Fire & Ice

fifteen

The morning after we came out to our friends as a couple and woke up in each other's arms was something I don't think I'll ever forget. As the events of the night before really started to catch up to me it made me nervous to face Cassie. I did just put her bother up against a wall and threaten him. All the negative thoughts I had went right out the window when Cassie woke up and kissed me good morning. She put my worries to bed right away as she spoke to me about what happened with Chad, how I was in the right and he was in the wrong. He should have never grabbed me like that.

            One development between us is that every night since that one we have been sharing a bed. Whether it is mine of hers, we fall asleep next to each other every night. For myself, I've found that it has been easier for me to fall asleep and stay asleep now having Cassie next to me. Having that person to cuddle with at the end of long days really helped settle any left-over stress from the day. I have definitely noticed a difference in our dynamic right away. We kind of became a unit from then on. Everything we did, we mainly did it together. It was like one of the last real barriers between us cracked open and there's no hiding. The only time we were really separated was when we had class or I had hockey.

            I was happy that I had a pair of away games that weekend against a tough team who liked throwing their weight around. Two could play at that game. As a team, it was a hard fought two wins with a lot of penalty minutes for both teams and a lot of bruises that made the trip home very uncomfortable. When I got home Sunday night, Cassie was waiting for me with a warm bath to soak in and another box of ice hot patches. Needless to say I felt very grateful to have her.

            With the change in the calendar, October brought in more cool air and I can already tell I'm going to need to get a better coat to handle the real cold winter months that I know are coming. My schedule has also really helped me keep everything together. Without it, I know I would be falling behind in school work. The one thing I've missed is getting to see Travis all the time. With our seasons in full swing and practicing at different times it's hard to actually hang out with him.

            We do have a break in games though at the end of the month, the weekend before Halloween. The team we were supposed to play that weekend had to cancel their season due to lack of players. So for us, Coach Decker gave us the weekend off completely to relax and rest. Cassie actually asked me to come home with her that weekend to go to the Octoberfest her town puts on every year and I said yes.

            At first I wasn't sure if it would be a good idea to go home with her because of everything that happened with Chad but she made it very clear that he won't be a problem and shouldn't even be home for the weekend. Since the altercation with him neither of us had tried to talk to the other. We have just kind of stayed clear of the other. With some very expressive puppy dog eyes I agreed to going with her.

            That's where we are right now. Cassie is driving us to her home for the weekend. It's still kind of early Friday morning, we left right after breakfast to make it back to her house with the whole day to do things. From what I remember her telling me, Cassie had a doctor's appointment at 1pm but then we had the rest of the day to explore. Well it was going to be more like her showing me around her home town.

            After the fire when the decision was made to move, they still wanted to stay in the same town. Chad was still in school and they thought that Cassie would be able to return when she recovered enough. So her parents sold their house and bought a new place on the other side of town.

            The drive south took about an hour as we hit some traffic. When we pulled into the driveway of Cassies house it looked pretty nice. The house itself was American Colonial in style and it looked like it sat on a good sized property. I grabbed my duffle bag from the back seat of the Jeep as Cassie took her cane and hopped out. We meet in front of the car and she took my hand in hers and pulled me towards the house.