each chapter is named after a song that I think fits well with the vibe of the chapter, you can listen while you read to get the ambiance if you want!!
a.n. :: this is a short part 1 in the fic!! let me know what you think <3
My life was theoretically falling apart. Well, maybe not my life, that was a tad dramatic. But my mind was.
On a late-night walk around campus – during which I discovered my headphones were dead – my mind began swirling with thoughts that I’d been drying to drown out for months. Noise cancelling headphones tended to help with that.
Those thoughts that currently plagued my mind were distracting me from my current surroundings, which probably wasn’t the safest place to be at eleven o’clock at night. But I had to sit down, there was too much going on inside for me to process.
Like the fact that my life was only now really beginning – and not in the way that you think it does when you get to high school, or apply to college. I was having to make important decisions. But they were already made for me. By me. I’d made these decisions for myself a long time ago, but now, after months of living on my own and beginning to discover myself, I discovered that the things that I used to think I wanted, were things that I really thought people wanted of me. And this realization during my late-night walk was currently sending me into a spiral.
“Are you okay?”
The male voice made me nearly jump out of the bench seat. I put my hand to my chest, trying to steady my heart rate.
“Oh my God, you scared the shit out of the me.”
The man, who, I won’t lie, was extremely attractive, grinned at me. Even under the dull campus lamp, his smile was bright as can be. He was tall, although him standing and me sitting probably skewed my judgment a little bit.
“Sorry,” he said, still grinning down at me. “Didn’t mean to, just wanted to check and make sure you were okay.”
“I’m okay,” I replied.
This probably wasn’t the best response to give someone who was checking in on your well-being, and my assumption was proven correct when he tilted his head to the side slightly, like he was urging me to explain my current predicament. I didn’t though.
“Can I sit?”
I nodded, and he took a seat next to me. He offered his hand, which I shook with my own. He looked so familiar, especially now that I was seeing him this close up. But I couldn’t exactly place where I’d seen him before. Maybe he was in one of my classes?
“Adam.”
“yn.”
His grin, if possible, got even wider.
“You seem to look very familiar to me, yn. Have we met before?”
After his sentence, it hit me. He was one of Luke’s new teammates. I didn’t get the chance to meet them during the summer, when he invites the team to our house for a couple weeks, but I’d seen plenty of videos and pictures of the team’s summer at our house.
“No, we’ve never met.”
This time though, I smiled at him. Based on the way his grin changed into a smirk, he was in on this charade of pretending that we don’t know each other, even though we were destined to meet in a couple days when the hockey season began.
“Is there any particular reason you’re sitting out here in the dark?”
“Oh, just a slight mid-life crisis. No big deal.”
Adam seemed to think that maybe it actually was a big deal. And it was, but I was never going to admit that to myself.
“Maybe, if you tell someone about your mental breakdown, you’ll feel better about it. I mean, it works for me when I’m freaking out.”
I really didn’t want to tell this guy who I’d never met before about the fact that I was regretting my profession choice. Or that I was about to have a nervous breakdown because after this year, my brother was going to leave, and if I didn’t make any friends freshman year, I wouldn’t have anyone after he leaves. Except for his teammates, but I think they gave me more of a pity friendship.
“You don’t have to tell me,” Adam said, interrupting my spiral. “But I could help you get your mind off of it, if you want to.”
I scrunched my nose, “Ew, no. I don’t want to –”
“That’s not what I meant!” he quickly interjected. “I can provide you with a distraction that doesn’t involve you being with another person. It would require you to leave campus though.”
“Leave campus? How do I know you’re not going to murder me?”
He laughed. Even in my mental state, the laugh did something to me. It sounded so carefree, like everything in his life was going exactly as he had hoped. Although, I suppose it was.
“Do you want to call your brother for reassurance? Or keep pretending like you’ve never met me before?”
Oh. He was confident, too. But I guess I should have expected that, nearly all of my brother’s friends seemed to be way more confident that they should be. I decided to live on the edge for once and play along with his charade.
“How did you know I have a brother?”
I stood, smiling at him. Now I was the one to look down as I spoke to him.
“As long as we’re not going to a frat, I don’t really care where you take me.”
a little dad!quinn blurb for your sunday evening <3
The house was quiet. Too quiet for a Saturday morning.
Usually, Saturday mornings started early with Sophie climbing into Quinn and I's bed. This morning, though, I was the only one laying under the duvet. As I racked my brain, trying to remember if there was a reason I had been abandoned in the bed, I remembered that I'd never seen Quinn last night. He was supposed to get home after midnight, flying home from a five-day road trip.
The panic began to set in when I realized that I had no messages from Quinn, his phone wasn't on his bedside table, and -- most importantly -- he wasn't lying in bed next to me. Flinging the covers off, I made my way down the hall to Sophie's room, where I discovered that she too was missing. Deciding to venture downstairs, I could hear the faint sounds of music coming from the living room.
