Stupid Love

28

I open the locker room door and get blasted by bitter cold air. It sends a shiver up my spine causing me to shake for a split second.

I walk into the locker room, nothing too fancy as this was the practice facility. I notice a lot of refrigerators and towels at the end of the hallway leading into the main part of the locker room.

I walk past them and I'm greeted by how big the locker room actually is. Every little cubby was in a big circle around the logo, nothing was in them. They haven't done the expansion draft yet so I'm not sure who wants each cubby.

I walk over to the left corner, closest to the door leading towards the rink. I put my stuff in front of the bench of the cubby and sit. I wanted to take so many selfies and send them to Joey and Katie, but I knew they wouldn't have cared for how excited I was.

I open my bag and grab my skates, stick and a puck. That's all I really needed, especially during practice. I took off my boots and put on my skates, I tied them extra tight, just because I like not feeling my feet.

I grab my stick and the two pucks and start slowly walking towards the ice. I haven't been on the ice since my lovely tryout, I knew my knee wasn't fully healed. My knee still felt like someone smashed it with a car.

"Hey Corbin! Are you ready?" Julie says, startling me.

I turn around and see her in hockey pants and a jersey on with pink skates and a pink stick.

"That has to be the biggest puck bunny outfit, I've ever seen." I said.

"What did you just call me?" She says, she begins to walk over to me with a pissed off look.

"Puck, Bunny." I said, not moving a muscle.

She gives me her most serious look. She tried sizing herself up to me. It didn't work, she was about 5'1. About seconds pass until she starts laughing. I didn't even blink when it happened, I didn't care if she hit me or whatever she was going to do.

"You're funny." She says, laughing still.

I roll my eyes and turn back around. I open the door that leads towards the ice rink and hold it for her.

"What a gentleman," She says, while she passes me she rubs my shoulder.

I didn't give it much thought, the only thing I could think about was just getting onto the ice. I begin to follow her into the rink, I noticed my limp was a more noticeable than before. I bit my tongue, trying to conceal my limp, of course it didn't work.

Julie opens the rink door and jumps out onto the ice. She looked like she never took ice skating lessons.

"The daughter of a hockey coach hasn't been taught how to skate?" I chirped.

"Shut up, I'm just rusty." She yells back.

I laugh and jump onto the ice as well. My balance wasn't good within the first couple of seconds, but after finding my sweet spot with my hips, I was able to skate somewhat normally. I did everything in my power to not to use my knee as much.

I looked over to Julie, she was doing everything in her power not to fall down. It was pretty funny, I couldn't help but crack a smile.

She looks over at me, she rolls her eyes and just stares at me. I felt uncomfortable at that point so I decided to start doing end to end drills.

I started on the end where we came in from. I had my back up against the boards, I was feeling energetic. I didn't hesitate and just started sprinting.

I made it until the blue line before my knee gave out. It felt as if a ballon popped, I fell to the ground and landed on my arm. I felt a sharp pain creep up my arm and into my neck. As if a thousand knives where shoved into it.

I struggled to get back to my feet, when I feel an arm grab me and pull me up.

"Are you okay?" Julie asks.

I'm in a daze, "Did she really skate over and help me?" I thought to myself.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Thank you." I reply.

She helps me skate over to the door and walks me back into the locker room. The walk felt like a year, I couldn't put a lot of weight on my knee without it feeling like a bonfire.

She never said a word, she kept silent. I wanted to say something, but I couldn't. I just focused on not fainting. She helped me down into my seat and walks away.

I reach into my bag and grab my phone and saw a text from Joey.

"Do you want to facetime tonight?" she says.

I smile for a moment before replying "yeah" with a smiley face.

I feel my body just divide into half about it. My heart was excited, "Joey is coming back into my life. She still loves me!" And my brain told me "It's going to happen again, don't get your hopes up."

I ignored my brain. I was finally excited again.