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"You ok?" My friend Lindsey looked at me sympathetically.
"Huh?" I was pulled from my staring thoughts. "Oh yeah, I'm fine. I'm just tired" I smiled reassuringly.
"Well now I feel bad I convinced you to come with me" She laughed.
"Convinced? More like dragged me against my will on barely any sleep and wouldn't take no for an answer?" I chuckled.
"You make it sound so grim" she stated with wide eyes.
"It's basically a kidnapping" I smirked as players started emerging on to the ice.
Lindsey had been dragging me to practice a lot lately. Normally, I wouldn't complain but I had been working a lot and was growing increasingly more and more tired as the days went on.
"You're so overdramatic" Lindsey laughed shaking her head.
I looked down to my coffee wishing for a second that it was bottomless as another wave of tiredness hit me. I took another drink of my coffee in desperate need of a pick me up when something else jerked me awake. The sound of a puck hitting the glass...near my face...hard.
I jerked my head up as quickly as I could without choking on my coffee and met eyes with Alex DeBrincat. I pointed my finger as a sign of warning and shot him a look. I meant it to be intimidating since it seemed like he had aimed it directly at us on purpose but the gesture was anything but intimidating and all I was met with was a smirk before he turned away and focused on the team.
I shook my head and returned my focus to my coffee.
"Umm, excuse me" Lindsey said her mouth agape staring at me. I slowly turned my head to look at her.
"What?" I asked confused.
"That was the most blatant display of flirting I have ever seen in my entire life" she explained.
"Oh please, you're so overdramatic" I mocked her words rolling my eyes as practice actually started. I watched the drills and conversed lightly with Lindsey while practice went on. Every so often I would catch Alex's eyes on me. I shook it off as a coincidence or chalked it up to he was looking at me because I was looking at him.
When practice had officially ended and players started filtering out I turned quickly to Lindsey.
"I'm going to get coffee" I explained tossing my empty cup in the garbage.
"What? practice isn't officially over until everyone leaves the ice" she already had a pleading tone in her voice.
"I didn't say you had to come with me" I laughed patting her shoulder "But, if I don't get coffee before we head home I'll fall asleep in the car" I turned to leave when another loud noise behind me made me turn around. Again I was met with the smirk of Mr. Alex DeBrincat. I shook my head in his direction and narrowed my eyes in warning trying to stop the slight smile that was threatening to spread across my face.
"Still think I'm being overdramatic?" Lindsey smiled towards me. As I was about to tell her I was going to go get my coffee a group made their way closer to us and stood just on the other side of the glass. As much as I wanted coffee in that moment, watching Lindsey freak out over having players that close seemed much more appealing.
"Linds, put your tongue back in your mouth you're drooling" I joked with a smirk earning a glare before she turned her focus back to the players in front of her, one of them being Alex.
Before I even thought anymore about how funny it was to watch Lindsey falling over herself gawking at the guys in front of her, Alex came right up to the glass opposite me. He settled in and gave me a smile, a genuine smile for the first time he had started to mess with me.
A blush rose to my cheeks as I averted my gaze and focused on someone else. Alex made sure my eyes went back to him as he started stick handling right in front of me. I smirked a little to myself but continued to watch his little tricks. He quickly popped the puck up onto his stick and met eyes with me before tossing the puck over the glass to me.
I caught it and gave him a smile before he motioned as if to tell me to look at the puck before giving a wink and skating off the ice.
"Y/N, you have to believe me at least a little bit now" she started talking as I turned the puck over in my hand to examine it. "Are you even listening to me? And what are you smiling at?" she asked.
My eyes fell on what I was sure Alex wanted me to see, what looked like a phone number scribbled on the puck in permanent marker.
"I'm not sure what it is" I said lowly.
"Duh, It's his phone number" she said making a grab for the puck. I pulled it away from her quickly and turned to walk out.
"I'm getting coffee" I said walking out of the arena.
"You're going to call him right? Or...text him? I don't know which is appropriate in this situation" she laughed running after me as I made my way to order my coffee. I ordered and turned to look at her.
"Absolutely not, Linds"
"Why not?!" she seemed legitimately shocked.
"Because it's probably not even his real number, probably just a prank" I explained taking my coffee and leading the way to the car.
"Y/N, you have to at least reach out. Find out. Live a little" she pushed.
"If I text him will you shut up about it and not bother me about it again?" I asked seriously pulling the door of the car shut.
"Promise" she smiled. She was way too giddy for the situation.
I looked at the puck in my hand, pulled out my phone, typed in the number on the puck and wrote a quick message.
'Hey, it's Y/N. The girl from practice...the one you gave the puck to'
I took a deep breath and hit send. Within a minute my phone made a noise indicating I had a text.
