#jared matheson

[youcouldmakealife]

SOTM: Bryce/Jared, Elaine; Man of the Hour (Day, Week, Month, Year)

For the prompt: One of the articles Bryce mentions. "…like, a profile thing? How it was growing up gay in hockey, that kind of thing… A chance to establish myself as like, I am now,” Bryce says. “Kind of like — not set the record straight, exactly, but like, show I’ve matured and stuff. "

It’s the definition of a typical Vancouver day, drizzly and overcast, when I meet Bryce Marcus. He likely needs no introduction, but I will introduce him anyway: the star centre for the Vancouver Canucks who went from being the enemy while playing for the arch-rival Calgary Flames to becoming possibly the most beloved man in the city: certainly if you you asked the fans streaming out of Rogers Arena after watching the Canucks win the Cup for the third time, or the hundreds of thousands of lining Burrard to cheer on their Canucks at the Stanley Cup Parade on a beautiful sunny day this June.

The weather is anything but glamourous today, however, and at the Marcus Matheson household, the surroundings aren’t either.

Jared Matheson, husband and teammate of Bryce, apologizes as I step over a box in their hallway. “We’re kind of in the middle of a move right now.”

They’re trading their two-bedroom condo for something ‘a little more permanent’. Both have decided that wherever their NHL careers may take them, Vancouver is going to remain home, and they’ve just closed on a house nearby.

“Bryce is weirdly excited about getting to mow the lawn,” Jared tells me as we wait for Bryce to finish getting ready. In light of the hyper-competitive Vancouver real estate market it’s entirely understandable to be excited about lawncare — it means you have a lawn to care for — but one wouldn’t have expected that to extend even to Vancouver’s sports stars.

When Bryce emerges, five minutes after my arrival, he announces himself by swearing as he trips over a box of his own, and then apologising, both for his language and his tardiness.

“He was doing his hair,” Jared says.

“I was not,” Bryce scowls, but doesn’t offer an alternative explanation.

After a quick tour of their condo, which is currently half in boxes, Bryce and I hop into his Audi S8 — naturally courtesy Capilano Audi, whose ads featuring him are inescapable during Canucks games. We drive to Richmond so he can show me his old haunts: elementary, middle, and high school — though he finished high school in Washington while playing for the Spokane Chiefs — his home rink, the Dairy Queen his mother took him after hockey games. He’s a capable, if slightly aggressive driver. I mention this because from the dire warning I received from Jared on the way out the door I genuinely believed I might not survive the drive.

Bryce finally pulls into the driveway of an unassuming but cheerful house on a quiet suburban street. The morning drizzle has faded, and the weather is now just as bright and warm as his childhood home, and the mother who raised him there. Already waiting for us on the porch, his mother Elaine Marcus offers me a glass of lemonade. “Store bought, I’m afraid,” she says with a smile. “I’m not much of homemaker.”

Over lemonade and cookies — “Also store bought,” Elaine admits, “but this bakery is very good!”, and she’s right about that — she shows me an array of childhood and teenage photos while Bryce complains to his mother that she’s ‘embarrassing’ him.

The photos are more inspiring than embarrassing: photo after photo of a beaming little boy in an equally small Canucks jersey, proudly brandishing a plastic mini-stick (Canucks branded, of course). A true example of someone who grew up to live his childhood dream.

Sadly, as he gets a older the smile disappears, as does the man beaming in the background of so many of those happy photos. His father, Ben Marcus, was killed by an impaired driver at the age of 32. It devastated Elaine and Bryce, who was only four at the time.

“It was hard,” Elaine says. “He didn’t understand. I didn’t understand, when it came down to it. It was a hard time. He wanted to play hockey all the time, it was the only thing he wanted. He was really only happy on the ice.”

“I just wanted him to be happy,” she says, smiling tearfully, and as Bryce wraps a protective arm around his mother's shoulders, I offer to give them a moment.

“It was a long time ago,” Elaine says in dismissal, wiping her eyes. “It’s just hard sometimes. Ben loved hockey, loved watching the Canucks with Bryce — he’d have been so proud to see Bryce lift the Cup for them. I am too, of course, but it was always Ben and Bryce’s thing. He would have been so proud.”

