I lay restless in my bed, it was pushing 3am and my dad had gone to sleep way before I even went to bed. I sighed loudly, noticing how big my house was for just me and my dad. I sighed and pushed myself up from my bed, grabbing Auston's old jersey and a pair of jeans, throwing them both on and grabbing the keys. After locking the house back up, I made my way to dads car. Pulling out of our drive and making my way to the rink.
Auston had left earlier in the day for training, it was an away game in Chicago next week which meant I wasn't gonna see him for a few days. Once I got to the stadium I jumped out of my car and made my way to the backdoor, where I scanned my fob and made my way inside, hockey bag by my side.
"Evening Miss Harrington." The security guy said from the main entrance and I smiled and nodded.
"Hey Bruce, I'll be a few hours. That okay?" I asked and he nodded and smiled.
"No problem Lilly, I'll be here when you're ready to leave." Bruce said with a nod and I just smiled and nodded. I made my way into the rink onto the ice where Bruce had already turned on the lights. The ice wasn't too bad so I easily glided on it. I held my hockey stick and lined myself up with the goal, the 30 or so pucks sitting in front of me.
"One for mum." I said and shot the puck right into the back of the net, taking a deep breathe as I got myself ready for the next. "One for dads first round of alcohol abuse." Deep breathe, back of the net. "One for dads knee injury." Deep breathe, back of the net. "One for dads second round of alcohol abuse." Deep breathe, back of the net. "One for Auston." Deep breathe, straight over the goal. "Fuck sake." I groaned, kicking another puck into the goal.
"Hey, you got 4 in. That's pretty impressive." A voice said from behind me and I turned to see Mitch skating toward me with a smile.
"Usually Auston and I do this together, but he's not here tonight." I shrugged and started stacking the pucks. Mitch joined me and we stacked in silence.
"How long have you been playing?" He asked after we finished, breaking the silence we had created over stacking our piles of pucks.
"Never." I answered simply and Mitch looked at me confused. "I don't play Hockey, I never have and I never will." I shrugged and Mitch looked at me, I came to a stop and held my hand out. "Don't get me wrong, I love Hockey, but I could never play." I said and Mitch just nodded.
"So how do you know Auston?" Mitch asked confused and I just smiled and sat on the bench next to him.
"Well, we met here actually. I had forgotten my stuff after a game and you guys had just recently been drafted. I noticed him skating around on the ice and I made my way down. We spent the whole night talking, he's my best friend. I've never had a best friend before, but I think he's more of a brother, dad tell him he's part of the family all the time." I said and Mitch just smiled.
"I didn't even know Justin Harrington had a daughter." He said and I just laughed and he looked at me confused, a small smile playing on his lips.
"There's a lot you don't know, Mitch." I said and he looked at me fake hurt. I rolled my eyes and pushed him slightly, laughing a little. We talked for a while longer until we decided to make our way back onto the ice for a couple of laps before we left.
"Are you coming to Chicago for the game?" Mitch asked on our 3rd lap around the rink and I sighed and shook my head.
"Nah, I don't really come to away games. Auston always wants me to go, but something always stops me." I shrugged and Mitch skated backwards and in front of me.
"You should come! Your dads coming, it'll be fun. Your dad said himself that you are the teams lucky charm." Mitch winked and I just rolled my eyes, pushing him slightly, making him loose his balance he grabbed me as he fell down, me conveniently falling on top of him. Cliché or what? We slid on the ice as both of us laughed.
"God this is really cliché, I feel like we're in some really bad movie." Mitch laughed and I laughed with him. I got up, offering a hand before we skated one last lap.
"Guess you could say you fell for me, eh?" I teased, nudging his shoulder with mine. He shook his head and laughed again.
"More like I fell because of you." He said and took off skating in front of me. I just rolled my eyes and skated quickly behind him, following him off of the ice. Both of us removing our skates and throwing them to the side. I threw my stuff in the bag and grabbed my skates as we left the stadium.
"Hey, it's still pretty late. Wanna come back to mine?" I asked looking at the clock which was on the time 4:43. Mitch also looked at the clock and just nodded.
"Yeah sure, we've not got practice today anyways." Mitch shrugged and we made our way towards the back entrance.
"Should I expect to see Marner showing up instead of Matthews Lilly?" Bruce asked from the entrance and I just laughed and waved him off.
"I'd never replace Auston!" I exclaimed and Bruce laughed. Mitch just smiled and shut the door behind us as we made our way towards my dads car which was parked over 3 spaces.
"Damn, great parking job." Mitch joked as we both climbed into the car, shutting the doors. I rolled my eyes and started up the engine.
"Shut up. I was stressed." I shot back and Mitch held up his hands in surrender while I just rolled my eyes once again.
