Miracle On Ice -Chapter 15- "The last Dance" As the sun begins to rise over London, I roll out of bed and quickly head outside to watch. As I sit outside the porch the sky is still tinted with the hazy night sky. I pull out my phone and look at the time, "Huh, it's only 6:30..." I silently put my phone away as I hear a faint voice behind me. "Yea, why you up so early Troy?" Drew says sitting next to me. I look at him for a second a laugh a little shaking my head. "I just cant sleep, my whole #life I've dreamt of this moment...now..." Drew interrupts me "You never thought it would be so sad..". I look at him and nods silently. Who put it the best way possible. The Olympic is only two weeks long, after that, it's back to real #life, school, and I won't be able to see Aliya ever again. "I.. I love you man" I say slowly say as I blow warm air on my hands. He smiles as he grabs my shoulder "I love you to Cuzin, and don't worry after all of this, I promise I will visit you and Tyler a couple times, It's not that far of a drive...". I look at him and then back at the ground, "I live in Michigan, you live in California, that's a long drive...". Drew looks at me and smiles a little bit, "Troy, we are family, I will make it work!" He stands up and walks inside, "Get some rest, ok" Drew says as he walks back inside. I slowly stand up and stretch, I think for a second as I begin to walk away from the house. I throw on my team U.S.A jacket as I walk to a ring shop, the cold night air burns my face as I walk silently down the street. The sun slowly begins to rise when I finally arrive to the ring shop, I firmly knock on the store door as the manger opens it. "What can I... Wait... Your Troy Ross from the U.S hockey team. What may this pleasure be?" I look at him as I step into his store. "I need a promise ring, the best one money can buy" I say as my voice comes out raspy. The manger quietly thinks for a moment then smiles. "I got it!! Wait here Troy, while I go grab it for you" he begins to walk off as I look around the shop. The store was very small, but had a nice, elegant look to it. The walls where painted a nice maroon and white, while the floor was a nice blanket carpet. Finally after a couple of minutes the manger walks back up to me with a golden ring, the diamond in the middle had a red, blue, and white tint to it. "I think this is the perfect ring you could get, it has the colors of the American flag so Aliya will never forget you" the manger says crossing his arms in pleasure adding in a quick smirk. I laugh a bit and look at the ring, "How did you know this was..." The manger quietly interrupts me. "Everyone knows about you and her. You two are probably the first big love struck story in Olympic History". I smile for a bit as I close the ring case and put it in my pocket. "How much for the ring?" I say pulling out my wallet. The manger grabs a piece of paper and a pen, then hands it to me. "All I want is your signature, and a picture of you giving Aliya the ring so I can use it to advertise." I slightly nod my head as I sign the paper. "It's a deal, thank you for everything" I slowly walk out as I lay a $5000 dollars on his front desk when he isn't looking, by the time I walk outside the sun has fully raised and all of London was awake. By the time I walk back to the mansion the sun is in the middle of the sky, when I open the door, all of the light are off and their is not a person in sight. As soon as I turn on the light of the main room, every single U.S athlete pops out from hiding and shout "Surprise!". I smile as I cover my mouth in shock. Everyone crowds around me and hug me tightly, finally threw the group of people Michael Phelps hugs me and whispers in my ear "I thought you could use a surprise like this for today, the hockey team thought so to." I look at him as I wipe a small tear away from my eye. "Thank you.. For everything" I smile as he walks off and more people hug me. As soon as everyone gets their hugs in Tyler and Drew carry out a big cake in the shape of the American Flag, and with it is every name of the U.S Olympic contestants. I slowly grab my slice of cake as I head back to my room, and lay down on my soft mattress. After a little bit Tyler and Drew both walk into the room and glare at me. "Why aren't you at your party Troy?" Drew says while he crosses his arms. I look up at him then shrug, "I'm just thinking about tonight...that's all..." I look over to Tyler when he opens his mouth. "We'll don't get to depressed, we have the championship game tomorrow against Russia, and we need you in tip-top shape for it" he smirks as he closes his mouth. I stand up and start putting on my dress clothes when I pause. "I promised you guys from the beginning that I wouldn't let anyone get in my way of the gold medal, that promise still stands". They both smile and nod as they leave the room to let me finish getting dressed. As I sit down at the dinner table I look back at everything that has let me up to this. My whole #life I haven't had the best luck with girls, but because of the Olympic; I've met the love of my #life. I entangle my fingers together as a see Aliya walking into the restaurant wearing a beautiful black dress that barely touches the ground. I stand up and hug her tightly as she wraps her arms around my neck. I shortly smile, "You looking amazing Aliya". We let go of each other as we both sit down and order our food. "Can I order the fish special please?" Aliya says to the waiter as he takes her menu. Her Russian accent is still very strong, but over the couple of days it seemed to become less thick. I grab her hand and hold it on the table as we both smile. "So you finally got that fish dinner you wanted?" I say laughing a bit. She blushes and nods "I guess so". As we sit there for a while and gaze into each other eyes, someone creeps up from behind and grabs my shoulder, Aliya's face goes from happy to in shock. I don't turn around when he talks. "I can I speak to you for a second...American!" I could tell who it was from the voice, it was Dimitri. I slowly stand up and walk outside with him when he aggressively pushes me into the cold rain. "I told you to stay away from here, but you Americans never seem to listen" he says crossing his arms angrily. I can see the flashes from cameras go off as I curl a fist. I slowly walk out of the rain and I get right in his face. "She likes me, not you! You want revenge on me, take it out tomorrow, but not tonight... Tonight is for me and her" I firmly walk past him hitting him with my shoulder. As I walk back inside, I wipe the water off my face and feel the stitches on my lip from when I fought him last time. Something in my mind tells me I'm not going to win the fight tomorrow. After we finish eating we walk outside and walk around, the air is still cold from the rain shower that just pasted. We walk around In complete silence when I grab her hand and stop in the middle of a open field. She looks at me when I pull out the promise ring. "These two weeks I've spent with you have been amazing, and I'm not really good with goodbyes... But I don't want this to be goodbye, just a "I will see you soon" so with this ring..." I open the ring box and put the ring on her finger "...I promise to love you every second, of everyday, I promise to find no other girl as good as you. And with this ring, I promise to love you till the end of time" I let go of the ring as she hugs me. "I got you something to Troy" she says as I feel her let go of me, slowly she pulls out a full golden male promise ring, with small writing on the inside. She puts it around my finger when she smiles. "On the inside of it, it was "Miracles can happen" I'm pretty sure you know who #quoted that". I look at the ring as I think for a second. I never really thought about it, but she made a good point. Over these past 7 months of hard work, I've turned into a hero, even a role model. People look up to me to make the right choices. "Thank you Aliya" I pull her close as I kiss her for what feels like minutes when cameramen take pictures after pictures. When I walk her to her plane, emotions swarm me like how blood flows from a fresh cut. I bite my lip trying not to cry when she lets go of my hand and walks onto the private jet. She turns around and faces me when gets on the entrance. I try to smile when I have good bye. She swiftly wipes away a tear. She blows me a kiss which I catch and throw in my pocket as she walks onto the plane. I look at the ground as I shuffle my way back to the U.S house. Tomorrow is the biggest hockey game of my #life... Tomorrow is the day that miracles are made for.