crossways: a jack hughes story

chapter 38

"do you think-"

"NO. no. absolutely not." you frantically reach for your phone.

"look, i'm not even supposed to get my period for another week, so it's not even late." you show jack on your period tracker app.

"are you sure that's accurate though?"

you sigh and frantically walk out of the bathroom. "jack, you're stressing me out!"

"i'm just being realistic!" he shouts from the bathroom.

you slip on your shoes and grab your purse.

"where are you going?"

"where do you think? i'm going to get a test jack!"

"okay sorry. do you want me to come with you?"

"no, stay here. i'll be back in like 10 minutes."

you quickly get in your car and drive to target. you practically run inside until you make it to the family planning aisle. you grab a test and go to self checkout.

"i'm back." you shout as you walk back inside jack's apartment.

"did you get them?" jack asks. you hold up the target bag and go inside the bathroom.

"do you want me to go in there with you?"

"yeah, sure." you and jack both walk into his bathroom.

you chug a bottle of water before you take the test. after taking it, you have to wait 2 minutes. time seems to take forever to pass as you and jack stare at the test, waiting for an answer.

"ugh i can't look anymore."

"do you want me to tell you, or you want to look first?" jack asks.

"just tell me." you say, covering your eyes with your hands.

a minute or so pases until jack finally says something.

"it's uh, uh"

"what is it?!" you shout.

"hang on, it's still loading."

30 seconds pass

"not pregnant. you're not pregnant zoe!"

you and jack both breathe a sigh of relief. jack hugs you.

...

"so when do you go back to school?" jack's sitting on the couch, snacking on a bag of chips.

"oh crap, i completely forgot about school. uh, 3 days." you check the date as you join him on the couch.

"well, that sucks."

3 days later

jack pulls up to the drop off area at the airport. he puts the car in park, opens the trunk, and grabs your suitcase.

you kiss and hug him goodbye, and then do the same routine of walking to your gate as he stands from afar, waving and blowing kisses to you until you're out of view.

...

it's a saturday night, but you feel like staying in. good thing jack plays tonight, you think to yourself.

you make some popcorn and get settled in your bed to watch the game. the devils are playing the maple leafs. the game is fast-paced and physical, guys are shoving other guys into the boards pretty hard.

in the second period, jack shoves mitch marner into the boards pretty good. mitch doesn't like that, so he pushes jack a little. jack pushes him back harder, and it escalates quickly. both of their gloves drop, and they position themselves to get ready to fight. punches are thrown, and both boys sock each other in the face multiple times until the refs break them up. you can see jack mouth "that's what you get for being a jerk to my girl." as they show him skating to the penalty box.

after a 5 minute roughing penalty for both jack and mitch, they come back on the ice, pushing each other even more. this time, mitch slams jack into the boards. jack cross-checks mitch in response, and he falls to the floor. other maple leaf players come to attack jack, but his teammates defend him.

mitch has to be helped off the ice and goes into the dressing room. jack gets put in the penalty box for the time being, but the refs keep discussing for a while.

you can't believe what jack did to mitch. what mitch said to you that day in new york really make jack mad.

after the refs are finished discussing, they announce that jack has been thrown out of the game. the prudential center starts to boo as jack heads to the dressing room shaking his head and throwing his stick against the wall.

you jaw drops, and stays dropped until your mouth gets dry.

after the game, news breaks that jack has been suspended 3 games and fined $50,000.

your jaw drops even more.