I do give them a moment then, and when I return, my lemonade has been refilled and both are all smiles once again, though Bryce's doesn't last. He cringes as we go through photos of his teen years. There’s a sullen look on his face in every picture.

And what was Bryce like as a teenager?

"I'll let him answer that," Elaine says diplomatically.

“I don’t really know,” Bryce says, looking thoughtful. “Angry, I guess. I was an angry kid. And confused.”

About his sexuality?

“Everything was confusing,” Bryce says. “But yeah, definitely that too.”

“Bryce cared so much,” Elaine says. “About everything. He still does. The world’s hardest on the people who care most about it.”

Like so many hockey players who’ve come out since Dan Riley and Marc Lapointe did in 2010, he credits their coming out as a major influence on his journey of coming to terms with his identity as both a gay man and a pro hockey player.

“You don’t really put it together,” Bryce says. He turned sixteen the summer the Leafs won the Stanley Cup, and Riley and Lapointe subsequently came out. “Like, okay, sure, you can be gay and play hockey. Except nobody thought that. I didn’t think that. If you said that, maybe I’d say okay, but I didn’t believe it.”

How, then, did he reconcile being gay and playing hockey?

“That's the thing,” Bryce says. “I didn’t, you know? I was playing hockey, so obviously I wasn’t, right? Because if I was gay, then I wouldn’t be playing, would I?”

“It sounds so ridiculous saying it now,” he reflects. “But that’s what I thought. And I wasn’t the only one.”

But even more than Riley and Lapointe blazing a trail before him, he credits meeting his husband Jared at a hockey skills camp in Calgary. In the year before he met Jared, then twenty year old Bryce was arrested twice, for assault and DWI: the latter in particular shook his mother, considering how his father died.

"I was worried about him," she says. "That's probably an understatement."

“I don’t know where I’d be if I hadn't met Jared,” Bryce says. “I genuinely don’t. I don’t think I’d be out. I know I wouldn’t be happy. You know, everyone says it isn’t like in the movies. Falling in love, I mean. That love at first sight and all that is b******t. But that’s pretty much what it was for me.”

Was it mutual?

Bryce laughs. “You’d have to ask Jared, he tells it better than me,” he says. “But no, not really. I wasn't good enough for him. I'm still not good enough for him, but I try to be."

Another warning I’d received from his husband before my tour around town? That Bryce was an incurable romantic. This warning certainly seems more warranted than the one about Bryce’s driving.

And what does Bryce think about Jared’s warning, and his additional suggestion to take anything Bryce said about him with a healthy grain of salt?

“[Jared]’s just modest,” Bryce says.

“He lights up when Jared’s around,” Elaine says. “It’s just like when he was a little boy — every time he stepped onto the ice, he beamed. It’s the same thing with Jared. He’s so happy. It’s so wonderful to see him like that.”

And how was it, not only getting to play with his husband, but to raise the Stanley Cup together?

“It’s a dream come true,” Bryce says. “Really. I know that’s such a cliche, but so is love at first sight, right? And the hometown boy winning it all for his childhood team. They’re all cliches. But they’re my life.”

“I know just how lucky I am,” Bryce says. “Winning with Jared, with this team — it’s been such a whirlwind of a year.”

I tell him to enjoy it.

“I do,” he says, smiling so widely I have no doubt he’s telling the truth. “I really, really do.”

[calikat]

For the ycmal Christmas exchange, I did a Jared and Bryce portrait. Their story has been so much fun!! I’m going to miss them 😞 This is for Kit. I hope you like it 😊

