Sunflower Love

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Theo

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"You really like her, huh?" Knox hits the back of my head as we begin to pull our gear on. I sighed as the noise within the locker room drowned out individual conversations. The other guys on the team were in the middle of doing their own pre-game rituals, too busy to notice Knox and I. If there is anything that most sports players can relate to, it's that they're all a little superstitious. 

Thomas always needs to listen to this song by the Rascal Flatts five times before we play, Knox finds himself needing to call his mom and always wears his lucky color, Lincoln has to check the weather and depending on what kind of weather we have he adjusts his sock color accordingly, and Parker eats a whole pack of peach rings.

Everyone is busy and fussing over things, but all I can do is stumble over the fact that I finally decided that I wanted Winnie to come to my games or at least know I play hockey. I had kind of danced over the information quite a bit and the guys had done a good job at catching that I hadn't been too crazy to tell her yet.

I had a bit of cold feet with women and having them know I play hockey professionally. Ever since my ex, Chrissy, I can't quite put 100% trust into relationships. She broke that part of me and while I knew Winnie wasn't Chrissy, there was still that hesitation. I didn't know her.

But Winnie was surprising me. I wanted to do nothing more than to walk right back into her apartment that night and kiss her. She would've blushed like crazy and told me that maybe we shouldn't have kissed, but I had a feeling she wanted me at least a little bit like how I wanted her. 

"There's just something about her." I mumble, pulling my lucky socks on. I've had these things since I was a sophomore in college and now they are barely holding on, but they've still got some magic in them seeing as I've scored at least once a game for the past who knows how many games. "She's enticing. The first girl that I want to get to know and actually retain the information since Chrissy." Knox chuckles as he nudges my shoulder.

We had twenty minutes until game time, so he was probably gonna call his mom soon. But he seemed like something was bugging him. He never waited this long to call her.

"You okay?" I ask as I push Winnie to the side for a moment in order to focus on Knox. "How's your mom? She still comes down next weekend for the wedding, right? Bringing those infamous donu-" The smile I had on falls as I bring myself to face him. Knox's shoulders are slumped as he leans his head against the locker. I can't see his expression, but his mouth is pulled into a straight line and there's a vein in his neck popping out from how hard his jaw is clenched.

"Knox..." I begin, but I'm cut off by Coach shouting that we had fifteen minutes left.

Knox pulls himself to sit upright, rolling his shoulders for a couple of seconds. "I should call her, huh?" He says as he makes his way out of the locker room.

As I watch him, I can't help but feel like maybe I've been a bad friend. How could I not notice that something was off with him until now? Have I been too focused on outside things? One of those being a pretty brunette.

"Sierra told me that his mom fell last week and hurt her knee apparently." Lincoln says as he places himself where Knox was just sitting. Lincoln and Knox went to college together, while Knox has been playing for the South Haven Stingrays since he left college, Lincoln came here off a trade from another team a year after. Lincoln knew Knox's family well and was somewhat acquainted with Sierra, Knox's sister, but I didn't realize it was close to the point that they discussed things like this.

"Shit." I heaved a sigh as I let the news run through me for a moment.

Lincoln nods slowly, "Yeah, his mom didn't mention it to Knox though. Is trying to keep it on the down low because she doesn't want him to worry with it cause of the season starting and stuff. Sierra let it slip just as we got here...I've known for a little, but had to act surprised. I didn't want Knox to think everyone was holding out on him. But he's a bit upset with his sister..." Lincoln shifts uncomfortably, "and his mom."

I winced as I realized how much Knox has been holding in recently. While I'm sitting here fumbling over a girl, he's been dealing with this. He's even trying to help me out with Winnie and I didn't even notice that he was having something going on in his personal life. I need to put some more effort into helping Knox with this stuff, Winnie can wait.

The door to the locker room slammed open and the silence that fell over those remaining was loud. A ringing began in my ears at how silent it had gotten, everyone forgetting their pregame rituals as Knox storms through the door. We watched as Knox threw his phone against the wall, the pieces flying everywhere. Lincoln and I instantly stand, but a deathly cold glare from Knox has us frozen in our spots.

We knew not to mess with Knox when he was pissed. This only happened on the ice and an opponent was usually the cause of it. Everyone waited in anticipation as he threw on the remainder of his equipment before making his way to the ice.

No one spoke as we finished getting ready. No one spoke as someone came in to clean up the mess. No one uttered a single word until we hit the ice. And even then, we barely muttered anything unless it was about the game.

Knox was one who brought the focus of our team, so to say tonight didn't go well was an understatement.

We lost 7-1.

--❁--

enjoy.

xoxo,
happiness