passionfruit • jack hughes

QUARANTE

jack was playing the rangers tonight, he left a while earlier as he had to be there by 6pm. i convinced him i wasn't going to go because i had to do classwork and catch up on a lot of emails i had been putting off that finally caught up to me.

little did he know i bought tickets right next to the devils bench and was going to go with steph as a surprise.

"are you ready yet?!" i yelled from the couch, i told steph to be ready by 6:15 at the latest since madison square garden was about 20 minutes away from us on a good day, and with new york traffic. it's never really a good day.

"i told you i'd be ready." she said walking out of her room in a white top, flared leather pants, heeled boots, and a black blazer.

"you look phenomenal, geez i feel underdressed next to you now."

"give me a second i wanna wear boots now, just a second." i continued, running into my room.

i threw my converse off and put on a pair of heeled boots similar to the ones steph was wearing. instead my outfit consisted of jeans, a black bodysuit that has a square neckline, and a big grandfather sweater, paired with fake glasses.

"now you look phenomenal." steph stated, as i walked into the living room, "did i not before?" i joked.

i grabbed my red prada bag off the couch and started walking to the door. i always need to wear some red to somehow show my support for the devils.

•••

we got to msg in a little under thirty minutes, traffic wasn't surprisingly too bad and we had a pretty good uber driver who managed to get us here in a relatively short amount of time.

the streets leading to the arena were filled with people wearing rangers gear. occasionally a devils jersey spotted every here and there.

we scanned our tickets and instantly steph turned to me, "booze, brooke. that's what i need right now."

"aren't you a gem." i said, holding onto her arm and walking to the nearest alcohol stand. the line wasn't too long and we had a good fifteen minutes before the puck even dropped.

we stood in line for a couple minutes before some girl wearing a devils jersey came up to me, tapping my shoulder. "oh my god! this is totally random, but are you brooke adler? jack hughes's girlfriend?"

i looked at steph absolutely stunned not knowing what to say.

"yeah, yes i am." i said, with a smile.

"oh my god, can i get a picture with you? i'm a huge fan of you and jack."

"sure!" i said, she instantly handed her phone to steph and stood next to me, significantly shorter than me.

"thank you so much, you made my night. have a good game!" she said before walking back to the group of friends she was with.

"jack hughes's girlfriend? wow is that all i'm known as?" i said sarcastically.

"at least you even got recognized." she said, with a laugh.

the line moved pretty quickly, and we were next up to order. "hey ladies what can i get y'all?" the guy behind the counter asked.

"i kinda want a beer," steph said. "yeah can i get a bud light."

"and for you miss?" he asked.

"a mike's hard lemonade is fine."

"alright, can i see id's please."

we both handed him out ids and he took a look at them before handing them back, i instantly shoved my card in the reader before he could even tell us the total.

"i'm paying next time," steph said, it made me giggle because this probably is not gonna be the last time we'll be getting booze tonight.

he set the drinks on the counter and we both grabbed them and made our way into the actual venue.

i've only been to msg a handful of times over the years but i've never forgotten how big this place actually is. we walked down the steps and across to where the benches were. we we're right next to the bench and right in front of the ice.

there was a timer on the giant jumbotron counting the minutes left before the puck dropped.

the crowd erupted into pure chaos when the timer reached zero, the rangers skated out of a corner and the devils out of the other.

all of the devil players skated to the bench, i saw a few familiar faces of which included. michael mcleod, brian boyle, nico hischer, miles wood and many other guys.

at first they didn't notice i was sitting next to the bench until ty and jack skated over, both of them taking their seats on the bench but on the other side of the glass.

ty and i both looked at each other at the same moment and he mouthed 'holy shit' in surprise of seeing me at the game. he started attacking jack's shoulder in attempt to gain his attention.

once he finally turned his head towards ty he didn't even care what he had to say before mouthing my name in total shock.

i mouthed good luck seconds before the puck dropped, starting the game.

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