LEONA MONTGOMERY
I pull on my jeans and zip them up. Believe it or not, I miss having to be careful that I don't rip a device off my arms or stomach.
I got off the phone with my doctor's office earlier and said that tomorrow morning I can go pick up my new stuff.
I'm leaving now to go to Garrett's hockey game. I think my outfit is cute, so it's good enough. I'm going in Kayla's car with her and the baby.
It's easier to just go with her because otherwise, she would have to put the baby's car seat in my car which would take forever.
I slide into the passenger seat and Kayla is wearing a similar outfit to mine. "Twinsies," She wiggles her eyebrows at me and pulls out of her spot once I have my seatbelt on.
"Damn. Don't think I've heard anyone say that since I was in elementary school," I laugh, and so does she.
We make small talk while we pull up to the rink. "Wait, your dad is the coach of an NHL team and owns this rink, but you have never sat in this row?" She asks with a raised eyebrow.
I just shrug. I don't have a ton of interest in watching hockey anyway, so it doesn't bother me.
I pull my tea up to my lips and take a sip out of it. I think Garrett was right. I think I do have a tea problem.
"Look how cute these are," Kayla picks up the custom baby headphones to block out the noise of the arena.
I smile at a woman as she comes and sits a few seats over from us with a toddler and a kid who looks like it is about five or six.
The kid waves at us and then plops down onto a seat. "He's so hot," Kayla sighs as Garrett, Daniel, and Austin skate out onto the ice first. The game is about to start so all of the players are coming out.
"Whore," Kayla grumbles as one of the guys on the other team walks up to Austin and starts talking to him.
"I don't trust that dude," I mumble to Kayla, making her look to see that guy. Thomas.
I "met" him at Garrett's hockey game in Canada but I swear I have seen him before. "Why not?" She curiously asks and takes a sip from her beer.
He thought he knew me from somewhere too, and it's seriously annoying me that I don't know where.
"I'm kidding. I swear I know him, and he thinks he knows me too but I can't figure out where," I put a hand on my chin.
I see Garrett wave to me so a wave back to him and blow him a kiss.
"Huh. That's weird. I'm sure you will figure it out eventually," She shrugs like it's not a big deal.
It's not a big deal, but it is still annoying me. I shake my head and watch the last few people on the opposing team skate out onto the ice.
A few minutes into the game, and I know that Garrett's team is going to win. Not only are they the home team which supposedly gives them an advantage, but I know the guys are not letting themselves loose again.
Not that they should. Losing sucks. By the end of the first period, neither teams have scored a point yet. That's good and bad.
It's good that their defense is strong enough that they aren't letting any goals through but it's not good that so is the other teams.
I watch as the other team gets the puck through the defense and sends it right past the goalie and into the goal.
"Fuck," I mumble under my breath. "You're telling me," Kayla says and bounces Sabrina on her lap.
You can tell that the other team scoring did affect Garrett and everyone else because they don't look as confident as they did for the first period.
I shake my head and hope that they do better.
By the end of the second period, there wasn't another goal. They got close to scoring on the other team one time, but it was blocked by the goalie.
After the second period was over Austin, Garrett and even Daniel came over to us and stood on the other side of the glass.
Honestly, when I first met Garrett I thought that he was close with Austin and Daniel. But now they don't seem very close with Daniel, just each other.
"Hey," I smile and walk up to the glass. He pretends to kiss me through it and I shake my head at him.
He walks around to the entrance and comes around to my seat.
"Hey baby," He leans forwards and pecks my lips. I can already see the articles about this. Even though we have been in public together, this is different.
There is a space between the reserved spots for family and friends and the other seats, so no strangers who want to be close to Garrett and Austin will be able to get too close.
Daniel is still standing on the other side of the glass making faces at Sabrina trying to get her to giggle.
"How has she been?" Austin asks Kayla, referring to Sabrina. "Good. I don't think she can hear," Kayla shrugs.
I look back at Garrett who sat down in the empty chair next to me.
"If you score, I'll give you a dollar," I tease him. I have faith that he'll win.
"Wow! An entire dollar? I need to score now." He jokes and presses his lips to mine once again.
"I need to get back but I'll see you soon, okay baby?" He asks and I nod. Sabrina starts crying after the guys left.
Luckily, she stopped a few minutes later and ended up falling back asleep once Kayla buckled her back up into her stroller.
