‹ Prequel: Heaven Knows

Hurts Like Heaven

Shiver

Maddie glanced at the digital clock on the wall for the fifth time in the last 8 minutes. The green numbers showed her that it was only 11:48 and she still had 12 more minutes before class ended.

She tried desperately to keep her heavy eyelids from closing as her professor droned on about the differences between Isotopic and Isomeric shifts on atomic spectral lines. She had always appreciated physics, but the material they were currently learning was quite possibly the most uninteresting thing she had ever heard in her life. Her cell phone vibrated from its place in her backpack and she somehow restrained herself from checking the text message. Maddie’s eyelids started to droop as the professor pointed to something on the white board and she pulled her backpack closer to her, creating a makeshift pillow.

She didn’t even hear the professor dismiss the class a few minutes later.

“Madelyn!” The professor calls her with a firm voice and she instantaneously jumps up from the light slumber she had been in.

“I’m sorry Professor Fillinger.” Maddie apologizes copiously and ignores the blood that rushes to her face. She hastily gathers her textbook and her binder and shoves it haphazardly into her backpack. Professor Fillinger watches with raised eyebrows and an amused smirk as Maddie tries to recoup from her small nap. She decided not to mention the fact that she had been up until some ridiculous hour of the morning talking to a certain hockey player when Professor Fillinger asked her why she had fallen asleep during his lecture.

“Bye Professor Fillinger.” She calls as she exits the large classroom with a wave, not bothering to look back.

“Bye Madelyn, don’t forget to study for the quiz on Thursday.”

Maddie scarcely catches the end of his sentence as she strides down the elongated corridor and out into the student parking lot, dodging students left and right and greeting some of her friends. The weather is severely overcast and she’s astonished that it hasn’t even sprinkled yet, but then again it is Colorado and nothing should come as a revelation. Summer days were particularly the worst; it would rain for a couple minutes and then everything would clear up and the humidity would be absolutely atrocious and the sun would just be blazing down on everything and everyone. It was really the only time she hated Colorado and though she had told herself numerous times that she would go to a different state or country for summer, she could never find it in her heart to leave her dad all alone.

Maddie finally makes it to her car and sighs a breath of relief as she unlocks the door to her 1982 Chevy Pickup, chucking her backpack into the passenger seat and sliding in. The first thing she does is turn the heater on and pulls her hoodie over her head, relishing in the warmth that the heater brings to her icy flesh. It’s only December, but everyone already knows that it’s going to be a brutal winter and there’s going to be a lot of snow. Not that she minded; she had always preferred the frosty weather to the dreadful temperature that summer typically brought.

She sits in her car for a few more minutes, smiling to herself like a moron as she glances around the truck. She had earned the vehicle from her dad her junior year of high school when he had bought himself a more efficient Chevy. She loved the truck mostly because of the sentimental value and all of the memories she had with it.

“This car is a piece of shit!” Gabe said after a few minutes of trying to formulate a proper insult for Maddie’s truck, he was still distressed after being in the vehicle for only 10 minutes.

“I would expect a comment like that from a Ford driver.” Her face scrunches up in revulsion, as if having a Ford is quite possibly the worst thing in the world.

His eyes narrow in the slightest bit, “Ford is amazing, okay? They have Mustangs.”

“Chevy has the Corvette and the Camaro, so shut it.” Maddie sticks her tongue out at him, realizing she has just won the argument.

For now.


Maddie sighs smoothly when the Swedish boy enters her mind; he could be quite outrageous sometimes. In spite of their contradictory personalities, they had certainly been getting closer and they had only known each other for 3 weeks; not even a month. They had talked about everything, from his career and family all the way down to her favourite colour and animal. When he was away he would call her after his hockey game and they would frequently talk for hours. Maddie remembers the sound of his boisterous laughter and a tremor runs down her spine; it had become one of her favourite sounds in the world mainly because it was so infectious. It was impracticable to be miserable while listening to Gabriel Landeskog’s strident yet smooth laughter.

Even his smile could brighten the gloomiest of days.

Rain drops started to pelt heavily against her truck and a large smile unconsciously tugs at the corners of her lips. Maddie absolutely loved the rain and always had since she was a little girl; it always brought a sense of serenity to such a chaotic world. She remembered how her mother and father would let her run around in the backyard and splash around in large puddles.

'Back when her family wasn't completely torn apart'

After the car warms up and she finds a decent song on the radio, Maddie finally heads home to her apartment. It’s only a little past noon, but it has already been a long day and she just wants to go home and take a nap, maybe even watch a movie.

Maddie could hear her phone vibrating from her backpack, but she chose to pay no attention to it. Everyone always told her that she was fearful when she was the one behind the wheel, but she knew she was being safe by ignoring her phone. When she took Driver’s Ed the proctor had shown the class a gruesome movie on the dangers of texting and using your cell phone while driving.

Needless to say it scared the daylights out of her and she didn’t sleep right for weeks.

It takes only 15 minutes to arrive to her apartment complex and Maddie is tremendously appreciative that she doesn’t live in the school’s dormitory any longer. An older friend had just bought a new apartment and had called Maddie one night, asking if she wanted to move in with her and help pay for the utilities. Sick of her dorm and her ditzy roommate, she had agreed right away.

