Something To Believe In [Dean Portman] ✓

𝗍 𝗐 𝖾 𝗇 𝗍 𝗒 - 𝗍 𝗁 𝗋 𝖾 𝖾

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

❝ we got a promise to keep ❞

•••

"Dean I swear to god if you don't give me your flannel back I will freeze to death!"

The boy laughed as he locked himself in the bathroom of Sophie's room. He had teased Sophie about stealing his favorite flannel, holding it out of reach when he spotted it on the desk.

"Dean please. It's cold," Sophie spoke with her forehead resting on the door, a pout on her face.

Dean could practically hear the pout in her voice which made him laugh. Deciding to give her the shirt back, he unlocked and opened the door. Not realizing the door was opening, Sophie still had her forehead resting on it and was putting the majority of her weight on the door. As the door opened, Sophie tripped forward and into Dean's arms.

"Didn't realize you're still falling for me," Dean joked as he wrapped his arms around the girl.

Groaning, Sophie pulled away from the boy's grasp while grabbing the shirt from him. The boy chuckled as she continued to get her things together. Dean moved from the bathroom doorway and took his place sitting on Sophie's bed. He watched as she put her water bottle into her backpack before zipping it up.

"What are you smirking about?" Sophie squinted her eyes at her boyfriend.

"You know, I'm kind of in the mood for a milkshake and fries," Dean suggested as he leaned back on his hands.

The girl closed her eyes and breathed loudly. Dean knew that they had to meet up with Bombay for their new practice strategy. He also knew that there were very few instances that his girlfriend could say no to going to a diner. 

"I can't stand you right now."

Dean pouted as Sophie turned away from him. He stood from the bed and wrapped his arms around her waist, his chin resting on her shoulder. The girl attempted to keep a straight face as he kissed her cheek but failed. A small smile found its way to her lips as she leaned into Dean. 

"We don't have enough time to get food but we can hang out for a bit longer," Sophie informed the boy as she looked at the clock on Julie's nightstand.

Dean smiled as he pulled the two of them onto the bed, him laying on top of Sophie. He gave her a bright, cheeky smile before hiding his face in her neck. The girl let out a quiet laugh as she began running her fingers through his hair. Dean hummed gently as he felt his shoulders relax.  

Sophie smiled and pressed a soft kiss to the top of the boy's head. In response he pressed a kiss to her jaw before closing his eyes.

"Tell me a story?" Dean questioned in a whisper as he kept his eyes shut.

"My hidden talent is dancing. Well not so hidden anymore but that's besides the point. When I was younger, I took lessons and I had my best friend in my lyrical class. Our group had been rehearsing our dance for our recital for months. So the day of our recital, all of us with the exception of like two of the girls had multiple dances and it felt like everything that could possibly go wrong, was going wrong. During the lyrical dance which was one of the two that I had with my best friend, everyone forgot the dance besides us. It was one of the most embarrassing moments of my life and I'm not even the one who forgot the dance."

As Sophie talked, Dean listened to her and smiled as the girl happily talked about something from her childhood that didn't make her anxious. Sophie continued to subconsciously mess with his hair as she talked. It was something that calmed both of them down, giving them something to focus on if they needed to.

Dean stared at Sophie as she looked at the ceiling. He loved admiring her even if she was simply just spacing out or even when she was going off on someone. He loved how she was herself and refused to be anyone else.

"You're beautiful," Dean's voice broke Sophie out of her zoned out thoughts, causing her to look down at him.

"Not as beautiful as you," Sophie jokingly wink before she looked over at the clock. "Oh shit we're gonna be late."

The pair stood up from the bed and Sophie quickly slipped on Dean's flannel before grabbing her bag. They both slipped on their shoes and left the room to meet the rest of the team in the lobby.

•••

"Alright so I've been told that you have some ideas on how to help the team," Bombay spoke to Charlie and Sophie as they sat in his office.

The rest of the team was waiting outside of the office, some of them trying to spy through the windows. Sophie was anxiously fiddling with the hem of the flannel she was wearing. Meanwhile Charlie was calm and collected, feeling used to talking with Bombay.

"Yes. So after the Italy game I had an epiphany if you will. Iceland learned so much about not our team, but the players personally to the point where they knew that slipping a note into someone's locker would cause a riff between us. We ourselves need to know our competition this well, not that we would pull the same stunt that they did. We don't need to break a team's trust to win. I digress, we should watch their tapes from their previous games and learn all that we can on their team. Figure out which players are the closest and keep them away from each other during the final game," Sophie explained, talking very quickly.

Bombay almost didn't catch everything she said but everything clicked after a moment. He slowly began to nod his head, agreeing with the girl.

"We work one on one with everyone's strengths and weaknesses. We could figure out who works the best together and try to keep them together on the ice," Charlie added once their coach seemed to understand what they were getting at.

"You two are absolute geniuses."