I Love You, Mat Barzal

Part 3

Emma and I drove back to her house from the rink. She was only a few houses down from mine. I met her parents, both very sweet people. Her mom was a nurse and her dad was a pretty successful lawyer, her home was beautiful to say the least. I also met her dogs and her two younger twin sisters. Emma was such a sweet girl and I was so lucky to get to have met her.

After meeting her family, we went back to my house to hang out. Noah had already got home and showered. We walked in the front door as he was about to walk out.

"Where are you headed?" I asked, praying to God he wasn't going to go hang out with that snack teammate of his.

"You know already, Jules. Palik's house for some beers with the boys." He replied, as he slipped on his sneakers. I gave him a soft look and nodded slowly.

"Oh alright...I guess we'll just see you when you get back." I mumbled. I began to walk up the stairs with Emma following behind me.

"Juliette, don't." He started. I kept walking up the stairs. "Look Jules. I just don't want you to..." He began to defend his choice to not allowing me to go to his friends house with him. I just gave him my soft puppy look as I turned around to continue up the stairs. "Just stop trying to...You guys gotta see it from...OH MY GOD FINE!" He burst.

"We can come?!" Emma and I ran right back down the stairs and hugged Noah.

"Yeah, yeah. Your guilt trip worked...but I'm not driving then." He stated. He took out his car keys from his pocket and them on the end table by the front door. Emma reached into her purse and pulled out her car keys.

"Dibs on designated driver I guess!" She beamed.

We pulled up to a pretty large home. From the driveway you could see part of his huge backyard, which you could see part of his inground pool and a piece of his miniature ice rink. We walk up to the front door, Noah rings the bell, we are almost immediately greeted by a tall man with a bit of beard scruff. He looked to be in his 20s. Noah and this guy dapped each other up.

"Palik, what's up man. I hope it's okay but one of the guys told me to bring my sister and her friend." He said, as Emma and I waved from behind Noah.

"No problem at all, Greco. All are welcome in Casa del Palik! C'mon in ladies." He opened the door wider for us all to come inside. We walked down to the basement where everyone was. Pretty much every guy that was on the ice earlier was in this guys basement. The basement was large, obviously this is Palik's 'bachelor pad' or something because it was LOADED. He had a tv set up with game systems that some of the guys were playing Fortnite on, a stereo surround sound system that was bumping Post Malone at this point, a fridge that was stocked full of beers, a few other brown leather couches, and various table games like air hockey and pool.

Noah grabbed a beer and disappeared almost immediately. I scanned the room quickly and the first pair of eyes I met was Mat's. He had a beer in his hand and was talking with 2 guys and their girlfriends. His eyes didn't leave mine as he excused himself from the conversation and made his way over to me. I was standing with Emma as he walked up to me.

"Hi, Juliette. Hi, Emma. I wasn't expecting you ladies to actually come but I'm really glad you did." He charmingly smiled. Emma looked at me with her eyebrow raised.

"Im gonna go get a beer..." she went to walk away to leave me and Mat to talk.

"Beer? Emma you're driving. You can't..." She put her finger to her lips to shush me behind Mat's back. She walked toward the pool table on the other side of the basement.

"So, can I get you a beer or something to drink? We also have vodka, a couple different types of sodas and juices." He began showing me various bottles.