@ycmalholidayexchange @kit-moosebuckle

[kmarli]

ex-cats (forever cats) on opening night rosters for 22-23

frankie the tankie vatrano on the ducks (rip my bean boy)

nick ‘rotisserie’ bjugstad and lawson (wasn’t ever really ours but i count him) crouse on the yotes

craig ‘summer boyfriend’ anderson, vinnie (can’t spell his name) hinostroza(?) on the sabres

jonathan ‘this trade broke my heart’ huberdeau, mackenzie ‘i’m literally crying on his jersey’ weegar,  jacob ‘if only we stuck with him, sorry bob, we wouldn’t be broke’ markstrom on the flames

eric ‘god what a crush i had on him’ gudbranson on the blue jackets

mason ‘we shouldve tried harder to keep him’ marchment on the stars

mark ‘prius’ prysyk on the wings

zack ‘i’m just including him because we drafted him but he didn’t want to come to florida the big baby’ hyman on the oilers

evgenii ‘daddy’ dadanov, mike ‘he was ok’ hoffman, mike ‘the disappointing ginger’ matheson, sam ‘oh the possibilities’ montembeault, chris ‘i think he played for us’ wideman on the habs

erik ‘we lost troch for one season of this dude’ haula on the devils

vinnie ‘god i miss you’ trocheck on the rags

claude ‘oh wish we couldve done it for you’ giroux, derrick ‘meh’ brissard on the sens

owen ‘the ginger that couldn’t hang’ tippett on the flyers

Jared “snack attack’ mccann, chris ‘we really do our goalies dirty’ driedger on the kraken

noel ‘bean boy#1 aka cookie’ acciari on the blues

denis ‘don’t really miss him’ malgin on the leafs

riley ‘i mean i guess’ stillman on the canucks

jonathan ‘uggh we literally gave him away’ marchessault, reilly ‘we also just gave away this guy’ smith on the golden knights

[boxscorehockey]

Defencemen Alpha Directory

Last Updated March 3 2024

D

Addison Calen Andersson Rasmus Barrie Tyson Barron Justin Bean Jake Behrens Sean Bertucci Tristan Bjornfot Tobias Bonk Oliver Boqvist Adam Bouchard Evan Broberg Philip Brzustewicz Hunter Burns Brent Byram Bowen Carlson John Casey Seamus Ceulemans Corson Chabot Thomas Chychrun Jakub Clarke Brandt Cormier Lukas Dahlin Rasmus DeAngelo Tony Dobson Noah Doughty Drew Dragicevic Lukas Drysdale Jamie Dunn Vince Durzi Sean Edvinsson Simon Ekblad Aaron Ekman- Larsson Oliver Evans Ryker Faber Brock Faulk Justin Forsling Gustav Fox Adam Gavrikov Vladislav Girard Samuel Goligoski Alex Gostisbehere Shayne Grans Helge Graves Ryan Guenette Maxence Guhle Kaiden Gulyayev Mikhail Hamilton Dougie Hanifin Noah Harley Thomas Hedman Victor Heinola Ville Heiskanen Miro Hirose Akito Hronek Filip Hughes Luke Hughes Quinn Hutson Lane Ishimnikov Nikita Jiricek David Johnson Ryan Jokiharju Henri Jones Seth Joseph Pierre-Olivier Josi Roman Karki Arttu Karlsson Erik Kesselring Michael Klingberg John Korchinski Kevin Korczak Kaedan Krug Torey Kyrou Christian LaCombe Jackson Lambos Carson Letang Kris Liljegren Timothy Lindell Esa Lindgren Mats Lindholm Hampus Lindstein Theo Livingstone Jake Lundkvist Nils Luneau Tristan Mailloux Logan Makar Cale Marino John Mateychuk Denton Matheson Mike McAvoy Charlie McIsac Jared Miller K’Andre Mintyukov Pavel Molendyk Tanner Montour Brandon Morin Etienne Morrisey Josh Morrow Scott Moser Janis Mukhamadullin Shakir Nause Evan Nemec Simon Niemela Topi Nikishin Alexander Nurse Darnell O'Rourke Ryan Perunovich Scott Pickering Owen Pietrangelo Alex Pionk Neal Power Owen Provorov Ivan Pulock Ryan Reinbacher David Rielly Morgan Rinzel Sam Samuelsson Mattias Sanderson Jake Sandin Pellikka Axel Sandin Rasmus Sanheim Travis Schultz Justin Seider Moritz Sergachev Mikhail Severson Damon Slavin Jaccob Soderstrom Victor Spacek David Spence Jordan Strbak Maxim Suter Ryan Svozil Stanislav Theodore Shea Thompson Jack Toews Devon Trouba Jacob Valimaki Jusso Wallinder William Walman Jake Weegar Mackenzie Werenski Zach Willander Tom York Cam Zamula Egor Zellweger Olen

