Ice Cold

39

"I'm not going to tolerate what went on in the locker room with John," Coach said once we were at his car, calling Cooper by his first name.

I knew better than to try and make excuses and place blame. I just had to stand here and listen to whatever Coach had to say, then run over to the Brown campus like my life depended on it.

"I've suspended John from the team until further notice," Coach continued, and I cringed at what that could mean for me.

If he was going to suspend me from the team, that would most likely affect my scholarship, and there was no way I was affording to stay here without it.

I was panicking. It momentarily made me forget about going to Wren.

"Coach," I started in a rushed tone. "I'm here on scholarship for hockey and-"

"Calm down, Landon, I'm not suspending you," Coach interjected, holding his hand up for me to stop.

I let out a sigh of relief.

"But if he did anything to you, I need to know about it," Coach continued. "Anything other than what he did in the locker room because that will affect whether or not he comes back to the team at all."

I really didn't want to talk about this with Coach at all. I didn't care if Cooper played on the team or not, I just wanted him to leave me alone.

"He just doesn't like me," I told him. He looked at me with disbelief on his face, but didn't press me further.

"Alright, well if you can think of anything, anything at all that you think I should know, please feel free to tell me," Coach responded.

I nodded at him and the two of us said our goodbyes before I was rushing toward the Brown campus, lugging my bag on my shoulder. It was freezing out, my ears feeling like they were about to fall off.

When I got to Wren's building, I sent Jess a text hoping she would be at Stella's so she could come down and let me in. She was downstairs within a couple of minutes.

"What's up?" she asked as she threw open the door. "What happened to your face?"

"Nothing. Is Wren up there?" I asked, following her up the stairs.

"I don't know. I've been at Stella's," she said. "What, a few days away and you had a change of heart?" She said it with a teasing smile.

I sent her a tentative smile back.

"Something like that," I said.

Jess was the only one I had told about what had gone on with Wren, she was really the only one here I had apart from Wren.

The two of us got up to their floor and made our way down the hall to Stella's and Wren's rooms.

"Good luck," Jess whispered, squeezing my shoulder before letting herself back into Stella's room.

I let out a breath and knocked on Wren's door. The person I didn't want to see was the one that answered.

"Oh, thank God," James said, pulling me into the room.

I glanced around the room, but Wren was nowhere in sight. James released my arm and shut the door behind us.

"Where's Wren?" I asked, backing away from him slightly.

"No clue!" James replied. "He hasn't been here all weekend, but I'm sure he'll be back eventually. You need to talk some sense into him. He's been acting like a crazy person."

The last thing I wanted to do was sit around with James to wait for Wren, but that was my only option. I put my bag down under Wren's bed and sat down at his desk. He had things all over the desk, papers, pens, open books, notebooks. It was so uncharacteristic of him.