Breaking The Ice [bxb]

Chapter One [Liam]

Here it is — the first chapter of my new book!

If you've been waiting for this since I posted the excerpt, I'm really sorry. I had every intention to start publishing at the end of April/beginning of June, but work and school and personal stuff mixed to make sure all my time was gone and I couldn't finish the final chapters until now.

This story will have multimedia, such as images showing text messages incorporated into the chapters. I believe you need access to internet to see these, so I'll put warnings at the beginning of all the chapters that have it.

I hope you like this introduction to my new story, and feel free to leave some feedback!

If you do comment though, please be sure to be RESPECTFUL — of my work, but especially of other readers!

*this chapter contains multimedia relevant to the plot*

***

"Liam, are you listening?"

I look up from my phone screen.

"What?"

Mack collapses onto the tabletop, dangerously close to knocking her lunch tray over, facepalming direly. To her right, Gus gasps in dramatic offense, while Nat smiles inconspicuously to his side. Next to me, Chloe rolls her eyes, either at my failure to keep track of the conversation or at our friends' theatrics.

"I've been roasting Gus for the past fifteen minutes and I was counting on your support," Mack tells me, propping the heel of her foot on the seat of her chair so she can brace one arm on her knee.

"All I did was point out that the hockey table never looked better," Gus says defensively.

I look over my shoulder, a few tables over. I don't have to search too far. Our school cafeteria, just like the school itself, is not too big. A repercussion of living in small-town USA.

My eyes skim over one of the longest tables, made larger by joining three tables together, where the hockey team sits. The Brunson High Grizzly Bears. To the right, sit the youngest members of the team — green underclassmen excited to sit with the big boys. To the left, sit the team's big guns — the boys who bring home the big trophies. Or, at least, as big as an in-state high school hockey competition in Idaho can provide.

Most of the underclassmen sit and stare as a tall, dark-haired player whose position I couldn't name even if I cared tells a story that appears to require a vertiginous amount of hand gesturing. Next to him, sits Chloe's twin brother, Connor — the goalie — whose position I do know because he's the only guy crouching in front of the goal.

Over the last summer, puberty seems to have finally hit Connor completely. And, apparently, it has taken the opportunity to catch up with some of his teammates as well. James Lowell, Connor's scrawny skittish shrimp of a best friend, was scrawny skittish shrimp no more. 

At the left end of the table, the team captain, Owen Holmes, is engaged in quiet conversation with loyal sidekick number one and loyal sidekick number two — Dean Miller and Eli Blake, the team's star defense pairing.

While on the ice Owen is the boss, off the ice, and across the school hallways and Brunson's streets, Eli is sort of the main attraction. Or he used to be. All-round decent guy, polite to his teachers and amiable to his peers, generally calm and reasonable soul, with an innate knack for social interaction that contrasts somewhat with Owen's broodier, more combative front.

As a bonus, he also seems to have finally grown nicely into those beanies he loves to wear, even indoors.

"That Owen was always a snack, but Eli's looking like a full meal this year."