NHL Imagines

Brendan Gallagher (Montreal Canadiens)

"Oh come on!" I groaned, dropping my hand.

I had missed the last bus to the stop by my neighborhood and now, I had no way of getting home.

I looked at my watch and my eyes widened. 10:30 pm. I hadn't realized how late it was and paranoia suddenly kicked in.

How else would I get home? I didn't know anyone in the town, me having moved to Montreal a week ago. Could I just call a cab? Grabbing my phone out of my back pocket, I was again disappointed to see it had died.

"Son of a bitch, this night couldn't get any worse!" I shouted and immediately regretted it.

A hand clasped my shoulder and I about jumped out of my own skin. My fighting instincts kicked in and I elbowed the person in the stomach, turning around and kicking the inside of their right knee. He fell to the ground, holding his lower stomach and groaning.

I stood over him, looking at his pained face. He was very handsome. From what I could tell.

"Sorry," he wheezed out "I'm sorry... I didn't mean to scare you. Ow- Jesus, you can punch,"

He slowly stood to his feet, still holding his stomach. When he stood fully, he stuck his hand out at me. I looked at his hand then back to his face with raised eyebrows.

"Okay," he put his hand down "well, I'm Brendan. Uh, Brendan Gallagher,"

I sat there quietly, just staring at him. Instead of introducing myself, I fixed my backpack and turned around, walking quickly in the direction of my house.

"Hey, uh... person! It's not very safe to walk alone at night! How about I take you home?" he ran up in front of me, forcing me to stop so I didn't bump into him.

"Look," I snapped "I don't know who the hell you think you are, but I don't know you. Stop acting like you're my friend because I have never seen you before in my life. I appreciate that you're offering to take me home, but I thought you were a murderer like three minutes ago, so I'd rather walk home alone."

I started walking once more and, again, he rushed in front of me.

"All I was trying to do was get your attention. I saw you miss the bus from across the street, so I walked over here to offer to take you to wherever the hell you want to go. My car is parked like two blocks down from here. I will drive you wherever you want to go, but you have to decide now because I have practice in the morning and it's already almost 11:00 at night,"

I sighed and nodded my head. He smiled and stuck out his arm. I giggled at his gesture and looped my arm into his. Maybe he wasn't as bad as I thought.

||In the car||

"So Brendan, you said you had practice in the morning. What do you play?" I asked, curious.

"I play hockey for the Montreal Canadiens,"

"Ah, that explains it. I'm more of a Kings girl myself," I laughed.

"Oh hell no. There are no Kings fans allowed in my car," he joked.

"Yeah, I grew up watching the Kings. LA pride man. My dad used to take me to their games all the time. He was a huge hockey fan..."

"Was?" Brendan looked over at me, confusion written all over his face.

"Yeah. He got cancer when I was 16 and passed away the day after my high school graduation. The last thing he said to me was how proud he was. I was the first person to ever graduate from our family," I wiped the tears from my face and laughed "I just met you and you already know almost everything about me."

"...I'm sorry," he spoke softly "I...um... I shouldn't have asked,"

"It's okay. Really. It's been a long time since I've talked about it. It actually feels good to cry again,"

I pointed to the street where he needed to turn. I gave him the house number and he turned into my driveway.

We both got out and he walked me to my front door.

"Thank you, Brendan. I don't know a lot of people here, so it means a lot that you would help out a total stranger. Especially after I punched you in the stomach," I smiled, sheepishly.

"It's alright. I guess I should have kind of thought the whole thing through before going up to you,"

"You should have. But for your own health," I teased.

He laughed and walked closer to me. He looked down at me and stood there for a bit before ducking down and placing a kiss on my cheek. My face heated up and I could tell I went red because he chuckled quietly.

My shaking hands took my key and unlocked my door, I waved goodbye to him.

"Will I be able to see you again? I don't even have your number!"

"You know where I live, you don't need my number," I laughed, taking a step inside.

"Wait!" he called "I never got your name!"

"That's for me to know, and you to find out,"

Requested by resa2705 :)

I'm in Missouri until Monday and I'm super upset because I'm missing my first homecoming :'( Unfortunately, I had no choice but to go and now I'm going to practically live off the internet for the next four days because I don't like my grandparents!