Meant For You

sixty.

Miles Dempsey

Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump.

The sound of my heartbeat in my ears was the only thing I heard as I skated closer to the net.

This was it. There were only ten seconds left on the clock in game six versus the Oilers.

Pulling off this final win meant we were going to the next round. The score was currently 4-2. We had pulled off this win already but I wanted to secure it.

As sad as it was - for them - the Oilers looked as if they weren't even trying to stop me anymore. I skated on past them until I halted a couple of feet from the goal and shot the black puck in.

The final buzzer rang shortly after and the crowd went feral. My teammates crowded me, jumping on me to celebrate. The atmosphere was insane. It was all I had ever dreamed of as a little kid and we still weren't in the Finals. There was a big crowd tonight but Oilers fans had been piling out for a while now.

I looked around the venue like I'd actually find her. You know the way it happens in the movies. Yeah, that shit didn't happen. Especially not when Tate came crashing into me, almost knocking me on my feet. "That's what I'm talking about, baby!"

The boys were excited. As much as I knew they wanted to celebrate, we wouldn't. It was crunch time now. Everyone thought we wouldn't be able to pull off this series win and now we just slapped them in the face.

Five days.

In just five days we're going to be playing in the Conference Finals against the Dallas Stars.

I didn't want to speak too soon but I had a good feeling about it. I had a good feeling about the whole thing. This is the closest we've gotten in years and although I questioned it a bit at the beginning of the season, I think we've got it closer than we ever have. It makes me excited, scared, and grateful all at the same time.

We walk back into the locker room and immediately have reporters thrown in our faces. For once, I'm not pissed during an interview. Tiffany always gets on me about being cranky to the analysts. I talk to a couple of them and do my fair share of media for about an hour before I'm able to leave.

Since I knew I would be a while, I told my parents to meet me at my place. They came out to today's game to support me since I told them we would most likely pull off the win. Dad's been super excited about the success of the team. Mom too but she's more worried about me not hurting myself on the ice more than anything else.

Nola also came out to support. I had to tell Mom and Dad over the phone yesterday that she was my girlfriend now. Mom was over the freaking moon about it. She's just happy I finally have a girlfriend but the fact that it's Nola, I can't get her to be quiet about it. Since I knew Nola was going to sit next to my parents, I made sure to tell them before so she wouldn't feel like she was hiding something from them.

She shared with me the fact that she told her parents recently too. I couldn't ask how it went since we talked about it briefly during a break at practice but it seems to me as if we've got our lowkey relationship going. Everyone in our lives pretty much knows already. The teams know I'm no longer a single man and since Nola shows out to every game, they assumed it was her who was my girlfriend.

I'm honestly on such a high right now. My life has only progressively gotten better and Nola being my girlfriend is just the cherry on top. There are still unanswered questions in my life but as of right now, they're not at the forefront of my mind.