On The Ice

- Chapter 24 -

Xavier

Do you think that I'm a huge asshole? Because so do I.

Honestly I don't really know what I was expecting when I flew out here. I was more then prepared to talk to her quickly finish my game and then go back.

I like skating though, it's fun. Especially when I need to like today, fuck, it's been so stressful and I've literally just said I'll teach her to do warp arounds. Literally no one can do that, it's impossible.

"You said you'd teach me?"

"Here." I hand her my stick and honestly it does look a little weird since she's shorter then me. I don't really think she can use it properly either. "It's so tall, how the fuck do you use it?"

"I'm taller then you?"

"By like 5 inches or something." She says, folding her arms over her chest. She has a hint of glimmer in her eyes and it makes me realise just how much I've actually missed her. And my bed, I really want my bed too.

"That's a lot."

"Whatever helps you sleep at night, now can you help me?" She pats my shoulder and skates behind me, towards the net.

"Show me how you'd do it if the net was empty."

"The nets going to be empty the whole time, dumbass. I don't see any goalie." She says sarcastically. If only I had my gear from when I was a kid.

"Yeah well I was one for like a season so step aside." I skate over to her and take the stick from her, retrieving the puck from centre ice.

"You were a goalie?"

"Yeah."

"Shit, I'd love to see you in all the pads and shit." That's not happening, I'll tell you that much. I personally think being a net minder is the most boring position there is. And you get all the blame is goals go in, like ignore the shitty defence and blame it on the goalie. Sounds so fun.

"Yeah, not happening."

"You ruin all my fun." I hand her the stick back and she sets herself up behind the net. She has a good stance, which is obvious. She does manage to get it in, I've come to the conclusion that she can't get it in for one of two reasons.

One: the goalie is in the way, she probably can't find a spot that fast.

Two: she thinks too hard about it, then she either looses the puck or skates too far away from the net for it to be a wrap around.

I can't really tell though.

"Your have everything right, the technique and stuff. It's just your execution." I shrug, skating over to her.

"That's helpful, I need to know what I'm doing wrong. I'm getting in shit because of this."

"Is the goalie distracting?"

"I don't know? A little?" She says, moving the puck side to side with the stick. "Okay, I can work with that."

"Do you mind?" I was going to touch her back to push her towards the other side of the net, clearly she's more comfortable on that side. She looks at me with a really confused face, it's an easy question.

"Why would it be an issue?"

"Well I just figured-"

"Shut up, just do whatever you were going to do." She's a lot more animated now, not like she wasn't before. It's just like she has a lot more life in her now. Which is weird considering neither of us have got any sleep.

I move her to the other side of the net and stand in front of her, "it's all about finding a weak spot, they won't give up these type of goals easily."

She nods and I skate around her again, skating towards the net to mimic a goalie. "You're taking the piss, right? You'll play like a goalie and won't wear the pads for me?"

"Not happening." I say again, gesturing for her to hurry up and try score. She's taking her sweet time. "If you waited this long in a game the other team would've scored by now."

"Not helping, dumbass." She starts to move the puck again, quickly scanning for a space to put it in. Normally you'd hope that the goalie is distracted by traffic in front of the net. It's not likely to be the case though, normally finding a week spot throughout the game helps.

"If you can, look for weak spots throughout the game. Not just when you're about to score, you have a better chance."

"Or I could just get lucky."

"There is that." I shrug again and she starts her wrap around. She doesn't complete it but she's closer then she was before, from the attempts I've watched that was definitely the best one I've seen. Obviously since there's no defence that adds to it but it's just simply a better shot.

"Fuck."

"No, that's better." I tell her reassuringly, I can't quite tell if it helps though. "You sure? It didn't go in."

"That's better, trust me." I look over to the score boards and the time I have is nearly over. I don't want to go home, I just don't feel like it. "Wait here, I'm going to put the net back."

"Okay, I'll be here."

I lift up the net slightly to disconnect it from the ice. That's definitely not the right word but it's not my job normally.

I push it along the ice, making sure I don't actually have to push it all the way down. I really cannot be bothered to do that right now.

"You make that look easy, they are heavy." I swear she appeared from no where. She's gesturing to the net as she says it though. I guess she's not wrong but I'm not exactly pushing it all the way down. Just a distance at a time.

"I'm barely pushing it."

"Yeah okay." She rolls her eyes and skates around the rink, if she goes into the net I'll laugh at her. I guarantee that. It hurts like a bitch.

I make sure the net is off the ice and take one more lap. "Are we leaving?" She catches up to me and join me on my lap. "I guess so, I only had two hours."

"Come on." She grabs my wrist and drags me to centre ice. I raise my eyebrow at her as the does and she just shakes her head. "Look I want to apologise, the pictures looked really shitty and I get why you freaked out. But I want to know one thing, if anything like that was to happen again would you believe me or them."

I still hate questions, especially ones like this. When she'd ask my stuff about my family and stuff I'd get uncomfortable but this is worse, much worse.

"It depends on the evidence, I mean if they caught you making out with someone I guess it's pretty obvious."

"Well I wouldn't do that, but answer me honestly, who would you believe?" She asks again and it doesn't make it any better. I feel like my answer was right, or the right thing to saw anyways.

"You." I notice her relax at that, now she looks more comfortable and I definitely feel a lot more comfortable. If I have to answer anymore questions I'm going to fucking scream. I need to sleep.

"I love you, you know that right? Someone who loves you doesn't do that, you've been with really shitty people." She looks sympathetic, but I can't tell if it's genuine. I want to believe it is.

"I know, I love you too." She smiles at me softly and hugs me, it's feels natural. This is what I've needed.

Once she pulls away I hold onto her face and press my lips against hers. I think she's hesitant at first but she accepts it.

"I'm sorry for being an ass." I breathe out, laughing as I say it.

"You're forgiven." That's all I needed to hear.