Vanilla ice

Chapter 13:

Owen

Today is our last day of practice before we start the season. We lost our last preseason game last week with 2-7. This is my last year of college and I'm worried I won't get drafted. Coach said that the admissions are just running late and not to worry but Andrew and I have wanted to be drafted for the Blue Thunders hockey team since junior year. As the cold ice air hits my face I rush toward the puck with Andrew to my right and Cooper to my left. We're playing a majorly good offensive line.

After practice I plan on bringing Sophia flowers. She has been going through some hard things lately. It's been a rainy day and the forecast is showing some pretty bad thunderstorms for the weekend. In two weeks I will be headed home during thanksgiving break. Sophia has the boys and her open house so there is no way she will be able to make it home with me. Thanks to coach no matter what this thanksgiving everyone will have somewhere to go.

Coach put together a thanksgiving feast for anyone who couldn't have the thanksgiving they deserved. In the span of several months I got an amazing girlfriend, amazing teammates, and a wonderful family. Lately I've realized that Sophia gets distant around the holidays so I decided to plan a little surprise for her. I asked all the players on the team to swing by the open house to help Sophia so that she won't get overwhelmed. I set up Andrew and Cooper to have the boys over to our place to play some video games and hang out.

I want Sophia to be stress free this year. I know she won't ask me or anyone for help but I love her and no one should deserve to go through that alone. After Sophia's stalker completely vanished I had Jim do some digging and apparently this has been happening to several college students around the area. Thankfully Jim promised to dig into it some more and when we have enough information we are going to take it to the authorities. Suddenly I get a puck to the shoulder which causes me to tumble to the ice. Thanks to the padding the fall isn't too hurtful but still the throbbing pain in my shoulder doesn't help.

"Owen what the hell!! Are you okay?"

"I'm fine, Andrew. Now get the fuck off of me."

"Fine. I was just trying to help, asshole."

Standing up I skate off of the ice. My shoulder will be fine. I'm not too worried about it but if I don't get my head in the game before the season starts I'm screwed. If my shoulder still hurts by tonight I'll go to the hospital. Hopefully it won't come to that though. After getting changed and taking a yell from the coach I headed toward the front of the building. It's pouring down rain and the wind is blowing like crazy.

If I know anything about Sophia, it's that she hates loud noises. Especially thunderstorms. She likes to watch them but they give her bad nightmares. As I'm getting into my jeep I see a missed call from her. I immediately pull up her messages and text her to ask her if she is okay. Thankfully she just got scared and it was nothing to worry about. To think that at the beginning of first semester I was single and fooling around.  Now towards the end of the semester I'm head over heels with the one girl who didn't fall at my feet.