Acatalepsy; auston matthews

• eight •

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Jessica flipped the channel from the hockey the game off, opting instead to watch Netflix. It was less painful than the 5-1 thumping the Leafs were getting in the opening game of their series against Boston.

She flipped on a show she recently had gotten into for its humour and refreshing take on zombie. She watched a few episodes before feeling herself getting tired, checking to make sure the alarm on her phone was set she closed her laptop. Then the familiar tone of a FaceTime call rang through he smaller bedroom.

"I swear to god Steve-" she started to mumble before seeing the caller id.

"Auston?" she answered the call to see an unenthusiastic Auston. "Hey," she smiled sadly. The Leafs has no chance of winning that game tonight.

"Hey," he ran a hand through his hair. She could see the bags under his eyes. He was tired and stressed from this game. "What are you up too?"

"Just watching a show, nothing important," Jessica made a mental note to remember that her eight hours of sleep was a mandatory event from today onwards. "You back at your hotel I guess?"

"Yeah-" he stopped and looked away. "Tonight was shit."

"I know," Jessica mumbled. She wouldn't tell him otherwise. It was pretty shitty.

He sighed. "I don't know why I called you, it's like midnight. You were probably going to bed..."

"It's fine," Jessica cut him off. He gave her a look and she laughed a little. "No really, it's fine. You had a bad day, need to talk about?"

"I don't know," he sighed again. She watched him lean back against the headboard of the bed. "I guess I just- well- I don't know-" he paused to think. "I feel responsible. Like I should've done more. You know the media makes me out to be, this really important guy for the team. They have all these stats about how we win games when I score, and lose games where I don't score-" he stopped and shook his head.

"You can't put the team on your back," Jessica reasoned. "It's one game. You lost and that sucks, but, put it behind you and next game the entire team needs to contribute. It can't always be the Auston Matthews show," Jessica smiled. Auston smiled a little at her joke. "I know you feel like it's your fault the team lost- but it's not. The team lost because of a lack of team effort. Not because of a lack of an Auston Matthews goal."

He smiled a little more. "I guess, in the rational part of my head, I know that. Just right now I feel like my lack of goals and lack of contribution caused the loss... I keep replaying certain shifts where I almost had a goal or a really cool play that resulted in nothing."

"Take it one game at time. You lost, but win game two and it's a whole new series tied at one a piece. Then you've taken home advantage from them." Jessica tried her best to pep talk him.

"God I wish I could hug you. You're pretty good at this motivation thing," he laughed. She could hear it was genuine. "I guess I feel a bit better, I know you're right."

She reached into her nightstand for her ticket to game three at the Air Canada Center. "Hey guess what? Win or lose game two... I'll still be sitting in the audience for game three," she smiled and held the ticket up for Auston to see. "I got it in an email today!"

Auston smiled, he was happy she'd get to see him play. "That's fantastic. Did you uh, get anything in the mail yet?"

"No why?" she dropped her smile and laugh for a quizzical look at the boy. "Should I have?"

He shook his head, "No, I was just curious."

"Auston... what did you do?" she asked him.

"Nothing," he laughed to cover up for his nervousness which made Jessica stare at him a little longer. "Well- You seem to be tired. I know you work you tomorrow, so don't bash me too hard in articles you write- but sweet dreams."

"Don't you hang up-"

"Good-" Auston started to speak. Laughing a little when he was interrupted.

"No. We aren't finished here," she warned him. He was smirking at her. "Auston. What did send me?"

"Goodnight beautiful," he smiled sincerely. The compliment caught her off guard and she blushed as he hung up. He didn't want her to try and stop him again.

She lied in bed that night, wondering for what felt like hours, what the hell Auston Matthews mailed to her.
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a/n

THANKS for 1k reads and over 100 votes. ily all and i'm glad you're al enjoying the book. It motivates me to keep writing it when I know people are liking the updates :))))

short chapter, i'm sorry. I wrote most of this and didn't feel like re writing it because they lost game two also :(

i have so many plans for this book but it all happens like after game three and I refuse to write about game three because they will lost that game if I write anything about it in the chapter, so until that game that chapters I have planned are short :(