Josephine
Tonight is my final show opening for Taylor and her last show in the US. Pheobe and I are opening for her, making this a really special one because Pheobe has been my favorite artist for such a long time and this will be my first time really meeting her. She's opened for Taylor a few other times but none of those times were ones where I was the second opener. I walk into the venue to hear 'Enchanted' being sound checked.
God, I'll never get tired of listening to her. This entire experience is surreal and I can't believe we crossed paths. I'm so distracted by her performance that I don't even notice someone around me until I'm bumping into it, by the feel of it they weren't paying attention either. "Oh, I'm so sorry," I look away to apologize to the person to be met with Pheobe herself.
"H-holy fuck," I press a hand to my mouth to restrict myself from speaking anymore. Pheobe puts her phone in her back pocket and laughs softly. "Hi nice to meet you, you're Josie right?" She opens up an arm to me to hug me. "Mhm," I mumble against my hand but hug her awkwardly. "I'm sorry, it's so good to meet you," I recover and talk to her like a normal human being.
She squeezes my hands gently as we keep talking, getting to know each other before we both have to go. "Alright, I got to get ready, but I'll see you soon Jo," She says, shortening my name. I'm obsessed with her, holy fuck. I watch her walk away before walking to where Stassie set up. "Hi Josie, how are you today?" She smiles before pumping some primer onto her hands.
"Amazing, I just met Pheobe, she's cooler in person," I go off before asking her how her day was, mainly for my sake. If I keep thinking about meeting her I'll overwhelm myself and I don't want that. Once my makeup is done I throw my outfit on deciding to wear a very tiny black dress and boots. I hear my cue and walk out on stage.
I blow a few kisses to the crowd, feeling the love from California. I sing 'Difficult' searching for my friends before I sing '21' When I see my friends jumping up and down I walk over to them, pointing the mic in their direction when I sing, "If it doesn't go away by the time I turn thirty I made a mistake and I'll tell you I'm sorry," I smile at them, before turning my attention back to the crowd.
I run through the rest of my setlist before getting to 'All Of The Girls You Loved Before' "Really quick I want to thank Taylor one more time for letting me open for her. I'm so grateful for this experience, I love you all so much! This is All Of The Girls You Loved Before!" I use my mic to push down my smile but it's nearly impossible.
"Now you're all I need. I'm so thankful for all of the girls you loved before," I sing regularly but add "But for the record LA I love him more!" I finish the song and blow a few more thousand kisses to the crowd before once again bumping into Pheobe. "Good Luck out there, I'll be watching!" I hug her before running off stage to hand my equipment to Mel and then to my friends.
I'm not changing out of my outfit if Pheobe is on in the next few minutes. No way I'm missing her set. I hug all of my friends, thanking them for coming before Theo throws my Pheobe merch at me, to put on over my dress. I see he's wearing the same zip-up and I throw it on, getting ready to yell all the lyrics to her songs.
She sings 'Waiting Room' making Theo, Quinn and I unstable. And because she's Pheobe she plays 'Scott Street' right after. I look over at Theo to see tears flowing down his cheeks, I grab his hand, smiling at him as tears threaten to spill over. I watch as Pheobe looks around before waving at me and running off stage.
Theo looks at me, his hand shaking in my shaking hand. We exchange the same look wondering if we're about to get Scott Streeted. She runs over to me, handing me the mic as I share it with Theo. "Anyway, don't be a stranger," We sing into the mic, making her jump up and down and clap. She wraps her arms around the two of us, kissing Theo's temple before running back on stage for one more song.
When she leaves Theo and I fall onto the ground, holding our heads in our hands, "That's not real. I'm not here right now," I shake my head. Jack runs over to me with a drink in his hand, a scared look written all over his face. "It's okay, she just got Scott streeted," Quinn tells Jack, letting him know that in hindsight I am okay.
When Taylor takes the stage it's like the first time. No matter how many times I see her perform it'll never get boring. I watch her in awe, standing still with a childlike wonder. She's the gold rush, because what must it be like to grow up that beautiful? I would not know what to do with myself if I resembled her.
