Off the Ice | ONGOING

13.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

ELIAS REED

It's been almost a month since I've met up with Rowan.

Between our two schedules and hockey slapped on top of that, we've found no time to sit down and work through our project together. We've been working on our parts of it separately, but I'm officially working off of a thin string on what to write about.

Now that it's October, we've both agreed to start the actual paper part of it together. I have a hockey game tonight against UMass at home and Rowan is working late, so I'm meeting her at the library after I'm done.

It's honestly come in handy with her working there, as she has free liberty to close whenever she pleases.

My phone rings on my nightstand, and I finish putting my suit jacket over my black dress shirt. The only thing I dread about games is wearing the suit before and after.

"Hello?" I answer, not bothering to look at the caller ID.

My moms voice filtrates through the phone, and a sense of easiness rolls through me. "Hi," her warm voice mutters. "How are you, Elias? You haven't called recently. I wanted to make sure you were okay."

A pang of guilt hits me, and I run my hand through my freshly washed hair. "I'm sorry. School and hockey have just been getting to me lately." I sigh, not sure what else to say.

"You don't need to apologize." She explains. "Just call, okay? Your father and I worry about you."

I smile a little bit at that. "I'm okay, I promise. You know I'm coming over for Thanksgiving, right?" I remind her.

"If you weren't I think your siblings would have dragged you home themselves." She jokes. "Are you bringing anyone with you?"

I roll my eyes, but my smile still stays glued to my face. "You ask me this every year."

"And every year I'm still disappointed when you walk through that door alone." My mom scolds me.

"I have a game." I laugh as I change the subject. "I have to go, but I promise to call more."

"You better." She grumbles. "Good luck on your game, beat their asses. I love you."

"Love you too, Mom." I reciprocate before hanging up.

I'm distracted with scrolling aimlessly on my phone until Aidan barges into my room, ready to go in a suit of his own.

"Are you done playing mommy's boy and ready to go?" He asks while smirking from the doorway.

I grab the nearest item from my bedside table and throw it at him. It hits him in the eye and he stumbles back a few steps, cursing at me.

"Yeah, I'm ready to go." I remarked.

***

My breath is heavy, my skin is gleamed in sweat, and I'm two seconds away from punching the nearest bastard in their goddamn face.

We're playing horribly. The score is currently 2-2 and we're in overtime. I'm tired, my muscles are sore, yet I'm still pushing myself past what I thought I was capable of.

The puck drops in the center of the rink and Aidan charges for it, me following after him on his right. Other players on our team surround him, making the play Coach just angrily went over in our one timeout.

Players from UMass' hockey team try to corner Aidan, but he's on fire currently, dodging every attempted block.

A player unexpectedly runs into him, and he loses sight of the puck. I immediately take over, trying to run it through the rest of the distance as I call out for my teammates, who are all being cornered on their own.