In Love with a Lunatic (joshler)

32. New Bitch

Monday
October 6

Josh lifts his arms in victory as he snaps the puck into the net.

"I don't count it; there's no goalie," Dallon states, skating around his boyfriend. "Where's the challenge, Dun?"

Josh laughs, "Not my fault Caleb's not here yet. You meet anyone new?"

Dallon shakes his head, "Not yet. Cody's here, though. Jenna's getting big."

"Is she?" Josh grins. "How far along is she now?"

"Like...four? Five-Tyler!"

The small brunette turns to look at the two on the ice. Since July, Tyler has been seeing a counselor. Josh, Dallon, and Laura have noticed huge changes since. While he's still not fully back to his normal self, he seems happier. He's been more open with his boyfriends about his current feelings as well as his past in every category. It broke Josh's heart to hear a lot of it actually coming from Tyler versus word of mouth from others, but it made so much more sense to him than it did before.

When pre-season began in September, Tyler refused to go to any of the games Josh and Dallon played, so he got to catch up with Jenna while the team played. Now that the regular season is in session, and Josh and Dallon have their play-off beards on display—much to Tyler's satisfaction—, he decided to watch them practice at the stadium.

"How far along is Jenna?"

"Five months."

"She's got a belly. It's cute."

Josh grins, pulling Cody into a bro hug, "How's it going, man?"

"Cody!" Tyler calls from the side of the rink. "Where's Jenna?"

"She wasn't feeling good, she stayed home. She didn't text you?"

Tyler shakes his head, pulling his phone from his hoodie pocket.

"Baby's kind of been kicking her ass the last couple days," Cody explains.

"Who am I supposed to talk to?" Tyler pouts.

"I'm sorry, Ty."

"My headphones are my bag if you wanna listen to music," Dallon tells his boyfriend.

Tyler pouts lightly but walks up the hallway to the locker room. Finding Dallon's locker, he opens it and takes the man's headphones from the duffle bag. Peering up, he gasps lightly at the bag of gummy bears sitting on the locker shelf and takes those too.

Popping a bear into his mouth, he unlocks his phone and powers on the headphones before placing them over his ears. Glancing up at the figure that appears next to him, he freezes as Ronnie glares at him from his locker.

"Can I help you?" Tyler asks after a moment, pulling the headphones down to his neck.

"Just soaking it all in," Ronnie shrugs, pulling his practice gear out of his bag to get ready.

"Soaking what all in?"

"You. Haven't seen you in a while," the man replies, slipping his undershirt over his head.

Looking back at his phone, he sighs when the man speaks again.

"Do you not skate anymore?"

"No."

"Why not?"

"'Cause it almost killed me."

"I thought you wanted that?"

Capturing his cheek with his teeth, the brunette stays quiet, thanking God when Ronnie opens his locker. Thinking he was done talking, Tyler goes to leave only to be pulled back by his arm.