Warm As Ice {Boy X Boy}

Prologue

{Picture of Lily Walker in the cover}

Ashton, get in the car, sweetie!” Lily Walker called out to her son as she packed the last of a nutritious lunch. She sighed tiredly as her soft blue eyes glanced back out of the kitchen doorway.

“You’ll be late to hockey practice!” She warned once again.

“Mom, he’s not even up yet.” A teenage boy with ratty black hair and a calm, mature expression reminded her from the doorway.

Lily smiled and blew a strand of blonde hair out of her face. “I take it you’ve already woken him up then, Jamison.”

Jamison smiled back, “My little brother’s always been a night owl no matter what.” He replied before his dark brown eyes glanced past her.

They settled on a sleepy six-year-old tiredly yawning with a bad case of bedhead and a hockey jersey on.

Jamison giggled at his younger brother, and Lily just frowned down at her youngest son disappointedly. With a hand on her hip, she handed him his lunch.

“What did I tell you about sleeping in your jersey, Ashton?” Ashton’s tired blue eyes, obviously inherited by his mother, glanced up to meet hers nonchalantly.

“But I spend less time getting ready the next morning like that,” he said with an exaggerated pout. Lily sighed and shook her head, walking past her youngest son’s small figure.

“I’ll get the car started. Let’s go.” Ash trailed behind with his big brother, grinning at him childishly. Jamison quirked an eyebrow and crossed his arms, looking down at his brother suspiciously as they slowly walked behind their mother out the front door.

“You stayed awake playing that stupid virtual figure skating game again, didn’t you?” he finally guessed as they made their way towards a white minivan.

Ash blushed embarrassingly, but grinned stupidly nonetheless. “Don’t be dumb. That game’s for girls.” He retorted as his brother pulled open the mini van door, his mother already in the driver’s seat, getting the car started.

“Besides,” he continued as he jumped in before his brother. “It’s not like we have a hockey video game to own.

“Yes, but you had the choice to get the hockey video game for your birthday.”

Jamison fastened his younger brother’s seatbelt after fastening his own. He pulled the van door to a close, and sat back as Lily pulled out of the driveway, making her way to the end of the neighborhood.

“Yeah, but still-”

“You see? You like that game.” Jamison smirked and crossed his arms triumphantly.

Ash blushed even deeper in embarrassment and punched his brother’s arm. “I do not!”

Jamison laughed and punched him back, “Do too!”

Ash fumed and rubbed his arm. “Mom, Jamie hit me!” He screamed.

Lily glanced at the rear view mirror and furrowed her eyebrows. “Boys, please stop fighting,” she pleaded.

Ash just punched his brother again as he ignored his mother’s plead. “I am not a girl!” he yelled.

His brother frowned and punched him back. “Stop hitting me!”

“You stop hitting me!” Ash yelled, punching his brother once more.

Lily scowled and turned back from the driver’s wheel.

“Boys sto-” Her sentence was cut off by a truck’s powerful force slamming into the left side of the small minivan.

Ashton screamed and instinctively clung to his brother as they hit a tree. In a matter of seconds, he went out cold.

Voices...

Ashton could hear voices…

They felt so far away, as if he was hearing them while submerged in water.

After what felt like hours, he awoke, blinking tiredly, but his vision could only see white. He tried to move, but found that his limp body could not do much. He began to panic.

His breathing became ragged under the breathing mask that he barely found out he was wearing. He glanced around. His vision was starting to clear up.

He looked to his left, and found his brother sitting at the back of an ambulance, holding an ice pack as he spoke to a paramedic. He had a minor bruise on his forehead, but otherwise seemed alright.

Ash smiled weakly. His brother was okay. Ash stared at his brother for a few moments and realized that although he was alright, tears trailed from his eyes, and his face was scrunched up in a pained expression as he pleaded to the paramedic.

Ash closed his eyes for a moment and sighed. Even keeping his eyes open was a challenge.

At that moment, a soft hand pressed against his forehead. Ash willed his eyes to open again.

“Mom?” he called out weakly, but his eyes only locked with a young female in a paramedic’s uniform.

“You’re not my mom…” Ashton’s voice sounded muffled from under the oxygen mask. He attempted to sit up once again, but to no ado.

The woman looked down at his with such an expression of pity and sadness, that it only made Ash worry even more.

He glanced to his right.

The last thing he saw before the woman turned up the anesthesia, was a body being wheeled away under a blue sheet. Beautiful blonde strands of hair hung from under the sheet.

Ash awoke later that day in a hospital bed. He felt less in pain as he craned his neck, his eyes exploring the new room.

The first thing he noticed was the light streaming in from a large window at the right of him. Before him, was a flat screen TV nailed to a wall. A machine beeped at a steady rhythm besides him.

He glanced down at himself and found that he was hooked to this machine. He instantly flew into a panic as he sat up too quickly.

A strangled scream died in his throat as his eyes settled on the sleeping figure of his brother. He was curled up soundly on the visitor’s couch, his head resting on the couch’s arm as a drool trailed sideways from his lips. Ashton sighed in relief.

“Jamie,” he called out weakly.

“Jamie,” he attempted once more.

He licked his lips, now noticing how dry his mouth had become. When was the last time he ate or drank something. He was thirsty. He was hungry.

“Jamie!” He spoke aloud as best he could. At that moment, Jamison’s eyes shot open as he bolted upright on the couch. Once he saw his younger brother alive and awake, he instantly relaxed.

“Ashton,” he replied. He sounded sleep-deprived, and Ashton figured that he probably didn’t get any proper sleep.

“Where’s mommy?” Ash questioned. Jamison immediately inhaled sharply. He blinked a few times, avoiding his brother’s gaze.

“Mom is on vacation.” Jamison breathed out. Ashton furrowed his eyebrows and tilted his head, “Where has mommy gone to?” He wondered aloud, gazing at his brother expectantly.

Jamison gulped and looked down shamefully, not being able to meet his younger brother’s eyes.

“You'll find out soon enough, Ashie.”

The next couple of days went by in a blur. Ashton wouldn't admit it, but the hospital was kind of comfortable. The food was okay, the service was rapid, and from all that Ashton knew, he wanted to stay there forever.

Sometime, after a few days in the hospital, Jamison took Ashton’s hand.

“Come on. Let's go see mommy,” he spoke with a sad smile on his face.

Ashton happily obliged and grinned up at his older brother as he pulled him towards the hospital exit.

“I can't wait to see mommy again”