Our first surprise song for tonight is 'Daylight' I look over at Jack and he's shaking my arm. This is one of the songs Jack listened to by himself and fell in love with. Jack looks me in the eyes, cradling my face as he says "I don't wanna look at anything else now that I saw you" and I sing "I can never look away," cheesing so hard from genuine adoration.
He hugs me, squeezing me before telling me that he loves me. We fall into a trance as Taylor reads the poem she included at the end of her song before she introduces her next song. I was not ready to hear "Friends break up, friends get married," I rest my head against Jack's chest thinking to myself she's literally insane, when in reality she's just doing her job.
No, she's insane. She's genuinely crazy for this.
She ends the concert, making everyone including her cry over the end of the US Eras Tour. She gives a quick speech before getting off stage and just like that it's over. I walk backstage with Jack while the rest of the crew goes to their cars, hugging all of us goodbye before leaving. I hold Jack's arm as I listen to the satisfying click of my heels against the echoey hallways.
"Did you have a good time?" Jack asks, kissing the top of my head as we walk into my dressing room. He unzips the back of my dress as I answer his question, changing into a hoodie of his and my sweats. "Did you like what I did to that last song?" I grin, talking about my lyric change. I watch his cheeks blush, taking that as a yes.
"Y-yeah, was not expecting that but the boys started shoving me around it was so hard to act 'unphased'" He tells me, as I wipe off my makeup with a makeup wipe. Grabbing all of my things before walking out of the venue into my driver's car. We drive to the hotel where the Devils are staying since they play the Ducks tomorrow night.
Jack and I dose off in the backseat, waking up when we're a few minutes away. We thank Roger, my driver for the night before trudging into our room, breezing through our nighttime routine before going to bed.
"I love you, Josephine Lee," He says, making me grumble. I'm not sure how much longer I can withstand being named Josephine Lee, I like his last name better but I don't want to pressure him before he's ready.
"I love you, Jack Hughes," I kiss his nose, falling asleep pressed against him.
-
When Jack's alarm goes off making me groan, and throw a pillow over my head to muffle the noise. "I know, I'm sorry baby," He turns the alarm off fast, pulling the pillow off my head to pull me onto his chest. "I don't want you to go, yet," I tiredly mumble. He kisses my head, his heavy eyelids fighting to stay open. "I know, but I have to," He gets up, letting me get a few more hours of sleep while he's gone.
I wake up a few hours later to a knock on the door, I shuffle over rubbing my eyes like Jack always does before opening it. An older man with a tray of food comes in, pushing the cart into my room before leaving. I don't even get to say thank you with how fast he was moving. I sit down at the table looking at the food Jack must've ordered for me.
I smile softly, before cutting into my Belgian waffle, watching whatever cartoons are on right now. I try relaxing for as much as I can before I go to Jack's game tonight. I end up falling asleep, taking a two-hour nap, and waking up to kisses up and down my back. I hum out a giggle knowing it's Jack. "Wanna come shower with me?" He chuckles, pulling his shirt off.
I get up, following him into the bathroom, leaving my clothes on the floor as we walk into the warm shower. I run my fingers through his hair, scrubbing the shampoo into his scalp. "Are you excited to play Z today?" I ask him, letting him relax into my touch. "Yeah, I'm stoked. It's always really nice, even when people try turning it into competition," He says, before I move him under the water to rinse off the shampoo.
He does the same for me, and we stay in the shower until the water turns cold. I get ready beside him, putting together my outfit after putting on my makeup. As I toss on Jack's jersey I come to realize this is the first time I've gone to his game as his official and public girlfriend. I smile really liking the look of his last name on my back.
And by the way he looks at me, I can tell he likes it just as much. "Ready?" I ask him, eyeing him in his suit. He nods, reaching out for my hand as we head down to our car to drive to the arena. We meet up with Trevor, wishing him luck before going our separate ways. I hug him, giving him a quick pep talk before I catch up with Jack.
"Where's my pep talk?" He teases me, getting closer to my face. I peck his lips, cradling his neck before slipping a little bit of tongue. "How's that?" I chuckle against his lips. "Got it, babe, I'll kick Zegras' ass tonight," He laugh before walking into the locker room. I walk away with a stupid grin when I see Nico in the halls walking toward the locker room.
