Time Flies On Ice

2.7 Broken

I go home after a bit and I sit on the couch and scroll through Oaks, an app like what Mom and Dad would call TikTok, out of nowhere though, I get a call

It's the kid whose dad met my dad around 5 years ago, he's my age and since we both got phones on both of our birthdays, we got each others phone numbers

I answer the phone

"Hey Cooper!" I say

"Hey Max!" He says

"Did you need something?" I ask

"Uhh, not really, I just wanted to ask you something" he says

"Sure what's up?" I say

"Uh, what league of hockey do you play in..? I'm think about trying out to follow in my dad's footsteps, but I don't know what league to join, and I'd rather join one with someone I already know.." he says

"I play in Hyrin Hockey League, long for HHL, and I think you'd make a great player, but be sure to join the Kavers, that's the team I play on, it's spelled K-A-V-E-R-S" I say

"Thanks Max" he says before hanging up

I set my phone down and turn on the Xbox

My dad recently downloaded a lot of old games that he used to play like 10 years ago or earlier

All the games I normally play are getting boring so I scroll down to find the games be downloaded

Huh, Rocket League, sounds cool, let me try it

I load up the game and figure out how to customize my car

I change it up and click play, I click on training and then tutorial

I do the tutorial and I play against bots, after training for a while, Mom and Dad still aren't home but I join a public match, it's a 2v2

We start the game and I realize, all these players suck

My team won the game 8-1 and I scored all but 1 point for my team

I play a couple more rounds and realize that I should probably go to competitive

I join competitive and immediately I'm getting some good challenges

I play until Mom and Dad get home and they tell me to go help Taydon with his homework

I help Taydon with his homework and as we finish up he asks me a question

"What was that game you were playing on the Xbox, I've never seen it before"

I tell him it was Rocket League and why he's never seen it and we go downstairs and play it

He gets just as good as me and we are dominant in casual, then we move up to competitive and we have the most fun there

"Hey boys, what are you playing?" Mom asks

"Rocket League! It's from 2015!" I say

"Wow! I bet your dad knows that game, I wasn't really into video games, Uncle Kian and your dad mainly were" she says

"Mom, where is Dad?" Taydon asks

"He's in the garage, he's.. blowing" she pauses and then takes a deep breath

"Up an air mattress" she finishes

"Mom? Are you okay? What's wrong with dad blowing up an air mattress in the garage?" I ask

"I- um- I'm fine, just brought back a memory" she says before turning around and walking away

"That was weird" Taydon says

"Agreed, let's play another match though" I say

We play for another hour or so before dad comes out into the living room

"Hey! Your playing Rocket League!" He says

"Yeah! We're really good! Want to see us play?" I say

"Yeah!" He says

We join a competitive match and win 7-5

"How'd you get so good?" Dad asks

"Well after I came home from Raynas, I was playing on my phone and I got bored after Cooper called me, so I was on the Xbox and I saw it and trained for a bit before joining casual and getting better and then joining competitive, then you came home and told me to help Taydon with his homework, and he wanted to try and now we're both really good!" I say

"That's great! Anyway, did mom tell you that Uncle Kian and Uncle Finn are staying over?" He says

"No but she told us you were in the garage blowing up an air mattress" I say

He turns around and mumbles, "Fuck, that probably brought back that memory" and then turns back around

"Dad, what memory are you and mom talking about?" Taydon asks

Dad sighs and pats both of our heads before sitting down

"You guys know that scar on moms arm?" He asks

We both nod

Dad sighs again

"Before Mom and I even started dating, I was over at her house, I think this may have been the day after I had that really bad bloody nose, may have been a couple days after, I don't know, half the hockey team was sleeping over and they didn't have enough beds so since Uncle Kian didn't know how to blow up an air mattress, he asked Aur- your mom, to blow it up, the garage was small, but big enough for the air mattress and everyone who blew up the air mattress blew it up in there, so she went out to the garage and I went with her just to help, as we were blowing it up, your mom walks around to make sure that it's filling up, when an ax cut her to the bone, it broke the bone and the doctors said that if it cut any deeper she may not have made it, I blamed it all on me, Uncle Kian blamed it all on him, Uncle Finn blamed it on him, we all blamed it on ourselves, but she did get better, it was just a very scary moment, but after she got better is when I asked her out, and then our journey began"

Me and Taydon just sit there, in shock

"I'm going to go make dinner" dad says

I clear my throat and say, "thanks dad, I'm already hungry just thinking about dinner"

Taydon gets up and goes to his room and I get up and turn off the Xbox before going to my room