Pucking Fantastic

Chapter 15: Haven't Felt For A While

Hello again! It turns out that I have been writing like a mad woman (Maybe because I have a lot of free time in the evenings now). Anyhow, the ideas just keep coming to me. So celebrate, I decided to post more often, 2-3 times a week or as many times as I have time for. 

Keep out for the <> to know when you listen to the song! Enjoy!

"Can you stand?" Callum asked as he offered his hand to me.

From the cold ice, I looked at him with fuzzy eyes. "I don't think so." I looked at my fawn legs as I tried to push up from the ice, but I didn't move. My words slur together in my mouth sounding like running water as I felt my body slow down.

He nodded in silence as dad ran up to us, almost falling as he tried to stop.

"Dad, I'm sorry," I said as tears came to my eyes, knowing I messed up. I shouldn't have been out this long and I shouldn't have run away. How stupid was I? I might have caused more damage, and that thought scared the hell out of me. "I didn't mean to."

Dad held my cheeks with worry in his eyes as he looked at me from head to toe, quickly assessing any damage then said, "Shhh, El." He picked me up from the ice then carried me to the car with strength that I never knew he had.

"I just wanted to take something back," I said to him, wanting him to know why I did it. Then maybe if he did, he wouldn't be as mad.

He nodded as he placed me in the back seat of the car. "You're so cold. I think you're getting hypothermia," dad said, mainly to himself, as he jumped into the front seat of the car to start it up.

Quietly, Callum slid in right beside me and wrapped his arm around me as if it didn't belong anywhere else. We did not invite him to come, but he didn't need to be invited. He found me and deserved a trip to see me through. Silently, he rubbed my arm as if that would help me warm up.

I leaned into Callum as I let hot tears roll down my face. My limbs were on fire as I sat in the warmish car. "I'm so sorry," I said again, realizing now that what I did was stupid. I wasn't thinking, and I wanted to take it back. Why did I leave?

"Ellis, ssshhh, it's ok," dad said as he drove away. "Weeks, there are blankets in the back, put them over her."

Callum nodded, then put a stack of blankets over me as I snuggled into him and closed my eyes. I just wanted all of this to be a dream. Running off wasn't like me. I was the angle in the family. I was the one that always listened, that followed commands. Running off was something that Paulo would do, but not me. I made everyone worry when they already had so much to worry about and that was selfish.

When I finally opened my eyes, I saw Callum watching over me with eyes that were tired but alert. I looked around and saw that I was in the hospital room before I went on my little adventure and, for a second; I wondered if what happened at the rink was a dream.

By the time Callum found me, it became all fuzzy. I barely remembered what I said to him so maybe it didn't happen. If so, I was grateful because I feared I said a little too much to him. I didn't know him, so I had to be careful. Paulo told me to be careful.

My eyes drifted to his fur-lined coat draped over the edge of my bed as if he tossed it there hastily. I remembered him putting that over me at the rink. I remembered him and I looking at the stars that shined over us in the night sky and how we talked. He was terrified of the ice; he didn't want to come to get me, but he did. I was worth more than his fear of ice and that brought some comfort to me.

And like a snap of the fingers, it all came back to me. I did say too much to him. I shared more then I wanted him to hear and now he knew so much. The thought caused me to gasp in panic. What was I thinking?