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He swore to himself we wouldn’t watch. Why would a game between Germany and Denmark interest him? And yet, when Jack turned on the Olympics live stream, automatically, his fingers pushed the button for the Germany game. And like always, as if they can’t do anything else, his eyes try to find JJ.
Jack would lie if he said he wasn’t disappointed at missing the Olympics. Now that NHL players are allowed to play, he really hoped to be in the Canadian roster. But somehow he expected to be left behind. Wouldn’t be the first time someone did that. As if the day hadn’t been bad already, his Instagram algorithm then thought it would be a good time to let him know that JJ made the German roster. Of course he did. JJ was one of the best German players in the league. They would have been stupid not to take him to Milan. Jack thought about texting him, congratulating him and wishing him good luck. Not that JJ needs luck, he is talented enough to not need it. When he opened the text thread with JJ, he saw that the last message had been from three weeks ago. A meme JJ sent him and his own reaction in the form of a laughing emoji. Radio silence since then. Jack missed him like crazy.
Maybe that’s why he turned on the game. And that’s why his eyes magically seem to find the jersey with the number ‘77’ stitched on it. He doesn’t even concentrate on the game. Just watches JJ glide over the ice an ocean away. JJ doesn’t score, but he has an assist. The camera shows JJ smiling at his teammate. Jack’s heart beats faster, even long after the replay finished and the players get ready for the next bully.
Once the game is finished and Germany leaves the ice with a three to one win, Jack grabs his phone and opens his chat with JJ. It’s now been nearly two months since they last texted. Two months since Jack opened the chat everyday, stared at the screen only to close it after a few minutes. At least now he had a reason to text him.
He types out too many different variations of the text, then he’d like to admit. In the end, he settles for a quick ‘good game’ and hits send. The blue heart is being tiped and deleted all over again, till it’s terminally removed from the text.
On the other side of the Atlantic, in a sweaty and stinky locker room that’s filled with laughter and joy, JJ’s heart drops into his stomach as he sees the notification on his phone. There are a bunch. His parents and brother congratulate him on the game and assist, some random Instagram notifications he’s been ignoring all day and the result of the game USA against Latvia. And then there is another text sent by a contact with a blue heart.
‘good game’ is all it says. But nevertheless JJ heart’s doing stupid somersaults and his brain is going on a rollercoaster. In the background he can hear his teammates talking over each other. Discussing the game, hyping each other up. It’s all muffled to JJ’s ears.
He reads it in Jack’s voice. It’s been too long since he heard it, carefully ignoring post game interviews or social content from the Sabres. His brain adds a laugh afterwards, like when Jack used to hype him up on the ice after a goal. He doesn’t really think before he types his response and hits send. A quick ‘thx’. He does think about sending something else. And so, with Lukas next to him rushing him to finish up already, the blue heart appears on his screen. He shuts off his phone, too scared to wait for a response.