As I entered, my heart swelled at the sight in front of me. Laying on the couch, both asleep, was Sophie and Quinn. Sophie was cuddled into her dad's side and didn't appear to be waking up anytime soon.
I quickly snapped a picture of the two of them before leaning down and placing a kiss to the top of Quinn's head. His eyes fluttered open and a lazy grin came over his features.
"Hey," he mumbled. "Can I have a real kiss?"
I smiled at his request.
"You want me to give you a kiss after you abandoned me in our bed?"
He just continued smiling at me, knowing that I'd give in eventually. And I did, leaning back down to give Quinn a 'real kiss' before walking around the couch and sitting on the unoccupied side of Quinn's body. I leaned onto his side as his arm came to wrap around my waist. I was looking at the movie currently playing on the tv; Winnie the Pooh was currently one of Soph's favorites. She especially loved Eeyore.
"Eeyore's actually such an underrated character," Quinn said, as if he could read my mind.
"You and Soph are too much alike," I replied, earning a nudge from my husband.
"Who's your favorite then?"
I didn't reply, which was an answer enough for Quinn.
"There's nothing wrong with liking Eeyore, you know. His grumpiness is funny. And realistic."
"Fair point."
We both laid in comfortable silence for a while, watching the children’s movie, when I figured I’d bring up the potentially touchy subject of Quinn’s road trip, during which they’d lost two games and won one.
"How was the trip?"
The involuntary sigh that escaped his lips was all I really needed to know. Quinn had already confided in me about how frustrating it was for his team to be having such an awful season, especially compared to Jack's, but to also have to see so many of his teammates and people he considered to be good friends get traded away. He didn't talk about it in front of his parents or his brothers, specifically Jack, because he didn't want to make everyone listen to his pity party when he knew they really just wanted to be basking in the glory of Jack's first really good season in the NHL.
"It sucked," Quinn admitted, his arm gripping my waist a little tighter. “But it’s over now, so it’s whatever.”
I looked up to him, communicating with just my look that it, in fact, wasn’t whatever.
“Fine, fine. It just wasn’t fun overall. I didn’t play very well, and I missed you guys.”
Quinn had a pout on his face when I looked up at him. I couldn’t help myself but to lean up and kiss his jaw.
“We missed you too,” I informed him. “Soph watched every single minute of every game.”
As if she could hear us mention her name in her sleep, Sophie stirred. Wiggling around and rubbing her eyes. Upon her opening her eyes fully, she looked at Quinn, then at me, and did a double take back to Quinn, letting out a little gasp.
“Daddy!” she squealed and wrapped her arms around Quinn’s neck. Quinn chuckled but pulled her closer to his chest.
“Hey sweetheart. Have a good nap?”
The massive smile on Sophie’s face and the hands that were still clutching onto Quinn’s shirt were enough indication that she was more preoccupied with her father than to answer his question.
“Daddy, are you home now?”
The grin that graced Quinn’s features wavered slightly. While Soph was asking if Quinn was home, she was really asking if he was going to stay home.
“No baby, not yet. I’m home this week, and then I’m going to see Uncle Trevor.”
She tried to mask her disappointment. After a moment, though, her features changed to one of curiosity and excitement.
“Oh. But can you ask him to bring me some candy? He always brings me candy when you see him,” she informed us.
I raised an eyebrow and side-eyed Quinn, who looked guilty.
“Uncle Trevor always brings you candy?”
“Yes!” she exclaimed. “Daddy brings it, but Uncle Trevor gives it to him to give to me.”
“Ah, I see.”
I decided to leave the subject of Trevor and Quinn conspiring to sneak our kid candy another time. Right now, though, I was going to spend the morning watching Disney movies.
youruser year four is officially complete!! an incredible first year getting to take pics of my favorite boy (and favorite team) for a living, grateful for it all
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lhughes_06 a pleasure being forced to pose for pictures for you
| youruser many more years to come! :)
jackhughes great first year with you baby... and I'm going to ignore the zegras jersey pic
| youruser good idea
trevorzegras I see you posted a pic of your in your favorite jersey. looking forward to the many pics we're forced to pose for when we play next season
| jackhughes *second favorite jersey
| _quinnhughes *third favorite jersey
| lhughes_06 *fourth favorite .. and mine is the second, to avoid any more confusion
youruser only took him five years but captain moyle finally graduated!! congrats baby, you made this year perfect <3
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dylanduke25 graduate: a person who successfully completed a course of study or training, especially a person who has been awarded an undergraduate academic degree
| youruser get out of my comment section dylan
nolan_moyle thank you love, couldn't have done it without you.
rutgermcgroaty best frosh year mom and dad
| youruser it's been a pleasure, roger
| nolan_moyle it has not. stop showing up unannounced in our kitchen
adamfantilli my exclusive realtor
| edwards.73 the only man I'm ever going to let sell me a house