cold beginning [ONGOING]

thirty-two

Ashton:

Close to the hotel we were staying at was a local breakfast place, so we stopped there after only a 10 minute drive. Cynthia had her head resting on my shoulder the whole time, everytime I looked over she was still sleeping.

Earlier she was texting me how she did not sleep at all on the plane so I figure it is now catching up to her. We play an afternoon game at 2pm today then have a break day tomorrow. After our break day we will fly straight to Florida then play another game, later in the week we will play once more before returning home.

Once the bus was parked and situated, I woke Cynthia up and she mumbled curse words under her breath. I kissed her on the head and helped her out of her seat as we walked off the bus.

"Sit with the boys and I."

"Can't, have to sit with the trainers."

"You mean the sketchy looking dudes? No."

"You don't have a say in that, Ash, it's my job."

I sigh as a response. "Fine, I'll see you afterwards." I watch her walk away to a table in the corner with the trainers and equipment staff.

The management team called the place so the whole restaurant was reserved which made me feel better knowing she wasn't going to be sitting near complete strangers. I moved to my seat on the opposite side of the restaurant to her. I sat with Hunter, Reed, and Rohan and ordered our food. The boys continued to talk about random things which did not seem as important as the girl that I was staring at across the room.

Cynthia:

Everyone ordered their food, and while they were eating Ashton was staring me down. I didn't order anything because breakfast is just not my thing. Quite frankly I find it makes me feel nauseated so I just got a glass of water. The trainers spoke to some of the guys from the equipment staff about tonight's game and how we all have to go early to set up. I'm not completely sure why I am needed to go early when everything I need is in one single bag I carry around.

"What time will we be leaving to go to the arena?" I ask them.

"We are going straight after this, taking another bus then the players there."

I nod my head even though I still do not understand why I am needed there. As if reading my thoughts, one of them spoke about.

"The arena we are going to isn't known to have the best medical supplies or staff so we were hoping you'd be willing to check it out while we were setting up the locker room. Ya know just to see if you need to get anything else before the game starts."

"Yea that's fine."

It's about 8am now which means I will be at the arena for about 6 hours. No idea what I am going to do at that time but I guess I'll figure it out then. Luckily, before I left the hotel I had one of the staff load my medical bag with my skates in it onto the bus. So, before we head off I will grab it.

After the staff around me finished their food they all were ready to go, having us leave earlier than the team who were still eating. Before having the chance to wave to Ashton I was rushed outside by the trainers, I ran to grab my bag out from the bus and pulled it onto my shoulder before boarding the new bus.

This arena is decently smaller than ours, so navigating where I was supposed to head off to was easy. The rest of the staff went to the locker room while I found the room labeled 'Medicine Facility'. When I walked in, a man was in there who looked like he was practicing stapling lacerations that were completely off. He noticed me and immediately smiled, he looked to be about 20 with bright blonde hair and green eyes.

"Hi, I'm Jack. It's nice to meet you Cynthia. I was told you were going to be here soon. I'm just practicing some medical stuff haha. Do you want to look around? Oh maybe not, I'm sure you are tired from the flight. Well we could-."

I cut him off because holy shit did that sound like a whole lot of nothing.

"Nice to meet you Jack. I'm just going to look at your supplies then I'll be out of here."

"Oh okay, well if you need anything let me know. I'll be right here!" He laughs.

I nod my head and turn towards the cabinets lining the walls. Going through them, they had the bare necessities and even still not well made quality versions of them. Luckily, I had all I needed in my bag. Unfortunately, my medical team could not travel on this road trip as they were needed at our home arena so it was just me.

Before walking out I turn to Jack, "Hey is anyone out on the ice?"

"Nope! The team doesn't get here until noon and they won't start setting up until 11am."

"Great, thanks." I walked out to the empty arena knowing the rest of the staff from our team were in the under part of the arena in the lockers. I sat down on the visitors' side of the bench and exchanged my shoes for my skates instead. I threw on my headphones and put on my playlist at full blast. I skated out to the center and did whatever came to me. Some turns here and there but overall just skating the empty ice.

I stayed out on the ice for a little longer than two hours  doing nothing but skating before heading off and drinking some water I had packed.  I thought the arena was empty until I saw Austin Maurice recording me from down the tunnel. He had a smile on his face before turning around and heading into one of the rooms off to the side. I packed all of my things and changed back into my shoes then ran off to the locker room to see if they needed for the next few hours left until the game at 2.