the second time they met
third time's the charm au (macklin x ellie)
the second time macklin met ellie - or saw her, rather - he was too scared to even say a word to her.
it was humid and sticky in fenway park, the late august heat of boston almost intolerable. he had a red sox hat pulled low over his eyes, borrowed from one of the local guys, leaning back casually in his seat that was right behind the home team's dugout. he'd just moved into his dorm at boston university earlier that day with some of his new teammates, who in turn dragged him out to the ballpark to "get him situated."
he was sat between aiden and another freshman named gavin, macklin was pretty sure. macklin was being uncharacteristically quiet, having barely spoken since they sat down. he played it off as just being invested in the game - which he was, to be clear. he wasn't usually the biggest baseball fan, thinking it was a little too slow for his taste. but it was hard to ignore the atmosphere of the ballpark. and he knew enough of the rivalry between the red sox and the yankees to expect a good showing from both teams.
it was between halves of the eighth inning when he saw the family trying to take a picture down at barrier where the field met the seats. when he saw her.
with the help of an older girl and a boy, she was attempting to corral five younger kids into an arrangement where they could get a photo. a tall man stood on the edge of the group while a pregnant woman held the phone up, attempting to capture the group. he watched as the blonde girl sighed and picked up a boy of about seven, holding him on her hip as they were finally able to smile for the picture.
macklin couldn't look away if he tried. it was her. what kind of sick coincidence was this? the same girl he had met almost two years ago at his sister's tennis tournament, standing less than ten yards away from him on his first day in boston. the same girl who popped up on his instagram feed every now and then, the one he'd followed, and who had never followed him back, but he'd never brought himself to retract the request.
aiden sensed the shift in his younger brother's demeanor almost immediately. he followed macklin's gaze, furrowing his eyebrows before he recalled where he'd seen the girl before. his face lit up with a mischievous grin, and he looked up at his brother.
"shut up," macklin hissed, lightly smacking his brother's shoulder in an effort to keep him quiet.
aiden laughed out loud. "bro, you have to go talk to her."
"what-?! absolutely not-" macklin looked around frantically, as if somehow she might have heard. "she's with her family, i can't just-"
"yes you can," aiden urged, nudging his brother. "you've met her before. you're not asking for her hand in marriage. just go say hi."
"i can't," macklin insisted. "she doesn't even know who i am. she never followed me back on instagram. and i'm pretty sure she has a boyfriend anyways, this football player guy, i saw a picture of them together. she's not interested."
aiden let out a long suffering sigh. "dude. its called playing the long game. she doesn't have to be interested yet. so what she didn't follow you back? that was like, two years ago, and you were ugly back then-"
"aiden, what the fuck?" macklin exclaimed, a little louder than he'd intended. his eyes darted to the girl again, and he did a double take when he realized she was looking back at him. she was still holding her little brother, and when she caught his eye, she gave him a soft little smile that made his stomach erupt in butterflies.
aiden, who had just watched the whole interaction, elbowed him, hard. "dude. she just smiled at you. thats an invitation if i've ever seen one. go say hi. now."
"aiden, stop, i can't," macklin groaned as he elbowed his brother right back. "what would i even say to her? 'hey, i've been pining over you for the past two years, i hope you remember who i am. oh, you don't? thats cool, no problem.' do you have any idea of how lame that is?"
"oh my god, mack, jesus, then don't go over. i was only trying to help," aiden rolled his eyes and leaned back in his seat, taking a gulp of water. "just saying, you either gotta bite the bullet and interact with the girl, or move on. its kind of embarrassing that you're seventeen and haven't even kissed a girl outside spin the bottle."
"fuck you," macklin spat out, but he couldn't help but sigh. he knew his brother was right. his inexperience was starting to get out of hand. he insisted that he was too focused on hockey to deal with a girlfriend or anything like that, which was mostly true, but the other hidden fact was that he was still secretly obsessed with this girl from two years ago. it was just something about her, something he couldn't put his finger on. maybe it was just a severe case of infatuation, but for some reason, he just couldn't get over it. he'd downloaded tiktok to watch her videos, for gods sake, and that hadn't helped with his crush.
macklin found his eyes drawn back to her as he watched her interact with the young boy in her arms. she was sitting down now, intently watching the game, explaining something to him as he nodded along. she was right there, god, aiden was right, he should go talk to her. whats the worst that could happen if he just said a quick hi? he'd almost built up the courage when one of the yankees players struck out swinging, and some song he didn't recognize started playing over the speakers. the crowds were cheering, and he let his gaze drift out to where the players were on the field, celebrating the win.
when he looked back to where the girl and her family were just sitting, they were gone. macklin swore he caught a glimpse of her blonde hair and navy jersey disappearing back down the tunnel into the interior of the ballpark, and then nothing.
later that night, when macklin was scrolling through instagram, he came across the picture that he'd witnessed that family taking earlier, underneath an all-too-familiar username. it had come out nice. the family didn't all look identical, half blonde and half brunette, some brown eyes and some blue, but something about the in-between of their faces made them a unit.
he scrolled through each individual slide of the post, smiling slightly at a candid of ellie and her younger brother as she explained an event in the game to him. when he came to a picture of her alone, sitting in her seat, macklin's eyes snagged on himself in the background, watching the photo get taken. he was barely recognizeable, with the baseball cap shading his face, but he could see enough to realize that he was staring. he groaned and made a note to never mention this to aiden, knowing that he would never hear the end of it.
the post was captioned "favorite place + favorite people"
macklin sighed and laid back on his bed, shutting his eyes and imagining a day where the second part of that caption would include him too.
note: sorry for going mia i have had an absolutely diabolical week you guys don't even know the half of it but hope you enjoy i love this one and i love my babies ok bye
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