Next

I woke up the next morning with a raging headache, curled up next to a snoring Tyler Seguin. I looked around my room in confusion, slowly letting the night come back to me. “Oh my God,” I muttered to myself, slowly standing up and stumbling into the bathroom. I managed to close the door and make it to the toilet before throwing up all contents of the night before. “Sweet Jesus,” I whispered, lying down on the cold floor. I laid there for a few minutes, making sure the nausea had subsided before slowly standing up to brush my teeth. Once I had myself relatively put together I made my way back into my room. Glancing at my phone I saw that it was already 11:30. At that exact moment Tyler’s phone alarm started going off. Seconds later someone started knocking on my door.

“Ah. What,” Tyler muttered, starting to stir. “What is going on?”

“Just a second!” I called to the door as Tyler rolled over.

“Riley! Hi!” he said quietly, slowly waking up. I grabbed his phone off the floor and tossed it at him.

“Hello,” I said with a smile. “Do you have anywhere urgent to be or…?”

“No. Day off.”

“Okay. One second.”

I went over to the door and opened it a crack, smiling out at Addy who looked equally as miserable as I felt. “Riley I’m so sorry I was such an idiot last night. I should have known better than to say that and I just –“

“No, Addy it’s fine. Really. No big deal,” I cut her off, still smiling brightly.

“Why aren’t you letting me in? Why are you so happy when I feel like ass?”

“Um, no reason really. I’m just still tired you know. I was going to head back to bed so…”

“Riley what’s going on?” she said as she pushed on the door. It slipped out of my hand and swung open so she could see Tyler still in bed. “Oh. My. God,” she said quietly, wide-eyed.

“Stop. It isn’t what you think. It’s harmless.”

“We will talk later you slut!” she said, grinning from ear to ear. She waved to Tyler then turned to head back to her room.

“Fan-fucking-tastic,” I muttered as I let the door swing shut behind me.

I grabbed two Gatorade out of the fridge as Tyler headed into the bathroom. I settled back in bed and tossed him one when he emerged. “How ya feeling drunky?” I asked, fighting a smile.

“Well I’ve definitely felt better but I’m pretty sure I’ve felt worse,” he replied, crawling back into bed.
“How about you?”

“Oh God. Fucking awful.” I leaned over him to grab the remote and flicked on the TV. Highlights from Tyler’s game were on and once they were over I glared over at him. “You are such a fucking liar.”

All he did was turn is head towards me and smile.

“You scored TWO GOALS?! You told me you didn’t even get an assist!!”

“You think I was going to admit that your advice improved my game that much in like, 24 hours?” he replied, narrowing his eyes.

“Oh,” I said skeptically. “Embarrassed that a girl knows the game better than you?”

“Embarrassed?! Nah. More like impressed,” he said laughing. “I wanna keep you around if only for that reason.”

After another hour of watching TV while drifting in and out of sleep I was finally feeling a lot better.
“I’m hungry,” I whined, sitting up.

“Me too.”

“We can go eat at meal hall,” I suggested. “I’m sure no one will really bother you but I can’t promise the food will be good whatsoever.”

“Better idea. I’m going to woo you with my unreal cooking skills,” he said with a huge grin. “At my place. Come on. Get up. Get dressed.”

I quickly got changed. Grabbing my phone I shot a quick text to Ellie.

“Hey. Do you think you and Addy could finish up the project today? I’ll try to get back to help you but I’m going to be busy for a while.”

“Yeah that’s cool! You go have your fun. ;)”

“Alright! I’m good to go,” I said as Tyler pulled his shirt on.

“Perfect,” he replied, grabbing his wallet and keys off my dresser. “My truck’s downtown at the bar.”

“Okay. We’ll just walk down to the bottom of campus. There are always cabs waiting there.”

I let the door close behind me and as I locked it I could feel someone watching me. I turned to see Scott leaning against the wall staring at me. “You fucking whore,” was all he said, shaking his head.

“Fuck off Scott. We both know who’s the whore in this situation and it sure as hell isn’t me,” I spat out as I turned to walk away.

“Oh. I’m sorry. Do you prefer puck slut then?” he shouted out behind me. Tyler put his hand on my back pushing me forward and towards the stairs.

He didn’t move his hand until we stepped outside of the building. “Well he was a gem,” he said quietly, glancing over at me.

“HE is my ex-boyfriend,” I replied with a tight smile. “Don’t take it personally.”

“You dated that asshole?!”

“Right up until I walked in on him fucking some girl,” I said brightly.

“Wow. Fucking winner,” he replied, sounding disgusted.

“Hey, he had to get it somewhere,” I said quietly.

“Hm?” he asked, having missed what I said.

“Nothing,” I replied with a smile. “Come on.”

Soon enough we were pulling into Tyler’s parking spot and climbing out of the truck. As soon as we walked through his door his dog came bounding towards him.

“Hey Marshall! Hey buddy. How are you? Are you hungry?”

“I already fed him and took him out this morning,” said some guy coming up behind the dog.

“Thanks man,” Tyler said, looking up at me. “Riley, this is Freddy my roommate. Freddy, this is Riley.”

“Hey,” he said, shaking my hand. “Segs, I was just heading out actually. Like I said, he’s all fed and stuff. I’ll be back tonight. It’s your day off yeah?”

“Yup! I’ve got him covered for the rest of today. Thanks for taking care of it this morning.”

“No problem!” he said, shooting me a smile. “I’ll see you guys later!”

We made our way to the kitchen, Marshall as close to me as a shadow, clearly trying to feel me out. I climbed up on a stool while I watched Tyler pull random stuff out of the fridge and cupboards.

“Whatcha makin?” I asked, leaning over the counter.

“Secret. You can help though. Come over here.”

We spent the next hour or so cooking, I was simply doing whatever Tyler told me to do. Once it was all finished there were two plated of salad with two unreal, super healthy grilled chicken sandwiches.

We sat down at the counter and I took a bite.

“Holy shit, Tyler,” I said, with my mouth full.

“What?” he replied, laughing.

“You win. You are definitely going to woo me with your insane cooking skills.”

We finished off our food and then played with Marshall for a bit. After a while he asked me what time I needed to be back on campus.

“I should probably head back soon,” I said guiltily, glancing at the time and noticing it was already 3 o’clock. “I left the girls to finish a project and I should probably go help them.”

“I can give you a ride when you’re ready.”

“You don’t have to do that. I can just call a cab.”

“Don’t even try to argue with me on this,” he said with a smile. “I’m driving you back. I’m not that much of an idiot. I have to go to the rink anyway. Work out for a bit.”

“Okay,” I replied, fighting a smile. “We can go whenever you’re ready.”

He went into his room and came out a few minutes later with his gym bag. “Let’s go pretty lady,” he said with a wink.

“Oh my God,” I muttered, rolling my eyes. “You’re so weird.”

We pulled up in front of my residence and he put the truck in park. “So, I’ve had fun with you today!” he said, smiling.

“Yeah, me too! Thanks for everything.”

“No worries. I was just wondering, uh, what’re you doing tomorrow?”

“Oh! Well I have classes in the morning but nothing after that.”

“Well I have a game tomorrow night and I can get you and your girlfriends tickets if you want… I mean, then I can’t lie to you about how I played.”

“Yeah! Okay! Yeah that sounds good. You really don’t have to do that.”

“I want to,” he said, grinning. “Alright then. I’ll set it up when I get there today. I’ll text you the info.”
“Sounds good!”

He leaned over and gave me a quick kiss. “Have a great day Riley Garrison.”

“You too, Tyler Seguin,” I replied, fighting a grin.