Page 58 of You Had Me at Hockey

“From that hit last night? Jesus, that scared the shit out of me.”

“I’m fine.”

“It didn’t look like it at the time! And then that asshole came after you and wanted to fight? What the hell was that?”

“He had to do it. I hit one of his teammates. We have to stand up for one another.”

“That’s crazy. No wait, that’s kind of nice. But I don’t want to see you fight.”

“I don’t fight very often.” I hear the smile in his voice. “But I can’t make any promises.”

“Yeesh.”

“How are you doing?”

“Ah. Crappy.” I pout. “I just had a meeting with Harper and I feel…I don’t know. Pissed.”

“Why?”

I tell him about the things she said, about wanting me to change my image. My brand. “Because I’m getting older,” I say bitterly. “My fans are getting older. Except I’m not sure that’s true. I mean, some of them are. The ones who’ve been with me since I started. But I know I get new fans all the time, younger girls…” I sigh and rake a hand through my hair. “I don’t know. She’s the expert.”

“You’rethe expert on you,” he says.

I relax a little. I got wound up, recounting my conversation with Harper. “I guess I am.”

“The thing people love about you is you’re real,” he says. “You need to stay real.”

“So you don’t think I need to change?”

“Hey, I’m not giving you advice. I know nothing. I’m just saying, you need to be yourself. Sure, the things that interest you, that you want to talk about, will change as you get older. You’ll start talking about wrinkle creams instead of acne cures.”

I laugh.

“But I think you should do that when youwantto do that.”

“There are lots of other vloggers out there doing what I do.” I sigh. “I was unusual and unique at first. Now, not so much. Maybe I do need to change things up.”

“You’ll always be unique.”

“Aw. Thank you. I mean…is that good?”

“Yeah. That’s good.”

I smile.

“You told me…way back when we first met, about a year ago—”

I laugh. But he’s right. It does feel like I’ve known him a long time.

“That you’re giving people something by just being yourself.”

I slouch lower into the couch. “Yeah. That’s right.”

“I forget exactly what you said…you’re giving them the message it’s okay to be themselves, to not be perfect.”

I nod, nibbling my bottom lip. “Yes. Yes.” I sigh. “Thank you for reminding me of that. I got all rattled. Sometimes I need to just chill and think things through. Thank you for helping me.”

“Hey, anytime.”

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