𝐎𝐋𝐈𝐕𝐈𝐀, shawn mendes

chapter three

halley finn
toronto, ontario
———

there was three minutes left in the first period and the leafs were down 2-1 to the rangers. i got a text from my colleague down near the ice that interviews would start soon and i should head down.

"hey, i'm gonna go get ready for interviews," i whispered to hailey. she quickly replied "okay, i'm gonna come with you, i want food." we both stood up and out of the booth, into the main hall and entered the elevator.

"so...i saw you talking to shawn mendes a lot during the game..." hailey blurted out, dragging out the end of her sentence in apparent reference to romance.

"okay? and? he's nice, and he just started talking to me...i'm being friendly hail," i said, probably sounding a little frustrated at her. but she knew i just didn't want to talk about those things.

"i think you guys should hook up," she said, completely disregarding what i had just said. she saw my face widen and my eyes roll. "what? it won't mean anything! it just...may lead to something..."

"in a second i'm gonna punch you," i said sarcastically, honestly just tired of hailey trying bud into my love life. i knew she had good intentions—she was happy with justin and wanted me to be too. but it just got annoying sometimes. "who are you? a fucking love therapist?"

"i prefer the word 'wingwoman', but that'll work," she smirked and the elevator dinged that we had arrived. we walked into the dressing room wing of the arena and i got handed a microphone and led a few feet down the hall away from hailey.

i got told that i'd be having a quick interview with john tavares now and would then do some post game ones with other players. i watched as the leafs filed into the dressing room, but auston spotted me.

i smiled at the sight of him—i had missed him so much. "matty!" i exclaimed my nickname for him and he grinned and walked towards me. he tried to lean in for a hug, but i was quick to push him away, "no fucking way, you're sweating buckets."

so instead of hugging me, auston pulled off his glove and gave me a heavy rub on the head. "really? ruining my hair before i have to go on tv? maybe i should visit you less, auston."

"why're you back in toronto?" he asked me. "work, i came back with justin and hailey."

"bieber?" auston's eyes lit up. i smirked, "yes, justin bieber...i'll introduce you to him later."

"thank you i love you," auston said quickly and ran back into the dressing room as the coach was about to walk in.

i waited a couple of minutes in front of the camera before john tavares walked out of the dressing room and towards me. i smiled at him, the crew said rolling, and i began.

"alright, we're here with john tavares, the sole scorer for the leafs in the first period. john, what do you think you guys need to focus on to get on top going into this second period?" i put on my reporter voice and asked the captain.

"well, i think we need to work on making clear passes and keeping the puck...we know that they are good at interfering and stealing the puck...so we need to eliminate that possibility," he replied. i nodded and smiled at him, "thank you so much, have a good rest of the game."

i grinned at the camera, waiting for us to be off-air, and then walked back to hailey. we walked back up to the vip section, stopping quickly to get a hotdog and more beer.

on our way, hailey tried multiple times to bring up the certain canadian i was sitting beside and apparently chatting up a storm with. i was quick to shut down the conversation with a "buh" or "no".

we arrived back to our booth section and shawn was talking closely with his sister. hailey walked in front of me, looked at shawn, and smirked back at me while she sat down. i punched her in the arm and sighed, ready for the second period to start.

— notes!
it's honestly depressing
to write about the leafs
now that they gave me
yet again another game
7 loss...but i started this
with hope that we'd win
and i'm not gonna stop