[ayushu-is-andy]

i wanted to post multiple of these at a time but i never ended up doing more :(  Jared Matheson from @youcouldmakealife verse

[leonify]

My part for the YCMAL holiday exchange! This is for @kit-moosebuckle who said they like cuddling or Regency or Bryce/Jared so... I did all of that. Haha happy holidays!

[ilovetextingandscones]

Susan and Elaine’s pinterest board

Hello Susan, I have created a Pinterest board for us to gather ideas and help the boys with the wedding. I know they want to decide on everything themselves, but it’s good to have some back-up ready in case they need our support. Here’s the link. Let me know what you think, and do not hesitate to add anything you want. I have already started adding some things I thought were cute 😊 You can ask Don if he wants to participate as well. I am sure he has wonderful catering ideas! Love, Elaine

Elaine,

That’s a wonderful idea. I am sure Bryce can be trusted with aesthetic decisions, but I wouldn’t let Jared pick too many things, even if he has been giving all of this a lot of thought. The book you gave him for Christmas has come in handy, for sure.

As I write, Don is already pinning recipe ideas to the common board. I am amazed at how invested he is on this; yesterday during the Flames game, he was on his phone researching wedding cakes. Can you imagine?

I have added some lake house and cottage decoration ideas, as that seems to be the direction they are following.

Let me know when you are in Calgary; we would love to have you with us for dinner.

Love,

Susan

Hi Susan,

I have seen the additions you and Don are making to the board! I really hope we can make our boys' wedding look like those pictures. I am sad they won’t have photos to remember this (even if I understand their agents’ concerns), but I want to make it as special as possible for it to last in their memories for a long time.

I will go to Calgary by around Game 3 and I’d love to meet your family for dinner. Maybe we could have lunch together as well, just the two of us! To catch up, mother of the groom to mother of the groom 😊

I have also been tasked by Bryce with accompanying Jared for cake tasting, even if they seem to have already decided on chocolate and vanilla. A little unconventional, aren’t they? But I think it suits them. A nice metaphor for their contrasting personalities. And at least it’s a cake! When I was on the phone with Bryce talking about this, I heard Jared in the background mumble something about cupcakes! That would be unconventional, even if I have seen some adorable wedding cupcakes on Pinterest.

Anyway, I think I will go with Jared and try some other flavours as well, to see if he changes his mind or if he finds anything he likes better! I’ll be adding some more cake ideas to the board, for the decoration.

Love,

Elaine

Hello Elaine,

Good to hear you will be here soon! Lunch sounds great. And, of course, feel to join us in our little game-watching parties. Even Erin is following Bryce’s season now. She could never bother with hockey when it was only his brother playing, but now she’s all about the Flames. I don’t think her edgy friends from school know, though.

I have added as well some cake topper suggestions. I am sure Jared will love having one of those on top of the cake.

Love,

Susan

Hi Susan!

Looks like we have the venue confirmed! Bryce just called me to tell me that they want the lake house they show us last month. I think it’s a bit too big for such a small party, but the location was beautiful. So glad we saved all those lake house wedding pins! I also looked at the cake toppers: adorable! We certainly need one of those.

How is Jared doing? Bryce is trying to hide it, but even on the phone, I can tell he’s not coping well with the reaction from management. I am so angry at how they have reacted. I hope the Oilers are being more rational.

I’ll be there in a week, and we can start really planning in earnest.

Love,

Elaine

on AO3

[nervous-breakdown-hat]

Because the more we see of Bryce with the Flames, the more Jared needs to be drafted to them. I had this crazy idea that this would be five secrets Bryce and Jared failed to keep, but this is like not even failing to keep one whole secret because writing is hard (maybe I will continue it but idk)...

