It was nice to sit outside for once. Not that I was a crazy outdoors person, it's just that there's just something about returning to something you hadn't experienced in a while. Like me being outside. I didn't exactly miss the cold, snapping, winter wind blowing against my face, but there was something exhilarating about it after being stuck inside.

I had my laptop out on my lap as I sat on the stairs in front of my dorm, but my hands were in my jacket, unable to type a new post on my blog. I was too excited about something else.

Just then, a rather ordinary car drove up with a far too extraordinary person inside. I hastily put my laptop in my bag and strode up to the passenger side.

"I knew you couldn't avoid me forever," I said cheerily as I got in.

"Who said I was avoiding you? I could never do that," Matt said with a bright, dearly missed smile. He grabbed my face and kissed me across the divider. It was warm and slow, just like I had been craving. "Your face is cold. Gotta warm it up. Wouldn't want you to get sick again."

"God forbid," I barely muttered before Matt kissed me again. He kissed around my lips, my cheeks, my forehead, and the tip of my nose until my whole face was sufficiently flushed with warmth.

"You ready to go?" he asked.

I hummed. He retreated back to his side and shifted the car into drive. "Where's all your hockey stuff?" I asked.

"In the back," he said simply. "It'll take a while to get over there. Do you wanna listen to some music?"

"Sure," I said.

Matt started shifted through the radio stations as he drove. "Just tell me when you hear something you like."

Sounds of sermons and banjos shifted in the static. "Fair warning though, I sing. Apparently, it gets pretty bad when it's something I like. Maybe you should pick out..." I stopped when I heard the familiar electric guitar melody. Matt didn't stray from this one. Classic rock was always my weakness. "Matt, seriously, this is your last warning..."

He apparently couldn't hear me. But I couldn't blame him for getting caught up in the music.

"She was a fast machine; she kept her...motor clean. She was the best damn woman that I've...ever seen," he mouthed dramatically, as if he was singing the AC/DC song to me himself.

"She had the sightless eyes, telling me no lies, knocking me out with those American thighs," I sang along just as enthusiastically. At the mention of thighs, I slapped my own leg.

"Taking more than her share. Had me fighting for air. She told me to come, but I was already there," Matt sang this time too. He wasn't nearly as loud or as confident as me, but it wasn't half bad.

"Cause the walls were shaking," we sang together, if you could call it singing, "The earth was quaking," getting louder and louder with every line, "My mind was aching, and we were making it. And you..."

"SHOOK ME ALL NIGHT LONG!" I sang-shouted-squawked. Matt had stopped singing to start laughing. I must admit it was pretty hard to keep singing with this giant smile on my face.

"Keep going!" he insisted. "You sound great!"

"Yeah, you...shook me all night long," I continued. I reached over and shook up Matt's perfectly soft hair.

Matt's eyes left the road for a second as he took one hand from the wheel to shake up my hair as well.

At that moment, I couldn't think of a time I had liked him any more than in that moment. And the feeling continued for the rest of the trip, which is pretty much opposite when you're stuck in a vehicle with someone for an extended period of time.

Matt had stopped at a community recreation center about two hours out from our college. He flashed me a quick smile before exiting the car.

I followed out to the trunk of his car. He lifted up the hatch to reveal his hockey mess.

"Wow..." Matt had a lot of hockey gear. "Do you need help carrying all of that?"

Matt landed himself up with several bulky looking bag. "Sure, thanks. Could you grab my hockey stick?"

A least I knew what that was. The other stuff, I wasn't quite sure. The stick was light but still awkward to hold. Matt finally closed his trunk.

"Are you sure you don't want me to carry anything else? I'm pretty strong, you know," I insisted.

"Here, hold this," he allowed.

I held my hand out to receive whatever he was holding in his fist, but instead Matt simply interweaved his fingers with mine.

"Holy shit, that was smooth," I commented.

"You think so?" His smile meant he liked the outcome of his trick quite a lot. Which really wasn't a problem in the slightest.

"If you really don't need me to carry anything..." He had the bags slung over his shoulder and across his back.

"Don't worry about it, Jules. I'm used to it. I'm pretty strong, too, if I do say so myself," he said.

"Ok, but if you need me to, I'd carry you and all your stuff," I said.

Matt laughed. "I might take you up on that when we go back."

Once we entered the recreation center, finding the ice rink was pretty easy. There were several people skating around on the ice.

"Matt!" One of them called out loudly and skated to our edge of the rink. "What took you so long? I was afraid you were never going to show up."

He had a giant smile and disarmingly blue eyes. He took off his helmet to reveal a mess of blond hair that seemed to stand on its ends. "Who's the lady?" he asked as he threw me a wink.

