Acatalepsy; auston matthews

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Jessica rolled her eyes at another horrible pun made by Steve. She gave him a light shove. "God you're annoying to work with," she joked.

"You adore my company," he replied.

She fought back a smile. "Yeah well whatever. Thanks for this by the way. It's a huge help to have you here today."

They were currently walking towards the dressing room for the Toronto Maple Leafs. The team had a game later today and the practice earlier had already ended, but Jessica was supposed to do an end of year column on how some of the players felt about their season and how they feel about the upcoming playoffs. She wasn't even a huge fan of the leafs, but she went where she was told; hence how she was currently walking down the halls of the Air Canada Center.

"I'm just gonna take a few photos to include in the article while you do all the hard work of actually interviewing the players," Jessica patted Steve on the shoulder as they stopped outside the dressing room.

Steve whispered to her. "You know I'm just going to be a huge embarrassment because I'm going to fail at not freaking out over Marner, Nylander, Reilly and Matthews.

She turned and faced him. "No Steve, behave today. You don't want to be remembered as the crazy guy who interviewed these players once, right?"

"Right," He smiled. "I was only half kidding."

Jessica gave her head a shake and tried to avoid laughing at her friend. One member of the PR team for the leafs motioned for them to join the four players in the locker room. Jessica and Steve were going to be all over the Maple Leafs Twitter account today.

"Wow you're Auston Matthews," Steve smiled and shook the hand of the player. Though his smile was far too wide and looked slightly painful. He was doing his best to remain calm, but it was coming off a little creepy. "Huge fan, you're great."

"I promise he isn't this weird all of the time," Jessica joked. "He's just really bad at keeping his cool."

"You're doing a good job keeping your cool," Mitch Marner commented. "I'm Mitch by the way."

"Jessica, and I know who you are," she smiled. "I'm just more of Jets fan than a Leafs fan."

"I was going to say it's nice to meet you, but maybe not anymore," the defensemen joked. "Morgan Reilly, but I'm assuming you already knew that also."

Jessica shook his hand, and Nylander's before turning to face Auston Matthews. The former #1 pick, which the NHL treated as the best thing since sliced bread; or in more hockey terminology, the best player drafted since Connor McDavid.

"Auston," he held out a hand for her to shake. "But like your friend I'm going to assume you know who I am also."

"Wait I thought we were only interviewing players today? Are you the new water boy or something?" Jessica shook his hand hesitantly, keeping a straight face the entire time.

Auston looked taken aback momentarily that someone didn't know who he was.

She leaned in a little, "Just so you know... I'm kidding," she laughed a little, warning a chuckle from almost everyone in the room.

The PR guy filmed the interaction and put it the clip on the Maple Leafs twitter. Earning the same reaction from fans who thought Jessica was hilarious. It was a good thing her phone was on silent because plenty of people began following her. She didn't know one interaction with a star player like Matthews could garner as much attention as it did, but even her column started gaining more views as people looked to see what she was writing about- which was mainly the Jets, her favourite team; and the Leafs, her hometown team.

Throughout the afternoon Jessica and Steve took plenty of notes to the questions they asked. Telling plenty of jokes and filling the locker room with laughs. It was easily the most stress free interview any of the players had gone through in their entire careers.

"So you've gone through some injuries this year, how has that affected your approach to games now that you're back? If at all?" Jessica asked the player who was into the second year of his contract.

"It doesn't really affect me much now that I'm back playing. I just go out there and compete for the puck and space. I just want to try my hardest to help the team put another W in the column," Matthews gave a generic answer to her question. One she was already expecting.

"Do you worry that your injuries this season might affect a potential contract extension this summer?" Jessica asked. "Or are you not really thinking about that right now?"

"Of course I'm thinking about it, but it's not something that I'm trying to focus on. I just want to focus on trying to help the team for the remaining games, and hopefully help for a long run in the playoffs," He smiled.

"Thank you for your time Andrew Matthews," Jessica stood up and went to shake his hand. "Oh wait- It's Auston isn't it?" She smiled unable to avoid laughing at her own, quite lame, joke.

Auston laughed with her, finding her quite charming and funny. She wasn't like other reporters, she wasn't trying to twist his answers. He didn't feel uncomfortable during her interview either, which was part of the reason he was stressed today. She made him feel relaxed and comfortable, which made her memorable to him.

"It was a pleasure meeting you Jessica," He kept things professional, even though he felt like he should've hugged her and Steve goodbye, a handshake sufficed.

"Maybe we can hang out sometime?" He offered while no one else was paying much attention. Steve had the other three players and the Leafs PR team engaged in some ridiculous story.

"I think I'd like that Auston," she let go of his hand and scribbled her number onto his hand really quickly. "Don't be afraid to use it," she quietly laughed and walked over to hear the end of one of Steve's stories she'd heard a million times.

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And here is chapter one of my first ever Matthews book lmao. I've never written anything really about Matthews which is a shock because like him and Mitch are like beans and jeez. Anyways there's my 5am creativity and my clusterfuck of an authors note because it's 5am and I'll wake up my roommate if I make pizza bites right now.