Downtown (auston matthews x oc)

-seven-

𝓝𝓸𝓻𝓪

Nora lost sight of Auston in the crowd. Not that she was looking for him or anything. Lex was hitting it off with one of the other Leafs' players—some guy named Michael Bunting, who was so drunk that he believed Lex's author persona. When the two of them went to go dance together, Trick sat down in the spot Lex had occupied beside Nora.

"How are you doing?" he asked, leaning forward to rest his elbows on his knees.

"Not drunk enough," Nora muttered with a sigh. She took a sip of her beer, which was only her second of the evening. Lex hardly drank, so Nora wanted to make sure she got home safe—and without a hockey player on her arm. The last thing Lex—or anyone—needed was a douchebag guy from the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Trick nudged Nora with his shoulder and suggested, "I can grab you another one."

Nora waved him off. "I'm okay," she assured him. "I'd rather take care of Lex." She and Trick eyed their friend on the dance floor, where she was getting plenty close to Michael.

"You wanna hang out back at your place after?" Trick asked, turning his gaze back to Nora.

She didn't move to look at him—she didn't need to. He was certainly leveling her with the glower she knew so well. To be fair, she and Trick weren't anything more than friends, even if they had hooked up on a couple occasions. The last time was at least three or four months ago,  and Nora tried to tell herself it wouldn't happen again.

To him she inquired meaningfully, "Do you mean hang out or hang out?"

"Whatever you want," he replied.

"Okay," Nora breathed, finally returning her stare to him. "We can just hang out." She cocked her head towards the dance floor. "Assuming we can ever pry Lex off this loser."

////

By the time Nora convinced Lex to leave the Castle, it was two one in the morning. The walk home was chilly and slow, given that Lex was navigating drunkenly and in heels. Fortunately, between the two of them, Nora and Trick managed to get her into the elevator and back up to the apartment.

Nora left Trick on the couch as she helped Lex to her bedroom. There, Nora instructed her to wash her face and get changed, and while she complained, Nora turned on her t.v. and moved the trash can beside Lex's bed—the former because Lex liked to go to sleep with Netflix playing, and the latter because there was no chance Lex would make it through the night without throwing up.

Once Lex was settled in bed, Nora returned to the living room, where Trick was scrolling through his phone. "T.v.?" he piped up, putting the phone away.

"Sure," Nora agreed. She sat down on the opposite end of the couch, where she trusted she wouldn't be tempted to curl up beside Trick. Their one rule was always no sleep-overs with each other. As she pulled a blanket over her lap, Nora reminded trick, "If I fall asleep, just wake me up before you go, eh? So I can lock the door behind you."

"Yes ma'am," he promised, and then he put on The Office, which was Nora's comfort show. She had already watched it a hundred times, but she appreciated the consistency: she always knew where it was going and what would happen next. The thought of starting a new show made her anxious beyond belief—so it was always the same, no matter what.

When it came down to it, Nora liked routine. Sleeping on the couch while watching The Office was exactly that: routine. Mundane. The part of it that wasn't so routine, and so the part that bothered Nora the most, was that she fell asleep thinking about where Auston Matthews had disappeared to at the Castle earlier in the night.