The Hockey Star and the Ice Princess (Complete)

Ch. 23 - Crush

Rachel left the studio and saw Laney up ahead, running down the long hallway and into the bathroom and she rushed after her, walking inside and hearing sobs coming from a closed stall. 

"Laney?" Rachel whispered, putting her hand up against the stall door. "Is everything okay?"

"No! Go away!" Laney shouted, sobbing harder and blowing her nose, struggling to catch her breath. 

"I don't understand," she said softly. "Why are you upset about me being Coach Reed's girlfriend?" 

Laney didn't answer at first because she was too choked up and fighting to catch her breath and then she attempted to say a couple words but Rachel couldn't understand any of them. 

"Slow down. I can't understand you," she said softly. 

A little bit of time went by and finally Laney sniffled and said with a quivering voice, "I'm upset because I'm in love with him." 

Rachel's eyes widened in shock. "You're in love with Cain?" she asked. Then suddenly she had a sick feeling in the pit of her stomach. 

"Laney," she said hesitantly, scared to hear the answer. "Has anything ummmm. Has anything ever happened between you and Cain? Has he ever kissed you or touched you or anything?" 

Laney sniffled a few more times.  "No" she cried. "I wish he had. He doesn't even know I exist." 

Rachel let out a sigh of relief. If she had found out her twenty four year old boyfriend had done inappropriate things with her sixteen year old little sister she would have flipped out. More than flipped out. She would have killed him. She was so relieved it was just a crush."

"Laney," Rachel said, leaning her back against the wall of the bathroom and crossing her arms across her chest. "You know it's pretty common for teenage girls to have crushes on older guys. When I was sixteen I had a crush on Mr. O'Leery. He was a twenty five year old teacher's assistant in my Math class and he was SO hot," she laughed at the memory, shaking her head. "He was from California and he was a surfer and he literally looked like a male model. I used to sit in class and stare at him and I would start daydreaming and then the class would be over and I'd realize I had no idea what we were even learning about. That was the only time I ever almost flunked math," she laughed. 

"Really?" Laney sniffled. "So what happened?" 

"Nothing happened. Mr. O'Leery was way too old for me. If something had happened it would have been really bad. He would have lost his job and gone to jail for messing with a minor and my skating career would've been ruined by a scandal. It would've screwed up my entire life," she said with a sigh. "and his."

There was silence and a minute later Rachel heard the click of the stall and Laney came out with her eyes all red and puffy, wiping her tears away with some toilet paper. 

Rachel wrapped her arms around her and gave her a hug, holding her tight. 

"I'm sorry," she whispered, rubbing her back. "I know exactly how you feel. They're called crushes for a reason. They leave you feeling like your heart's been crushed under someone's shoe," Rachel said, pulling back and giving Laney a sympathetic look, raising her hand and wiping her tears away. 

Laney wiped her nose on a Kleenex and sniffled, taking a deep breath in and letting it out with a sigh. 

"The logical part of my brain knows we aren't right for each other but my heart doesn't listen to my brain," she said sadly, sniffling. 

"Yeah hearts and brains don't usually get along. That doesn't change no matter how old you get. Kind of like how I said I wasn't going to date until after the Olympics."