It's a bright Friday afternoon and Arabella is smiling as she makes her way towards the school gates. She's almost out, almost free for the weekend, when she hears a voice behind her, calling out her name.

Suppressing a sigh, she stops and turns around. Racing towards her, blonde hair flying everywhere in the wind, is Rebecca. Arabella and Rebecca have known each other since she moved to Vancouver; Rebecca was the one to show her round on her first day at the school. Whilst they're not as close as they have been, every once in a while the girls go out for a coffee (generally Arabella's idea) or to a party (Rebecca's favourite pastime).

Still, it comes as a slight shock when a grinning Rebecca holds out a pair of cheaply made tickets. They're made of flimsy card and read:

"My boyfriend's playing and I'm going to support him. His sister was gonna come with me but she cancelled last minute, 'cause she's sick. Then I saw you and I thought hey, I wonder if Arabella wants to come?" Rebecca explains.

At some point, they've begun walking towards the student parking lot, where Rebecca's shiny black car is waiting.

Arabella thinks of the alternative plan for her evening: riding the bus home; watching Netflix with her Mom; Skyping Catarina. She shrugs. "Sure, why not? We need a catch up, after all."

So she climbs into the passenger seat of Rebecca's car, half-listening to her friend chatter on about her upcoming eighteenth birthday party.

♡

"Bro, you ready?"

Arthur spins - slightly awkwardly in his gear - and grins at Joe, the captain of his team. "I was born ready."

Joe snorts and shakes his head. "You say that every time; it's so corny, man."

"Yeah, but it's true," he replies, before heading towards the entrance to the rink.

Even from a way out he can hear the general noise of the crowd, which translates into a buzz inside him. He peers out and sees the seats filling up. Not far off, just behind his goal, Arthur sees two girls moving to their spaces. One of them holds up a hand-painted sign reading "We Love You Joe ♥". She taps the other, who rolls her eyes but -

Holy shit, that's Arabella.

He blinks but she remains in the seat directly behind the goal, most definitely not a figment of his imagination. (Embarrassingly, that happened once. He was waiting in line at Starbucks and thought he saw her, but when he approached her it turned out to just be a girl with olive toned skin and long dark hair. Not as captivating as Arabella.)

But there she is, talking to the girl Arthur guesses to be Joe's girlfriend and entirely oblivious to his presence. Not for long though, as Joe shoves Arthur's stick into his hands and leads them onto the ice.

Arthur glides across towards his place in goal, relishing in the sound of the crowd's cheers reverberating around the room. Admittedly, they're mostly just friends and family, but the feeling is still there.

It's the same pumped up, buzzing feeling that he gets when he nails a difficult piece on the piano or, he realises with a sort of sinking feeling, when he's with Arabella.

Soon, the game commences and he loses himself in it, barely even aware of the beautiful girl mere feet away from him.

♡

Arabella will admit she's not the world's biggest hockey fan. Or any sports, really. So she can't really be blamed for pulling out her phone during the confusing starting procedures. Out of the corner of her eye she sees the two teams, one in red and the others in blue, skating onto the rink.

These are actually pretty good seats Rebecca's gotten them; she's really close to the guy in goal, who's hunched over with his back to them.

The game drags a little at first, occasionally she helps hold up Rebecca's sign for her boyfriend or claps when the people around her clap, but mostly Arabella isn't enthralled.

Until the guy in goal turns around. Her lips form an 'O' as she sees his face, barred by his helmet but certainly still him.

Apparently, Rebecca has noticed him too, as she nudges Arabella. "Cutie in goal."

Arabella laughs, although her heart is suddenly thudding hard against her ribcage.

"D'you know him?" she asks, trying to stop her voice from sounding too shaky.

"Hmm, I think he's pretty new. Joe calls him Morgenstern, but I don't know his first name."

Arthur. Arabella thinks. Arthur Morgenstern, that's his name.

He's focused on the game, skilfully saving a few attempts to score by the opposition, so Arabella watches him from behind.

Of course, he plays hockey. Of course. He's already a musical genius of some sort and now he's on a hockey team too. This also comes with the realisation that he must have a good body too, as though he needs another string to his bow.

Honestly, he puts Arabella's meagre extra-curricular activities (Learn Italian Club - which she feels like a sort of cheater to be part of - and, before she quit, cheerleading) to shame. Is there anything this boy doesn't do?

Oh, yeah: conversation.

♡

There are a couple of short breaks during the game, where the teams huddle into circles or disappear off the rink, but nothing really gets interesting until the last couple of minutes. One of the reds is positioned to take a penalty. Arthur, clad in blue, is ready in goal.

"This is so important right now," Rebecca tells Arabella. She doesn't need to; it's clear by the almost tangible anticipation in the room. "It's a penalty shot, and if the opposition get it then we draw but if we block it, we win."

So it's all down to Arthur, really.

Even Arabella is holding her breath as the guy taking the penalty shot prepares, then hits the puck. It skids towards the goal, the opposite side to Arthur's stick, and for a single, gut wrenching moment it looks like he's going to miss it, until he twists and somehow manages to hit it, sending the puck far away from his goal.

