Ice Cold

09

Landon Reilly

By the time hockey practice ended on Friday evening, I was ready to sleep for twelve hours straight. When I stepped foot into the room, Kyle standing in the doorway, just about to leave.

"Hey, are you coming out with me and Stella?" he asked me, looking up from his phone.

"No, I'll pass," I said, moving past him to place my bags down.

Kyle shrugged. "Okay, later."

I relaxed down onto my bed once he left the room. My eyes closed, but I only had a few moments of peace before my phone was buzzing in my pocket.

From: Unknown

its livi going to call you from this number

About a minute later, the unknown number came up on my screen and I immediately answered it.

"What's up?" I asked her, holding my phone with one hand while putting my other over my face.

"Landon, I'm stressed," she said in a hurried tone.

I sat up. "Why?"

"Because Mom and Dad are psychos!" she exclaimed. "I overheard them talking about how they have to take you off their health insurance, and how they have to close your savings accounts and it's freaking me out!

I let out a sigh, trying to think of the right thing to say to my sister. She knew this thing with my parents wasn't going to just blow over, but hearing them talk about such permanent things, about really severing all ties with me must have been hard for her.

"And they want to give me your car and I told them absolutely not!" Livi continued frantically. "If they want to be assholes then I'm going to make it as difficult as possible for them."

"Liv, no," I interjected. "Just go along with them. It'll be easier for you."

"No!" she exclaimed. "What about you? They're taking everything from you and they don't even care! What if something happens and you show up to the hospital with no health insurance?"

"I have health insurance through school."

"And they're just taking away money that they specifically put away for you and leaving you with nothing!" she yelled. "Who the hell does that? What is wrong with them?"

"Olivia," I said in an effort to calm her down. "Don't worry about me, okay?"

It was enough that I had to worry about myself and what I was going to do with my future. I couldn't rely on the Hansons forever. But I didn't want to have to worry about Olivia worrying about me.

"Landon," she said in an exaggerated tone. "You need to do something. I don't know what, but you need to do it."

"There's nothing I can do," I told her. "And it's okay. I don't need them or their money. I'm fine with how things are." That was a bit of a stretch, but she didn't need to know that.

Livi didn't respond.

"I'm okay," I reassured her. "Don't stress about it."

"Okay," she replied after a moment, taking a deep breath. "It just freaks me out when they talk like that."

"I know."

Livi and I only stayed on the phone for a few more minutes before hanging up. Whenever she used someone else's phone to call me, we were on borrowed time. She was probably at the ice rink at this time of night, using the phone of one of the other figure skaters she trained with.