Maddie turned the curve and pulled into her parking spot, only noticing a tall man standing there when she hit him with a small thud.

She stomps on the brake and the earsplitting sound of screeching tires hurts her ears.

Oh my god.” Maddie whispered to herself, terror evident in her unsteady voice.

She quickly swung the door open and stepped out into the downpour of the rain; a man was lying in front of her truck, face down in the serrated gravel.

“Oh my god,” She repeated, “I am so sorry, are you-“

Maddie froze in her tracks when the man lifted his head up from the ground and she stepped closer to him.

Ryan?” She pushes her damp hair out of her face and her worry soon turns to irritation when she realizes the man she has just hit with her truck is Gabe’s teammate and close friend, Ryan O’Reilly.

“Hey Mad-“

“Are you an idiot?!” She screams, “I could have seriously injured you, are you hurt at all? Are you bleeding?”

“Well… not really,” He chuckles apprehensively and scratches the back of his head sheepishly, “but I am kind of hungry.”

Maddie sighs and runs a hand through her hair, realizing that there's no way she can be mad at someone she calls a friend, “Are the guys here too?”

Her heart pounds in her chest when he nods his head; he knew by ‘guys’ she meant Matt Duchene and Gabriel. The three hockey players had quite possibly the closest companionship on the team; an ‘epic bromance’ is what Ryan had described it at one point.

“What were you doing in my parking spot?” Maddie asks when they make it into the elevator a few minutes later.

“I don’t know,” He shrugs ingenuously; “I wanted to be the first one to say ‘hi’ before Landy hogs you all to himself.”

She laughs at the childlike pout on his face, “So I’m a toy now? Is Gabe the annoying little brother who always tries to steal your stuff?”

“No,” He says with a smirk, “Gabe is the little brother that I always beat up and steal his girlfriends.”

Maddie rolls her eyes and lightheartedly shoves him, “You hockey players are ridiculous.”

He trails behind her as she trudges down the hall and stops in front of her door, she can already hear piercing laughter coming from the apartment and she instantly smiles. It had to be Matt laughing, because there was a diminutive tone of embarrassment to the sound and Matt Duchene was a pretty awkward man to begin with; put him in the same room with a woman and he radiates twice as much awkwardness.

“Look who I have!” Ryan yells as him and Maddie enter the apartment. Her roommate, Sara, is sitting on the couch next to Matt who are both completely enthralled by the movie they’re watching. A vivacious pair of blue eyes gazes up in Maddie’s direction and she nearly melts at the look of adoration he sends her way.

It actually makes her feel kind of beautiful.

She excuses herself and saunters to her bedroom, pulling her curls into a muddled bun and tugging her drenched sneakers off her feet. She exchanges her jeans for a pair of leggings and her t-shirt for one of Gabe’s outsized hoodies that falls down to the middle of her thighs. He had let Maddie borrow it on a rainy day after her futile jacket had gotten soaked. In the end, Gabriel had decided to let her keep it, coming up with a lame explanation that every woman needs a ‘fuzzy, oversized hoodie that they can chill in’.

Maddie glanced at her bed and heaved a sigh; it looked so warm and appealing. After a few seconds of internal conflict, she decided that she would lie down for a couple of minutes and rest her eyes.

It’s not like they would notice her absence anyways.

Right as she slipped underneath the comforter and pulled it up to her chin, she heard a quiet voice from the doorway.

“Maddie?”

Gabriel was standing right outside of the doorframe, peaking in innocently with wide eyes like a child. His expression was quite endearing, and she realized he actually wanted to spend time with her after finally being home from Montreal. Maddie noticed the skin underneath his eyes was a darker colour and his posture was more sluggish than she remembered it to be.

He was completely and utterly worn out.

“Would you like to take a nap with me?” Maddie asks tenderly, her voice is nearly impossible to hear. He smiles feebly and nods, entering the room tentatively.

“Thank you.” He mumbles when he lifts the comforter and slides underneath, his body radiates warmth and Maddie inches closer to him. He glances around the dark room, his blue eyes observing the royal purple walls covered by pictures, posters, and random lights. It’s the first time he has actually been in her room and he seems surprised by all of the pictures of close friends and family on the walls. He realizes that she has had an ordinary life, and for some reason that makes her seem even more appealing to him.

“I told you that you would need this hoodie.” He murmurs and his fingers run over the soft material.

“It is warm.” She agrees lethargically.

Gabriel watches as her eyes finally close and her breathing starts to become shallow; seeing her in such a drowsy state makes him sleepy and he finds himself dozing off a few minutes later. He didn’t even realize how tired he had been after such a long week, being able to lie down in Maddie’s bed and taking a nap with her was like a slice of heaven. There was no way he could begin to describe how comforting it was to even be in her presence.

Maybe he had just been imagining it, but Gabriel could have sworn he felt Maddie kiss his cheek before he fell asleep.
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I know I'm terrible for starting a new story when I already have so many, but I couldn't help it!

Gabriel Landeskog is gorgeous and there isn't nearly enough of him on Mibba, so why not contribute? I also felt the need to explain how their relationship develops after I wrote the two shot. :P

Leave a comment and let me know what you guys think of the first chapter. :D