Come on people. Don't lose or I won't kiss Garrett. Kidding, mostly. I should have told him that though.
About halfway through the third period one of the guys scored. The score is now an even 1-1.
That's not great for them, but it's better than losing.
Why am I so stressed? I'm not even on the team. "Chill," Kayla says when she sees me tapping my foot.
Leave me alone. I'm stressed.
I let out a sigh of relief as our team's goalie blocks a shot attempt from the other team.
Honest to god, I think I had a heart attack. The third period just ended and I resist the urge to stand up and pace. I unlock my phone and scroll through Instagram.
I see one of the girls that I was at the most recent Olympics at post that you can pay for her to follow you back?
That's kind of messed up, not going to lie.
If you are famous, or even just popular you shouldn't do stuff like that. People like her are supposed to be good influences on younger kids, and that's not how you do it.
I'm not saying that you need to follow back all your fans, or even any.
At the same time, that's stupid. It's not my business, but people doing stupid shit like that bother me.
"What's wrong?" Garrett asks and puts my hair behind my ear. "Nothing, what's up with you?" I ask, putting a smile on my face.
"Nothingggg," He draws out, he leans in to kiss me again but I turn my head at the last second so that he kisses my cheek.
I turn to face him and laugh at his face. He looks so surprised, and his face was just absolutely adorable.
"Excuse me?" He asks and taps right under his lips. "Come 'ere," He says and pulls me over to his lap.
"What's up?" He asks. "Nothing. Just that guy," I nod my head towards where Thomas is sitting.
"What about him?" He asks, confused. He was there when we met. "Nothing. It's just annoying me that I swear I met him somewhere but I don't know where. He thought he knew me too, so I can't be going crazy," I mutter, shaking my head.
If this was any other case I would pass it off as him having one of those faces, but he thought he knew me too.
"Calm down, it's okay. It could be as simple as you ran into each other in public once and remembered the face now that you're seeing it again." He shrugs.
I think it is something like that, but this is stressing me the fuck out. "Why are you so worked up over this? You are usually calm. What's the matter?" He softly asks me as he pulls me closer to him and rubs my back.
"Remind me once we can leave. There are eyes and ears everywhere," I murmur into his ear. I don't trust a ton of strangers.
He smiles down at me and then kisses my forehead. "I'll see you in a bit. Score a goal," I kiss him and stand up so that he can go back down to the ice.
The fourth-period starts and my feet are back to bouncing against the hard floor. My eyes widen as a guy from our team sends the puck flying past the goalie and into the net. Thank god, now they just have to get the other team away from the net.
"Yes!" I say, louder than I meant to. Kayla looks kind of surprised that I yelled.
I sit back down, a little embarrassed, and take a sip out of my tea. The rest of the period goes smoothly with no other points scored, meaning our home team won.
I know I won't see Garrett right away because he has to go get changed and has to answer a few questions from all of the reporters swarming around the arena.
I decide to head outside before my dad could see me. Kayla and I head out as quickly as we can with all of the people, and her pushing a little person in the stroller.
My idea went to shit when my dad saw me. "Lee," He calls out and I hesitated before turning around. "Go, I'll be out in a second," I tell Kayla and she does.
"Yes?" I ask in a sigh. I've been thinking about completely cutting off contact with my dad, but that's slightly an issue.
I wouldn't be able to come here to skate anymore, which I don't care about. I don't have the best memories here.
Also, I wouldn't be able to come to watch Garrett play anymore.
At the same time, the past few months I've been realizing how truly toxic my dad is.
I don't even know what to do. "Did you enjoy seeing Thomas?" My dad asks me with a slimy smirk on his face. Ew.
"How do you know him?" I ask, more confused now.
He doesn't have anything to do with hockey, so I'm not sure how they would know each other.
"What? Don't worry recognize your own stalker?" He questions with a huge grin. I bite my lip to stop myself from saying anything I shouldn't and practically run to Kayla's car.
"Let's go," I say, feeling the tears well up behind my eyes. "I thought you wanted to wait for Garrett?" She questions but still starts to drive away anyway.
I couldn't wait for you, PLEASE come over to my house so we can talk, I text Garrett.
That's how I know Thomas. He was the one who practically instilled the fear of god into me when I was a teenager.
"I don't know what's wrong, but I know something is wrong. Do you want me to come in?" She asks me.
