Meet Me at the Rink

Chapter 4

~ Austin ~

This morning I woke up at 5:30 to the sound of rain pouring down and hitting the roof. "Well, so much for our morning run. Eh, buddy?" I say looking down at my golden retriever pup, scratching behind his ears. "Come on, let's go make something to eat buddy." I say as I stand up and stretch.

Once I'm down in the kitchen, I turn the lights on underneath the cupboards before opening the pantry and filling Easton's bowl with dog food. "Here you go boy." I say putting his bowl down as he rushes over to it and begins to eat. I walk back over to the pantry and grab a box of cereal before going over to the cupboards where I keep the plates and bowls. I grab a bowl and a small plate before putting them down on the counter and going to the fridge to grab an apple and the milk.

After I poured the milk into my cereal and cut the apple into slices, I go over and sit on the couch to turn on the tv and watch sports highlights from last night's sporting events before I start eating my breakfast. "Hey, what's up?" I ask answering my phone and bringing it up to my ear. "Could you pick me up for practice today? I had to take my car into the shop so they could fix it." Alex asks on the other end of the call. "Yeah, no problem man. I'll be there to pick you up around 8:15 am." I reply. "Perfect! Thanks bro." Alex says in reply. "No problem, see you then." I say before hanging up.

When I had finished eating and cleaning up my dishes, I decided that I'd run on the treadmill for a bit before I get ready for the day. "Come on buddy, let's go to our workout room." I say as Easton follows me down the hall and the stairs that lead to the basement. "Alright, thirty minutes then I have to start getting ready to go." I say to myself as I turn the lights on in my home gym before putting some music on. "Here we go." I say as I step onto the machine and set it for a thirty-minute jog.

** At the Rink**

Alex and I walked into the rink and went straight to pad 2 where we had our practice today. When we walked in to make our way to the dressing room, I look out onto the ice and see all these small and very young hockey players wobbling around on the ice. "Look at them, so cute and so tiny." Alex exclaims. "Yeah but practice makes perfect and one day, those tiny little hockey players may just become big and strong hockey stars." I say as we arrive at the dressing room.

"Hey guys!" I say greeting my teammates who had already started to get ready. "Hey buddy!" some of them said as I dropped my backpack at my empty stall before sitting down. "What's good Becker?" I asked placing my hand on his shoulder and looking at him. Colton lets out a big yawn. "I hate early morning practices. Especially Saturday morning ones." He says. "Yeah but practice makes perfect my friend! Besides, we only have a Saturday morning practice once or twice a month so live a little!" I reply.

After I had finished putting my gear on, I grabbed some stick tape and my stick before going outside of the dressing room to retake my stick. I open the door and start walking out of the room as Alex shouts at me to hold it. When he gets to the door, I start talking to him as we walk out of the dressing room when all of a sudden I hear a thud. I freeze and turn to look in front of me to see that someone had dropped a bucket of pucks.

"Here, let me help you with that." I say putting my stick up against the wall next to Alex's as we both start picking up some pucks. "Oh no, it's alright. You don't have to help, I've got it." I look up at the person in front of me as I recognize that familiar voice. Oh my god, it's her! It's the girl I gave my number to. "Allison?" I ask as she looks up at me. "Wait dude... Is this the girl you kept looking at during our game last night?" Alex asks as I keep eye contact with Ally, noticing the blush creeping onto her cheeks.