Queen II Barzal

Chapter Twenty-Four: Tyler

I drove a slightly drunk Nick back to the hotel. I parked the car and we went in together.
"Where's the key to your room?" I asked him.
"Shit, I left it in there," He said, checking his pockets.
"You idiot," I laughed. I rolled my eyes and opened the door to my place.
"C'mon, dofus," I led him into my place.
"Thanks," He smiled.
"I'm gonna shower, I'll be out in a few minutes," I told him.
"Okay," He said.
I drew the water and put my dress on a hanger. I put it on the door before I went into the shower. When I came out, I wrapped a towel around my body and my hair. I went back into the room to get my clothes. I felt the eyes from Nick as I went back into the bathroom. I barely glanced at him, but I knew he didn't have a shirt on. I came out of the bathroom with a sweatshirt and shorts with my hair in a braid.
"Hey, beautiful," He smiled as I walked out of the bathroom.
I was right, he has no shirt on.
"Hey," I smirked, getting on the bed, sitting up next to him.
I smiled as I grabbed his face and kissed his lips. I climbed on top of him, my knees on the bed and my hands on his face. He moved my braid so he could kiss my neck. My hands went down to his body, grazing his muscles. I took off my sweatshirt which showed my bra underneath. His hands were smooth on my back as they went down to my butt. I didn't think of anything but him. Nick moved my legs so I was fully laying down on the bed. I squealed as he did so, getting on top of me and kissing me again.
"Wait, are you sure you wanna do this?" He asked, hovering on top of me. "I know what happened last time... I don't want you to have any regrets,"
"Nick, that was forced," I said. "This isn't,"
"So... you're ready?" He asked.
I thought about it. I trusted Nick, but maybe it was too soon. He caught me stalling.
"It's okay if you're not," He said. "I can wait,"
"Okay," I said. "Thanks,"
He brushed my loose hair behind my ear and smiled.
"Whenever you're ready," He said, sitting up.
"Weird question," I started. "Have you ever?"
"Actually, no," He told me. "You would be my first time... when you're ready,"
I awkwardly laid on the bed without saying a word.
"You haven't either, right?" He asked.
"Nope," I told him.
We fell asleep in the same bed but didn't do anything more than kiss. I liked that we didn't do it right away, I'd rather wait for the right time.
When he woke up, he kissed my head, waking me up. I saw him smile through my half-closed eyes.
"What time is it?" I asked groggily.
"It's almost ten," He said.
"Seriously?" I rubbed my eyes.
"Yeah," He said. "We had a pretty late night last night,"
"What time did we fall asleep?" I asked.
"Probably around three-thirty," He said.
I got a text as Nick handed me my phone.
"Who is it?" Nick asked.
"Holy fucking hell," I said. "Andrei Svechnikov DMed me!"
"No way, seriously?" He asked. "What did he say?"
I pulled up the direct message from Instagram.
Andrei_svechnikov37: Hey Tyler! I was wondering if u and ur friend wanted to join me and Seb for a small practice
I smiled reading the message from him. I waited about a minute to reply.
Tyler_barzal21: We'd love to! What time?
He responded quickly after he read my message.
Andrei_svechnikov37: Is today okay? Maybe 11?
Tyler_barzal21: Sounds good :)
"Holy shit! We're practicing with Svech!" I squealed.
"Don't you practice with your dad all the time?" Nick asked. "He's a professional athlete, probably better than Svech,"
"Yeah, well, I don't have a major fangirling crush on my dad, do I," I stated.
Nick started laughing.
"I hope not," He said.
"Well, I don't," I made clear.
"That's good to know," Nick laughed. "You really like Andrei, don't you?"
"Like is an understatement," I smiled.
"You know, it's good to know that your girl is meeting up with her world famous crush and has a chance to be with her," Nick said.
"Okay, one, he's a few years younger than my parents... I'm not that desperate," I said. "And two, you're gonna be there too, it's not that big of a deal,"
"Okay, okay," He laughed.
"I'm gonna get dressed," I told him, getting up from the bed. "You should, too,"
I laughed at him, still in his underwear.
"I need to get my replacement key from the front desk," He said.
"Looking like that?" I asked.
I threw on a t-shirt and a pair of leggings.
"Give me your credit card, I'll go get it," I said.
"Fine," He said. "It's in my blazer pocket,"
I got his card and went down to the front desk. I got a new key for him and went back upstairs.
"Here," I handed him the key.
"Thanks," He looked in the hallway to see if there was anyone. He was in the clear, so he went back to his room. I only laughed when he left as I picked up his clothes from the other night and brought them to his room.
"Thanks," He said as I handed him his blazer, shirt, and dress pants.
"You ready?" I asked.
"Yeah," He said.
Before we got to the rink, we stopped at a gas station to get water bottles. Thankfully we had our hockey bags because we thought that we were going to get practice with my dad. He was leaving today because Riley has lacrosse.
We got to the rink and I was immediately star-struck. Svech and Seb were passing the puck on the ice already as we noticed them.
"Hey, Tyler," Andrei said, skating over to me.
"Hey, Andrei," Nick got in front of me a bit to take Andrei's attention away from me.
Andrei let out a small laugh and invited us to join him on the rink. We got our skates on and went on the ice.
"What's up, guys?" Sebastian Aho asked as we went up to him.
"All good, bro," Nick shook his hand after he took it out of his glove.
"Ready to practice?" Seb asked.
"Yeah," I said.
We passed, skated, and showed off our shots. Svech showed us how he did his lacrosse goal and I practiced it for a few minutes. After that, we played 2 on 2. It was Svech and I against Seb and Nick. The score got pretty high before we lost count. After a while, we called it a game. I'm pretty sure that Svech and I won, but Nick claims that he and Seb did.
"Aye, Seb, what a win," Nick gave Seb a high-five.
"Who said that you guys won?" I asked.
"Nick did," Sebastian told me.
"I'm never wrong," Nick said with a slight smile.
"Mhm," I crossed my arms and rolled my eyes.
"Don't worry," Svech said, putting his arm around me. "He's wrong this time,"
I couldn't hold in my smile and it was definitely visible to Nick. I saw his eyes pin with jealousy as I looked up at Svech. We went to the bench and changed our skates into shoes before we went to the parking lot.
"Hey, Barzal," Svech said to me. "You're a great player, the Thunderbirds are lucky to have you,"
"We definitely are," Nick said, slightly giving me an elbow.
"You're great, too, Nick," Svech told him.
"Thanks," Nick said.
"Have you guys been placed in the NHL draft yet?" Seb asked.
"Nope," I said. "I didn't hear anything about it yet,"
"We play pretty well together, maybe join the Canes in a year?" Svech asked.
"Possibly," I smiled.
"Ethan would be happy to have you on our team," Seb said. "He's a great guy,"
"Just to think how cool it would be to play in the NHL," I said quietly.
"It would be awesome, wouldn't it," Nick said.