crossways: a jack hughes story

chapter 12

you get out of the shower and see jack laying down in his bed, scrolling through his phone. the bruises from the night before are starting to be more prominent, jack's upper face all black and blue.

"how bad does your nose hurt?" you ask jack, putting on some leggings and a big t-shirt.

"eh, not that bad, a little sore but i'm good." jack says, moving his nose back and forth.

"don't move it like that! you're gonna make it worse." you yell.

"are you my nurse now?" jack asks.

"i can be." you smirk.

"oh, what's that supposed to mean?" jack says as he smiles at you.

butterflies are swarming around in your stomach and your mouth gets dry as you choke out,  "oh nothing." and walk back into the bathroom to blow dry your hair.

you're flying back to florida later tonight to visit your family for about a month, and you'd rather stay here with jack, but your parents and brother miss you. you're more excited to see your dog zeus than anyone else.

"what do you wanna do today?" jack asks you.

"oh i don't know, we can do whatever." you say, finishing up your eyeliner.

"you're pretty." jack tells you as he wraps his arms around your waist, hugging you from behind.

"you too." you say. jack makes a dorky little smile that you adore as you giggle.

"take a picture of us. we look like a pinterest board right now." jack says. you snap a mirror pic of you two and send it to jack.

"i have an idea of what we could do." jack says, undoing his arms from your waist.

"wanna tell me?" you ask.

"we should go golfing, it's what hockey players do in the off season, and i think you need to experience it." jack says.

"sure, but i need to change my outfit first." you say, grabbing clothes out of your already packed suitcase and push jack out of the bathroom and close the door.

"what, why? you looked fine zoe." jack says through the door. you walk out wearing a white nike tennis skirt, a lululemon tank top, and your white tennis shoes.

"see, now i'm ready to golf." you smile.

jack laughs and says, "you're so cute."

jack drives you to the golf course he always goes to. after going up to the front desk, jack rents a cart, clubs, and balls. the workers pack up the cart with everything you'll need, and jack tips them when they're done.

jack hops in the drivers seat and you go to the passenger. jack starts the golf cart up, and begins the drive to the first hole. jack parks the cart and grabs both of the caddy's and carries them over to where the start of the course is. he didn't want the workers to help with the caddy's, he wanted it to be just the two of you.

jack sets up his ball and hits it, landing close to the hole. it's your turn. you set up the ball, and begin to swing, but jack stops you.

"here let me show you." jack says as he stands behind you, helping you swing and landing your ball close to his.

"thanks." you say, getting back into the cart as jack drives closer to where the balls.

jack helped you out on the next couple holes, but then you started hitting better and he was impressed. you're not the best golfer, but you've done it before and you wanna beat jack. 18 holes later, and jack is tallying up the scores.

"so you got 72, and i got"...jack pauses as he re counts his, "69! yes! i win!"

jack puts both arms in the air, as he turns around and points to his back, like he does when he scores a goal, except he's not in his jersey pointing to 'hughes'.

"oh whatever. next time i'll win." you say.

"we'll maybe we could play again tonight, maybe i'll get the same score again." jack gives you a face, as you roll your eyes.

"i'll be on a plane, remember? to florida."

"oh yeah, i forgot." jack says, his shoulders dropping.

you both get back in the golf cart, and after dropping off the cart and clubs, you head back to jack's car.

"what time is your flight again?"

"6:15." you say, double checking on your airline app.

"okay, we have some time. wanna get ice cream?" jack asks, giving you another big giant smile you can't say no to.

"yeah sure. you might have two giant black eyes but you're still so cute." you say.

"are they really that bad?" jack asks, flipping the sun visor down and opening the mirror so he can look at himself.

"oh wow, those are pretty purple." he says. you snap a picture of jack looking at his eyes in the mirror and one of him smiling at you.

"i'll send these to carly, she asked how you were doing."

"oh did she watch the game last night?" asks jack.

"yeah, her and cole did."

after getting ice cream, you head back to jack's apartment.  you got a cone of red velvet cake, and jack got a waffle bowl of rocky road.

there's only one more game left in the regular season, and the canadiens are going to the playoffs, so carly is staying with cole for the playoff run.

you do some last minute packing and get ready to leave for the airport.

after saying goodbye to jack at the airport, you get on your flight.

you finally arrive back at your parents house. you knock on the front door, and you're welcomed by your mom. she hugs you tight, and you put all your stuff down. zeus comes right over, and you say hi to him. your dad and brother are both on the couch, so you join them. after getting caught up about college and everything else going on in your life, they ask you about jack. your brother wants to know all his hockey skills, while your parents make sure he's treating you right. you facetime jack and you let everyone get to talk to him.

you go up to your room around 9 pm. it's emptier than usual, and it feels weird to be back. you see you have a few texts from carly and jack. carly's text says; cole held my hand today and i didn't absolutely hate it.
you laugh as you know she's not super touchy and type back, aww finally doing couple things with your boyfriend. proud of you.
carly types back, we're not dating
whatever you say.

you open jack's text.
you left your jacket on my bed.

oh crap, sorry

it's fine, i'll give it back when i see you. i'll sleep with it next to me and pretend you're here.

you almost type love you but your eyes go wide and you quickly hit delete. you do love jack but you're not entirely in love with him yet. you instead type back, you dork

you text jack and carly the rest of the night, and go to bed around midnight. you fall asleep to the sound of zeus snoring and dream of jack.