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"respectfully, what the fuck?" i say to chris, disappointment laced into my voice.

"she's changed bro, please trust me okay?" he says to me

"I don't know. she said some pretty awful things to me. when did this happen?" i try to gather my thoughts.

"like right when connor broke his jaw, it was around that time." chris willingly answers all my questions.

"actually... we had planned for her to come over for supper tonight. if you want I can tell her tonights not a good day." he informs me of the current situation.

"don't do that, I want to do this sooner than later." i say

"do what?" my mom asks.

"make things right with her."

"i'm so proud of the person you've become" she hugs me.

i go up to my old room and notice everything is still the same as when I left, which is perfect. i get all settled in again and call blakeny. we chit chat and catch each other up on our days. apparently connor is distraught that I left without saying goodbye, serves him right.

"hey sweetie, suppers ready." my mom opens my door a crack and whispers so she doesn't disturb me.

"okay i'll be right down" i say my goodbye to blake and leave my room, dreading the conversation with cass.

i walk down the stairs and we make eye contact. "hey isabel, i'm so sorry about the things I said, they weren't true and I should have never talked about you or connor in that way. I have spent every day regretting it, i'm so sorry." cass says, now it's my turn.

"no you don't have to be sorry, I should. I should have never put connor in front of you, he's a really big douche and he doesn't deserve someone who puts him in front of their friends. I'm sorry if I hurt you" we both reach for a hug and hold it for a little while, both relieved by how well that went.

we sit down and eat waffles and white sauce. "oh my god mom this is so good, i missed your homecooked meals." i feel like i had forgotten what good food tasted like.

"so isabel, us four had originally planned on going to the jets and devils game this weekend, but mom said she'd be willing to give you her ticket. you can come with us guys, what would you think of that?" my dad asks with a grin on his face.

"uhm yeah? only if mom is okay with giving up her ticket." i say, getting excited about this.

"oh honey of course, you know I don't love hockey, especially not as much as you."

--

i throw on my liane jersey that I got a couple years ago, put on a pair of leather pants and curl my hair all cute. I plan on maybe finding a fling or something at the game that I can go home with for one night. something to get my mind off connor, since the airport thing didn't work. seems like nobody cool wants to fly to winnipeg.

"isabel, lets get going!" my dad yells up at me, i run down the stairs and put on my platform high tops.

we drive to the rink and rush inside. my dad takes us to the lower bowl.

"omg dad we got lower bowl seats?" i ask, whenever we have gone to jets games we always get nose bleeds.

"yes, this time we decided we would get good seats." he keeps on leading us to our seats, he sits down in a seat right behind the devils bench.

"right behind the bench? bro these are better seats than connor ever gave me for his own games." i say completely in shock that my parents bought these tickets.

"you know how much your brothers love the devils!" chris and skylar both start laughing.

before we know it the players come out to start warming up, skating around shooting pucks.

"ugh i love jack hughes" i say pretty loudly, forgetting that i'm in public. "we know" chris says, as if I should've assumed.

i cant keep my eyes off jack, he's so fine. he skates around a bit, before we lock eyes. a small smiles creeps onto his face as we continue to just stare at each other. i'm like freaking out at this point, and my brothers have both noticed now.

"uhm is jack hughes staring at you?" skylar asks.

"i think so?" I say, not breaking the eye contact with jack.

he starts skating towards the bench and he reaches for his water bottle. i start blushing too hard to handle so I look away for a quick second, deep down hoping jack looks away so I can breathe again.

I look back, and he's full on smirking now. he skates away to nico hischier, they exchange words and then both look in my direction.

at this point I have fully stopped breathing without realizing, this is so perfect. If i fall in love with a different nhl player that i know I can't have, maybe i can stop thinking about connor.

I keep the eye contact with jack, he's talking to his teammates still, but without breaking it.

eventually he skates away and I lose him, which feels like a weight off my chest, that was way too intense for me.

"What was that??" skylar asks me, confused but excited look on his face.

"honestly, no idea." I slightly chuckle.

before I know it jack is skating back in our direction, but this time he's holding a puck. you're kidding.

he makes his way into the benches, he looks at me and tosses the puck over the glass for me, and then skates away again.

I catch the puck with a huge smile on my face, but when I take a look at it I see a little piece of hockey tape on the side, and it says something. I turn it around to stare at what seems like a phone number. no fucking way. jack motherfuckin hughes gave me his phone number.

this is like a broken record, i'm sorry i ignored yall for so long 😭

i have a lot planned for this book and i'm so exciteddddddd

thanks for 43k, love yall smmmm <333

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