With You, I'm Home

Are You In?

Climbing out of the truck, I didn't bother locking it before I walked over to the produce stand. 

Katy was lounging in her chair in front of it, which left three other chairs empty around the stand. I knew one of those seats was Waynes; but could only assume that the other two spots were for Dan and Dary. Though since they were empty, I claimed the one sitting at the end of the stand for myself. 

Upon seeing me sitting there, Katy sat up ever so slightly in her chair. I couldn't really read the look she had on her face as she looked in my direction.

"So, what is it you want to know?" I asked, shifting in my chair. 

I could already tell wearing shorts had been a bad idea. It was warm enough that this chair was going to end up sticking to the back of my thighs, and definitely leave marks. 

"Well, I have lots of questions." Katy said with a sigh.  "To start with, why didn't you tell me?"

Taking a deep breath, I found myself picking at the string that was hanging off of my shorts. "I mean, it just never really came up- you've been to the house enough that I figured you'd seen some of his stuff and knew." I shrugged my shoulders. 

"Well, I never really looked at the stuff in the house because I didn't want you to feel like I was snooping! I know how much you like your privacy." 

"And I appreciate you respecting my privacy; I just assumed that you knew." I paused, "I mean, the whole house there was just random hockey gear you had to have seen- you really didn't notice?" I questioned again. 

"Well, yeah, but you live in your parents house, I just assumed it was maybe something that, y'know, belonged to your dad and I know that's a sensitive subject so I never asked." She explained once more. I simply nodded my head. I felt grateful that she had never brought him up, even the mention of it now was uncomfortable. 

We sat in silence for a few moments before Katy took a breath and sat up once more. This time she rested her hands on her knees before looking over at me. "Okay, so start from the beginning." 

"Do I really have to do this?" I whined, clutching the hockey stick in my hand.

Shoresy was standing on the other end of the rink, 200 feet away, and I could hear him laugh as if he were standing right next to me. 

"Damn right you do! You decided to brag that you could play, so now you have to prove it."  

"I wasn't bragging! I just said I played when I was younger!" I groaned at the sound of his words, "But you only have to score once and then we'll leave." He added quickly. Throwing my head back, I rolled my shoulders a few times. "I just had to go an open my big fat mouth." I grumbled to myself. 

Taking a deep breath, I started moving. Pushing the puck across the ice as I worked to build up my speed- which seemed a lot harder to do when there was no one trying to steal the puck from me. At least not that moment. 

Shoresy stayed glued to his spot until I passed the center red line. As soon as I was past that point, he took off moving towards me. 

I was so focused on keeping the puck in front of me, that I didn't even notice him approaching me until he had stolen the puck from completely. In a matter of seconds he had moved away, gone to the other end of the rink and scored. How the fuck did he skate so fast? He was literally like a blur. 

He left the puck on my end of the rink before moving back to where he had been previously standing. 

We repeated this three more times, each time he stole the puck from me in a matter of seconds.