𝐢𝐧𝐯𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐛𝐥𝐞 𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 | 𝐣. 𝐡𝐮𝐠𝐡𝐞𝐬

𝟏 | 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐥𝐨𝐭𝐭𝐞

Tonight was finally the night. Em, and I have about 15 minutes before we have to head out the door and make our way to the Prudential Center before the puck drops. We've been blasting some songs from Olivia Rodrigo's new album on shuffle and were currently on all-american bitch. If there's anything to know about Em and me, we turn any moment we have music on into a concert. When it came to picking out what to wear, we both decided to wear the blank Devils jerseys gifted to us by the publishing company. Em paired her jersey with black jeans and her black and white Nike dunks, while I also wore black jeans, but with my favorite pair of red Converse. She had her hair out with some loose waves on the bottom while I opted for a high ponytail.

In the two weeks since we'd been invited to this game by the publishing company, Em gave me a Hockey 101 lesson so I at least could have some sort of idea as to who some players were and what positions they played. She says it would make the game just a little more enjoyable for me and hopefully that's the case. We've been teasing and mentioning the book whenever we can. Since the book releases on October 31st, I just decided to include it when I film my November TBR, which should be tomorrow and I'll post it on release day.

"Em, I'm gonna go heat the car. Meet me there when you're done." She shoots a thumbs up in my direction from her room as I walk out of my room and head downstairs towards the front door. I make sure to grab my keys and unlock the car before getting in. It's currently mid-October so the colors of the leaves are already changing and the air just has that fall feeling to it that I love. After about three minutes Em is locking the front door and heading to the passenger side with the ARC of the book we're promoting in hand.

"So Char, are you ready for your first hockey game?" I turn to her for a quick second as I pull out of the driveway "Yes of course, but regardless I'm gonna have to be ready aren't I." We both laugh as she takes control of the aux. Usually, we take turns between driving and the aux when we go out together to make sure there's an equal amount of driving between us. For tonight's drive Em starts playing the Midnights album by Taylor Swift and we start singing like two madwomen.

On the whole drive here we got the weirdest looks from other drivers and their passengers, who probably thought there was something seriously wrong with us. Once we pulled into the Prudential Center we went straight to where we were told to get our passes from to get to the seats reserved for us. As far as we both knew, one or two other book content creators were going to be here with us, but we weren't sure if they were going to make it. Once we took our seats, I decided to take a look around the whole arena since I'd never been here before so my eyes couldn't stop looking at everything. About 30 minutes before the game was supposed to start both teams started coming out for warm-ups. I look as all the players come out one by one and automatically start moving pucks around. We are sitting fairly close to the ice so I can make out some of the faces of the Devils and Sabres players.

I look next to me and see Em starting to take little clips of the players warming up. I decided to take a few pictures of some of the players to start getting content of my own. "How long do they usually warm up for?" Em stops recording and looks over at me "I think for about 15 minutes so not super long." We start to have a little small talk after we get a few good pictures and clips and while we're doing that I feel like someone is looking at me. I try to ignore the feeling of someone looking over at me, but give in and decide to look around. Em doesn't seem to notice when I turn my head and start looking around to find who the culprit looking at me is.

"Who could be looking at me?" I whisper to myself as I keep moving my eyes around the arena. Once I establish that it's not anyone sitting around us I start to wonder if it's one of the players. The possibility of a player singling me out of everyone here doesn't seem possible, but it wouldn't hurt to check. I decided to look at the players on the rink just to be sure and see that one of the players was looking at me, number 86. Our eyes meet as I find him amongst the players near the boards. He gives me what looks like a small smile and something tells me to send a small smile back, so I do. "Char, did you even hear what I said?" I turn my head back, breaking eye contact with him to see Em looking at me.