love on the ice (jack hughes)

3 | First Date

I stayed up talking to Jack all night. I never thought I'd meet Jack Hughes, let alone stay awake all night talking to him. We planned to meet at Mel's diner at 1 pm so I have three hours to get ready and get there.

Bri stayed over last night to help me get ready this morning. She has always woken up significantly later than me even when I sleep in. I leave her in my bed to go and make the both of us breakfast.

——

After about thirty minutes Bri walks into my kitchen yawning and stretching saying, "You're making breakfast, you must be in a good mood." I nod my head and flip an egg. "How are things with Loverboy?" she asks. "Don't call him that," I warn her. "We're just talking, for all I know he could be talking to five other girls and be taking them to Mel's as well." "Come on, you know he only has feels for you," she says. "Don't you think it's a little early for you to be saying that?" I ask. "Not after I heard you laughing at a screen at two am in the morning," she says. "You were awake?" I ask. "Only because you couldn't close your mouth," she says rolling her eyes. "Sorry." I say "I'm sayin'." she says shrugging her shoulders.

——

Ten minutes later my whole family, including Bri was sitting at our dining table eating the breakfast I made us.

"How are things going to work?" Bri asks my dad. "They're going well, I'm actually reffing the Islanders and Hurricane game tonight," he replies. "I want to do what you do when I grow up," Austin says to Dad. "Well buddy, it's a lot of work. You have to understand the game and you can't be biased. You also can't forget that everyone will hate you, whether you make the right call or not, everyone will hate you." "Oh," said Austin in disappointment. Bud, I'm not trying to say I don't like work because I wouldn't trade it for the world, but it's not as easy as people think. It's a big job. You're a hard worker aren't you?" Dad asks him. Austin nods his head. "You see, you can do it." An enormous smile is stuck on Austins' face.

——

By the time we've finished breakfast, it's already 11:30 so, we only have an hour and a half for me to get ready and get there.

Bri helps me do my makeup, I'm not bad at it, but she's just better. We went with a natural glow look that a guy might not even realize. For the outfit, we chose faded blue jeans and a woolen jumper, cute but casual.

"You look great." Bri tells me as I overthink everything. "Are you sure it's not too much? Or too little? " "I'm sure, I would never tell you a lie." "Okay, I love you and I'll text you right after." "Okay, I love you." she say's getting into her car.

"Bye mom, dad, Austin!" I yell about to leave the house. "Wait, not so fast, where are you going?" my dad asks. No where, I'm just going for a Starbucks run, then I'll probably just drive around after. " I lie. "Okay, don't be too long." "I'll try not to."

I leave the house and enter my 2021 white range rover. I love my car, my dad got it for me last year as a present when I graduated from high school. I play some Taylor Swift as i drive for 15 minutes to the diner.

——

When I get to the diner, I check the time, it's 1:05, I'm late. I feel really bad, I hope that jack hasn't been there for too long.

As I enter, I see him talking to two teenage girls, they seem to be giggling at something he's saying. I feel kind of intimidated. But it's irrational. I shouldn't be. First of all, they're too young for him and second of all, he chose to come on a date with me. Not them.

When Jack realizes that I'm here, he asks the girls to leave, they say "Of course," but when they release me they give me dirty looks.

"I'm so sorry that I'm late, I hope you haven't been waiting for too long," I apologize. "no worries, and you're only five minutes late, it's understandable."

After we both get comfortable with each other, he says "I've never actually been here before, have you?" "This is actually my favorite diner," I tell him, "I come here all the time with my best friend Brianna." "So you know what's good," he asks. "In my opinion, everything is good, but I usually stay simple and just get a cheeseburger and fries." "Okay, I trust you," he says.

When the waiter notices us, he says, "Hey, so, what can I get for you?" "the usual," I tell him.

Jack orders the same thing as me as well as some onion rings and I think that we're really hitting this off, he's told me about his family and where he grew up. I never knew that he grew up in Canada, because his dad, Jim, coached the Toronto Maple Leafs.

By the time the food has arrived, we already know the basic things about each other and now its time to know the personal things that we didn't talk about last night.

I told him about my ex and why my dad is so protective about me. My ex boyfriend, Sam, was my boyfriend for two years and everything was going great, his family loved me, especially my dad but, eventually he cheated on me and ever since then, my dad has always been super cautious but, its not like I've dated anyone. It's only been six months and I'm still putting myself back together. If I'm being honest, I didn't even think about being in another relationship until Jack came along.

——

"I really like talking to you," Jack tells me. "Yeah, me too," I say, "can we do this again?" "Sure, I would love to see you at another one of my hockey games." "You're just lucky that I'm a fan of the devils," I tell him. "I've got season tickets." "Oh really?" he asks. "Yes." I tell him, grinning like an idiot. "I'll text you and let you know when we can go out again," he tells me walking me to my car. " "I'm looking forward to that," I say, "bye, Jack." "Bye Zoey." he says.

——

word count: 1095
a/n: do you guys like this? i dont know how i feel about this chapter