#kentbittyjack

it goes like this: 

kent comes out first, entirely by accident. he’s been seeing someone, a guy he met at the library of all places, when his laptop was broken and he wanted to figure out what kind of dog he could get while living in his apartment. the guy, ryan, is tall and cute and most importantly, doesn’t know or care enough about hockey to be impressed with kent. kent and ryan are being that obnoxious same-side-of-the-booth couple at a diner in san diego–which, by the way, doesn’t even have a hockey team–when they’re photographed and the pictures end up on hockey gossip sites before getting picked up by the big gossip sites. no one really cares about hockey but the first out player in a national league? that’s a big deal. 

!!!!!!!!!

i think this could work in like, maybe one or two really specific ways because what makes bitty so so good for jack is that one of bitty’s essential character traits is caretaker. like he takes care of everyone around him, if occasionally not himself. bitty is incredibly selfless, unfailingly polite, and infinitely kind

… which could really irritate someone who’s just had an emotional breakdown …

so yeah if bitty and jack were Kids In Love and Hockey together and dating in secret, and the timeline goes the way it does with jack overdosing and bitty going first in the draft. i can 100% see how bitty’s Southern Hospitality could be really grating? and if bitty’s far away in las vegas or whatever, living it up, playing hockey, doing everything jack had ever wanted to do, i can 100000% see how jack ‘i am bad at feelings and generally most things that aren’t hockey’ zimmermann would get bitter and resentful towards bitty.

kent, on the other hand… kent’s a dick. he wears that asshole persona like a protective casing. a queer kid from new york state? maybe he grew up in a not-so-liberal neighborhood and he had to become a scrappy, sarcastic douchebag because he’s small and blonde and he likes boys and cats and figure skating (we’re really going for switching almost everything i guess???) like. of course he’s a jerk. of course he doesn’t let himself get impressed with jack ‘eyes too blue butt too big’ zimmermann. of course he keeps jack on his toes, never lets jack get away with anything, which is super refreshing to jack i BET. but also? kent gets it? just like. understands jack in a fundamental way and no one ever really did that before?

so of course they hit it off and get closer every day and fall in love, of course they do.