Take Your Tears, Put 'Em On Ice

~ F-I-V-E ~ {II}

~ Saturday; 16th of May 2020~

~ B-R-E-N-D-O-N ~

Ryan trailed kisses over my cheek while we layed on my bed waiting for a call. I chuckled and turned my head, capturing his lips with mine. Though as things began to catch heat, a chirping ring filled the air. Ryan groaned and rolled off of me as I pulled my laptop closer. I answered the Skype call and was immediately greeted by two faces; one familiar and one not.

"Hello Brendon, hi Ryan!" Aaron smiled widely. I grinned and Ryan's head poked up from behind me with a smile of his own.

"Hey Aaron, you wanted to talk about our plan?" I propped my head up on a pillow, sinking into the bed as Ryan decided to lay across my back.

"Ah, yes. Before that, here is my partner on this side, Melanie." The girl waved with a shy smile, dipping her head a little. Both Ryan and I waved back. "Alrighty then lads, I have some not-so-good news. By looks of things, this summer isn't going to work. Patrick is shifting over to London for the summer to help Father John with a few things."

"You know, that actually works out." I nod. "The only week we could find available for our requirements, we're being sent to a mandatory hockey camp. I was thinking maybe fall, Oct-"

Melanie suddenly let out a gasp. "Patrick came back around Christmas, what if we-"

"Yes!" Aaron exclaimed, throwing his arms around the small girl. "Oh darling, you're brilliant!" He gave her a chaste kiss on the cheek and jumped up, scrambling over to his desk in the background.

"Hey Brendon?" Ryan called out. I hadn't realized he had gotten off my back and was on the floor.

"Yeah babe?" I looked over, averting my gaze from the computer screen.

"We're currently at one hundred and thirty-five dollars. That's barely... actually, that's nothing. We've got nothing." Ryan pouted.

"I got another hundred yesterday, but at least we're getting somewhere. Don't be upset, m'alright?"

Ryan nodded and sighed, stuffing the money back into the manilla envelope we had to hold it. "You know it's going to cost more, being holiday and all, right?"

"Ry, we'll hit the goal. I know we will. Come here," I lifted up some of the blanket. He stood and shuffled over, crawling under the quilt and snuggling into my side. I wrapped an arm securely around his waist, turning my head back to the screen.

"Okay, so, we-" Aaron dropped the few papers he had in hand. He stood there with a look of annoyance and defeat before picking them up and looking at the camera once again. "As I was saying before being rudely interrupted by gravity, we have approximately thirty-two weeks until our date, so about twenty-eight weeks to collect all the funds?" I nodded, following along with the math in my head. Okay I lied, I was just nodding along and pretending to understand. "Good, good. We have about three hundred American dollars for the back trip. Half of it was gathered just last week."

"M'kay, hold up," Ryan spoke up, pulling himself up to look at the screen properly. "How are we, I don't know, gonna tell them?"

"We're not telling Patrick," Melanie shook her head. "But you're going to have to either tell Pete, or make up some story."

"We could blame it on hockey again?" Ryan looked up at me. "Coach already agreed to help, and with the support we're getting from the others."

"But if he knows the flight is going to Manchester because of those loud-mouthed flight attendants, and the signs and shit, he's going to want to see Patrick, hockey or not." I argued, but began to see something in Ryan's idea.