"You know you're in love when you can't fall asleep because reality is finally better than your dreams." -Dr. Seuss
Jonathan's P.O.V
"Jon get ready were leaving like now." Pat screamed, barging into my room. Natalie groaned, throwing a pillow towards the annoying blonde boy. Last night was the first night she'd stayed at my place since making up with Pat and even that was only because I begged her out of nervousness of the game today. Nat and Pat were more than fine by now, but Natalie had grown to love her place far more than mine. I understood it, it was right next to her work and friends. Pat and I had even talked about moving out of our place, I would move in with Nat and he would move into the Trump Tower (A/N: ew but he actually lives there). The new guy, Panarin, needed a roomie and Q had apparently volunteered Patrick for the job.
"Ugh I forgot how much I hate morning skate." I groaned, knowing if I was late that Q was gonna chew me out for being a bad captain and I honestly wasn't in the mood for that today. Sure, I was excited. It was the first game, who wouldn't be. But I wasn't really looking forward to another year of people complaining about us not being the Cup winning team we were last year. How could we? We'd lost half the team in trades! Plus, I absolutely hated playing the Rangers. Lundqvist was always amazing and I know it freaked Corey out to play him.
"Good luck, I'll come down before the game." Natalie smiled, pressing a soft kiss on my lips. I changed into athletic shorts and a tee and practically ran out of the house, almost forgetting to brush my teeth. We arrived at the UC around 3:30, giving us about 2 hours to practice before the game. We all wanted to shower before the banner raising ceremony because let's be real, all of Chicago would be flipping between that and the Cubs game tonight. The ceremony was set to be an hour, with the game starting at 7:30.
To be expected, Pat and I were the first ones here. Usually Brandon would arrive at the same time, but clearly that wasn't happening today. My heart ached at the thought of B, who would probably be watching this game in his living room since his first game wasn't until Friday. That was something he would do, cheer for his best friends over his own team.
"What's with the face, Mr. Grumpy?" Pat asked, pinching my cheeks. I swatted his hand away while sighing.
"I know how stupid this is and that I should've expected this soon enough to, but I miss everyone so much. Way more than in the past. Brandon and Patrick were my best friends, besides you of course. And I know I sound like a crybaby, but I just don't want what happened with Buff to happen with all of them."
"They won't, even when he was on our team he was kind of a dick. We were naïve and thought we could be friends with everyone back then. And now it hurts knowing me made some real friends and they're ripped away from us. I guess that's hockey though."
We heard a faint yelling in the distance, but assumed it was a fan seeing us from outside the fence. It wasn't until we heard heavy footstep steadily approaching us. I whipped my head around, fearing that we were about to be mauled by fans, but instead was met with a coy smile and shaggy blonde hair.
"Hey P, you ready for your first real game?" Ever since Panarin was invited to join the team, Patrick had been hanging around with him. I hadn't noticed much, I'd been spending that time with Natalie. Apparently Peaks had taken the rookie under his wing to form sort of a mini-Kane. Whatever was benefitting the team was fine with me.
"Guys, I'm so excited. I'm so nervous too, why aren't you all freaking out?" He was jittery cause both of us to laugh. He seemed like a nice boy, but I really didn't know anything about him.
"We're used to it man and soon you will be too." I joked, throwing my things down in my stall. My jersey was hung there along with some freshly sharpened skated. The first game was always my favorite. We all had new jerseys that didn't smell, which would be the only time all year that that was the case. Plus the whole city was buzzing for this game, especially after a Stanley Cup summer.
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Faceoff
Fanfiction"It's my job, I can't just drop everything for you." Jonathan scuffed, throwing clothes in his bag. He glanced back at Nat who wore glossy eyes and a frown. It broke his heart seeing her like this. She never cried. "I guess this is goodbye then." H...
