Lillian’s POV

During all of Lillian’s college classes for her creative writing major, she could not stop staring at the clock. Destiny was also extremely anxious. She thought the school day would never end, but finally, it was sixth period. The two of them drove home to grab their stuff right after school, then Jeremy came over to Lillian’s house. They'd all go to the game together and hang out afterwards.

Around 3:00 pm, the three were all getting ready for the game. They were so close now and Destiny and Lillian thought of Jeremy as a brother now. They didn’t mind that he was gay and that he dressed with them. Jeremy wore his Matt Duchene jersey, Destiny had her newly-bought and acquired birthday gift from Jeremy and I on, a Gabriel Landeskog jersey, and Lillian wore her Nathan MacKinnon jersey. They also had their black Avalanche sweatpants on too.

The plan was to get to the Pepsi Center as early as they could, in hopes of meeting some of the players. The game itself wouldn't start until 7:00 Mountain Time (8:00 Central and 9:00 EST). I was counting on meeting Jarome Iginla or Nathan MacKinnon again or something.

Traffic was insane on the way downtown. Jeremy, the designated driver, had to exit the freeway and drive to the game from there. Destiny was becoming more anxious as each minute went by. Lillian kept reassuring her that they'd make it in time for the autograph signing. And thank goodness it wasn't snowing, or else they would never get there.

After several minutes, they finally arrived at the Pepsi Center. Jeremy decided to drop the two girls off and go find a parking space, then meet up with them. Several people were walking along the streets in large groups, most of them sporting an Avalanche jersey. The two girls followed them inside, then headed over to where the crowd of Avalanche fans stood in line. There were some University students there too. They normally did autograph signings outside, but it was way too cold during the winter (of course, even with the jerseys on).

A table had been set up for the players. Lillian was able to recognize Gabriel Landeskog, Matt Duchene, Jarome Iginla, Ryan O’Reilly, and Nathan MacKinnon. There were also some new players that had been recently added to the team, so the two girls didn't really know their names. Each one of them - except for Nathan and Gabriel - had a full-grown beard, which didn't surprise them. After all, they were the big, bad Bruins.

Lillian wasn’t sure if Jeremy was going to be pleased with the beard on Matt. Their friend had let them know that he didn’t approve of the “playoff beard” or the “beard” period. He liked his partner more without the scraggly hair on his chin and face, but it was tradition and Jeremy couldn’t complain too much. He didn’t want to be the reason Matt was the only one without any facial hair.

The line moved rather quickly and soon, there were only a couple of people in front of the two of them. Destiny squealed with excitement when she saw Gabriel or Gabe taking a picture with a fan.

“He’s so down-to-Earth and nice! He’s so Canadian!” she had mused, mooning dreamily over the Captain.

Their turn finally came and Lillian pulled out her Avalanche poster from her bag. Jerome was the first to sign it. Believe it or not, he looked less intimidating in person than he did on TV. And more cool.

"How's it going?" Matt Duchene asked them both when they got to him. He was wearing a smile. “Jeremy isn’t too annoying is he?”

"Great. No, he’s awesome. Wow, I can't believe I'm actually meeting you guys," Lillian said with a huge smile. This was just too good to be true.

Duchene and a few other players signed her poster, then she finally got to Nathan and Gabriel at the end of the table. They were talking to each other and Nathan looked up when he saw her. His face instantly lit up. Destiny was giggling and smiling goofily behind her friend.

"Hey, didn't I see you at one of the games? Lillian, uh, Lilly right?" he asked. She nodded her head slowly.

Nathan's eyes were on her the whole time as she looked over at her snowy haired friend, who was just standing there at a loss for words. She was staring down Gabriel. The same thought was running through both their minds: Nathan MacKinnon had remembered her name.

"Oh, you're Lilly? Nathan was just talking about you a few days ago," Gabriel spoke up. Both girls felt their cheeks start to blush and they shared a quick look with one another.

"Really?" Lillian gasped to Nathan.

"Yeah, I was telling the team about how we met up accidentally after the game. I had a feeling I'd see you again today," he replied with a smile.

"Want me to sign that jersey of yours?" the blond Captain asked my blushing fangirl of a friend.

All she could do was nod. She was so starstruck in the presence of her crush Gabriel Landeskog. She kept sending him glances, as she slowly allowed Nathan to sign her jersey. However, Nathan never took his eyes off of Lillian.

Destiny was simply taking in the moment, but then she finally managed to speak. "Wow, Gabriel, I am such a huge fan of you. I can't believe I'm actually talking to you in person."

"Well, you guys are the reason I love what I do. What's your name?" he asked her.

"Destiny," she replied.

The Captain of the Avalanche smiled at at her and Lillian swore that she looked like the woman would faint any minute. Nathan whispered something in his friend’s ear then looked back at the two of them. What Gabriel did next was totally unexpected. He took off the Colorado Avalanche cap he was wearing and handed it to Destiny. Her mouth hung wide open.

"Y-Y-You're letting me keep it?" she stuttered.

"Yup. Enjoy the game, girls," Gabriel said with a wink. The two wished Nathan and Gabriel good luck and then left to go find Jeremy. Destiny was now the happiest person in the world, proud to be the owner of Gabriel's cap. As they walked away from the crowd, Lillian couldn't help but glance back at Nathan to see if he was still looking at her. His eyes came in contact with hers for a brief moment before he directed his attention back to the other fans. And she swore he even gave her a small wink.

