New Year, Same Us - Auston Matthews

six

July 28, 2018

"Uh (Y/N)" Steph said from the living room. "You might wanna see this!"

"Hold on give me a sec!" I grabbed my mitts and pulled the rolls out of the oven, placing them next to the chicken on the stove, and ran into the living room plopping down next to Steph.

It was a girls night, which meant that Paige, Steph and I were making dinner and watching movies while the guys played video games at Mitch's with some of their other teammates. It was nice catching up. I had been setting up for a fall internship in my department at school and was getting all the details ironed out before I went back. I hadn't seen the girls in a hot minute.

"I usually don't look at stuff like this, but it popped up on my explore feed." Steph was sandwiched between Paige and I, as we looked down at her phone. It was an Instagram post with pictures of Auston and I either from each other's instagram page or pictures it looks like people have sent in from spotting us in public. One of which we are holding hands. "Gimme that." I make grabby hands at her phone and she hands it to me. I scroll through the multiple photos of us again, and then look at the actual account. An NHL Wags account which has more than 10k followers. Holy shit.

I click on the Leafs highlight. It's a bunch of listings of players and girlfriends/wives with the date of the most recent update. The first one has TAKEN next to Mitch and nothing next to Auston's. But then the one from last year has TAKEN next to Auston's. And the most recent one, which was updated a couple weeks ago, still says TAKEN.

I went back to the post of us and read the caption. "Auston Matthews of the Toronto Maple Leafs and (Y/F/N)! These two are adorable! All photo credits go to submissions and their instagrams."

Under it were probably 50 plus comments.

"So cute!"

"They've been together since day one, just look at their accounts they go wayyyy back and the captions just get flirtier. We love an otp"

"Why tf would he go for her?"

"He could do better."

And at that I shut it down. I knew people said horrible shit about me for being his friend but I chose not to directly look at it and I wasn't about to start feeding the beast.

"That's uh, interesting." I said handing Steph her phone back. "And weird."

"Wait why?" Paige asked looking confused. "Obviously not the fact that they have the info but like aren't you guys together?"

"I forget you're new." I laughed, "I swore I told you-"

"I just assumed-"

"It's not a big deal, literally everyone thinks we're together at first."

"So you're not?" She raised a perfectly sculpted brow as I shook my head, "damn. I swore you guys were. Kappy never told me otherwise so I just thought- wow."

"If it helps she wants them to be." Steph shrugged and I glared at her. "What? Better to be honest and upfront. I don't know why you two haven't just come to terms with it all and told each other how you're feeling."

The timer dinged on the oven for the Mac and Cheese and we all made our way back into the kitchen. "Yeah that would be great and all but Aus doesn't feel that way about me. And even if he did you see the girls he goes for. Polar opposite of me." I pulled the Mac out of the oven as Paige started putting the salad together.

"Babe," she started, "that boy is in love with you. I think he just hasn't realized it yet."

"Yeah," Steph chimes in, "I don't know if you realize but like, he never even mentions said girls to the guys when they ask."

"Yeah but that's just cause I'm around the majority of the time."

"No- not even when you're not there. Mitch asked him if he went home with a girl when we went out the other week? Ya know when you were busy sorting out that internship?" I nodded. "We went home early that night but Auston and Willy stayed out. You know what he said? He didn't go home with anybody. And you know who he started talking about instead? You."

My cheeks flushed, "All he went on about is how proud of you he was and how he wanted your internship to go well for you."

My stomach was in knots, "you're telling me that Auston didn't go home with anyone that night? That's so unlike him."

I had thought about it before. Around the time that we first got to Toronto. That maybe he had the same feelings I did, but then it was a new girl every game and I figured that I better get over it quickly before my heart broke. I didn't.

I guess I wanted to believe that if he really did like me then he would just come out and say it, or at least he wouldn't sleep around. And he never did say anything. But he's hot. And a professional hockey player. And a damn good one at that. He was sleeping around in high school. And it's nothing to shame him for, it just sucked when I was harboring those feelings and I didn't want our friendship to change if he didn't like me back. I wasn't ready to leave and give him up if that were the case.

"Sis he hasn't been going home with anyone for like the past 3 months."

"There's no way he hasn't had sex in that long."

"That's what Mitch told me."

"You live with him." Paige said, fixing herself a plate, "wouldn't you know?"

"We never bring hookups to our apartment. I'm always asleep when he gets home on those nights. I don't wanna know how long he's been gone. And even if I was awake I keep my door shut at night anyway."

"Have you like, got any recently?" Steph asked wiggling her eyebrows and putting an unhealthy portion of Mac and Cheese on her plate.

"Uhh I hooked up with that hot bartender, but Aus doesn't need to know about that. And also a guy that I had some classes with from last semester, I think about a month ago? But that's about it. I went out on a limb with those, I'm not one to just hook up ya know? I would rather be in a relationship."

They nodded and I went on, "It was good with the guy from school but as soon as he found out Auston and I were friends it got weird. It was the one time I brought someone over because Auston was out of town. So after we hooked up, this dude was going through our kitchen cabinets at like 1 in the morning with just boxers on while I was asleep and Auston walked in. That's how he found out I lived with him. That's how he fucking met Auston."

They were damn near cackling at this point and I just started making myself some food.

"What did Auston say to you when it happened and then like after?" Paige poured us some wine.

"He had just come home from a road trip and was so confused. He asked the guy to leave, but I guess he was like, awestruck that Auston Matthews was in my apartment and I kid you not, asked for a damn autograph."

They were dying. "Glad I can amuse you ladies at my expense." I laughed a little too.

"The whole thing was such a shitshow. Auston obviously said no and kicked him out. Then he knocked on my door. And like there I am with just a t-shirt and panties on. I was so fucking embarrassed. He wanted to talk then and we worked it out. But he was acting kind of weird about it. Almost like he was jealous or something. Honestly he seemed a little butthurt."

"Of course he did. He was pissed off some kid at your college could get with you when he's known you all of a semester and Aus can't seem to catch a break after 20 years." Steph stated.

I laughed, but Paige added, "Damn right!" She raised her glass and Steph and I did the same.

"To good friends." I started, "I needed this, you don't know how much I've missed you guys. So here's to us!"

"To us!" They said at the same time, glasses clinking. And it felt good.