Mason Harrison is the captain of the hockey team, undeniably good-looking, and always knows just what to say. But he doesn't come without his flaws... After a traumatic relationship leaves him unsure and fearful, Mason doesn't know when he will be r...
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---- MASON----
the boys are back in town - thin lizzy
When I started looking at schools to play college hockey at, I never in my wildest dreams thought I would wind up at Troyven's Creek University. Truthfully, before my sophomore year of high school, I had never even heard of the place. But then they beat Wisconsin University to win the National Championship. That got my attention.
So, when their coach called me in the fall of my junior year, I practically ran to campus. I dragged my mom on the first flight we could catch to the ass middle of nowhere Texas and anxiously bounced in my seat. The entire flight, my mom was trying to remind me to keep an open mind since Troyvens Creek was only the third school that I had toured. But this school- this team- was the National Champions, and I couldn't shake that.
As soon as I stepped onto campus and walked along the uneven brick sidewalks, I knew I was a goner. Everything seemed to fall in place, and I connected well with the team. It felt like home. That feeling in itself was a relief, considering my childhood home in Massachusetts was over a thousand miles across the country.
Now it's the start of my senior year. My last year of college hockey and my last year of playing hockey, possibly ever. It's hard to imagine that five years ago, I was stepping onto campus as that skinny doe-eyed teenager, and now I'll be leaving as a college graduate.
"I can't believe that this is it," my mom cries.
"Mom, we do this every year." I plead. Every time she helped me move my stuff back down after summer break, she cried. Not those little tears, either. Her tears were big crocodile tears that always made me turn my head, so I didn't cry too.
"I just miss you so much when you're gone." Ouch. That was the one line that had me ready to pack up all of my things and get back on the plane to Massachusetts with my mom.
It had always just been the two of us. My dad ran out on my mom when she was pregnant and never came back, so she raised me by herself. Growing up, I didn't really understand how much she went through to give me a good life, but I get it now. All of the nights she went to bed hungry, or we slept in the same bed in our old studio apartment was all so she could afford the cost of my hockey equipment and team fees. She had given up so much to make me happy and let me live out my dreams.
"I love you so much, Mom." I wrap her in my arms and rest my head on top of hers. Her tears are soaking through my shirt, and I quickly wipe away the lone tear that has fallen from my eyes.
"I love you more, Corn Dog." We both laugh at the nickname I've had since I was little and obsessed with mini corn dogs. I mean, who isn't?
"I'll see you in November." She brings her hand up to my cheek and rubs her thumb along my jawline, swiping at another one of my tears in the process.