_/ _/ _/

"So hey," Jared says, flopping on the couch next to Bryce,

"What's wrong?" Bryce asks immediately, turning to face him. One day Jared will figure out how to open a serious conversation without panicking his boyfriend, but today is not that day.

"Nothing," Jared says. "I just wanted to see what we're telling people tomorrow." Tomorrow being the first day of training camp. Flames training camp. Where he will be. As a Flame. Well, potential Flame, but still, he has a good feeling about it.

He played well when he was called up for half a dozen games at the end of last season when half the roster they started with was out on IR. And he's been pushing himself to keep up with Bryce in training all summer, which he hasn't quite managed to do, but then again neither can most of the league.

It only didn't come up last year because Bryce was one of the half that were out, home with a separated shoulder while Jared played his first NHL games.

"We're not telling anyone anything" Bryce says, sounding worried and confused and Jared is fucking this conversation up.

"No, not like that. But like it's going to be pretty obvious we've met before," Jared says, because like, yeah, they're not sitting down and telling people about their relationship. They've had that conversation ad nauseum, and as much as he's not planning to hide, he needs to make the team first. He's not going to take himself out of contention with off-ice drama now.

"I don't see why," Bryce says.

"What, are you going to introduce yourself to me like we've never met before?" Jared asks. "Because that would be weird."

"I'm not part of the welcoming committee or anything. If I don't say anything, no one will bother with me about it." Bryce trails off, like he's not sure how to explain it to Jared.

Jared liked all the guys well enough last year, hockey guys are hockey guys, although he was too focused on trying to prove himself on the ice to really get to know anyone off it. But Jared gets enough to know that Bryce doesn't really have friends on the team. Jared kind of hopes that someone does notice something about them, not that Bryce and Jared are together, but that they were wrong about Bryce.

"Okay, but like, what if someone does notice?" Jared says.

"Lie about it," Bryce says, like it's just that easy.

"When have you ever known me to successfully lie about anything?" Jared says, because he can't lie to save his life. He's good at saying as little as possible when he doesn't want his parents to know something, and playing the pronoun game when guys talk about hooking up, but actual lying is something he sucks at.

"That's just because you don't want to lie to me," Bryce says, and it's sweet that Bryce thinks that.

"Um, no. If I could lie, I definitely would have told you I loved that pendent when you gave it to me." Jared reaches out to touch where he knows his initials are resting over Bryce's breastbone under his t-shirt. If Jared could lie he absolutely would have been appropriately thankful about like, any gift Bryce has ever spent too much money on. He thinks that's the sort of little white lie that would be good for a relationship. But he can’t lie, and the truth is that he likes the pendent a lot more on Bryce than he ever would have if he kept it for himself.

Bryce takes Jared's hand, twining their fingers together and letting them fall to his lap. "What do you want to say then?"

Jared shrugs. "I don't know. The truth, I guess, or at least a little of it. That we met at a hockey clinic you were helping to coach. That we're friends."

"Okay," Bryce says. "If someone notices, you can say that we're friends." Bryce pauses before continuing resignedly "But I bet no one will."

"What are we betting?" Jared asks, because that's too sad of a thought otherwise.

"Blowjobs?" Bryce offers, and Jared is suddenly startlingly aware of the way Bryce's thumb is stroking at the back of his hand.

"Giving or receiving?" Jared says, pretty sure they're getting this whole wager thing wrong if he can't tell the winning scenario from the losing scenario. He's not complaining either way. Everyone should have a boyfriend as into giving head as Bryce is.

"Winners choice," Bryce says.

"If you want to blow me, you don't need to lose a bet to do it," Jared says.

"I'm not going to lose," Bryce says, pushing Jared back on the couch. Jared reaches out to pull Bryce with him, so he lands sprawled on his back under Bryce.

"If you want to blow me, you don't need to win a bet to do it either," Jared says, grinning up at Bryce.

Bryce doesn't answer. He just kisses Jared instead.

Jared has a good feeling about this year.

[parrishsrubberplant]

Can you do either 31 or 43 for Bryce/Jared?

#43 it is. And it came out fluffy rather than angsty!

“Coming out with us?”  

