My Love on the Ice

•I would say your gay•

We had just finished eating. Everyone was around the table talking, doing homework, or even messing around. I just sat there. Daisy was in my lap, she finally came back to school today. The side of my head rested in her chest as she played with my hair, talking with Kayce.

"No no no. The answer is 63.4 dumbass." Reece practically yells which makes me lift my head. I look and see that Dalton was doing homework and it seemed that Reece was yelling at him. "I told you like five times already and you still haven't gotten it right."

"I'm slow okay. My brain doesn't do the whole math thing." Dalton throws his pencil behind him and starts to pack his things out. He didn't want to deal with it anymore.

"If being your friend means there will be random flying projectiles at my face I may have to resign." A new voice joined them. I recognized this guy. He was the caption of the cheer team. He hands Dalton back the pencil from over his shoulder.

"Oh. Hey, sorry about that." Dalton drops his voice to the nicest tone I have ever heard. He's usually yelling at someone to shut up or talking loudly to project his voice across the whole rink.

"Don't worry about it." The guy laughs and then looks at the table. "These your hockey friends you tell me so much about?" He points at everyone as Dalton once overs everyone also, then nods.

"Yeah. They are on my team." He points at everyone and names them off. Even Daisy, which she smiles and waves innocently. Once Dalton finished, the cheer captain introduces himself as 'Jovi.'

"Now that I know everyone, why was your pencil flying backwards?" Jovi sits down on Daltons left side and straddling the bench.

"It's just homework. Simple Algebra and this guy can't do addition and subtraction!" Reece exclaims waving his hands dramatically toward the small packet in front of Dalton. The said guy was beating his pencil on the paper. He stared at it with one of the worst death stares he can throw at anything.

"Aw come on. Let's see." Jovi reaches forward and grabs Daltons hand that was covering his work and moving it to the side. He doesn't take his hand away but reads the problem, looking it over. "Mhm.. well this is what.." I zoned then not listening to them anymore.

I didn't need any talk about math when I'm not in math class. We have lunch for a reason. A break from all that fucking work. I look at Gabe now which was looking at Jovi and Dalton. I'm guessing because of how 'close' they seem even though this is the first time we are hearing of this guy. Its odd.

"I have to get to my class early today. I need to ask the Professor some questions." Daisy puts her hands on my shoulders and stands up getting off of me. Once she collects her stuff she kisses my cheek quickly and then heads off.

It was only a few minutes since she left that the bell rang and so everyone starts to getting up also. My eyes automatically navigate to Jovi and Dalton. Dalton was smiling widely as he put his stuff away. Jovi had a hand on his arm ranting about something and doing some dramatic hand motions as he was talking.

It kind of reminded me of a couple greatly. It was comforting.. the innocent touches that I guess had some other intentions about them. He isn't straight. He is getting touched by a boy. He's happy. My chest suddenly does a weird shuttered squeeze.

"There is something going on with those two." I hear Reece patter over to me and we both watch. I nod, I was about to respond before someone else came up behind me.

"Jesus Christ Dalton. If I didn't know you better I would say your gay." Nolan scoffs and walks away, his hands tucked in his pockets.

We all watch after him as he walks away. I shake my head and look back at Dalton and Jovi. Daltons face fell and he slowly pulled his arm from the guy hanging off of him. "Sorry." Dalton says slowly and grabs his bag and heads off.

Jovi widened his eyes looking after him. He pulls out his phone roughly then walks away. I hear him say, "Fucking homophobic bitch." as he walks to get to his class.

"Umm... I've got to go. See you later." I pat Reece on the back and we split off going in our respective paths.

Dalton trusts me enough to tell him he wasn't straight or at least hint at it. And according to his reaction after Nolan's little comment, it is exactly what I thought it was. I can't help but feel bad for the guy. I knew how it was when I realized I had a crush on Daisy back in middle school. I wanted to be with her so bad. I was able to. I can't imagine what it would be for Dalton. Not able to control who he likes and then getting insulted when he finally seems happy.

- - -

"Get your ass over here!!" I was running around our group of friends trying not to hit anyone with my backpack as I chase Reece around. He got a hold of my phone. Somehow..

"No can do! I want to see what you were looking at!" Reece dodges my hand as I grab for his backpack. He laughs and backs off running away. He looks back at me and smirks, waving my phone around.

"Fuck you." I say and come to stand behind Gabe who was talking to one of those two twins from a few days ago. I look behind me feeling some one approach. I was correct. Daisy comes over to us with a blonde girl right next to her.

Daisy kisses me check and then smiles standing back. Everyone that was here looked at the new girl. Over my shoulder I practically felt Gabe's attention turn toward this new girl.

"I just wanted to introduce you guys to Riley. She started yesterday and she was asking to see you guys." Daisy smiles tucking some hair behind her ear, motioning a hand toward Riley.

"Hi. I just wanted to talk to the captain about Harley. My brother." I widen my eyes at her saying this. I mean I guess I kind of see it now. Same eye shape and lip curl when they smile. I guess blonde hair also but Harleys is dyed rather then Riley's being natural.

"Oh?" Nolan steps forward, doing a not so discreet once over of Riley. "What's up?"

"Oh my mother just wanted to get the information to contact the coach and stuff in case Harley can't make it to practices.." She trails off, sounding very scripted. Riley reaches into the purple binder she was holding and pulls out a blank sheet of paper. "Write it on here." She hands it over.

Nolan looks at the paper then at her and nods. "Alrighty. I'll be right back." He grabs his backpack off the floor and walks away. Wow.. he didn't even argue with her.

Once he left to get those numbers, it was a bit awkward as we stood there waiting for him to come back. Dalton wasn't here right now. I'm guessing he was still mad about this morning. Dalton is always the one that makes conversation in awkward situations. We didn't have him right.. it was weird.

With the awkwardness still in the air I try initiative and start a conversation. "So.. Riley, why isn't Harley here today anyways?"

Riley shrugs. "It's not that big of a deal. He's just getting a check up. He wants some cochlear implants so he's finally saved up the money to get them. Now all he needs is to have it done." She sets her binder on the floor, grabbing the hair tie around her wrist and pulling her hair into a low ponytail.

"Oh. That's pretty cool." I knew what those were cause of my class. We didn't just learn the language we also learned about things to do with the deaf.

"What is this talk about Harley so much? I feel like I can never escape his name." Daisy comes over to me now, hooking her arm through mine. I sign internally. This is how she's always been. Extremely overly jealous with anyone I make eye contact with at all. It's annoying cause of how much she doesn't trust me. We are.. figuring it out..

"Well he's a little bit of an icon. He's awesome and has a disability." Reece finally comes back over. He didn't seem to have my phone in his hand, I search over his body with my eyes to try to find it.

"It's just a guy. He can't hear. He plays hockey. That's not that 'awesome.'" Daisy shrugs and plays with the end of my sweatshirt. I don't even respond to her anymore.

It was silent again and I begged and begged for someone to break the silence. It's Nolan who ends up doing just that. I never thought I would ever be thankful to see him. After Riley gets the paper She and Daisy leave for the school day and I also make my way home.