icebreaker | nolan patrick

23

Fiona
Abington, Pennsylvania

It was finally spring break. Between everything with the miscarriage and stressful exams, I was more than ready to have a few weeks off. I spent the night at Nolan's last night and we were currently pulling into my neighborhood.

"You'll be fine. They're gonna love you," I reassured Nolan as I could tell he was nervous.

"There's so many of them, I'm sure there will be at least one that doesn't," He joked, but I knew he was a little bit serious.

"My dad has been watching the Flyers since he came out of the womb, there is no way he couldn't like you. He might try to act tough, but that's only because he wants to scare you. He's really just a giant teddy bear."

When we walked in, I immediately heard the strong bass of a Trippie Redd song echoing from Jake and Tommy's room. Lily was patiently sitting on the couch, streaming the Sixers game on the TV.

Her eyes lit up when she heard the door latch, quickly getting up and embracing me in a tight hug.

"I'm so happy you're back! This house has too much testosterone," Lily exclaimed, her eyes darting to Nolan.

"Nolan, this is Lily. Lily, this is Nolan," I introduced.

Lily reached her hand out, shaking Nolan's hand and smiling. Just then, I heard a door upstairs swing open and firm footsteps making their way down the staircase, another set of feet soon following.

Out walked Jake, his head buried in his phone. His eyes locked on Nolan. Jake and Tommy were tall, not as tall as Nolan, but I'm guessing they came in around six foot one.

"Staring is rude, Jacob," Lily scolded, slapping his arm.

"I'm Jake," He stated, pulling his hand out of his pocket and shaking Nolan's hand.

"Nolan."

Once we were done all of the introductions, we went into the kitchen. I grabbed glasses out of the cabinet and got some water for me and Nolan.

"Where are mom and dad?" I questioned.

"Some party for dad's work, they said they'd be back at nine," Tommy answered from the living room.

"I want a hoagie," Lily complained, giving me a look as if to say, "I want to go to Wawa."

We all decided to go for a Wawa run, since my parents left us money for dinner. I slipped on my Uggs, putting my winter coat on and opened the door. I was driving my mom's car because it could fit all of us comfortably. That way we didn't have to be squished or take two cars.

"Who's Range?" Jake asked, looking at me.

"It's Nolan's," I said, pointing at him.

Jake looked at him, nodding and then continued walking. I could tell Jake was skeptical of him, he was always more protective than Tommy. He did the same thing with Brandon when Sydney brought him home for the first time, even at the ripe age of ten.

I walked into the Wawa, immediately feeling the rush of nostalgia. I went from coming to this Wawa at least three times week, to not at all. I think the last time I was in here was over the summer.

I ordered a breakfast burrito, my usual, and Nolan got a chicken caesar wrap. After that, we made the three minute drive back to my house. I had definitely missed how easy it was to get around in the suburbs. The only place you can get in three minutes in the city is one block over.

By the time in was nine o'clock, I heard the door swing open. Nolan looked over at me with wide eyes. I squeezed his hand and got up off the couch.

"Fiona!" My mom exclaimed, giving me a big hug, my dad joining us.

Nolan waited patiently, leaning on the banister.

"Mom, dad, this is Nolan," I smiled.

I had texted my mom this morning letting her know that he was nervous. She said that she would pass the information onto my dad, hopefully inclining him to go a little easy. I hadn't had many boyfriends that I took to meet my parents, but when they did, my dad tended to scare them.

"Greg Spaulding, this is my wife Jen," My dad said, putting his hand out to shake Nolan's.

"Nolan Patrick," He responded, trying his best to smile.

"How have you been treating my little girl?" My dad asked sternly.

Before Nolan could answer, I interrupted.

"Amazingly," I grinned, grabbing his hand.

"I'll just tell you, I respect you as a hockey player, but you ever hurt her, well, let's just say, your shot has nothing on mine."

I mentally facepalmed, closing my eyes, ready to curse my father out. I squeezed Nolan's hand as he swallowed deeply.

"Dad," I scolded.

"Sorry, sweetheart. I just thought I'd let him know before he gets any ideas."

The rest of the night was pretty boring. We just sat around, my family annoyingly asking Nolan questions about being a Flyer and how it feels to be checked by Claude Giroux.

I promised Lily that I would sleep in her room one night while I was here, so I ended up leaving Nolan in my room and joining her.

"Okay, holy adorable. How did you manage to pull him?" She asked while taking her makeup off.

"Hey, I may not have the body of a model like you, but I can get guys!"

I had always been jealous of Lily's body. She was tall, coming in at almost five foot nine. My mom was five foot four, but my brothers and Lily got their height from my dad, who was nearly six foot four.

"His eyes, oh my god," Lily looked like she was thinking about Zac Efron shirtless.

"Chill out, Lil. He's taken," I said sassily while flipping my hair.

We fell asleep just talking about Nolan. She commented on his hair, one of my favorite parts of him. It needed to be cut soon, but I wanted to let myself enjoy it before I made him cut it.

"Does he have a brother?"

——
sorry this took so long i have exams soon

i'm so fucking happy we beat the penguins. sid crosby needs a reality check.

this chapter was cute aw he met her fam

while i wrote this i realized how bad i feel for anyone who has never experienced a wawa run. tragic.