"Nicky!" I smile, hugging him tightly so happy to see him since I haven't seen him since last season. "Lee, long time no see, how are you?" He asks with a genuine smile. We catch up as fast as we can before he starts walking backward. "I'll see you after?" He asks, pulling open the door and I shrug my shoulders responding with, "Win tonight, and you will," And he scoffs jokingly.
I walk to my seat between the Devils and Ducks bench since Jack and Trevor were fighting over who's bench I should sit behind so we compromised. I sip on my Dr. Pepper while they stretch and skate around the ice shooting pucks into the net. I snap a few pictures of Jack when he skates over to me, shooting me a puck over the glass.
I blow him a kiss as he blushes and skates away. Trevor skates over, bumping his back into the glass, laughing when he turns to look at me. Jamie sees Trevor and skates over to us, smiling when he sees me sitting in front of Trevor. "Good to see you, Lee!" He fist-bumps me through the glass and they leave before getting in trouble for goofing off.
The game starts, putting me on the edge of my seat per usual. In the first five minutes of the period, Jack scores with an assist from Dougie and Nico. I stand from my seat, clapping my hands and cheering for my boyfriend. He skates past me winking as his teammates circle around him, hugging him.
After that first goal, the Devils score two more times, putting them up by three, but that doesn't discourage the Ducks, they play harder and faster, scoring on Schmid. I clap for Trevor, gaining a few dirty looks since I'm in Jack's jersey but cheering for a Duck's player. During one of the quick breaks, they play my song, making me want to hide away. Jack turns his body to look at me, pointing to the speaker, then leaning over to get Trevor's attention, but Trevor is already looking at Jack with a happy expression.
They sing along to the song, making me laugh, knowing this will be all over the internet later tonight. The people that gave me a dirty look, now look at me with a shocked face. I ignore them paying attention to the game as my music gets cut off. The Ducks get very close to scoring but Bratt swipes the puck away from them. I can see Jamie get frustrated which is honestly so weird since this boy is a ball of sunshine.
During the third period, Jamie scores with an assist from Shatty and Terry. I can hear Trevor hollering as he skates towards Jamie to hug him. Jack skates away with a smile, taking his seat on the bench. "Ladies and Gentlemen, let's welcome popstar and Reggie Lee's daughter, Josephine Lee, who is dating the Devils' very own Jack Hughes," I pop up on the big screen, waving and smiling until they cut to Jack who is smiling up looking at the screen until he realizes he got caught blushing by everyone in the arena.
Dawson shoves him, only making his blushing worse. Which makes me blush like a monster. Dawson scores, putting the Devils up by two again, with only three minutes left in the final period. I start fidgeting as the numbers on the screen get smaller and smaller, anticipating the end of the game. As the buzzer goes off signaling a Devils win I get up cheering for my boys, but stop when Jamie and Trevor shake their heads at me, giving me a thumbs down. I mouth 'sorry' making them chuckle before getting off the ice.
I walk to the locker rooms, wrapping my arms around Jack when he walks out. "You were amazing! I've missed watching you play so much," I tell him as he walks me to the side to not be in the middle of the hallway. "Nic wants to go out, you okay with that?" Jack smiles down at me as we meet our favorite Ducks' players in the garage. "Yeah, I've missed him so much," I tell Jack. Remembering how close we were when Jack and I first started hanging out. It makes me feel nostalgic.
I finally feel like things are going back to normal and it feels so good to have that. You don't really appreciate the tiniest things until they're ripped away from you. I've officially gained all my weight back, can eat without being nauseous or throwing it up, and I've come to somewhat terms with my scars.
Life is getting better, and it can only go up from here.
A.N// HI BESTIES! ANOTHER CHAPTER FOR YOUUU!! I love you guys and i hope you enjoyed reading this chapter! The next chapter will be a media chapter and will be up shortly! Thank you for reading! You know where to find me if you ever need anything! MWAH
Love Lottie 💐💐💐