Plié and Clout

Chapter 27: Mental Day

okay, yes, I make a brad marchand shootout joke, a goalie interference joke and a nail yakupov joke in this chapter, if you don't know what that is, just skip it i guess

-rabid

***

STEPH:

"Don't you have practice?" Jilly meets me in the bathroom while August changes in my room.

"I'll call out, Nico will get it." I say.

"You shouldn't miss practice, even one day off, Steph, you can't justify that."

"I can, trust me." I shake my head. "I'll go in tomorrow and make up the workout then Monday will be back to normal.

"What are you going to tell her in the playoffs? You're going to be gone basically every other day."

"I'll figure it out when I get there," I sigh and drag my hands through my hair.

"She thinks you're a Boston fan, how are you going to justify the beard if they get out?" Jilly smirks at me.

"The scrappy playoff beard is the least of my worries, I don't want her to find out from another person, I don't want her to turn on the TV one day and see me on ice. I want to be the one that tells her. Me. Just so I don't fuck it up."

"Steph, your backstory is solid, everything is going to be fine," Jilly hands me my toothbrush. "Plus, August likes you, a lot. She even told me she likes it when you snore." Jilly turns up her lip at this.

"She what."

"Yeah. She said that she thinks it's cute," Jilly giggles, "face it Steph, you're falling in love with her, and she is too. Love is hard to get and hard to get rid of."

"Love needs trust, if she knows I don't trust her with what I actually do for work, she won't trust me at all."

"If you tell her why you did it, she might." Jilly shakes her head. "You have to decide that she's worth it. I know I cockblocked you last night. I heard it. You have to decide if it's love or lust."

"What?"

***

STEPH:

"Alright, Jills, yay school." I unlock the door and she stares at me.

"I don't want to go." She mumbles.

"I'll wait in the parking lot, but I want you to go." I push the car out of park and Jilly stands up.

"Steph do I have to?"

"I want you to," I say. 

Jilly gets out of the car and shuts the door. I pull away and down into the parking lot. I watch her walk up toward the building, but Belle stops her. Belle makes a face from what I can see and throws a bag at Jilly. Logan comes up on the side and throws his arm around Belle. Jilly watches them enter the building and then looks down at her bag, the bag she brought to the sleepover. I stand and get out of the car. Julianna Sagamore you have no business being treated like that. She buries her face in her hands. I wait until she looks over to the parking lot to give her the signal that she's okay to not go after that. People don't even look at her on their way in. Jilly storms back down the stairs and out across the parking lot, running toward me. I catch her in my arms.

"I'll call Nico," I say. "You don't have to go today." She nods into my chest. "Come on, let's go." She nods and I open the passenger door. We don't have to say anything to each other, I open up my phone and call Nico as I'm getting out of the lot. It goes to Bluetooth.