Five Times a Charm

It was just a soft touch at first.

Reader had been standing, talking with a couple of teammates when she softly bumped into him. She had stammered, "Sorry," her blue eyes wide and quickly turned away. He had blinked and then looked at her retreating figure bemusedly.

He forgot about that quickly as the night wore on and they left that bar for another one. However, he never forgot her eyes.

**

The second time, it was the sound of fingers on keys.

It was a surprise, seeing her. She looked, for lack of a better word, nerdy and hipsterish, nothing like the other girls she was with. She had on black square-framed glasses, a bow in her blonde hair, and her clothing looked like the stuff that they sold in American Apparel, Scrabble's favorite store. The rest of the girls were dressed like the usual girls you saw in Old City; tight dresses and high heels with too much makeup.

Didn't take long to make a move, she was to the side of the group and texting on the phone. "Talking shit about someone," Reader asked.

She replied, "I'm remembering why I don't go out with my roommate," tilting her head towards the girls. They were flirting with Roo, Scrabble, Simmer, and Jakey, and it was pretty obvious that they were all trying to be taken home or take home someone tonight. "I just created a twitter bet on how long before one of them takes their thong off and gives it to Giroux."

"Harsh," he said, impressed. Score one point for her, she wasn't impressed by G and... well fuck, from the way that she was typing on her phone, she wasn't impressed by him either.

Reader kept looking at her throughout the night before she pasted on a fake smile and left. He didn't like hipster girls anyway...

**

The third time, it was a bang.

"I don't know why I come to these things," she raged to her friends. Reader was standing over by the dart board, watching Jake fail hard at hitting the bullseye. He didn't even realize it was the hipster girl at first; her blonde hair was now red and she had too much caked on makeup on her face. Some other girl argued, "It's Celina's birthday and just deal with it. Celina likes Guido shit, let her have what she wants tonight, we can talk shit about it tomorrow."

The Hipster Chick shut up before smirking. Reader's eyes widened. The hipster girl looked... fucking amazing.

"Yo rook, it's your turn," Hartsy shouted over the din. Reader shook his head before taking the darts from Jake. The girl probably didn't even remember who he was anyway. But fuck, she was hot and it had been a while..

Reader focused on the dart board and hit a perfect shot on his first throw. "Fuck you, man," Jake shouted. The rest of the guys laughed but Reader looked over at the hipster girl. She was staring at him and her eyes had widened. He turned around and shrugged. "Not all of us are fucking helpless at any sport other than hockey like you are, Jakey."

"Haha, very funny. Simmer, please show this douchenozzle how it is done," Jake implored. Simmer laughed. Jake added, "If you win, I'll buy the next round."

Roo snickered. "This is Drinker's so one round isn't that expensive. Make it two."

The whole group laughed as Simmer started to line up his shot. Reader leaned back against the wall, watching until someone touched his arm. "Hey," a feminine voice asked. Reader looked down and lo and behold, it was the Hipster Chick.

"Um, hi," Reader replied, raising an eyebrow. Darting a look to his left, he saw Roo look frantically around the bar. He thought, Must have had a bad night with Hipster Chick's friend. She looked up at him and smiled. "Um, it's my friend's birthday and she's a huge Flyers' fan and she's really really fucking love a picture of you guys."

"Bring her other, we'll take a picture with her," Hartsy said, ever willing to cater to the fans. She shook her head. "This has to be a surprise or she'll be attached to Simmond's leg for the rest of the night."

Jake and Reader snickered while Simmer managed to blush. Simmer wasn't that comfortable with the new fangirl attention he was now receiving after coming to Philly. Hipster Chick noticed before giggling. She added, "Don't worry, after I take this picture, I'll make sure that she won't ruin your night."

Jake sarcastically said, "Simmer and his girlfriend thank you."

Simmer shot Jake a dirty look while Reemer pretended to draw a halo over Simmer's head. Hipster Chick giggled again before saying, "Picture please. The longer I'm over here, the more likely she figures out."

The guys assembled themselves and Hipster Chick took the picture as well as some other people at the bar. "Thanks so much guys! I promise this won't end up on Facebook or twitter... at least not through my accounts," Hipster Chick squeaked, looking down at her iPhone.

Maybe it was the alcohol or the fact that Scrabble was staring at her legs like he wanted to bite them but Reader decided to say fuck it. "Maybe you should give me your twitter name so I can make sure," he drawled.

Hipster Chick looked at him like he was an idiot for several seconds. Reader cursed himself, he could feel his cheeks turning red. Then she grabbed a pen from her bag and a napkin and wrote something on it. Quickly stuffing it in his hand, she whispered, "If you're a dick, I'm going to block you."

**

The fourth time was magic.