"This is my girlfriend, Jules," Matt told the guy sternly, but still friendly enough. "Jules, this is Mathias. He's on the team I'm filling in for."

"We're sort of a ragtag bunch, but they all sort of look up to me for..." Mathias started.

"I do hope this guy isn't bothering you." Another skater came up and rammed right into Mathias, who proceeded to fall to the ice. "He's got enough ego for the entire rink."

"I'm Jules," I introduced myself this time. "I have enough ego for the stands." Which was a lot more impressive than just the rink. The stands were about three times the size, and there was only one other person sitting.

"Ha! That's a good one!" Mathias laughed from the ground. He used the wall of the rink to pull himself up. "You brought a good one, Mattie."

"I'm Lukas. Emile's my little brother." Lukas pointed to a player further into the rink, skating and shuffling a puck in a giant figure eight. "And in the net is Berwald. He says hi and thanks for coming but doesn't want to scare you. Emile... Emile! Come say hi to Matt's girlfriend!" he called out loudly.

"Not that big of a deal guys!" Emile called back in a tired voice.

"Eh, didn't really expect him to do anything. And that's about the whole team..." Lukas finished.

"Sorry, I'm late guys!" Another guy came scrambling in. He clearly needed help with his stuff. Pads for various areas of the body seemed to be falling out of his bags. "Just give me a minute, I'll be ready in a flash."

"Oh yeah, and then there's this guy. Matt's replacement from when he left the team. Eduard or something..."

"We should probably get going," Matt said. "Wouldn't want to keep the other team waiting."

He helped Eduard pick up his stuff and put it away. As he took back his hockey stick, Matt kissed my cheek and followed Eduard to the locker room, proving he really hadn't needed me to help him carry his stuff in the first place.

"As much as I'd like to keep you company, we've got to warm up," Mathias said as he put his helmet back on. "You can sit over there with Tina."

The girl was sitting on the far net side. She waved to me as she saw me approaching. She was small and cute, wearing a light blue dress with a white jacket and beret. It matched quite well with the giant cast on her leg. I vaguely wondered what happened.

"Is this where the girlfriends sit or something?" I asked awkwardly. I really had no precedent for this sort of situation.

She smiled at me anyway and shrugged her shoulders. "I guess so."

I sat on the other side of her so she could have free access to the aisle. "Which one's yours?" I asked nonchalantly.

She pointed to the net. "Berwald. He's the goaltender," she answered simply. I light blush colored her cheeks.

Upon closer look, he did look rather big and menacing. He stood, or well skated, a good head taller than any of the other players on the ice. He must look huge next to her.

"I'm Tina by the way." She extended her petite hand out to me.

"I'm Jules. Matt's girlfriend," I said as I took it. "So, do you usually come to these games?"

She seemed to think that was funny. Her laugh almost sounded like bells. "I haven't missed a single one." She proceeded to reach into her bag and pull out her knitting project.

"What happened to your leg?" I asked.

"Oh, I just got hit by a car." She said it as if it was no big deal.

"Wow, really?" Even I was shocked by thought. "You're lucky you're not more banged up."

"You should see the other guy. The impact wasn't what did it though. I ended up tripping when I tried to get back on the sidewalk. Fractured my leg in two places."

I couldn't decide if this girl was as tough as nails or as fragile as glass.

"Yep, it'll be a while before I can return to the ice. We're lucky Matt was able to fill in on such short notice," she continued.

"Wait, you're the one Matt is filling in for?" Enigma solved. This lady was a concentrated badass in the shape of a porcelain doll.

"Look, there he is!" Tina pointed to the rink.

Two skaters entered the ice. It was pretty easy to figure out which one was Matt, despite the helmets and all the padding. He was in all red, save for his pants, and the back of his jersey clearly read "Williams" with the number 10.

"Ow ow! Looking hot, number ten!" I called out loudly.

He showed off his finesse by skating backwards expertly. He brought one giant gloved hand to his face and blew me a kiss.

"You know, the guys and I were all kind of wondering what kind of girl you'd be when Matt mentioned that he was bringing his girlfriend," Tina said, sort of out of the blue. I wondered if I had done something weird. This would be the first time I "acted inappropriately" at a sports game.

Her smile told me otherwise, thankfully. "You seem like you really like him."

I shrugged. "Well, yeah. He's like my favorite person in the entire world."

Her smile grew brighter. "Just wait 'til you see him play. He's spectacular! We really missed him when he left the team."

Well, I certainly wasn't missing this. The game was about to start.