Frozen in Ice

Chapter 37

Luke's POV

I did text everyone back the next morning as I curled up in bed. I didn't have anywhere to be until the Peewee game later in the morning so I hadn't got out of bed yet. Brynn called me and I talked to her for a while and it was relaxing to talk to her.

I didn't want to but I eventually had to climb out of bed. It took me a couple of minutes because I had buried myself under a pile of warm blankets but I had to be there for the Peewee game. I really needed have to be there but I wanted to be there.

I slowly moved through everything that I had to do before I left the apartment and headed down to the rink. About half the kids were already there and on the ice so I joined David who was standing behind the benches.

"How are you?" I asked.

"Ok, I've had an alright week. What about you?" he responded.

"It was pretty average but doing this is fun," I said.

He nodded and we both turned our attention to the kids on the ice in front of us. I pulled my own skates on and tried to organise them a bit before the game started but it wasn't really worth it. The kids were too busy doing their own thing to listen to me.

I climbed over the bench as the game was about to start. I pulled my skates off as the first lot of kids started playing on the ice. I loved watching the kids play because they loved it so much and it was helped by the fact that the team won.

David had a couple of things to say to them before they got dismissed and were able to leave. Thomas came over to me afterwards and dragged me over to Brynn.

"Hey," I said to her.

She didn't say anything to me at first and just wrapped me in a tight hug. We stood like that for a minute as I relaxed into her arms.

"Honestly, how are you?" she asked.

"I don't really know," I admitted.

She nodded and I pulled myself out of her arms. She offered me a smile and Thomas turned to face me.

"Do you want to come home with us?" he asked.

I glanced over at Brynn and she nodded.

"Sure, you better grab your stuff then," I told Thomas.

He quickly nodded and rushed over to grab it from wherever it had been left.

"Are you sure that it is alright?" I asked.

"Luke, of course it is alright. I love having you around," she assured me.

I nodded and wrapped my arm around her as Thomas joined us again and we headed out together. I started talking to Thomas about the game and it made him smile. I listened to him talk about hockey the car ride and I could see how excited he was about the game.

We all headed in together and Thomas disappeared into his room leaving me alone with Brynn. I followed her into her room. We both took seats on the bed and she turned to face me.

"What are you thinking?" she asked.

"I don't know anymore. I don't know what to think about Mom anymore," I admitted quietly.

She nodded and pulled me close. I rested my head on her shoulder and we sat there for a while.

"I miss the school hockey team," I admitted quietly.

"How come?" she asked.

"I miss playing more and training more. I don't know if I could go back though."

"Would you go back?"

"I don't know. It is hard to listen to them talk about me like that."

"Yeah, I don't know enough about hockey to give you a real opinion."

"I think that I will go and talk to Coach and try and see what can happen. I hope that since the team has lost a couple of games he might appreciate me a bit more," I said softly.

She nodded and we both turned to the opening the door. Thomas stood in the doorway and looked a little shy, like he wasn't sure whether he was able to come in.

"You can come in," Brynn assured her brother.

"It's close to lunch and I was wondering if you could help me make something," he said politely.

We both nodded and got off the bed and followed Thomas back into the kitchen. I took a seat as I watched the two siblings interact. In the time that I have known them they seemed to have gotten closer. Brynn started to cook pasta and told Thomas to come over and talk to me instead of helping.

"How are you finding hockey?" I asked.

"I love it. I want to be a hockey player someday," he told me confidently.

"That's awesome," I told him.

"Yeah, you could be a hockey player too."

"Really?"

"Yeah, you are really good and dedicated," he said.

I didn't know what to say to that. Thomas started talking about something that happened in the game today. I was thinking about what Thomas had said. Even coming from an 11 year old to hear someone say that they think that you can make the NHL, it's pretty cool.

I think that that made my decision about the school team. Thomas looked up at me and I had to prove that I can do it. That shitty teammates don't really matter. I pulled myself out of my thoughts just as Brynn placed a bowl of pasta in front of me. I didn't realise that I had tuned out for that long.

"You alright? You look out of it," she said.

"Sorry, I was just thinking," I responded.

"Do you want to talk about it?" she asked.

"No, I think that I know what I want to do."

She nodded and we both turned to listen to Thomas talk. I don't know what I was going to do about Mom but at least I had made a decision about hockey.

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The Wise One