#bcline

Will is tired. He got about a month of rest and relaxation at home in Lexington before moving into his dorm at BC. Will knows Boston like the back of his hand - his older sister is a junior at BC and his family has taken numerous trips to the city. 

His roommate, Gabe, does not share the same experience.

Sundays are the only day they get off of practice. The days alternate between on-ice practice and time in the weight room, all in preparation for the season ahead of them. So instead of spending the morning in bed recovering like most of the team, Will Smith and Ryan Leonard are being dragged down the streets of downtown Boston by their dear friend and teammate Gabe at 10 in the morning

“Gabe, dude, I feel like we could have at least waited until the afternoon to do this. All of the tourist traps will still be here.” Ryan whines.

“Tourist traps have weird hours. I looked it up - late morning to early afternoon is most common for places to be open. Stop complaining, you’ll survive.” 

The bickering continues as they walk down the block, taking the next right turn.

“Hey here’s a coffee shop - maybe if we run in, you two will stop bitching about being tired.”

Jamie’s Corner the letters on the brick building read. The name sounds familiar to Will, he’s pretty sure that his sister spends most of her time here during the school year. It’s one of the most popular off-campus study spots according to her. The brick building is large, one half of the building a cafe and the other half a decently sized bookstore. When the boys walk in, they’re met with the smell of coffee and burnt pastries.

At the counter, there are two baristas bickering over a scorched bagel.

“Leigh, you said you were going to take it out of the oven! This is YOUR fault, dude.” The curly haired barista on the left - Blake - her nametag reads.

“Okay well maybe if you didn’t distract me then it wouldn’t have happened? Go grab a new bagel.”

Leigh’s demand just fuels the argument between the two, and they are completely oblivious to the three boys watching them from the other side of the register.

Ryan awkwardly clears his throat, snapping the girls out of their argument. With how quickly the girls turned, it’s a miracle neither of them got whiplash.

Leigh is the first one to break the silence. “Sorry! What can I get you guys?” She asks with her best customer service voice.

The boys order one after another. Gabe gets a vanilla latte, Ryan gets some frappuccino covered in caramel (it’s bound to give him a stomach ache later) and Will plays it safe with an iced americano.

The girls - still energetic from the bagel argument - decide to strike up conversation. The coffee shop is relatively quiet on Sundays, so they take turns punching in orders and making drinks while the boys sit at the coffee bar. 

Blake is the first to notice the Boston College Men’s Hockey on Will’s hoodie.

“Hockey player?” She asks, raising an eyebrow

“Yeah, first year playing for BC.”

“Our roommate is one of the hockey cheerleaders! She works over in the bookstore” Leigh chimes

Ryan’s interest in the conversation suddenly increases. “A cheerleader, huh?” he asks as his mouth slowly breaks into a grin

“One that would never let you hit” Leigh snorts. “Are you the manwhore of the group?” Ryan’s face suddenly drops and his face turns a deep shade of red.

Hearing all the commotion from the coffee shop breaks Y/N’s focus, which was previously on the store’s weekly inventory before the restock on Monday morning. “Why do you guys always have fun conversations when I’m busy? You know I have the worst FOMO in the world.” She interjects as she walks behind the bar.

Suddenly the conversation doesn’t interest Will anymore. His gaze is fully locked onto the girl walking over, and he’s taking in everything he can about her. Braids resting over her shoulders and hot pink glasses frames resting on her nose.

“Who orders americanos anymore?” Her question snaps Will back into reality. She looks genuinely concerned for him, eyebrows furrowed at the slightly melted drink on the counter.

“I do?” Is all he can manage to respond with.

“That’s incredibly depressing.”

Will is appalled. It’s not common for a girl to poke fun at him like this at all. Since he hit puberty most girls bat their eyelashes and giggle at him no matter what he says. His jokes don’t even have to be funny for it to happen, and he can feel the heat of embarrassment rising up his neck at the sudden 180. Not knowing what else to do, he awkwardly starts readjusting his hoodie, drawing Y/N’s attention to it. He looks back up at her, scanning her face for any emotion - finding one of slight amusement

“Hockey boy” She states.

“Boys, plural. We all play for BC.” He responds, gesturing to his friends. 

“Play, or upcoming freshmen? Because I’ve never seen you three before and I know the hockey team pretty well.”

Somehow, the more she talks the more he becomes oblivious to his surroundings. The girl in front of him is beautiful, and the first thing she did was make fun of his choice of drink. The americano isn’t even that good, he just ordered it because he thinks most coffee shops make their drinks too sweet.

“Oh yeah? How well?” Ryan leans forward, a shit eating grin on his face. Y/N’s head snaps over to him, and Will hits him on the arm.

“Well enough to where I can make one phone call to Powell and tell him his rising freshman is making bigoted comments towards one of the hockey cheerleaders. He’ll have you running suicides around Conte Forum until you’re puking up everything you’ve eaten in the past week. Want to know more?” Y/N responds, outwardly calm and collected.

Inside, she is the exact opposite. Dealing with boys like Ryan Leonard should be put on her resume at this point.

Before Ryan can respond, Will interjects “I’m sorry he’s being an ass, we should probably get going.” He says apologetically, shoving Ryan out of the barstool.

Gabe throws a 20 into the tip jar before they all scramble out.

Y/N sighs, shaking her head as she walks back over to the bookstore. Looking out of the tall windows that face the street, she sees Will berating Ryan as they walk away. It almost brings a smile to her face. Almost.

Later that night, Will can’t sleep. The whole interaction earlier left a sour taste in his mouth. Ryan is one of his closest friends, but Will’s mom taught him better. You don’t just say something like that to a girl, and the fact that she probably faces comments like that on the daily makes Will queasy. He has to say something to her, even if she completely blows him off and tells him to die or something. As Will picks up his phone, he realizes one important detail.

They never got her name. The baristas were wearing nametags but she wasn’t. But if there’s anything his older sister Grace taught him, it was how to find someone you don’t know on Instagram. It’s all about the connection.

He first types in Blake’s name. The first user to pop up is a familiar face.

@/blakesworld

It’s a private account. This might be harder than he thought. One more shot. Will clicks on maybe 5 profiles with the name Leigh before his eyes light up. @/leighkeller. Public account.

Just as he expected, the page is filled with pictures of the three girls from Jamie’s, and the pictures go as far back as high school. He checks the tags from the high school graduation post, and her user pops up.

@/ynln.

Will hits the follow button before he can process it. Once he pulls up her page, he starts scrolling through the posts from her freshman year at BC. Over 50 posts on Y/N’s page, most of them with her friends and some of the cheer team, but there’s one video that catches his attention. A group of people around a bonfire singing, Y/N playing the guitar. As the camera pans around, he notices a familiar blonde sitting next to Y/N. Will’s eyes widen in horror as he realizes who it is.

It’s Grace. His older sister.

The shared looks between Grace and Y/N show that they’re not just acquaintances, and the realization hits Will. Ryan Leonard insulted one of Grace’s friends, and suddenly Will is angry again. He may not have known about their friendship but that doesn't matter to him.