BETTER OFF

9

KENZIE
FRIDAY

When I walk into the arena there's no one in the lobby or at the ticket desk so I just head towards the ice.

As soon as I open the door there's only one person on the ice. And since he's got his helmet off as he skates around, I can tell it's Logan.

"That doesn't seem very safe," I shout across the ice. He's at the opposite end of where the open door to the ice is.

"Unless you're going to attack me with your camera, I think I'm okay," Logan says as he starts to skate towards me.

"I mean I could if I wanted to," I shrug, crossing my arms over my chest.

"Sure ya could," he comes to a stop in front of me.

"Can we get this going? I have plans at two," I say tilting my head to look up at him. With all the hockey gear, Logan's even taller and bigger then me. It's kinda intimidating.

"Let's start in the locker room," he tilts his head to the right.

I step back and say, "Lead the way."

I follow Logan to the locker too. He walks funny with his skates on, it makes me giggle which gets a glare from Logan.

"Keep wobbling, penguin boy," I smirk at him when looks back at me.

"I'm starting to forget why I asked you to come here." He says continuing forward.

"Because you need my amazing camera skills, speaking of how much are you gonna pay me?" I follow him as he turns into the open locker room door.

"Don't step on the logo," Logan says as he avoids the giant USC logo printed on the floor. 

"What why? Also don't ignore my question!"

He sits down at his locker, his helmet sits at the top. "Let's see how the photos go then I'll decide if I'll pay you."

I cross my arms over my chest and jokingly, "You have that NHL money now, my minimum is five grand."

"Kenz!" Logan shakes his head.

I turn around and start towards the door just because messing with his is funny and he's makes it so easy, "Bye, Lo!"

"Kenzie, c'mon, I don't have that NHL money yet but I'll pay you once I do," he panic shouts.

I reach for the lens cap of my camera, turning back to face him, and I point the camera at him, "Smile."

I spend the next two hours taking photos of Logan, headshots in the locker room and lots of shots on the ice, paired with laughs and lots of talking.

-

KENZIE
THE NEXT DAY

No one is home tonight, it's just me. So I'm spending my time wisely by laying in bed going through the pictures I took of Logan yesterday.

I hate how good he looks in all of them. There hasn't been one that's terrible, there's been a couple that aren't good because of his arm placement or something but overall they're all really good photos because I just can't deny the fact that he's hot! I hate it but he is.

I'm currently looking at a photo I took of him sitting in front of his locker. My curiosity gets the best of me as I zoom in to see what's actually in his locker. On the top shelf are his gloves and helmet. Then there's a shelf cluttered with some random things on it like deodorant, and bottles with their labels turned away from me so I can't tell what they are.

Thanks to the lower side angle of the photo I can see he's got a few things hung up on the inside. One looks like a photo of him and his family, another thing looks like a hand written note that I can't read and the last thing is a polaroid photo. I zoom in a bit more to try to read and see the photos better.

"Oh my god," I sit up instantly recognizing the polaroid photo, pushing my computer away. I look over at the big square black and brown camera sitting on my shelf.

There's no way.

I reach for my computer again, pulling the screen close to my eyes so I can see the photo better. I just need to verify I'm seeing things right, and it definitely is the photo I thought it was.

It's a picture Macey took of him and I at the first game of his I went to back in high school. I remember being so nervous because we had only gone out on one real date and hung out twice before that. It's hard to really see, maybe I'm wrong, maybe it's him and some other girl, or his mom!

I shake my head as I get out of bed to go grab a snack from downstairs.

After grabbing my bag of Goldfish from my shelf in the pantry, I head back to my bed.

While I'm trying to get comfortable again, my phone starts to ring but I don't know where it is. I can hear it but can't see it, until it flys out of my blanket and lands on my foot.

"Ow! Fuck," I groan bending over to pick up my phone answering it without even looking at the screen.

"Hello?"

"Kenzie!"

I groan again, "What do you want?"

"Well I owe you and the boys and I are going out tonight, you wanna join?" Logan asks.

"Not really," I answer honestly.

"Summer and Ellie will be there, and all drinks are on me," he offers.

Okay now that's temping, I love free drinks and I haven't gone out with Summer and Ellie since Summer's birthday.

"I can pay for my own drinks," I roll my eyes to myself.

"But I owe you. I'll text you the address of the pregame, we're starting at eight," Logan says, "I hope you come, Kenz."

"I'll think about it but I'm drowning in editing your photos."

"They can wait, come get drunk," he laughs.

"I'll think about it."

I'm not going. I don't want to hang out with a bunch of hockey guys.

But it has been a while since I saw Summer and Ellie....