Bryce, drying his hair, can’t see who’s asking him. It probably isn’t Luke–not his voice, and Luke doesn’t invite people anywhere. One of the Americans, then, probably.

“Nah,” Bryce says, once he has most of the water out of his hair. He swipes on deodorant and shrugs into his shirt.

“C’mon, man, you can drink here now!” The Americans are peculiarly concerned that he’s now 21 and legal to drink in their country. He’s not sure why. They were still feeding him drinks when he was 18 and ostensibly not legal.

“Meeting a friend,” Bryce says. He takes his cufflinks out of their box and puts them on.

“Seriously?” Josh asks, leaning into Bryce’s space. “Are you going on a date with that hot reporter?”

Bryce stiffens when he hears the word date, then relaxes at the end of the sentence. “Ugh. No.”

“She was all over you, man,” Josh says.

Bryce shrugs. “She was just doing her job.” He checks his phone. Jared his waiting outside by his car. “Got to go.”

He power walks out of the locker room, down the hallway to the exit, ignoring the questions his teammates call out behind. He’s not quite in enough of a rush to start running.

Jared’s car is grey and sensible–sensible, but expensive. Good. He spent his salary on something useful, for a change. Bryce taps on the passenger door. The lock clicks open and Bryce slides into the seat.

Jared’s hair is drying, a curl springing loose over his forehead. Bryce leans across the console and kisses him. Jared’s mouth opens against his. Then he pulls back. “Wait,” he says. “We’re in the parking lot.”

“You don’t have tinted windows?” Probably a good thing. If he did, Bryce would suggest they crawl into the backseat.

Jared starts the car. “No, a tint’s not legal here.”

They pull out of the parking lot.

“I missed you,” Bryce says.

“God,” Jared says. “Don’t start.” He sighs. “I missed you too. I missed you so much.”

Bryce laughs, and starts flipping through stations on the radio. “I’m here.”

“What time do you have to be back in the morning?” Jared asks, as smooth jazz fills the car.

“Eight.” Bryce tips his head back against the headrest, suddenly tired.

“Okay,” Jared says. The saxophone purrs in the background.

They stop to pick up food, and then drive to Jared’s apartment. Nothing to see here, Bryce thinks to the doorman, who nods to them. Just two bros, chilling two feet apart, because they’re not gay.

In the elevator, he bumps his shoulder against Jared’s. Jared pushes back.

Inside the apartment, they set their takeout down on the counter and drop their bags on the floor. Then they’re in each other’s arms, kissing frantically.

“It’s been a month,” Jared mutters against Bryce’s mouth.

“I know,” Bryce says, and bites Jared’s neck just below his ear.

Jared’s moan is interrupted by a rumble from his stomach. Jared detangles himself, laughing. “I’ve made huge mistake.”

Bryce sneaks one last kiss. “Food,” he says. “Food before sex.”

“Okay,” Jared drawls. He keeps smiling at Bryce, as he gets out plates and silverware and Gatorades for them.

Bryce hooks his foot around Jared’s as they eat. He can’t stand to not be touching him.

[duron1ar]

Working Theory

Marcus seems to be doing well since he got married, and Patrick's happy for him, okay? He's just really curious why Marcus never brings his wife around.

[youcouldmakealife]

Raf/Grace, Bryce/Jared, various; solemn occasion (pt 1)

For the prompt: A collision of worlds at Raf and Grace's wedding: Bryce and Jared, David and Jake, maybe throw in Robbie and Georgie too…

Pre-wedding for now. We all know this thing is going to end up being 15,000 parts long.

On the drive home after Chaz and Ash ask them to be in the wedding party, Bryce says, offhand, “You know Raf’s asking next.”

“Yeah,” Jared says through a yawn. It's still early, so he thinks Chaz and Ashley’s perpetual exhaustion might be contagious.

“No, I mean, he’s going to ask you to be his best man,” Bryce says.

Jared snorts and shuts his eyes.

“I mean it,” Bryce says.

“I’d be a terrible best man,” Jared says. “Raf’s too smart to do that.”

*

Jared clearly overestimated Raf’s intelligence.

“Um,” Jared says. "Wait, really?"

