Frozen in Ice

Chapter 38

Luke's POV

I headed into Coach's office at lunch. I knew that he was in there and I knocked on the door. He invited me in and I think that he was a bit surprised that it was me knocking on the door.

"What do you want Crosby?" he asked.

I took the seat opposite him and paused for a minute.

"I was wondering if I would be able to join the team again," I said slowly.

"I thought that you made it very clear to us that you didn't want to be part of the team," he said.

"I got sick and tired of Mark and the way that he was treating me and it got too much. I stepped back for a couple of weeks and I want to re-join the team," I explained.

"I don't know. You weren't really a good teammate.

"I wasn't a good teammate because I was constantly getting mocked by my teammates."

I wanted to add about how the Coach isn't fair but I didn't mention it since I was trying to get him to be nice to me.

"I still don't know Crosby."

"Look, the team has lost every game since I stopped playing. Just let me play," I snapped.

He didn't say anything for a few minutes and I sat there slightly awkward.

"Alright, you can re-join the team but I don't want to hear any complainants out of you," he said.

I nodded and smiled at him. I stood up and headed out of the office. I rushed straight to the library where I knew that Dylan and Brynn were going to be. I almost ran through the shelves and into the back of the library and they both looked up at me.

"He said that I could join the team," I said.

They both smiled at me and Brynn kissed me before I sat down. I had told Dylan about it before I went and talked to Coach and I thought that he might try and talk me out of it. Instead he smiled and told me that I should do it.

When I asked him about it he told me that he saw how much more passionate about the game and more talent he was and he knew that at some point I would go back. That made me laugh and I couldn't believe that he had read me that well.

I didn't have long to spend in the library as part of lunch had already past and I now had hockey training afterschool. I hadn't had a chance to tell Justin but he would find out soon enough.

My afternoon classes seemed slow and tedious and I couldn't wait to get out onto the ice. I was the first one into the locker room and no one had arrived before I headed out onto the ice. Coach was already out there and he ignored me as I started skating slow laps.

I stopped when I heard voices approaching and they immediately stopped when they saw me standing on the ice.

"Coach, what the fuck is going on and why is Crosby on the ice?" Mark snapped.

"Crosby came to me today and told me that he wants to re-join the team so he is here. Now lets' start," Coach said.

Mark turned and glared at me but I focused on making sure my skates were tight and my helmet was on tight. I skated over to Justin and he offered me his fist to fist bump which I did.

"I'm glad to see you back here," he smiled brightly.

"It's good to be back," I said.

He didn't say anything because Coach started yelling commands at us. I felt myself calm down as I got into the rhythm of the drills and working with this team on the ice again. I couldn't hold the smile off my face as we worked.

"Since you still haven't played and won as a team we are going to be doing bag skates to end this session," Coach called.

We all knew better than to argue with him and we all got onto our places. He blew his whistle and we all started to skate in circles. Every time that he blew it we would change direction. We had to skate as fast as we could the whole time and it got tiring quickly.

I could see people start to slow down but I kept pushing myself. I made sure that I was still pushing myself but I could feel myself slowing down as my muscles started to hurt. We got a minute's break before we started again.

I wanted to curl up on the ice when we were finally finished but I knew that that was a bad idea. I slowly skated off the ice and headed into the locker room. I sat down as soon as I got in and pulled my pads and skates off.

As soon as Mark walked in he headed over and towered over me.

"You don't belong here," he snapped.

"I wasn't sure if you were aware but you haven't won a game since I left. I don't want to deal with you bullshit, I just want to play hockey," I said.

"I don't care. You shouldn't be here so please leave," he repeated.

I stood up so that we were seeing eye to eye and glared at him.

"I don't care. Again, I just want to play hockey so I'm going to change and leave and you are going to leave me alone," I said plainly.

He didn't say anything else and I took that as a sign that this conversation was over. I finished stripping out of my pads and headed to shower before leaving. Mark didn't talk to me and I left with Justin and he was still smiling at me.

"It is really good to have you back again," he said.

"Yeah, my muscles are killing me now," I said.

"I know, I think that I am going to sleep for a couple of hours now."

We headed off in separate directions and I headed home to the silent apartment. I appreciated having leftover food in the fridge because I heated up before curling up in bed to eat it and then complete my homework.

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The Wise One