eight

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SCARLETT

today was the last game of the preseason. as a fan, i was excited for the regular season to begin and for the wins to actually count. however, i knew this meant work would get a lot more hectic.

i had a marketing class from 1-3. after class, i started getting ready for the game. maia had told me the girls were going to go out for dinner after the game, so i was excited for that.

i arrived at the arena an hour before warmups started, as per usual. i sat down next to a few of the girls and quickly realized that the topic of the conversation was "who's cuter, matthews or marner?"

"who do you think is cuter, scarlett?" one of the girls, ivy asked. i thought about how to handle it for a second. "marner," i stated, smirking a little. a couple of the girls nodded in agreement with me.
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i could feel his eyes burning into me, every single time i passed the bench. this never happened. on any other day he would just have his back turned to me. i pushed away the urge to look at him and forced myself to focus on my job.

it seemed as though he just had a switch that he flipped when he wanted to be mad at me. sometimes he'd be complimenting me and doing nice things, other times he'd be ignoring me and rolling his eyes at me. i didn't understand this man — what had i done wrong? i got off the ice and sat next to maia.
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the leafs won their last preseason game, 5-3. auston got a goal and two assists, leafs fans were all over him and so was the media. i took my skates off and dried them off before putting them in my duffel bag. i had told the girls near the end of the game that my head was hurting pretty badly so i wouldn't be going to dinner with them. i said goodbye to maia and the other girls before exiting the room and walking down the hall. when i left the room and turned the first corner that lead to the main hallway where the dressing room was, i bumped into someone, literally. i looked up and saw the last person i wanted to see at the moment — auston.

"oh, uh, sorry," i mumbled, walking past him since i knew he was ignoring me.

"wait scar. i, um, i need to talk to you," he confessed, grasping my arm gently to stop me from leaving. i looked at him with confusion written all over my face. "talk to me about how you've been a complete asshole?" i asked.

"i just really need to explain to you, but not here. we might get in trouble," he explained. "can we talk in my car?"

i thought about the possibilities for a moment before deciding it was okay. i knew auston seemingly hated me at the moment, but i highly doubted he was going to murder me in his car.

"fine, matthews. you better have something good to say," i told him. we walked down to parking in a tense silence, before he led me to his car. i got in the passenger seat.

"i just wanted to say i'm sorry. i have a lot to explain," he said, his eyes pleading me to hear him out. i nodded, giving him permission to continue.

"okay, so. when we first met, i immediately felt some sort of connection to you. you just seemed so full of life and i knew i had to get to know you, which is why i found your instagram. but by the time we hung out, i had thought about the consequences. we aren't supposed to involve ourselves with anyone who works for mlse, i could lose my job. that's why i was a little bit off when you were at my place; i was just worried, and so was mitch. he gave me shit when you left, going on and on about how it's my debut in the nhl and i'm our "star player" and it's irresponsible of me to be doing this. but i pushed it away and used the excuse that we were just going to be friends and that i wasn't doing anything wrong," he explained, stopping for a moment to catch his breath.

"then, when i went in the next morning for our morning skate, i was called into a meeting with management. they had seen my comment on your post and i was in complete shit. they hammered it into my brain that this was against the rules and we could both lose our jobs. i had already gotten you the tickets, but that's why i was so dry after that game. that's why i began to push you away. i pretended i hated you because i was scared shitless, and i still am. hockey is all i have," he sighed. i looked at him in shock, i wasn't expecting any of this. "so you don't hate me?"

"of course not. i care about you and i really want to get to know you better, scar. i had so much fun when you came over to watch netflix but in the back of my mind i couldn't stop thinking about how much shit i'd get in if management knew. if i didn't care about you i wouldn't be talking to you right now and risking everything. i just don't know how we can make this work," he explained.

"i'm obviously not going to let you lose your job because of me, we've known each other for like a week. but would we still get in shit if we were just friends and kept it really lowkey?" i asked.

"well, we really aren't supposed to be interacting with each other at all. but if we were to not be seen with each other around here and not interact with each other on social media, i think we'd be fine," auston suggested.

"i was so nervous this past week. i thought we had hit it off so i didn't understand what i did wrong. i didn't get why you had so much hatred for me," i confessed. auston looked at me sympathetically.

"i'm sorry. i never hated you, it was the complete opposite actually. i just beat myself up for falling for a girl who was completely out of bounds," he said. i was speechless once i realized what he had said.

"falling for?" i asked. auston's face started getting red and he leaned down to put his face in his hands, groaning. i pulled him into a hug over the middle console in his car. it was an awkward position, but we didn't care. he put his arms around my waist and i could've sworn i felt him kiss my head.

"don't be embarrassed, i just might be falling for you too, matthews. we're pretty fucked though," i told him.

what were we going to do with ourselves?
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author's note: hopefully you guys don't feel like they're moving too fast! they've just gone through a lot of shit already and it's only been like a week.

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