Raf blinks back at him.

“Bryce said you were going to ask me that,” Jared says.

“And you said ‘good because I’m definitely going to say yes’,” Raf says. “Right?”

“Is that what you want me to say?” Jared says.

Raf shrugs.

“Are there like, responsibilities involved?” Jared asks. “Or is this a symbolic thing?”

“A few,” Raf says. “The bachelor party, I think, though obviously it’s not going to be, you know. Traditional.”

“No strip club?” Jared asks.

Raf vehemently shakes his head, and Jared relaxes.

“There are a couple other events,” Raf says. “Rehearsal dinner and the like. I think most of the logistics typically end up being handled on the bride's side, but Grace and I want to make this equitable.”

“Of course,” Jared says. “Naturally.”

Raf narrows his eyes. “You tried to make me write your vows.”

“You’re never going to stop bringing that up, are you?” Jared says.

“Your vows,” Raf says. “The words you use to express your love for and devotion your husband. You asked me to write them for you. And then you asked Chaz.”

“Okay, but I wrote my own in the end,” Jared says. Well, made a bullet pointed list, and then ignored all of it to embarrass himself in front of everyone he loved, but semantics.

“Because Chaz and I said no,” Raf says.

“Which was bullshit,” Jared says, and Raf smirks.

“You really don’t need to do much,” Raf says. “I’d rather handle everything myself, frankly.”

“You’d end up taking over even if I tried to do it, wouldn’t you?” Jared says.

“Probably,” Raf admits.

“And you don’t want me to write your vows,” Jared checks. Vows are not his forte even when they're his own.

“I actually want Grace to marry me,” Raf says, and laughs when Jared kicks him under the table.

“When’s the wedding?” Jared asks.

“Next summer,” Raf says.

“Uh,” Jared says.

“Don’t worry,” Raf says. “We’re coordinating with Chaz and Ashley so nothing overlaps. And I already gave Arvan a heads up.”

He gives Jared a look then, like ‘remember the time you forgot to tell Arvan you needed time off to get married?’. One of the drawbacks of knowing him so well is that Jared knows his looks mean, and a good number of them are withering.

*

Jared didn’t know being a best man would involve so many logistics. Like, sure, he asked what was involved, and Raf said he’d handle most of it, and Jared’s pretty sure he is handling most of it, but there are so many moving parts it makes Jared a little dizzy. And this is only two months in. Jared dreads the remaining ten if this is any indication of what’s coming.

In the movies it’s mostly funny speeches and bachelor’s parties, and he was already dreading that enough — Jared is not good at speeches or events, and he continues to be grateful Raf has absolutely zero interest in going to a strip club because Jared is way too gay to deal with that particular form of locker room talk. But they’re basically planning an event for over a hundred people, and even from the sidelines Jared can tell it’s a lot more complicated than ‘book a nice vacation house, get expensive catering, don’t forget a cake’ like his own wedding was.

There’s the venue, which they had to book a whole year in advance. The catering, but on a whole other scale. The wedding party’s been picked, and they’ve all got to match for some reason. Flowers are a thing. A big thing, apparently. Thankfully Jared doesn’t have to hear that much about them firsthand, but he knows from calls, texts, and in person venting — many of them — that they are stressing Raf out. Even at the spitefullest peak of Jared’s wedding planning he didn’t give a shit about flowers.

And all that’s not even getting into the invitees, which is what Raf called to bitch about. Jared didn’t think Raf had this many friends. Like, Jared pegged them as having a pretty similar philosophy on friendship — quality over quantity all the way — and there were like, a dozen people at Jared’s wedding.

And to be fair, there would have been more if it wasn’t for the whole ‘secret relationship both of their teams wanted to keep hidden’ thing. His mom’s side of the family hasn’t stopped giving him shit about not knowing who Jared’s husband was before it was trending on twitter. At first he thinks they were genuinely upset, but now it’s become the new running joke, like Erin getting shit about her hair constantly changing colour, and his dad getting shit about being the lesser Don in the family, and his mom gets shit about absolutely everything.

