Christmas fastly approached and Auston and Mitch were spending it with my dad, myself and my Uncle Dillon. Dad and I had spent weeks talking about New York and how we'd work it out, we were blessed to know such lovely guys on the Islanders team so I was gonna be staying with a few of the guys instead of staying in the dorms. It would be more difficult but I'd rather stay somewhere which would be more comfortable.
"Yo, Lil. What the fuck are you doing?" Auston asked, knocking me out of my daydream as I stood with a bowl of mash potatoes in hand. I quickly looked at him and he just chuckled.
"You are such a dick." I said walking past him towards the table, knocking his shoulder harshly, making him almost drop the gravy.
"Woah, you spill this your dads gonna go crazy." Auston said placing down the gravy boat carefully beside the mash potatoes. I rolled my eyes at him as Mitch came into the sitting room with an old camera in hand and a big grin across his face.
"Oh god. Dads broken out the old vhs. I'm surprised that thing still works." I said with a loud laugh as Auston just examined the camera that Mitch had handed him. Mitch wrapped his arms around my waist and pulled me into him as Auston panned the camera towards us.
"Say what you want, Lil. But all our home videos are on that and if you think I'm break tradition, you'll be wrong." My dad said with Uncle Dillon trailing behind with a large turkey.
"That's a big bird." Mitch said sitting next to me and I just smirked and nodded while my dad sat at the top of the table. Auston and my Uncle Dillon sitting across from me and Mitch.
"Well. I guess I'll say a few words." My dad said standing up with a carving knife in hand, ready to bless us all with his beautiful words. "At the start of the year, we only had Auston kicking about the house, which was of course a blessing to Lilly. The two will forever be the most powerful duo ever." My dad said and I winked at Auston, holding out my first for him to fist bump. "Then of course, Lilly met Mitch and they instantly fell in love. I've never been more thankful for two lads in my life. You both stood by Lilly and were always there for her when she needed someone and I wasn't around. I'm so glad she has you guys and the other boys." My dad said getting emotional and I just smiled at my dad.
"We love you Mr Harrington." Auston said for both him and Mitch, both boys getting up to hug my dad before taking their seats again.
"I'll leave the rest of the tears for the New Years speech, for now, let's eat." My dad said and my Uncle Dillon laughed as my dad cut into the turkey. Mitch pressed a kiss to the side of my head as he reached over to grab some potatoes and I just smiled at him.
"So, Lil. Are you excited for going to New York?" My Uncle Dillon asked and I nodded eagerly with a smile.
"Yeah I'm really excited. Mathew and I have been getting things organised and I'm just so ready to go. As Kappy said, it's a new beginning and I don't mind snatching it up now that I've spoke to everyone about it." I said and my Uncle Dillon nodded with a proud smile. I felt Mitch place his hand on my knee but when I looked at him, he was staring down at his food with a distant look on his face.
The rest of dinner we all laughed and joked about the new season and my dad ranted on about stories of when he was younger and all the trouble he got into with my Uncle Dillon. He drank Pepsi and stayed away from the alcohol all night, which was something he always did, he hadn't drank since his second round of alcohol addiction.
"Hey. You okay?" I asked Mitch sitting on his lap as Auston drunkenly giggled while him and my dad talked and my Uncle Dillon tried to play Mario kart.
"I love you, Lil." Mitch said looking down at our hands which were intertwined. He was playing with my fingers and I let my hand rest on the crook of his neck.
"I love you too, Mitchy." I said with a little concern in my voice. He usually looked me in the eye when he said something like that. He took a deep breathe and rested his forehead against my chest. I placed my hand on the back of his neck as he kind of picked me up, placing me to the side and slinking to the floor, a dumb smile on his face as my Dad, Uncle Dillon and Auston turned their attention to Mitch who was now sitting cross legged on the floor in front of me. He still had that big dumb smile on his face and it grew when Auston got excited, obviously knowing what was going on.
"So Lilly. We've been together for a while now." Mitch said looking up to me and I started to panic, thinking he was going to propose. "I'm not gonna propose, Lil." Mitch laughed and my dad let out a deep breathe and fell back against the sofa. "Anyways. When you read that email out to me the other week, about going to New York, it stung, it was worse because you were sitting on the bathroom floor having just been sick and you were crying, which made the while situation worse in my mind." Mitch laughed along with my Uncle Dillon and Auston, but my dad just stared at Mitch intently, admiration on his face.
"Everything's always worse in your mind, Mitchy." Auston joked and smith just smirked before looking back to me and continuing.
"Even though I thought it sucked. I knew you had to take this opportunity and I'm so glad you did. Having met you, everything in my life has changed, loosing games isn't as hard when I know you're gonna be there when I get off the ice. When we argue, I worry for hours that maybe I've messed up. But I know, you'll always be there. When I told my mom about you, she told me when you find your other person, you just know." Mitch said and I felt tears slowly start to pool in my eyes. "I've found my other person and I hope you've found yours." He said quietly. I watched as he reached into his pocket and pulled out a necklace, with the numbers 16 displaced.
"You are my other person." I said grabbing his face and kissing him. Auston cheered and I chuckled as Mitch put the necklace around my neck. When we turned to my dad and Uncle Dillon, dad had tears in his eyes and Uncle Dillon had the VHS in hand, filming the moment. I just pulled Mitch into a long hug, never wanting to let go.
