holy ground [j.h]

Chapter 1

"Hey Elena." he said so nonchalantly, but I choked on air as he addressed me. My knee jutted out to the side to make contact with Caroline because how could he just speak to me out of nowhere? Is he trying to fucking kill me dead in the middle of the Beecher family's kitchen?

"Hey, Jack." I said trying to keep my voice even, but I could feel my cheeks heat up as we made eye contact. I hate everything. 

We were talking about the boys upcoming season, and they all seemed pretty excited for it. We were hearing the highlights of the night's practice, when Caroline decided now was the time to chirp them. 

"You guys are talking a big game about this season, when I could still take you."

I laughed at her comment, turning to face Jack. A wave of confidence washed over me in that moment, courtesy of Caroline. "Are you just gonna take that shit, Captain?" I teased quietly, tilting my head on the last word. Jack opened his mouth to speak but was beat by an enraged Alex.

"No. Absolutely not. This is blasphemy." He declared, slamming his hands on the table. Jack looked wildly confused and much to my surprise, he leaned in dangerously close to my ear.

"Blasphemy? What does that mean?" I could feel his breath on the side of my neck and I had to take a pretty deep inhale to try to remain calm. I leaned down to his ear, the scent of his Abercrombie and Fitch cologne filling up nose and clouding my brain for a minute. 

"It means like, not true." I said as assuredly as I could manage, whispering back to him. It was weird to do something so intimate obviously in front of everyone, and I could feel a blush fan across my cheeks once again. 

Jack nodded confidently at my words, offering me a fist bump under the table, which I obviously reciprocated. If a top NHL draft prospect offers you a fist bump, you accept the fist bump. "Yeah. Blasphemy."

"Jack, you just had to ask Elena what that word meant. Shut up." Caroline said, making everyone at the table laugh. I patted his knee under the table, turning to face him once again.

"It's okay Jack." I smiled at him, and he returned the favor. It lingered for a moment as neither of us wanted to be the one to turn away, but upon hearing Trevor and Caroline's exchange, I had to do it. 

"Is that so?." Trevor said confidently to her, and my jaw pretty much dropped. That was flirting. In broad daylight. That was definitely new too, but Caroline was doing impressively well in the situation. Leave it to Johnny to kill the flirting mood and turn the conversation back to hockey, talking about all of the road trips the team had planned. His trip of choice to discuss was Boston, and everyone was getting involved. 

"I love Boston, I can't wait for that one." I smiled. Caroline and I had already talked about it with our parents, we were going on every road trip with the boys. Of course Care was going, and it would be absurd for me to be home without literally any of my friends. 

"Wait, you're coming to Boston?" Jack asked, capturing my eyes. His eyes were, shockingly, wide with... happiness? He was happy that I was coming to Boston?

"Mhm. If that's okay with you, Captain?" I teased, smiling at him with raised eyebrows.

"That is definitely okay with me." He smiled back, and took a pause. "Are you coming to just Boston, or anywhere else? We have lots of road trips like all over the place." He rambled.

"I'm actually coming on all of the roadies, with Care." 

"Oh! That-that's cool. Really cool. Can't wait." He said, and even I couldn't miss the excitement creeping into his voice.

"Yeah I'm excited. Don't let me down on the road, can't hide who you're there for when it's an away game." I joked, nudging his knee with mine under the table.

"I aim to please." 

Well Jack, you're achieving that goal pretty consistently. 

After dinner, it was just me and Caroline cleaning up the kitchen while the boys played video games. We were working in comfortable silence, that I was itching to break.

"Okay, I'll be the one to say it. What the fuck was the whole "Carrie can't handle the smoke' thing he had going on tonight?" I said while scraping a plate.

"I have no idea, probably just Trevor being Trevor." Caroline tried to brush me off, but I could hear the faint excitement in her voice.

"No. Flirting. That was flirting, Caroline Mae." I said with a matter-of-fact tone because I was right and I knew it. That is not how you talk to your friend's twin sister. 

"Quit. And what was that? Whispering in your ear for word definitions?" She brought up Jack using me as a human dictionary and I couldn't help but blush again. 

"Okay, that was cute. I mean, it came from a place of stupidity, but it was cute." I couldn't stop thinking about the smell of his cologne and the feeling of his lips so close to my ear, and I knew that there had to be something going on. It was our senior year. Senior year is supposed to be the best year of a teenager's life. I turned back around to face Caroline, "This is our year, Care. Senior year."

"Senior year, our year." She replied, earning a smile from me as she bumped my hip. I laughed out loud as I scraped the next plate clean of pasta sauce, shaking my head as I heard Jack scream at the X-Box. God, I can't wait for school to start.