Frozen in Ice

Chapter 11

Luke's POV

I woke the next morning and felt better than the day before. I was glad that I didn't go out with the team because I would have felt tired again. I had a text from Jamie asking if I was feeling better and it made me feel good. I had never had a team that cared for me like this rec team did.

I'm better, I just needed a good night of sleep. Thanks for looking out for me. I've never had a captain, or team, like you guys.

I sent it without thinking about it too much. I slowly climbed out of bed and found that I had a new bruise on ribs from a check last night. I changed and headed into the kitchen. It was empty still and I crept into Mom's bedroom. It was also empty and I groaned.

I literally hadn't seen Mom in weeks because we were both so busy. I carefully moved about the kitchen, making myself breakfast. I was so stuck in my own thoughts that I almost didn't notice my next text from Jamie.

You are a good player and we like you. Stop thinking of yourself as a burden

I froze for a second because Jamie had read me well. I sent a reply and pocketed my phone again. I left not long later and made sure to lock up after me. I headed to maths and had forgotten about my situation with Brynn.

I took my seat and turned away from her so that we didn't have to talk. I wasn't as tired as yesterday so I continued working on what we were doing last lesson. It meant that I didn't have time to think about Brynn.

Mr King came in right before the lesson started and didn't waste any time mucking around. I was glad because it gave me a distraction. Once in a while I would see Brynn moving out of the corner of my eyes but I never looked at her.

Class didn't seem to take too long and soon enough I was packing. Brynn turned to talk to me and I silenced her.

"I don't care what you want to say to me. I'm sick of you thinking that you know me so just stop," I snapped.

She opened and closed her mouth as I finished packing up. Wisely, she didn't say anything and I left the classroom. I officially decided that Brynn Washington is not worth it. I was bored during most of my classes throughout the day.

We had training after school again and Mark seemed to be training better than he was the other day and it meant that Coach wasn't yelling at us as much. Coach was mucking around with lines again and for a couple of minutes I was playing on Mark's line on his wing.

I wasn't sure it was going to work because Mark didn't like working with me. I was fine with playing on the wing but Mark didn't like this. He would pass to me but it wasn't clean. It wasn't my favourite line and for once I was happy to move back down to the second line.

Coach continued to muck around with lines but I mostly stuck with playing centre with different people on my wings. It was different playing with different people but I had only been playing with this team for a few weeks so I didn't really mind.

We had a game tomorrow and I could see why Coach was mucking around with the lines because our last game wasn't the cleanest. Coach was hoping that he could find a couple of different combinations that might work better.

I had a shift at the restaurant which meant I didn't have a huge amount of time after training. I headed into the locker room with everyone else for a change and it felt different. I liked to spend more time on the ice when it was quiet.

I liked the sound of skates on the ice and the sound of the puck as it moved and it was harder to hear those things when there were more people on the ice. I tuned out of all the conversation as I changed.

I said goodbye to Justin and headed out. I went through all the things that I had to in autopilot. Without realising it I was at the restaurant getting ready for my shift. Lisa and Olivia were working as well and it was starting to get busy.

I tucked my notebook into my apron and headed over to my first table. It was a family and I made sure to smile as I took their orders. I liked groups like this that are simple and don't ask six zillion questions about each option and then order something else.

A couple of hours into my shift I noticed that Olivia looked like she was being harassed by a large group of guys.

"Do you want me to do that table?" I asked when we were both back at the counter.

"Do you mind?" she asked.

"Of course not, they are going to give me less shit to me than you."

I might be 16 but I'm six foot two and a lot of it is muscle from years of working out for hockey. I moved away from my usual tables to the table that had about fifteen guys sitting at it.

"Already, guys are you ready to order?" I asked.

"What happened to our other waitress?" one of them asked.

"She was hot," another added.

"She has other tables to wait on so I'm going to be taking this table now. Now, what would you like to order?"

When you take over someone else's table because they are feeling harassed you don't tell them. Just feed them some bullshit and move on. They didn't say anything else to me as I took their orders and I was able to move on.

I didn't have any problems with them until we were shutting up and they were all slightly drunk and I was asking them to leave. One of them thought that they had a chance with Olivia and wanted to get her number.

"I'm sorry but I'm going to have to ask you to leave," I said.

They all started grumbling and I became tense when I heard someone saying that they were going to ask Olivia for her number.

"I'm sorry but I'm not going to let you do that," I said.

He tried to step past me and I placed a hand on his chest. He pushed a little bit harder and I still wouldn't let him past me.

"I'm sorry but I'm going to have to ask you to leave," I repeated.

His friends tried to call him back but he still wanted to talk to Olivia. I stood up as tall as I could and made sure that I was up in his face. Lilly had noticed that there was a confrontation happening in the middle of the restaurant.

"What is happening here?" she asked.

"I was just trying to talk to one of your lovely waitresses but this guy is stopping me," the guy lied.

Olivia stepped up and quickly explained what was really happening. Lilly was really good about it and told him to fuck off in the nicest possible way. His friends pulled him out of the place and I could breathe again.

"Thanks for that," Olivia said.

"You handled that really well," Lilly added.

"I'm used to dealing with idiots like that. It's fine," I said.

I felt more relaxed as we finished to close up and I headed out at the same time as the two girls.

"Honestly, I'm really thankful that you took that table," Olivia said again.

I just shrugged and headed out.

"No one deserves to get talked to like that."

"Thanks."

I said goodbye to them and headed home. I didn't mind working as a waiter but you do have to deal with some assholes and you quickly learn how to deal with it.

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The Wise One