ICE SKATES // ADAM BANKS

CHAPTER TWENTY THREE

beep. beep. beep.

i let out a groan as the alarm pesters my sleep, nagging me to get out of bed and to hockey practice, hockey practice...

"shit!" i exclaim, getting out of bed straight away, being late to a new team on the first day isn't a great start, "adam!"

"five more minutes..." the boy mumbles, i sit down on the edge of the bed and sigh looking at the boy.

"adam, cmon we can't be late" i tell the boy, softly shaking his shoulder to which he grabs my hand in response.

"mhm, why do i have to get up?"

"because we have hockey practice"

"they're probably getting roped by dwayne it's fine"

"we're in varsity now"

"varsi- shit!" the boy exclaims, getting up and throwing on his dressing gown, running around in a panic.

"there we go" i sigh, standing up as i begin to go to the bathroom, "bye, banks!"

"yuh-huh, love you!" the door slams shut and linda sits up, groggily rubbing her eyes as she looks around confused.

—

after getting myself sorted i grab my white lace cami top, my black long sleeved top, the white lace showing above the neck line, my bootcut denim jeans and converse.

i put on my jewellery and bags before walking out the door, the locker room wasn't too far from where my dorm was so i wasn't going to run.

i see adam stood in front of the door frozen, deja vu washing over me again for some reason, i guess you could say it reminded me of when we were moving onto the ducks from the hawks.

i walk over to the boy and give his hand a gentle squeeze, i could tell he was nervous and stressing because he was fiddling with his fingers a lot and shaking his hands about.

adam squeezes my hand slightly as i give him a kiss on a cheek, something he did to me all those years ago to calm me down.

"it'll be fine as long as we stick together, okay?" i wasn't sure who i was trying to convince, me or him, because either way i don't think it helped any of our nerves.

adam inhales sharply before opening the door, the whole locker room looking over at us, silence settling into the room along with tension.

"the cheerleader locker room is a few doors down" one of the players laughs, getting hit by the goalie.

"she's not a cheerleader dipshit, she's here to play hockey"

adam puts on an unbothered expression across his features and drags me along to the empty corner of the locker room, i set down my duffle bag and open up the zip.

i glance at adam to see his mind practically racing with thoughts, one thing about adam is that he isn't so great at showing his emotions, if he did it'd be very rare.

i begin to take off my converse and skeptically look around to make sure the other players weren't looking at me, i was comfortable with the ducks as i had grown up with them but now i'm in a locker room full of boys, no connie, no julie, not a girl insight.

adam notices my distress and sighs, standing in front of me, blocking everyone's view of me if they were to look over, no matter what, the boy always puts others before himself.

i begin undressing and pull on my leggings and shirt, my pads and jersey following in suit afterwards, i sit on the bench next to adam who was also in his gear, the two of us now pulling our skates on.