i followed justin and hailey up the back of the building towards the vip section of scotiabank arena. i pulled off my beanie and jacket before we approached the seats.
before i could even find my seat, i heard justin saying hi to someone. "shawn! my man! how're you doing?" he said and i watched them shake hands and hug.
there was some mumbling and then justin turned around to find hailey. "you know hailey..." he pushed his girlfriend towards the other guy. this opened up my view to him, and we made eye contact quickly before he continued saying hi to hailey. of course i knew who he was.
"and this is halley...have you two ever met?" justin continued, standing off to let me say hello. "no, we haven't met, how're you?" i said, awkwardly holding my hands close to my body. it was awkward; i didn't feel like i needed to hug him or shake his hand.
"i'm pretty good, how're you?" he shot me a smile back and the four of us stood quietly for a second before a teenage girl stood up and shawn turned back to her. "oh, yeah this is my sister aaliyah...she's a huge fan of you," he said to justin and his sister walked towards justin and gave him a huge hug.
after a few more awkward seconds of standing around, we saw the leafs go on and made our way to our booths. since the vip section of the arena was a bit small, the five of us were all together while the other booth was occupied by what looked like a player's parents and sisters.
justin walked in and down the booth to the seat closest to the wall. hailey followed him, me behind her. i ended up in the middle seat of the five seat section. we settled down, i put my jacket and beanie in my lap and my purse under the seat.
justin had asked his security to get us some beers, so we sat quietly watching the warm up before he came back. shawn and his sister followed closely behind him and came into the row. shawn sat beside me, his sister on his left.
the blue lights began flashing through the arena as the opposing team, the new york rangers, skated onto the ice. then, the announcer came on the mic and the animation on the jumbo tron changed to say "starting lineup" i pulled out my phone to record auston's name on the screen as he skated out.
out came andersen, marner, tavares, nylander, and rielly. "number thirty four from scottsdale arizona, auston matthews!" the announcer exclaimed and i started recording, screaming "yeah auston! whoo!!" hailey looked at me and laughed hysterically. i couldn't help it; one of my favourite people was playing in the nhl.
the crowd roared at the rest of the lineup. as i placed my phone back in my lap, shawn turned to me and said something. i couldn't hear him at all; the fans were absolutely insane. "what?" i turned towards him, shouting. he brought his face closer to my ear and asked loudly, "you a big matthews fan?"
"oh, yeah, i grew up with him," i laughed at his question. the crowd died down a bit and shawn continued. "oh, it must be pretty surreal to see him in the nhl now..." he smiled and i couldn't help but grin back.
"yeah, we used to sneak into the rink where our nhl team played—which was totally illegal—but we had fun, y'know? i miss being home and hanging out with him."
"trust me, i know all about wanting to be at home with friends...i haven't been home for more than 3 days in seven years, and now i'm on a three-week break and i'm loving being back here."
"you're from toronto?" i asked, but i really already knew the answer. i didn't live under a rock, i knew who shawn mendes was. "pickering born and raised."
i nodded and smiled and we heard the anthem singer begin the american national anthem. we listened to both anthems, and the game began.
——— INSTAGRAM! halleyfinn posted on their story!
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— notes! i have no idea how the vip section at the arena works so we're just gonna pretend it's like this