"It's okay. I think Garrett is going to come over. I have to talk to him," I shake my head and she smiles at me. "I'll see you soon," I smile at her and step out of the car and onto my driveway.
She waved to me and I walk up into my house. I leave the door open on purpose so that Garrett can just come in as soon as he gets here.
When he does get here, he does as expected and walks right into my living room, and pulls me into a hug.
"Tell me what has got you so worked up," He murmurs into my hair, still holding me in a hug.
"Um, sit down," I pull him down onto the couch next to me, but he just huffs and picks me up and drops me on his lap. Okay then.
"So, there's stuff you don't know about me, just like there is stuff I don't know about you, I'm sure," I quietly say and lean the side of my face against his chest. "Yeah, what is it, baby?" He asks me.
"You know my dad. You can kind of tell by the few things that I have told you about him already, but he is even more messed up than he seems," I sigh.
He doesn't say anything, so I continue. "When I was a teenager. I think I was sixteen, he hired someone to follow me around, scare me and basically just stalk me. He had this guy trying to scare me into not ever leaving the house, which worked for a while. I was terrified."
I hesitate before the next part, knowing that he is friends with Thomas. "Baby," He murmurs and holds my hands in his.
"Do you want to know the worst part?" I rhetorically asked, and he nods his head anyway. "It was Thomas," I softly admit.
"The fuck?" He mutters, letting go of one of my hands. "Calm down," I plead with him. I know he has a bit of a temper and I just want to lay down with him right now.
"I'm calm. I guess killing that bastard can wait," He sighs and I huff. "No. You can't kill him." I sternly tell him.
The only thing that I don't understand is that if he was essentially stalking me, shouldn't he remember what I look like? It wasn't even that long ago.
He had to follow me around so I feel like he should remember that.
"That's fucking creepy. Also, your own father to do that to you? I'm going to kill him too," He says, clenching his fist of the hand that wasn't holding mine.
"It's okay. I'm over it now. I just don't like the memory," I say, my lips pulling downwards into a frown.
Wait. "I didn't mean to make you miss going to the bar with the team. If you'd like you can still go," I urge him.
I don't mind him doing stuff like that because the guys on the team are his friends and I'm not going to keep him away.
I trust that he wouldn't ever cheat on me or do something with anyone else.
"No thanks, love. You look drained and I want to be with you tonight," He says and I immediately smile, not picking up on the fact that he said I looked tired for a minute.
Once I realized I wonder if he can see my eye bags, but then I realized that I have on concealer.
I might just seem drained? Yeah, that's probably it.
"You can stay in here or come up to my room, but I really need to shower," I tell him and look towards the stairs.
"Do you want me to walk Bella for you?" He questions as I stand up and get off his lap.
"That would be great, but you don't have to. If you want to open that door," I point to the door that leads to my backyard from my kitchen, "You can just let her out on her own," I tell him.
"I'll just walk her," He shrugs and grabs her leash. I walk up the stairs into my room and he follows me like I told him to. I figured Bella would be in my room and I was right.
She was laying on her back on one of my pillows. What a strange little dog. I pick her up and put her on the floor in front of Garrett, putting a kiss on her headfirst.
"I'll be out in a few," I tell Garrett and kiss his cheek. I grab a pair of sweatpants and a hoodie from my closet and walk into my bathroom with that and a pair of panties.
I like how I can dress like a bum around him and he won't care at all.
I wash and condition my hair, and also shave before getting out of the shower.
I wrap a towel around myself and start to dry my hair. It doesn't take too long, since my hair is on the thinner side.
I get dressed once I dry myself off, and walk back out into my bedroom.
Garrett was sitting on my bed, looking at something on his phone. "Look at how cute you were, cheering for us," Garrett says in a soft teasing voice and flips his phone around to show me a video of me getting out of my seat and cheering.
"You aren't funny," I grumble and plop down onto my bed, laying on my stomach. I get up after a minute and sit leaning against the headboard with my blanket pulled up to my chest.
"You should probably go now. I'm really tired and want to sleep," I say, but he knows he can stay. Most of the time he'll stay the night with me.
"Love, do you really think I'm leaving?" He asks with a raised eyebrow. He needs to stop saying love when he talks to me because it makes me feel things that I don't want to feel.
I lay down flat on my bed with my back towards the side where he is lying. I let out a few huffs and sighs as I squirm around on my bed, not being able to get comfortable.
