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I stared at my phone as I watched the words swim in front of me.

“Hey Tyler! This is Riley. A friend of yours gave me your number? Haha.”

All I had to do was press send. One touch of the phone and it would be done. At that moment Addy burst in through the door.

“Have you picked out what you’re wearing tonight?” she asked excitedly as she threw me my fake ID.

“Uh, yeah,” I mutter as I got up and went to the closet. “I’m thinking this skirt and my blue shirt.” I turned around and saw Addy sitting on the bed grinning at me. “…What?” I asked. My eyes went wide when I noticed my phone in her hand. “Addy. No.”

“Oops,” she said, still grinning and dropping the phone. “I like that outfit! It’s perfect! Get dressed and come to my room. We’re starting to pregame now. You’ll thank me for that later.”

I rushed over to my bed as soon as the door closed behind her. As I stared down at the sent message the phone vibrated in my hand.

“Riley! Hey! I’m glad you texted. You were hilarious last night. : ) I’m on my way to the rink now but I’ll text you after the game!”

My mouth dropped to the floor as my heart started racing. “Yeah right, Riley,” I whispered to myself.
“Don’t get too excited.” I deleted the message and threw my phone on the bed, turning to get dressed.

10 minutes later I was in Addy’s room sipping on my first drink. “Did he text you back?” she asked cheerfully.

“Hm? Oh, nah. He’s probably busy. I’m still pissed for you even sending that by the way. I would’ve
done it myself eventually.”

“No you wouldn’t have,” she replied rolling her eyes. “I don’t know WHY exactly but you never talk to guys. I know you too well to think you would’ve started with Tyler Seguin.”

“Ugh. I don’t want to talk about this,” I muttered as Ellie tried not to laugh in response to Addy. “I need a fucking shot.”

“Well,” Addy said, looking impressed. “There’s the Riley I know and love. Let’s get this show on the road!”

We (by some miracle) managed to make it into the club about 4 hours later. We headed straight for the bar, eventually getting a drink and surveying the place.

“There’s a lot of really hot guys here, Riley. Ready to get over Scott?”

I started laughing hysterically. “I guess, technically I was never really UNDER Scott,” I slurred out.

The girls started laughing and dragged me out onto the dance floor. The minute we reached the center of it, “I Love It” by Icona Pop started playing. We immediately panicked (as drunk girls do when their favorite song comes on) and before I knew it, over an hour had passed.

“Guys, I really need to pee,” I shouted at Addy and Ellie.

“Yeah, agreed,” Ellie said, looking miserable. “Come on.”

We slowly made our way through the crowd to the bathroom. While we were waiting in line I pulled out my phone to see a text from Tyler.

“Hey! What’s up!”

Smiling to myself I typed out a response.

“Oh hey! Out actually. Haha. How was the game?”

I waited a few minutes, moving further up the line.

“Good! We won actually. We’re headed out to celebrate. Where are you?”

My eyes went wide as Addy shoved me towards a stall. “Come on woman! There’s a huge line.” As I shut the door I quickly typed out a message.

“We’re at The Roxy! We heard it was the best one for fake IDs… Haha”

I took care of business and hauled my phone back out as we were making our way back to the bar.

“K! Well, hopefully I’ll see you soon! : )”

I looked up at Addy with wide eyes. “What?” she asked, clearly concerned.

“I lied.”

“What?”

“You asked if he texted back and I said no. Well, he did. And now I think he might be coming here.”

“WHAT?!” she screamed, grabbing my phone. I turned to the bartender and ordered a shot and a drink.

“What are you doing?” Ellie asked, eyeing the shot.

“Stop it. If he shows up here tonight I’m going to need to be a lot more numb than I am right now.”

“Riley, please,” Ellie replied. “Be careful. Don’t get stupid.”

“She’s fine, Ellie!” Addy cut in. “It isn’t like we’re going to leave her alone.”

I downed the shot and grabbed the drink, sipping as Addy and Ellie got theirs. Once we were all sorted we headed back out to the dance floor. After dancing for another little while I felt my phone vibrate.

“You still around? : )”

“Yeah! On the dance floor! You here?”

“At the bar. Come visit!”

I turned the phone to show Addy and Ellie.

“You want to?” asked Ellie.