It was the day before he, Couts, G, Kimmo, and Hartsy were going to fly out for the All-Star Game. She had just started classes for the spring semester of her senior year at Rutgers-Camden. She was no longer Hipster Chick, she was Joanna. The red hair was now gone in favor of light bubblegum pink strands. And she was DMing him a very nasty yet funny picture of Mickey and Minnie Mouse. Reader DMed back, where the hell do u find this shit?

i find it from tumblr, Joanna DMed back. Reader laughed before flopping back on his bed. He was thankful that he was by himself tonight. Scrabble had been loaned back to the Phantoms, Schenner and Zac were headed to Cabo and Couts was playing big bro with the Briere kids. For once, Reader was all by himself...

what r u doing tonight? r u at work?, Reader furiously DMed Joanna before going back to play NHL12. Joanna was a great girl. It took a while to get used to the quirky-ness, her love of vintagey clothes and bands like Bon Iver. But she was nice, she was a genuine friend despite her sarcastic personality, and she looked at him not just as Reader or Matt Read, All-Star Rookie for the Flyers, but as Matt. She didn't see his team as gods or as an opportunity to match all her friends with his single teammates.

And fuck it, he was bored and about to be out of town for four days. Couldn't hurt to try to get to the next level with Joanna.

i'm home, bored, and looking at porn pics on tumblr, Joanna finally responded back. Reader's eyes bulged as he spit out the bit of Twizzler he had been eating. Joanna sure didn't hold back when she said something. He DMed back, r u naked?

Dumb men, always want to know if ur naked., was the tart respone. Then following, do u want me to be?

Reader chuckled as he thought of a reply. But then, Joanna sent another DM, i has a bored. lets go to a movie b4 u abandon me for ottawa. :(

Not my fault im an allstar. don't hate, Matt replied, laughing.

Matt laid back on his bed, picking up the controller for his Xbox 64. He figured he might as well start to play some of his game since Cobie was starting to kick his ass. Girls, they always managed to ruin your game, didn't matter if they were there or not. Five minutes later, Reader noticed that he had a text message. Opening the message on Blackberry, Reader didn't even realize he dropped his controller when he saw the picture that Joanna texted him. What do u want to see?

**

"I can't believe I fucking watched Twatlight, you better not have taken a pic, Joanna," Reader groaned as he walked Joanna to her apartment. Joanna lived in Cherry Hill and they went to the AMC theater. He should have expected to have to see Twilight: Breaking Dawn, Joanna was a complete Twilight fan, down to having a Team Jacob button.

Joanna teased, "You were so adorable while you tried not to MST the movie. So nice of you not to ruin it for me."

"Haven't you watched it like five times already," Reader asked.

"That was time number four," she primly replied as she opened the door, her skirt swishing around her legs. "I should kick you out and send you home for daring to get that number wrong."

"You promised that you were going to feed me dessert," Reader mock-complained.

Joanna just looked at him, her hands on her hips before shaking her head slowly. "Silly man, can't end his night without dessert. Oh, what are we going to do?"

"Did you make cookies? I love chocolate chip cookies," Reader asked, literally bouncing. The other best thing about Joanna was that she was really good at baking sweets.

"Nope," she replied. Reader pouted.

Joanna shrugged. "Sorry, no time to bake yet, I have papers to finish already."

"Do I get anything after dealing with that movie," Reader whined. Joanna laughed at him, it was kinda cute and funny that the big bad hockey player had his lip poked out like a little boy. Then she walked over to him, stood on her tip-toes and pressed her lips to his. "There, that's what you get," she murmured against his lips.

Reader stood in shock for several moments. "Cat got your tongue, Matt," Joanna teased. Reader just stood there for another moment. Joanna just kissed him.... and she didn't even use any tongue. Well shit, she kissed him so he might as well do it...

Reader wrapped an arm around Joanna's back and brought his lips back down to Joanna's. Using a bit of pressure, he nipped at her lips before slipping his tongue into her mouth. They kissed for what felt like hours to him, starting off slow before revving up fast, his free hand pulling her hair as he ended the kiss to nip at her chin.

"Oh shit, what was that, Matt," Joanna asked, dazed. Her lips tingled and Matt was doing something magical to her body. She felt like she was ready to melt in his arms and wow, her brain was now dead.

Reader chuckled against her skin and the vibration made her skin erupt in goosebumps. Then he bit her neck and all sense died. Her blood was on fire and Joanna could feel her panties ready to drop-SLAM!

"Oh ho ho, Joanna's finally getting lucky!"

Joanna felt her face flush bright red as Matt's hands quickly left her body. Standing in the doorway were her roommates. Celina snapped, "Shoulda at least made it to your bedroom before you let him start eating your face," a big smile on her face.

"ohmygodwhyisthishappeningtomeohfuckwhywhywhy," Joanna mumbled to herself. Matt reached out and asked, "Is everything okay, should I leave?"

"pleaseohgodsoembarrassed," Joanna mumbled while pushing Matt towards the doorway.

Reader let himself out and walked quietly to his car. Once inside, Reader put his head on the wheel and closed his eyes. He wasn't really planning on going there tonight but now....

As he turned his car on and got ready to get out of the parking lot, Reader vowed to himself that this was going to be finished after the All-Star Break was over.