Chapter Text
Every time Hailey gets annoyed by how much she and Kim are paying in monthly rent for the apartment they’ve just signed the final paperwork on this morning she just thinks of her boyfriend.
Both because thinking of Jay always makes her feel better and because her boyfriend is currently trying to find an apartment in New York City.
Which is expensive as hell.
He’d still been looking at playing for the University of Chicago for at least one year before going pro but the Rangers are incredibly keen to get him signed and on the roster this year.
He doesn’t want to be away from his mom as she approaches the end of her chemo and starts talking very seriously with her doctors about scheduling surgery.
Trudy had landed the major blow when she’d pointed out, not unkindly, that signing a pro hockey contract – and the money that goes along with it – will help make sure that Bridget gets the best care possible.
That at the minimum, he’d be able to remove the stack of unpaid hospital bills from the kitchen counter and alleviate a lot of the stress on both of his parents’ shoulders that its causing.
And less stress can only have a positive outcome on her overall health.
Once she’d said that, it had only taken a few weeks to sign a pretty basic entry level contract and he’s started looking for somewhere to live.
Rookie Camp starts in early September so he doesn’t have a lot of time to settle on something.
But right now he’s lying on her bed at the Burgess’s, staring up at the ceiling while she packs up her things.
She doesn’t have a lot.
The same three bags of mostly clothes and toiletries that she’d taken from her parents house after her mom had kicked her out.
Another small bag of the few things she’s added in the last nine months since then.
There’s a few boxes down in the living room of basic household items that she and Kim have started accumulating to furnish their new apartment but those don’t require packing because nobody had ever bothered unpacking them.
They’d been purchased and then left sitting in the corner that had been designated for them.
They’ll get keys Monday morning and then spend the morning shifting their belongings.
Followed by a run to the local thrift store to see if they can’t find some cheap furniture to round things out.
Kim is going to move the bed out of her bedroom if she can’t find something but Hailey is kind of relying on the thrift store to have something.
While she’s sure Nicole would say yes if she asked to move the bed she’s been sleeping in since Thanksgiving to the new apartment, she just doesn’t feel comfortable asking.
“Does your new apartment have a strict no boys policy?” Jay asks playfully as she folds a shirt into the bag.
“What do you think?” She asks, throwing a sock at him.
“Is this the official doorknob sock?” He asks, tossing it back her way. “To warn Kim that ‘shenanigans’ are taking place.”
It won’t be that much of an issue.
Jay will be spending most of his time in New York once September hits which means their chances for ‘shenanigans’ will be virtually non-existent.
Hailey is more worried about being the one getting warned off.
Adam has a dorm at the university but he’ll also have a roommate.
“Sure is.” She tells her boyfriend with a smirk. “This is the official shenanigans sock.”
He rolls over, reaching toward her.
“Wanna use it right now?” He asks, raising an eyebrow.
“Kim is two doors away.” She reminds him. “Trying to pack her own things and she has a lot more than I do.”
Hailey had never been the kid who had a lot of decorations and things in her room.
Sure, there had been some personal things but she’d always known that after she turned eighteen she was leaving.
Not just getting her own place or going to a college dorm like most people do but walking away from her childhood home knowing that she was never coming back.
That anything that she left behind would be lost to her.
So her decorations had been minimal.
She didn’t wear a lot of jewelry and what she did, mostly sentimental pieces that her parents and later Kim and then Jay had bought her, had been carefully stored in a small jewelry box that could be easily packed up.
Photos had been similarly put into a photo album rather than being displayed in frames that would need to be packed up and cushioned to protect glass.
She’d kept her wardrobe mostly small and sensible; definitely not spending much if any of her limited income on clothes or shoes.
Bedding had been limited to a single set of sheets, a comforter, a single pillow and two soft throw blankets.
With the exception of one of the throws, it had all been left behind when she’d left.
Most of her toys and stuffed animals had long been either donated or packed up somewhere to potentially be given to grandchildren one day.
Of them, only a teddy bear and a stuffed monkey had been worth taking with her.
All in all, she’s fortunate enough to not have a lot to pack up.
“I’m almost done here.” She reminds him. “Maybe ten more minutes and then we can go do something.”
Maybe find somewhere to park once it gets a little darker.
Easier not to get caught that way.
He smiles softly at her.
“Maybe we can head over to the mall.” He suggests. “Take a ride on the ferris wheel.”
She smiles back.
They’ve returned to the ferris wheel a few times since they’d officially started dating, revisiting the place where she’d fallen for his smile.
It’s an important part of their story.
After the ice rink at her old high school (which they rarely revisit) and Adam’s house (which they spend significantly more time at) its one of the first places they’d spent time together.
Where they’d truly gotten to talk for the first time.
Where he’s asked her if they could be friends.
When she lets herself daydream about ways that he might propose to her one day, she often finds herself considering that ferris wheel as an option.
“That sounds really nice.” She tells him, leaning down to kiss him. “I love you.”
“I love you too.”