After what seems like hours of this I feel Garrett's arms on me. One wraps around my stomach, pulling me to him and the other one just holds me there by my throat. Oh.
He's not squeezing it or anything, his hand is just gently there. I end up falling asleep a little while later.
—
I wake up in the same spot I fell asleep and rush to the kitchen to check my blood sugar. I forgot to set my alarms to get up.
It's a little low, so I make a smoothie with a ton of fruit. I make a few pancakes and some bacon for Garrett and I to eat.
I walk back up to Garrett and wake him up. "Boo," I whisper into his ear as I see him looking around for me.
It didn't scare him. That was boring.
"You're no fun," I frown at him and he smiles at me.
"I made some food," I say as I take a sip out of my smoothie. "Great," He steals my smoothie and takes a sip, before giving it back.
My jaw drops. "That was mine!" I no angrily say and walk downstairs.
"Baby, I didn't know that it was that big of a deal, I'll make you a new one." He tells me and starts grabbing fruits from all over my kitchen.
"I just needed all the sugar. I guess you don't want me to have it. I made us pancakes and bacon for breakfast," I tell him and pull the tinfoil off of the plate so we can start eating it.
"Thanks, love," He says in a teasing voice. He isn't going to be teasing me with that dumbass word when I take this fork and stab it through his chest.
I shake my head and breathe in and out before stabbing a piece of the pancake and bringing it to my mouth.
I can feel him eying me and I don't like it. I want him to leave. I feel like I'm about to puke my guts out for no reason. I'm not even on my period so who knows why I feel like this.
I just want him to leave so I can be grumpy by myself.
I almost cry when he says, "I'll talk to you later, I have to go to practice."
Why? You may ask, I don't know. Considering I just wanted him to leave, and before that, I was plotting his death I don't know.
Sometimes when I'm ovulating I have these mood swings. That makes sense.
I call myself down and smile at him. I wave to him as he walks out the front door.
Once he is gone I lock the door and walk up to my art room.
Chill the fuck out, Leona. Stop acting like a psychopath.
I open my Etsy account and see that people have bought a few of my paintings.
The other day I bought a printer and put it in here so it's easier to print stuff.
I print the shipping label for the bags and package them all up.
Once they are ready I put them in a bin that I will have to take to the post office.
"Goddamnit," I mutter when that stabbing pain in my stomach comes back. I decide to just grab an ibuprofen so it goes away.
It takes about fifteen minutes for the pain to go away, but I'm thankful when it does. This hasn't happened to me in at least a few months.
Sometimes, when I'm ovulating, in between periods I have the worst mood swings and stomach pains that are way worse than my cramps.
I shake my head and pull out some stuff that I need to make my painting.
I don't look at anything for inspiration, but just paint. It's a raven flying in a flock of birds, looking happy, watching over other animals on the ground.
Nicer than some others that I've done recently. I let it dry so that later on today I'll be able to mod podge it and put it for sale on Etsy.
I stand up and wash my hands. My eyebrows furrow when I hear my phone ringing, knowing that Kayla is out and Garrett is at practice.
I answer right away when I see that it's my doctor. "Hello?" I ask when I answer it. Ugh. Why am I so awkward while on the phone?
"Is this Leona J. Montgomery?" A voice that I don't recognize asks me. It must be one of the random receptionists.
"Yes, it is," I reply. I just hope I can use my Dexcom again. "We need to schedule an appointment for you to come in and get your new Dexcom and omnipods," She tells me and I narrow my eyes at the same wall in front of me.
Why is that the need for an appointment? "Can I just come pick them up? I'm very busy at this point and won't have time for an appointment," Lie. Lie. Lie.
"I'm sorry but it has to be an appointment." She continues to say no. I'm about to be a huge bitch.
"I understand. I've been on Dexcom for my entire life. I am a professional athlete who doesn't have time for unnecessary appointments." I scowl through the phone.
"Sorry ma'am, that's just not possible. The doctor has to walk you through the steps for how to use it." She says and I try to resist the urge to roll my eyes.
It didn't work.
"Okay, thank you. Have a nice day," I smile and end the call.
I go to punch my fist into the wall but catch myself first.
I breathe in and out a few times before leaning my head against the wall.
She keeps getting angry and having mood swings, then starts to avoid Garrett and he knows something is off.