Rink

chapter nineteen | toxic

"That's great, I'll let her know. This is more of a last-minute thing, but how do you feel about coming to California with me? I have a game there tomorrow," He tells me and I turn to look at him. "When is your flight?" I question.

"It's at about midnight. If you want to come, once we are finished with the hill we can go to your house so you can pack a bag, then we can head to mine so I can get my stuff. Before we go to the airport we can go out to eat." He tells me as we walk up a particularly steep spot. "Sounds good," I smile at him.

We get to the top of the mountain after about two hours of hiking.

There is a gorgeous waterfall flowing down that I didn't know was up here.

For lunch, we both ate some simple cold sandwiches and some chips. It was definitely fun. It will be a lot faster to walk down than it was for up, that's for sure.

"I'm excited to go to the wedding in Maine. I haven't ever been there before and it seems pretty." I say to Garrett. Of course, I have been to a ton of places with my dad, but never there. "I- uh- need your help on something. It's just family drama," I tell Garrett and he immediately turns his head to look at me.

"What's up?" He asks as he runs a hand up and down my arm. "It's my dad. As I'm sure you've noticed, our relationship is really toxic. More so recently than the rest of my life," I tell him.

Of course, he knows that. "Yeah, I've noticed," He says in a joking voice. "This kinda has to do with you. As you know he was not thrilled when I stood my ground about not wanting to help your team." I explain and he nods.

I honestly just think that he was used to me giving in to him a lot easier than I did that time.

When I did that, I think it made him realize that he doesn't have a lot of control over me anymore. "Yeah. What does that have to be with me though?" Garrett asks me as he turns to face me.

"I was thinking about basically cutting contact with my dad. I know that makes me sound horrible, but ever since I was a child we have not had a good relationship. The reason this affects you is because he knows that we are together. I don't want him to take anything out on you," I quickly blurt out.

It's true. That wouldn't be fair to Garrett. "Sweetheart," He softly says and puts both of his hands on each of my shoulders. "You need to do what you think is best. I don't want you to suffer because you think it would help me."

"I don't even know. I'm going to go talk to him one last time before I do anything anyway," I say and he nods.

"Ready to go back down?" I ask, placing the containers from our food back into my backpack and then putting the bag on my back. "Yeah, let's head down. Is your blood sugar good?" He questions.

It's definitely been nice recently. The other day I was able to go to the pharmacy and get everything I would need to watch my sugar. I love being able to check it with just a click of my phone again.

It's a little low, but nothing dangerous. "I'm good, I'll just eat some of these," I pull out some starbursts candies from my bag.

—

I take a picture of the clouds through the plane windows as we fly through them.

We both packed everything we are going to need and had dinner a few hours ago. We are going to be landing within the hour, in California.

I'm excited to be here, not only do I get to hang out with Kayla and watch Garrett play but I also get to shop around and see some sights.

"Excited?" Garrett asks me as the plane touches the ground. Once we are completely landed and stopped I stand up and grabbed my bags. "Yeah, I haven't been here in a while. I'm also excited to see you play," I tell him with a smile on my face.