friends? - Jack Hughes

positive start...?

🎶bet you think I'm missing you and wishing you would call my phone.. hell nah🎶

-Dierks Bentley (somewhere on a Beach)

As soon as I parked in my regular spot at the Devils practice arena, I thought about Ella.

It had been a few days since I broke up with her. I wanted to start this whole day of hockey with a positive attitude so I got everything that I needed out of my car and walked into the arena.

The smell of rubber and sweat was comforting and put a half smile on my face. Nico scared the shit out of me when he came out from nowhere to say hi.

"How's life without Ella?" He asked

"Hell. I miss her so much.." I replied getting sadder by the second as he made me think about what happened.

"Look man she was the one who was out with another guy. And things will only start getting better for you. It's still raw. Plus we got Tyler's wife's party in a few weeks so you can meet someone there. " He added.

"Yeah i guess, I'm going to be moving to another apartment to get out of this house."

"Probably a good idea. Look it's time we just go and practice. We're playing the bruins so we gotta get warmed up." Said Nico.

"Alright let's go." I replied. We started walking until we reached the dressing room. Felt good to be here. My mind was in a good place here.

Why was it that she was in the wrong by going to see someone else but I'm the one suffering? It's just unfair.

I sat down to put on my hockey equipment. I stuck in my AirPods so I could drown out all the noise.

Eventually it was time to get on the ice. I was excited. It is my time to chill and just take my anger out on a hockey puck.

The second I stepped onto the ice, I felt free. I was going to have a good day.

Our head coach stepped onto the ice. We had a free skate for about ten more minutes before he got us to do my personal favourite warm up drill.

The S drill. Yes there were people skating everywhere but I found it comforting. I flew past everyone and just shot at the net.

I started off by passing the puck to one of our Defense and just flew past them and got a cross ice pass from him again.

I stick handled a little bit as I was driving the net. I was in control of the puck.

I shot it top corner and managed to score.

Satisfied, I went back into the line.

————————————————————————

I was going to be doing things hockey related the whole day. No time to think about anything else.

The on ice practice had ended and we were going to be doing some fitness in our multiple facilities on the property.

I left my equipment into the dressing room as did everyone else and walked over to the fitness building.

Time skip to 2 hours before the game.

We were going to be going on a multi day road trip. We were going to be in Ontario for a few days and then fly over to B.C to play Vancouver. That means I get to see Quinn and reconnect with him. It's definitely been a while since I've talked to any of my brothers.

Anyways, it was now two hours before the game.

We had some free time before we had to be at the Prudential Centre so I decided to take a drive around the city and go to my favourite cafe for a drink.