State of Grace - Jack Hughes

004

Jack

Two weeks. Two agonizing long weeks. I know Allie is back at school and she's busy balancing classes, moving and the new job. I want to see her. Start over. Something. Just to see those piercing green eyes for 5 more minutes. One text won't hurt right? It's been two weeks. I don't know how long I was in my train of thought, but the tape on my stick is all crooked and I need to start over.

"You good man?" Nico says. His accent makes everything a little funny, it snaps me back to reality with a smile. He's a great captain, and someone you can rely on, on the ice or not.

"Yeah man, just a lot going on." I rip the tape off my stick and start over.

Luke perks up from his stall, "He's stuck on a girl that met for 3 hours." He huffs in disappointment.

Nico laughs, "Dude what?"

Before I can start Luke starts running his mouth, "The girl I hit with my car, he could have been drooling over her and I don't think he would have cared."

I roll my eyes, "It wasn't that bad. It doesn't matter," I rise. "Come on Coach will bench all of us if we aren't out there soon." I place the roll of tape back on the shelf of my stall and go out to the rink. I mean he's right. I have been thinking about her. A lot.

Since the accident, Luke and I have been forced to wear our no contact sweaters on the ice. We were given all clear by the doctors but, Coach wants to play it safe while playoffs are quickly approaching. Practice dragged ass, all these technical drills and trying out new lines. It felt like it would never end. We are not allowed to have our phones on the bench, but the second I am back in my stall, I am going to text Allie, for something other than insurance information.

Eventually practice comes to an end and the coach asks Luke and I to hang back. "Hughes' next practice regular sweaters. We must get back to the place we were. You're all back to 100% so I expect to see you guys taking hits like you were before."

I hate having to tread lightly on the ice, even if it is just at practice. "Thanks Coach. We will see you tomorrow."

"No more fuck ups boys," he huffs and walks out of the rink. I see Luke release his breath; I wonder if he even realized he was holding it.

Luke and I go back into the locker room, to get ourselves ready to go home. Since he joined the team, we have been living together, which has been great. It would be better if Quinn was here, it's always easier to torture Luke with backup. I picked up my phone from my stall and saw a new group chat has been made with Allie, Lexie, Luke and I.

Allie started the group chat with a picture of her in front of her car, on the bed of a tow truck, giving the camera two thumbs up with a few tears coming down her face. With a message under the photo saying "Ronnies final adventure". Luke beat me to respond first. 

Luke Hughes, Allie Green & Lexie Finnly 

Luke Hughes

rip

are you gonna get scrap metal $$

damn, thank you for your service

replies to Luke Hughes

oh true that's got to be a couple hundred

Allie Green

i don't know yet

all i know, is its not enough lol