The Ice

Chapter Seventeen

Our waitress came back with our food after a while and we ate quietly. 

"Still getting the chocolate chip pancakes for dinner here, huh?" Dylan laughed. I nodded.

"Always." I simply said. We continued eating, with the tiniest bit of small talk.

"How's school?" He asked. I shrugged.

"Don't know. Haven't  been the past couple of days." I said, not looking him in the eyes. He was silent for a couple minutes, just looking down at his food, him not looking at me this time.

"I did that?" He said quietly. His head was down, but eyes were making contact with mine. I nodded.

"Yeah." I whispered. 

"I'm sorry."

"You don't have to keep saying that." I told him. He looked up.

"Yes I do! You didn't deserve what I did and I will not stop apologizing to you for the biggest mistake of my life." He told me.

"This was just a mistake. Can we just pay and go?" I asked. He nodded and called for the waitress. I got out my credit card.

"No, I forced you here, I'm gonna pay." I shook my head. 

"Whatever." He paid for the meal and we walked out towards Dylan's car. I stood and leaned against it. Dylan stood in front of me. 

"This meant a lot to me for you to come here with me." He said. He kept glancing down to the ground, my eyes, and my lips, then repeated it again. 

"Yeah, I think I needed it too." I said. He took a step closer to me and leaned down, putting his hand on the back of my neck, into part of my hair. He leaned down even more and kissed me. It took me a minute but I kissed him back, putting my hands on his waist. We stood there kissing for a couple minutes. I heard a horn honking and pulled apart from Dylan. He stood there smiling. I looked at the car, and saw that it was Katelyn and Jordan. They got out of the car and looked at us.

"Yeah that doesn't look like Kennedy." Katelyn said. 

"How did you know I wasn't out with her?" I asked.

"The better question is why did you tell me that he cheated on you and then you go back out on a date with him?" Katelyn asked.

"He did cheat on me, and this isn't a date!" I told her.

"Then how do you explain you kissing against his car? Outside of a Denny's." Jordan added.

"If you really think that Denny's is a date place there's a problem. If that;s what you think I would stoop that low to just say something like that for attention, or to get back together with someone who cheated on me, then I think we need to reconsider a few things." I told them. Okay I'm definitely overreacting. 

"Explain it though." Katelyn said.

"I asked her to talk. I picked her up and we came here, we ate and talked about shit, and left. I kissed her. I've just been used to doing that after we go out." Dylan said. I looked up at him and wanted to kiss him so bad. But I can't. I know that, that kiss we just had should have never happened. Katelyn and Jordan scoffed, not believing anything.

"Come on, I'm taking you home." Dylan said. I walked to the passenger door and opened it. Getting in and putting my head in my hands. Dylan got into the car and started it. He pulled out and starting driving towards the dorm hall. 

"The last thing I wanted to ever do was make you cry." He said, I guess he could hear my sniffling.

"You didn't cause it." I paused. "This time."

"I just mean in general. You're the last person I would want to hurt." He said. I nodded.

"I know. I just can't take you back right away. I think we both need time. I need to hang out with people more. You need to focus more on hockey. It's just the way it is, Dylan. There's no way we can get around it. Maybe sometime in the future. Maybe we really are right for each other, it was just at the wrong time." I told him, looking up as I spoke, rain falling on the wind shield.

"That's what everyone says, to make it seem like it's okay. And Sam I can tell you right now it's not okay. Nothing about this is okay." He said. 

"Dylan, I don't want to let you go. That's the last thing I wanna do. But this is the right thing for right now. That's not even counting the fact of, you cheating on me." I said quietly. 

"Right." He said, not taking his eyes off the road. We sat in silence for about 30 seconds, until we both reached up at the same time and tried to turn the volume up on the radio, the complete silence killing us both. 

"Sorry." I said taking my hand away before I could touch the nob. "Just a habit."

"Don't worry about it." He said. I nodded and leaned back in the seat. I closed my eyes and just thought. There was only about 3 minutes until we got to the dorm hall, and I got out.

"Thanks for tonight, Dyl. It actually meant something that you wanted to talk. I guess I'll see you around." I said closing the door. I walked into the dorm hall and up to my room. I took a shower and got out, putting on a pair of pyjama pants and a loose shirt. I put Elf on from my lap top and folded my laundry. I put everything away and went into my closet one more time. Grabbing all three of my Dylan Strome jerseys. I held them for a minute, just feeling nothing, for the first time something other than sadness in the past three days. I put them back in my closet and changed into sweats, putting on a sweater and grabbed my phone, credit card, and keys. I walked out to my truck. I got in and drove to the closest dollar store. I walked in and grabbed the biggest cardboard box they had. I grabbed a chocolate bar too because why not, paid and went back to my truck, and drove home. I went in and grabbed a sharpie and lined piece of paper. Writing on the paper. 

take out when you're really missing him. or he's back, for good.

I taped it onto the box and grabbed the jersey's again. folding them in order of when I got them. First his Otters jersey, then his Arizona jersey, and then his Tucson jersey. I took my duck tape and taped it shut, trying to make sure that I wouldn't just go in there, man I hate ripping duck tape. I put the box in the bottom corner of my closet and sat back down on my bed, resuming the movie. Katelyn walked into the room and shook her head at me.

"I'm sorry that he just wanted to talk."

"You should be sorry that you let him take control of you like that." 

"He did not take control of me!" I said sitting up, and throwing my legs off the bed.

"Fine, whatever. But I know what I saw."