forget me not ~ q.hughes

2.5

The game continued on similarly. The Canucks dominated easily, the opposing team netting 2 goals to Vancouver's 5. Quinn was on the ice more often than not but when he wasn't, he was sitting at the end of the bench beside Aurora, rhythmically tapping the end of his stick on the glass beside the brunette girl. At one point he had leaned over to the equipment manager and shielded his mouth before subtly pointing to Aurora.

She met eyes with the middle aged man and he gave her a slight smile and nod.

Oh god, she thought, He thinks I'm a puck bunny who Quinn has decided to bring home tonight.

He was a handsome guy, she was sure he'd have his pick of any of the girls in the arena and surrounding area if he wanted them, and she was sure he had wanted them in the past- but that was not the impression Aurora was trying to give off in her oversized thrifted patagonia sherpa sweater and messy bun.

As the final buzzer rang out in the arena, the fans were on their feet again and headed out of the arena. Most of the players had already exited, but Quinn had feigned dropping something and needing to pick it up so he could tap the glass again and give her another nod.

He needed to make sure she wasn't going to leave. He had her so close, he wasn't letting her go again.

Georgia was looking at her expectantly, trying to figure out what the plan was, when a man walked towards them from the row above and tapped Aurora on the shoulder.

He was dressed in arena staff gear. "Are you Aurora?" She nodded in response. "I'm supposed to bring you down to the friends and family area for one of the guys."

"Oh. Um-okay, just uh-give me one second." She stood up and looked at her seating area before remembering she didn't bring anything with her that she would need to grab, and started to exit the aisle. "Georgia do you have everything? We should um-follow this guy to wherever Quinn wants me to wait. It shouldn't take long and I'm sure he'd love to meet you t-"

"Aurora, honey you have to do this yourself." Aurora looked up at Georgia in shock, "No, I'm not taking no for an answer. You can do this, and by what you told me it sounds like you guys have some things you need to talk about. You don't need an audience for that."

"But-"

"Aurora." Georgia gave her such a warm smile, it almost seemed like all of her worries melted away, and any anxiety she had about the situation disappeared. "I saw the way he was looking at you, I know you're safe with him. If anything goes wrong you can always, always call me. But you need to do this, and we will talk about it tomorrow when I pick you up. And yes I will be picking you up." With a squeeze to Aurora's bicep and another smile, Georgia was sauntering up the steps to the exit.

"Are you ready to go?" Aurora had forgotten about the man who was supposed to lead her to their destination. She nodded once at him. "So you've never been there before? New girlfriend of the team?"

She almost choked on her spit. Gathering herself she said, "Uh not girlfriend. I'm an old friend and we haven't seen each other in forever." That's one way to put it. The usher doesn't need to know all of your baggage.

"My bad." They continued their walk in silence after that.

In the underbelly of Rogers Arena, Aurora could no longer hear the crowd, just the quiet murmurings of various media personnel. A few men in suits were leaning against the wall, and someone wearing a bright yellow pinnee carrying a very large video camera bustled past them. In other words, Aurora did not belong.

She silently followed the usher while people watching, musing to herself about where one lady got her pants, or what some guy's job description was, when the man in front of her stopped and opened a door to her left. Inside there were several people. A woman was watching two toddlers chase each other around with a baby on her hip, a bleach blonde girl sitting on a couch scrolling through her phone, an older couple sat at a table chit chatting about something.

"This is the friends and family lounge, usually the guys are out around 45 minutes after the game ends." With that the man walked out of the room, leaving Aurora to fend for herself. The people dotted around the room barely spared her a glance, looking at her briefly before going back to their conversations. She knew how this looked; They'd never seen her before, she had obviously never been in this room before. She looked like somebody's one night girl- and it couldn't be farther from the truth.

Aurora took a seat on an empty couch and picked mindlessly at her fingers. One of the little blonde children ran towards her and poked her in the knee, before running back over to stand behind her mothers legs.

"Scotlyn! That was not nice." The woman scolded the child, she looked up at Aurora then, "sorry, they really have no boundaries at this age."

Aurora smiled softly, "S'okay, no harm done."

The woman smiled back and stuck her hand towards Aurora, "I'm Natalie. Who are you waiting for? I don't think I recognize you." She said with a light laugh at the end.

"You wouldn't recognize me, I've never been here before." Her voice wavered a bit before she cleared her throat, "I'm Aurora, and I'm waiting for Quinn?" She phrased almost as a question.

Natalie's eyebrows seemed to shoot upwards. "Quinn? Are you family?" She questioned. "Sorry, I've just only ever seen his parents waiting for him."

Aurora hesitated, unsure of how to phrase it, "Um- I'm not family, he's an old friend and it seems that neither of us knew the other was going to be here tonight."

"Wow. You didn't know he would be here?"

"I don't keep up with hockey much anymore, we were friends growing up." Thankfully the door opened, saving Aurora from more interrogation, and a large man came through. He set his sights on the two young girls who were playing earlier and crouched down while opening his arms.

"Daddy!" The two young girls screamed while sprinting into the man's arms.

Natalie looked at Aurora and smiled, "That's my que, hopefully we'll see you around Aurora." She said with a knowing smile.

Aurora smiled and nodded in response. She watched as the blonde haired woman walked towards who was presumably her husband and pecked his lips before having a quiet conversation together. The man had one girl in each arm, and Natalie had the baby on her hip as they walked out of the room.

One by one the players came by to greet their guests and lead them out of the room, until it was just Aurora left. She'd been sitting alone for nearly ten minutes, and started to think that Quinn had forgotten about her. Maybe it was just a cruel joke? Why would he want to spend time with her now, when he's a hot shot athlete- Captain of an NHL team, and she's just Aurora.

She was collecting herself to get up, making sure she had her phone and wallet in her pockets- she headed towards the door and put her hand on the knob to turn it, when it turned itself underneath her hand. She ran straight into a solid chest- her nose hitting the plane of muscle underneath someone's chin.

When she looked up she was staring directly in his eyes.

"Quinn."