The crowd, on this side at least, erupts into applause and cheering. As does Arthur's team, jumping around and hugging each other.

"Yes!" she yells, along with everyone else. "Go on Arthur!"

His head whips round then, as if he'd impossibly heard her single voice amongst the cacophony of sound. His eyes search for a moment, before they land on her.

They lock, held together in their own private moment, everybody else just background.

Arabella claps, her lips pressed together as she smiles at the atmosphere around them, and at him.

Arthur lets his stick drop from his hands and clatter onto the ice as he breaks out into a grin at what he's just achieved, and at her.

♡

As soon as the teams skate off the ice and out of sight, Rebecca tugs on Arabella's arm.

"Where are we going?" she asks as Rebecca pulls her in a beeline through the crowds of people.

"The changing rooms, of course."

Arabella's never been into a male changing room, but the word conjures images of sweaty, shirtless boys and steamy showers. Dear God.

"Are - are we allowed to go in here?" Arabella asks when they stop outside a door labelled HOME TEAM CHANGING ROOM.

"Of course, I'm the captain's girlfriend," she says, pushing open the door.

The first thing that hits Arabella is the smell. When she'd imagined a room of sweaty teenage boys, she'd somehow forgotten that it would smell of body odour and who knows what else.

Still, she follows Rebecca's lead in. By the sound of it there are at least two showers running, but thankfully those are shut into stalls. Instead, Arabella's eyes scan the room: a total of six boys, but not Arthur nor Joe.

Then one of the showers cuts off and Joe emerges, a towel wrapped around his waist and nothing else. Rebecca squeals and races towards him, throwing her arms around his neck.

"Well done baby!" she exclaims, not giving him a chance to respond by pressing her lips against his.

One of the boys whoops as they make out passionately, seemingly oblivious to the rest of the room. Arabella is slightly concerned about how loosely his towel is knotted round his waist, and how she may be about to see her friend's boyfriend naked.

When Joe has moved to kissing his girlfriend's neck, he spots Arabella over her shoulder.

"Oh... hey... Arabella," he says between kisses.

Arabella and Joe know each other vaguely; it's impossible to know Rebecca without the Joe, apparently they've been going strong since the start of Freshman year.

She rolls her eyes, muttering, "Get a room."

Joe laughs and she rolls her eyes again (it's a bad habit, really) until she swivels slightly on her heels and stops.

Arthur is in the same state of undress as Joe (and dammit she was right, his body is good) and walking right towards her.

He halters when he notices her, but he's already close enough that she can see the rivulets of waters coming from his wet hair and rolling down his shoulder, his eyelashes clumped together with droplets. It is quite possible Arthur Morgenstern has never looked as good as he does right now.

"Hey."

"Hey."

Rebecca, who has finally detached herself from her boyfriend to let him get dressed, steps over. "Do you two know each other, or something?"

Arabella blurts no just as Arthur utters a yes.

He proceeds to blush furiously. Arabella, who isn't the kind of person to blush, tears her eyes from Arthur to Rebecca.

"Sort of," she says. "We've bumped into each other a few times, that's all."

The summary doesn't seem enough, and she can tell from Arthur's expression he doesn't think so either.

Perhaps sensing the something between the pair, Rebecca shrugs and moves away. Arabella's heart is pounding; she wonders if Arthur's is too, or if it's just her who feel this way.

Arthur is desperately trying to think of something, anything to say. But it's hard to think when he's standing half naked in front of his crush (yes, he said it. Crush.)

So he goes for the obvious thing and says he's going to get dressed. She nods and sort of smiles.

Arthur moves to the most private area of the changing room, where he's completely out of Arabella's sight. He gets dressed quickly, not even noticing the way his shirt clings to his damp skin. He ruffles his hair with a towel to partially dry it, then shoves his stuff in a bag and heads to where Arabella, Joe, Joe's girlfriend and a couple of others are waiting near the door.

"We're thinking of going to get some fries, 'cause I'm famished right now," Joe tells him. "You coming?"

Ridiculously, Adthur's eyes dart straight to Arabella. She's looking right at him, wide eyed and gorgeous. He looks at the wall just past her.

"Do you want to come and get some food with us?"

This is it. This is the point they've not gone past before. If she says yes, it may well change their entire dynamic.

"Sure," she says, somehow managing to catch Arthur's gaze despite his attempts to avoid eye contact.

He shouldn't be that surprised, it's hardly like he just asked her to a candlelit dinner, but he is. He's pretty sure Arabella from the plane would have rolled her eyes and told him to dream on. Something has changed.

The rest of the team are here now, so the group head towards the door. Once they're outside, Joe asks where they're going to go.

"There's that new diner like a block away from here, we should try there. Brynn's just got a job there and she said she can get me discount," Arthur suggests. Everybody agrees but Arabella.

"Brynn," she says, almost to herself. Then, she quickly hugs her friend. "Rebecca this was fun, we should do it again sometime soon. But I just remembered I've got to go. Bye!"

And then she's speed-walking in the opposite direction, without a single glance behind her.

Why does this girl keep appearing then disappearing from Arthur's life with no explanation? Moreover, why does he keep wishing her to come back all the same?