Teen half-brothers Kain and Scott Banks, who live in a small New York fictional town called Dalton. They battle each other on the hockey rink while navigating through high school romance and drama.
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~CONTINUATION~
"What do you mean?" Mom asks.
"Does me joining the team remind you of him? I know we don't talk about this often or ever because I know it hurts you to go down that road and think about him but I'm not him, Mom. It sucks that he abandoned you all those years ago when you needed him. I'm sorry for that but I think we've done pretty good without him." I say with a hopeful smile.
Mom finally turns around but her eyes are closed, she leans on the counter in front of me. She covers her face in her hands, she takes a deep breath and gently drops her hands on the countertop.
She slowly opens her eyes and looks up at me "I want you to be on this team. It's just going to be hard for me to get used too. That arena knows to much. And I know you're not him. You're nothing like him. And yeah, I think we've done a pretty good job without him. I know that I've done an amazing job raising you without him."
Mom grabs my hand and rubs her thumb in small circles on the back. She stares at me and her brows pull together. She power walks over to me, I swing the bar stool to the right as she walks up to me. She stands in front of me, grabs my face under my chin and turns my head to the right.
"What the hell happened to your face?!"
It's still a little sore. I wince from the pain. I somehow totally forgot about my face. I have no idea what to say, do I tell the truth or do I make up a lie? Mom let's go of my face, takes a step back and stands in front of me with her hands on her hips.
I look at the floor then back up to her. "I- I was playing basketball and I sh- shot at the net, the ball came back and hit me."
She's still standing with her hands on her hips. She has an angry expression on her face. Clearly she isn't believing me.
I guess I should tell her the truth. Nothing good ever comes with me lying to her. "I fought with Kain..." I say hesitantly.
Mom scoffs, turns around, walks back around the counter, opens the freezer, grabs an ice pack and walks back over to me. She hands me the ice pack, I put the ice pack on my lip and she folds her arms across her chest. "You fought with Kain? Why, Scott?!"
"He said something to Ayla and it made her upset! I promise I just wanted to talk to him. I never thought it'd break out in a fight. I'm sorry, Mom."
Mom taps her left index finger on her right elbow and puts her weight on her right leg.
After a few seconds of her staring me down with a mad expression, her features lighten up a bit. "You're a good friend, you know that, son. I love how protective you are of your friends and make sure that they're okay but sometimes you have to let them fight their own battles."
I pull the ice pack away from my lip and set it down on the countertop. "Mom, it's Ayla, we're talking about. I won't let anything happen to her. Especially if Kain is involved."
