Ice Cold

18

Landon Reilly

We lost our first two games. They were both on home ice and I only got about ten minutes of ice time in each. Rojas and the coaches were certain that we were just still finding our rhythm as a team and they would keep messing with the lines until they found something that worked.

They only chose three freshman to go on the trip to the first two away games of the season, both against schools in Minnesota. One of the freshman defensemen, Rivera, would be playing and Cooper was a healthy scratch, there only if we needed him.

I was centering the third line. I had never played on the third line in my life. I tried not to let that bother me. It wasn't like I could take Rojas's spot on the first line.

On the bright side, they had me rooming with Rivera instead of Cooper. I didn't think either of us would have survived the trip if we were stuck in a room together.

We had just finished our Friday night game and the team was having dinner in the restaurant at our hotel. Despite losing the game, spirits were still high among the team. I sat at the end of the table with my line mates, looking down at my phone.

Stella had posted a bunch of things on her story from her night out with her friends. The first picture was a selfie of her and Jess, which reminded me of the guilt I felt from the last time Jess and I spoke. The next post was video of James dancing and holding a drink in each hand. There were a few more videos of James before I got to the last picture she posted.

The last picture was Wren sitting at a table with a water in front of him. There was a closed book on the table and he was looking down at his phone. She captioned it "lame ass."

My heart lurched looking at him. I pressed on the picture to keep it on my screen.

Something had changed between us last weekend, for me at least. Waking up with him, spending time with him, just talking. It was different. I felt comfortable with him, cared for. And instead of that repulsing me, it scared me.

Wren didn't care about anything, let alone me, yet he still had a way of making me feel like he did. And that was just stupid on my part, letting myself feel things for someone who I wasn't even sure had emotions. Someone who definitely didn't feel anything for me.

I was still staring at the picture when I got a text from Wren. It was like he could tell I was thinking about him. I had to hide my thoughts from him even when we were a thousand miles away from each other.

From: Wren
Glad you're not here this weekend.

I furrowed my brow, confused as to why he would send that to me. It was like he knew my thoughts about him were stupid and he wanted to remind me that he didn't care. Another text came in.

From: Wren
James got us kicked out because he kept climbing over the bar.

To: Wren
I'm glad i'm not there either then

From: Wren
Your game was on in the bar.

"Who are you texting that has you smiling at your phone?" Landry, one of my line mates, asked. "I don't think I've ever even seen you smile."

I looked up from my phone to see the rest of my line mates were looking at me. Luckily, they were the only ones and this conversation hadn't spread to the rest of the team.

"No one," I replied.

I hadn't even noticed that my lips had curled up into a smile after reading Wren's text. The thought of him watching my game both unnerved and excited me. It was a strange phenomena I felt with Wren, being both attracted to and repelled by him.