The Crowd That Kept Us Apart // colorado avalanche

Chapter 7

(concise chapter today... I'm in a slump sorry!)

"Ezra!" I screamed playfully. My older brother comes trotting out of the house.

"What do you want, nugget?" he asked. I was surprised he could even hear me from all the way in the house.

"Will you play street hockey with me?" I pleaded, holding out a stick for my brother.

"In this weather?" fresh snow laid out across the landscape. It was cold enough to see your breath.

"I cleared a little spot for us on the street," Ezra chuckled.

"Sure, I'll play with ya!" he said, taking the stick, "don't worry I'll go easy on you!"

"You don't have to, I'm gonna smoke you!"

"Oh just like how we are going to smoke the team we are playing today?"

"You for sure are going to score a hat trick and get a shutout! Y'know for a fact I'm going to score two hat tricks!"

"Oh is that right?" I nodded my head. Before my brother could get situated I took the street hockey ball and spun around my brother and within a split second scored.

"In your face!" I stuck my tongue out at Ezra as he rolled his eyes. While I was busy celebrating, Ezra grabbed the ball from the back of the net and lightly tossed the ball at my face. Causing the ball to tumble down the hill onto the little frozen pond. I stared at him, mouth gaping, "how could you?" I said pretending to be offended.

"It was an accident, I swear!" Ezra defended himself trying not to smile.

"You get a penalty for delay of game!" I snarkily say pointing to the ball on the lake.

"Oh that's real clever!" he said tilting his head to the side. "Now go get it," he said with a smirk creeping across his face.

"Why do I have to get it?" I was confused.

"Because I'm older."

"Well if you're older you must have more experience with life maybe you should get it!"

"That made no sense, nugget,"

"Ezra! Time to get ready for your game!" our father said from the front door.

"Looks like you are gonna have to get the ball sucker!" Ezra teased as he ran inside. I couldn't help but feel a little mad at him. I know I shouldn't be, I was the one who asked him out here. I always had a bad habit of hiding my feelings. So everything, even the small things made me feel more emotion than appropriate.

I took a deep breath and watched my breath dance in the air. I took this chance to soak in the scenery. Our house was surrounded by trees topped with a fresh layer of powder. Small snowflakes are still lightly falling. I started down the hill creating new footprints. My mother had always told me never to go on a frozen lake, that I would fall in and die. But I knew this pond wasn't deep, though a pang of betrayal hung in my head when I retrieved the ball. I grabbed the net and placed it in the same place I got it from and ran inside to warm up before my brother's big game.