HOCKEY IMAGINES: BOOK 2 // REQUESTS CLOSED

#14: MATHEW BARZAL - #13 NEW YORK ISLANDERS

A/N: Hey guys! Just a quick authors note here before you start reading. If you want to read more about Mathew, I have a new book based on him called One Day. I hope you guys check it out and enjoy this imagine!

I have always believed that hockey has to be the worst sport in the world, I mean it is grown men skating on ice pushing a puck across it trying to score into a net, so boring! Why does it have to be Canadas sport?! There is nothing great about it. But with great reluctance, I agreed to accompany my friends to tonight's ice hockey game between the Vancouver Giants and Seattle Thunderbirds. To be honest, the only the reason why I agreed to go was because my friends agreed to go to the bar after the game, and I will most definitely need a drink after tonight's events.

I drop like a sack of potatoes on the seat and fold my arms across my chest. How long will this take? I let my feelings of how I feel about being here show on my face, maybe if I show how bored I am they'll agree to leave early and then I can get drunk with every fibre of my being. I should have had a drink before this game, it might have made it a bit more endurable.

"Oh, will you look at least a little bit happy, the sulking around won't get us to leave any quicker you know. We're staying the whole game, even if it goes to over time or a shootout so deal with it." Alice, one of my friends, tells sternly.

I exhale loudly and roll my eyes. "Fine."

Because of my hockey obsessed friends, we arrived at the arena almost 40 minutes before the game is even scheduled to start. Now I sit watching both teams warm up on their respective sides. Our seats are located on the Thunderbirds side of the rink, I let my eyes take in what is happening around me. My eyes latch onto the jersey of player #13, I let them travel up the players body and both eyes lock onto the dark ones of said player. Damn, he is handsome looking. I could have sworn there was a spark felt in my body when we caught each other's eyes. With great unwillingness, I turned my attention off player #13 and look elsewhere in the rink. The feeling in my stomach was intense, perspiration stuck to the palms of my hands, my heart sped up a little under his gaze. How could one look make me feel all this?

I shake my head and give my body a shake to wake me up out of my trance, I don't want this feeling to happen again. Another burst of intense feeling hits me again and I feel the gaze of player #13 burn into the side of my face. Why am I feeling this way when he looks at me?! I have never met this guy before, but the feeling of his eyes on me makes me feel warm and bubbly inside like love at first sight.

Oh crap. Oh, holy crap. I need to leave now.

"I need the bathroom, I'll be back." I express with such urgency in my tone. Before any of my friends can respond back, I dash up the steps and towards the girls bathroom. I rush into an empty stall and lock it. I double in two and breathe deeply to calm the of my racing heart, how can I be developing a crush on a guy I have only looked at? Once might I add. And why has my body reacted in that way after one look at each other? This cannot be love at first sight, I don't believe in that at all but that's how it feels. It feels like there is love when I looked at player #13 of the Seattle Thunderbirds. Love and there's nothing I can do, if the universe has chosen this man to be mine forever then so be it. The downside, he plays hockey but I guess I could live with that.

I let out a deep sigh and exit the bathroom stall. As much as I would have loved to have hidden the whole game in there, I must return to my friends and battle through this game and my emotions of player #13. I walk to the sink and splash my face with cold water, it soothes the burning sensation of my red cheeks.

Once I am calmed down and a bit more myself, I walk back to the seats where my friends are. I keep my gaze off the ice below but I know there aren't any players on the ice anymore but soon the will reappear again along with player #13. I slip into my seat and pull the sleeves of my jumper over my hands, so much for getting through this game with ease. It feels like it will be an eternity before I can go to the bar to drink away whatever I felt between that brown eyed player and myself.