Turns out that Jeremy had been chatting up Matt Duchene and complaining about his beard sure enough. He saw that Lillian and Destiny were finished and waiting for him and he put in one last word to Matt, who laughed and then blew him a kiss. Jeremy seemed to take it, but he faked his anger still.

It was rather adorable really. The two men were such a bizarre couple, like if Jonathan Toews dated Patrick Kane.


The second period had just started. Unfortunately, the Colorado Avalanche were losing, with a score of 2-1. Sitting up in the suites was nice and all, but it would've been so cool to watch the game from up close like they had before. But one couldn’t be all that picking at a hockey game.

Lillian watched as O’Reilly passed the puck to Gabriel, who sped by a lone Wild defenseman. He slammed the puck at the goal and it went in right between Harding's legs. All of the Avalanche fans stood up and cheered. They were now tied with the Wild.

Lillian stole a glance at her friend, who was cat-calling and whooping. She was alive with energy and shouting, “I LOVE YOU LANDY!”

During the last period, both teams shot at the goal several times, but the goalies were able to catch each puck effortlessly. There were only 30 seconds left of the game. It would take a miracle to not have to go into overtime. Everyone was up on their feet, eager to see how it'd all play out.

The final face-off was between Nathan and Koivu. Nathan got the puck and shoved past Zach Parise, a Wild forward. He was quite a long ways off from the goal, but with ten seconds left, he decided to just go for it. Nathan took a long shot and it went straight in, right above the goalie's shoulder. Unbelievable! The buzzer went off right after, signaling the end of the period. The Avalanche had won!

Nathan threw his stick down on the ice and pounded his fist into the air. The rest of the Avalanche ran over to congratulate him. Everyone stood up and cheered, even the Wild fans, because Nathan's goal had been absolute perfection. Classic MacKinnon. Destiny, Jeremy and Lillian all screamed until their lungs started to hurt, especially since it was Nathan and Gabriel who had scored and Nathan had the winning goal. What a great way to end the game.

****

Nathan’s POV

Gabriel and the rest of the guys piled out onto the ice after Nathan had scored the last minute goal. Words couldn't possibly describe how he was feeling at the moment. Never in his whole career had he made an earth-shattering goal like that before, especially one during the remaining ten seconds. It was all just so surreal.

People began to leave and the Avalanche players eventually all headed back into the locker room, hooting and hollering like a bunch of little boys. Nathan suddenly thought of Lillian, imagining the looks she and her friend, Destiny, must've had on their faces after the team had won.

"Great game tonight, MacKinnon," Coach Roy complimented, patting his star sophomore’s shoulder.

Once they got inside the locker room, Nathan wiped the sweat from his face with a towel and changed out of his hockey gear. He put a clean sweatshirt on with a pair of jeans. Gabriel was going around congratulating everyone on the team. Once he approached Nathan, Matt Duchene also walked over and was about to say something when the Captain beat him to it and spoke instead.

"Wow MacK, that goal you made was pretty impressive. When did you learn to play like that?"

"He was probably thinking about that girl we met today, the one he hung out with after the game that one time," Matt chimed in, winking at his friend. Nathan shot him a death glare.

"No, I wasn't," he retorted. “Lilly’s a fan.”

But the truth was, Matt couldn't have been any righter. Ever since he had met Lillian (again), he just couldn't get her out of his mind. There was something about her that was different than the other girls he’d met. Talking to her was the easiest thing to do. He felt as if he could open up to her about everything. And they kept seeing each other and bumping into one another. There was some kind of sign the universe was giving him.

"Is that true, Nathan?" Jarome asked with a hint of amusement, as he walked up.

"It doesn't matter, I'm never going to see her again anyways," Nathan replied with a sigh, running his fingers through his wavy blond hair.

"That's too bad. She was pretty cute too," Gabriel said rather casually.

They all had to leave in an hour to get on the bus back to their hotel. The guys planned on drinking it up to celebrate the victory over the Wild. Tomorrow, they would head to Chicago for the next game. Nathan gathered all of his stuff and left it on the bench. At the same time, Tanguay came over to sit down next to him and he gave Nathan a weird look.

"Is everything ok, man? You seem kind of down," he said.

"I'm fine, just tired," Nathan lied.

"It's the girl, isn't it? Come on, you'll find someone else. There's a ton just like her in Colorado, man," Tanguay consoled, elbowing his teammate in the ribs.

Nathan guessed he was right...but whenever Lillian and him looked at each other, he felt something spark inside of him. When they first met, it was her stunning blue eyes and brown hair that had captivated him. They sparkled whenever she smiled. Man, she was quite the girl. Tanguay and Nathan were both quiet for a moment until the younger Av spoke up.

"I'm gonna go outside for a minute to get some air. Tell Coach I'll be back in a bit."

He put his jacket on and then got off the bench. There was a door on the side of the building that he could walk out of, where no one would be able to see him. Besides, most of the people were probably gone by now.

When he finally got outside, a shiver ran throughout his entire body. Colorado's winters were definitely colder than anyone else’s. The sky was pitch dark and there was nobody in sight. They were probably all at the main entrance. He pulled out his phone to see what time it was and then sent a quick text to Jeremy Horton.

Notes

This feels kind of weird. Kinny's not a dirty player...and the NHL is a joke in the discipline department. I'd do a better job, heck a cat would do a better job at it!


Next up: Two chapters left...and an Epic Ending!!