The problem, apparently, is that Raf and Grace booked a venue for two hundred people, and that’s somehow not enough.

“You seriously know hundreds of people?” Jared asks. That sounds like a nightmare. "How?"

“I mean,” Raf says. “My family. Her family. The Caps, Grace’s university friends, some former Hurricanes—“

“You still keep in touch with your teammates from the Dub?” Jared asks. “Seriously? Why?”

“You’re currently babysitting for your old captain,” Raf says.

Jared looks over to where Maia’s sitting in Bryce’s lap, both riveted by whatever show Chaz told Bryce to put on if she got cranky. Apparently blue dogs are timeless entertainment.

“That’s different,” Jared says.

“Okay,” Raf says.

“You’re friends with him too,” Jared says.

“I am,” Raf says.

“We’re babysitting specifically because your fiancée and his fiancée are currently shopping for wedding shit together,” Jared says. Well, they said ‘brainstorming’, but considering they’re brainstorming at a mall, Jared stands by describing it as shopping.

Raf was supposed to be having a day to himself, which doesn’t seem to be going well, judging by the fact he’s talking to him right now. Jared has no idea what Chaz is doing, because all he did was mumble something about ‘freedom’ and ‘go crazy’ when he dropped Maia off, and Jared felt it might be best to just leave the man alone, especially after he practically hissed after Bryce offered him a drink.

“This is only supporting my point, you know that, right?” Raf says.

Jared is unfortunately aware of that.

“Do you think it’d offend people if I kept the hockey players separate from everyone else?” Raf asks. “I know it’s not time for the seating plan yet, but —“

“I think it’d offend people if you didn’t,” Jared says. “Because hockey players are obnoxious.”

“Hey,” Raf says, then, “Good point.”

“Put them all in the corner,” Jared says.

He swears he can hear Raf taking notes.

Bryce raises his eyebrows, and Jared raises them back, then has to bite down a laugh when Bryce raises one of Maia’s pudgy little hands in a wave.

“Okay,” Raf says. “Next on the docket.”

“Is there a docket?” Jared asks. "Do you have a list in front of you? There better not be a list.”

It’s impressive that silence can sound so guilty.

Jared groans and wanders over to the couch, letting Bryce tuck him under one arm. “Okay,” he says. “For the record, I’m babysitting now, so you’re just going to hear ‘yeah’ and ‘uh huh’ to everything you say.”

There’s another silence, this time considering.

“Okay,” Raf says, and Jared ‘uh huh’s through far too much detail about ideal seating arrangements until Ash and Grace arrive to rescue them.

[calikat]

This is a Christmas gift for the @ycmalholidayexchange for @photiczone . Merry Christmas from Bryce and Jared, our two idiots in love ❤️🥰❤️!!

I thought it would be fun to go back to the beginning. Bad boys in cars! Confusion, awkwardness and blushing! Such glorious teenage drama!!

[msshan]

Me when Bode stuck his middle finger up and said aloha

[pensfan4lfe2]

[hurricanes-1386]

Pittsburgh Penguins 2021 Roster and Taxi Squad

Forwards

Teddy Blueger

Sidney Crosby

Jake Guentzel

Mark Jankowski

Sam Lafferty

Evgeni Malkin

Jared McCann

Evan Rodriguez

Bryan Rust

Colton Sceviour

Brandon Tanev

Jason Zucker

 Defensemen

Cody Ceci

Brian Dumoulin

Kris Letang

John Marino

Mike Matheson

Marcus Petterson

Juuso Riikola

Chad Ruhwedel

 Goaltenders

Casey DeSmith

Tristan Jarry

 Taxi Squad

Anthony Angello

Frederick Gaudreau

Drew O’Connor

Pierre-Olivier Joseph

Alex D’Orio

Maxime Legace

[milliondollarbaby87]

Bill & Ted Face the Music (2020) Review

Bill & Ted Face the Music (2020) Review

Bill and Ted are now middle aged dads in California and they are still attempting to come up with the hit song in order to fulfil their destiny. With the help of their daughters Thea and Billie they might eventually achieve everything they had always dreamed. ⭐️⭐️⭐️ Continue reading