Vulnerable || l.h.

One

I wrapped my scarf around my face. It was unseasonably cold for October in New York City, which meant extra layers were necessary. As I neared the arena, I grew more and more excited. Hockey season was starting, and today was my school's team's first practice. When I opened the doors, the smell of sports equipment, ice, and mixed concessions, filled my nostrils. To most people, this probably wasn't the most pleasant scent in the world, but to me, it smelled like heaven.

I enetered one of the many rinks the arena held and took a seat in the bleachers. I scanned the ice for familiar faces, and saw three immediately. The first, was of our captain, Ashton Irwin. He had green eyes and underneath his helmet there was a mess of unruly, curly brown hair. Next to him, was Michael Clifford. His eyes were similar in color to Ashton's, but his hair was another story. He dyed it at least once a month, each color crazier than the one before. Lastly, next to Michael, was Calum Hood. Calum had chocolate brown eyes and very dark hair. I guess you could call him the "tall dark and handsome" type, but I never really looked at him that way. Those three guys were my best friends, and had been since elementary school.

As I watched the boys skate around with the team, I noticed Calum was talking to someone I had never seen before. From where I was sitting I could see that he had blue eyes and bits of blonde hair were creeping out from underneath his helmet. I wondered who this guy was, I mean I knew this team backwards and forwards, and I had never seen him before in my life.

After practice, I waited for the boys. They eventually came walking over to me, with that blonde boy walking next to them. As soon as Ashton and I made eye contact, a smile swept over his face.

"Maddie!" he exclaimed as he gave me a bear hug.

"Nice to see you too, Ash." I replied as he put me down.

Michael and Calum also greeted me, while blondie stayed silent. The boys started rambling to me about how practice went and how the season was going to be, but I cut them off.

"Aren't you guys gonna introduce me to your new friend?"

"Oh yeah!" said Ash. "This is Luke Hemmings. He's actually a friend of Calum's. He used to live here when we were younger but he moved away. Now he moved back to New York and he's gonna play for us!" 

It was hard not to get excited when Ashton got excited about things. He had this cheery, infectious personality, which was one of the reasons why we became friends in the first place. I extended my hand out to Luke and he took it. 

"Hi." I said. "I'm Madelyn Reynolds. Everyone calls me Maddie."

"Hey." was all Luke said. 

As we shook hands I really got a good look at Luke. He was tall, maybe an inch shorter than Calum, with a blonde quiff hairstyle that added to his height. He was skinny, but also well-built, a benefit of being a hockey player, but what struck me the most were his eyes. They were the kind of blue that reminded you of an ocean or another equally beautiful body of water. They were so bright that I couldn't help but fall under their spell. I snapped myself out of my trance and let go of Luke's hand.

"Well now that we're all acquainted," Michael interrupted. "let's go get some food, I'm starving." 

I followed the boys out of the arena and onto the city street. We walked for a bit until we found a diner. We ate together and then we all went our separate ways. As I walked home, I was haunted by the image of those blue eyes. "Hey." was all he said to me. I was never one to fall for the mysterious bad boy, but there was something about him. I was determined to unlock the secrets behind those blue ocean eyes.