I took a deep breath and nodded. “What’s the worst that could happen here, right?”

We made our way to the bar and eventually reached a solid wall of people.

“Uh, I think we found them,” Addy muttered to my left. I looked around nervously trying to spot Tyler
until I heard “Well holy shit!” from behind me. I turned and was faced with Brad Marchand.

I immediately broke out into a grin. “Well hey old man! How are ya?”

“I thought he was bullshittin me about actually texting you! Come on,” he said, grabbing my hand.
“You gotta be aggressive with these folks.”

We finally got up to the bar and suddenly I was face to face with Tyler Seguin’s huge grin. “Well there she is! I thought you were ignoring my text!”

“Meh,” I shrugged. “Wanted to hear about how you played tonight! See if you took any of my advice,” I said with a wink.

He threw his head back and laughed. “Well then,” he said when he looked at me again. “How bout I buy you a drink and we talk game?”

I glanced around and saw Addy and Ellie talking to Marchand as he introduced them to some of the other guys. “Me? Turn down a free drink? Never,” I said, turning back to him with a smile.

We talked for a while and had a few drinks. Eventually I saw Addy and Ellie heading to the dance floor with a huge group of people. “Looks like your boys have replaced you,” I said as I smirked at Tyler.

“Well let’s get out there and show them that I’ve replaced them too,” he replied with a grin.

He got us a couple more drinks and then we made our way out to the dance floor. There was surprisingly no awkwardness at all as we danced and goofed off. Addy eventually caught my eye and winked and I rolled my eyes at her. After a few songs we had made our way closer to the bigger group of people. Before I knew it I was sandwiched between Tyler and a very drunk Marchand.
Luckily I was facing Tyler so looked up laughing as he smirked and shook his head.

“Safe to say he likes you,” Tyler said into my ear. “That’s saying something because he hates all girls I’m interested in.”

“Oh is that right?” I said, raising my eyebrows. “Is that your way of saying you’re interested in me?”

“Hm,” he replied, narrowing his eyes and smiling a little. “I guess you’re alright.”

“Alright? Well let’s see what he thinks,” I said, turning around to face Marchand. I immediately started putting more into dancing until I felt Tyler’s hand on my hip.

“Okay. That’s not fair,” he said, laughing. “Yes. Interested. Definitely interested.” He grabbed my hand and pulled me back towards the bar. He ordered us a couple more drinks then turned towards me.
“That was very well played,” he said with a smirk.

“What can I say? I’m well rounded in my ‘game’,” I replied with a big smile.

We grabbed our drinks then he grabbed my hand again and started pulling me towards the tables. As soon as we sat down a bunch of the boys, as well as Addy and Ellie, made their way over, grabbing chairs as they came. It wasn’t long before there was a huge group of people around, everyone taking part in their own conversations. I settled in next to Tyler and looked around in awe. It was finally occurring to me that these were the Bruins. I took a sip of my drink.

“What’s up?” he asked, putting his hand on my thigh.

I glanced at his hand. “Uh,” I stuttered. “Nothing! I’m good!” I smiled up at him. “Just weird that I was so nervous to meet you all in the locker room last night and now, well here we are.”

Tyler just smiled a little and shook his head. “I figured I’d never see you again after last night, honestly. The guys all chirped the shit out of me for not getting your number. I felt like such an idiot.”

“Well ya managed to get it!” I said, laughing. “I’m glad you did.” At that moment I saw Addy trying to get my attention. She looked exhausted and Ellie didn’t look much better. She gestured towards the door mouthing, “Can we go?”

I nodded and turned to Tyler. “Well, I kinda need to get these guys home,” I said gesturing to the girls.

“Yeah! Okay. Need any help with that?”

“Uh,” I glanced at his hand again and looked up at him with a tight smile. “Nah. I think we’re good. I had fun tonight though!”

“Me too!” he responded with a huge grin. “Is it okay if I text you tomorrow?”

“Yeah sure!” I replied, already doubting that was going to happen.

We started to walk away from the table and I heard my name called out. I turned around to see Tyler coming towards me. When he reached me he leaned down and kissed me. When he pulled away I stared up at him wide-eyed. “I WILL text you tomorrow, okay?”

All I could do was nod as I watched him smile as he turned to walk back to the table.