They Can't Tell Us Anything |C. Kreider|

Chapter 29

Autumn's POV

Everything has been finalized.

The job, the apartment, parts of the moving process. I'm almost ready to let go.

Only a few things are keeping me holding on.

Leaving my friends behind. Leaving the little family that I've come into the past few years. 

I don't want to but I know it's best. If I stayed, then I don't know what would've happened.

I don't normally run away from things I know I can fix. If I stayed, it would be up for grabs as to if it would've gotten better or not, but I didn't want to be there if I knew I couldn't do anything.

I call up a few friends of mine in the area and ask if they were doing anything, but I was shut down as they all had plans.

I decide to fly home for a few days before confronting everyone and officially saying goodbye.

I hop on a flight down to Boston at around 3pm and arrive in the city at around 5pm.

I take the short walk from the airport to the rink that my dad coaches at. I brought my skates as well as a few changes of clothes, mainly tees and sweats, and whatever I need. 

I see that my dad is coaching some teens, a few that were recently drafted actually. I spot Jack Eichel and Noah Hanifin, as well as a few other neighborhood kids that I remember baby-sitting as a teen myself.

I pull my black Bauer jacket out of my bag, to match the black sweats I had on before replacing my black on black Supras with my skates. 

I bang on the glass behind my dad before hopping out onto the ice. 

"What're you doing here?" He asks me as I glide onto the ice.

"You know, just hanging out here before heading down to the city to get my crap and move into the apartment in Montreal. Thought I'd join ya out here." I tell him, smirking a little.

"Are you up for gearing up?" He asks, a little quiter for only me to hear.

"Well yeah, actually. I geared up a few weeks ago and I felt pretty good. Do you have stuff I could get into?" I tell him, getting a feel for the ice. 

"Yeah, I still have your custom gear from college in my office, go suit up in the locker room and take your time, we're gonna be here until closing." Dad says, lightly pushing at my shoulder. 

This is a rink that closes pretty late, tonight it's closing at around 10pm.

I make my way into his office, all of which without having to take off my skates because the entire complex is padded so it won't do damage to the skates.

I grab my bag and walk down the hall to the locker rooms, finding an empty stall and gearing up pretty quickly.

I make my way out onto the ice in my BC gear and old jersey, earning a look from the BU kids present. 

"What are ya lookin' at?" I chirp, sounding more from New York than was intended.

My dad decides that we are gonna do a scrimmage, after having the guys take shots on me and make sure that I still got it in me. 

He sets Jack and Noah as the captains and let them create their own teams. 

Everything is going well, that is until Jack grabs me as his goalie. 

I skate over to his end, but get stopped by him grabbing my jersey. I turn to face him and he's leaning down so we're eye level.

"Bet you weren't expecting a BU kid to take you as their goalie, yeah?" He says with an almost menacing smirk.