube video that Ilya linked me. The married couple mostly stay there during the summer, but Mr. Real Estate, courtesy of Ilya, has been bemoaning how much he misses it and hoping he could eventually live there permanently. I can’t see that happening before he retires. Still, it’ll be cool to see it, and I feel privileged that they want to take me with them.)
6. The new C.S. Pacat novel Dark Rise will finally be released!
Lastly, I want to applaud myself for not jumping the gun with these chapters. I tend to rush things, so it’s been a learning curve. The memoir chapters really need time to brew before they come out the way they should.
I feel like I’m exploring different aspects of authorship with every chapter. Most importantly, I enjoy digging deep within myself.
Who knows what I have in me?
Time will tell.