Lincoln arched his back against the firm couch and groaned as his muscles spasmed. Kas gave him a sympathetic look.
“Sore?”
“Yes,” he growled, pulling his head out of the pillow as she sat down beside him.
“Check this out. Mark just posted a vid,” she flipped open her laptop and pressed play. Mark was another US snowboarder, one that Lincoln competed against frequently. A first person shot of a YOLO flip whipped across Kassidy's computer screen. The trick was a combination of two 360 degree turns and two vertical somersaults in the air. It was a maneuver Lincoln had landed more than once, and also bombed once, which left him with several broken ribs and a shattered wrist that still had pins in it. But Mark executed it perfectly in his video of a training run. Lincoln’s stomach churned with an uncomfortable mix of anger and envy. He reached over and pushed the screen away.
“Not what I needed to see,” he shot her a glare, then pulled the pillow back over his head.
“Hey, at least it’s possible. I was beginning to wonder.”
“Shut up, Kassidy,” he re-emerged, anger flaring. “I am trying.”
“That’s not what I meant,” she protested quickly. “I just wasn’t sure anybody else was as crazy as you to try it this season.”
He knew she wasn’t attempting to be inflammatory, but he wasn’t in the mood for her intentionally double-edged remarks. He rolled off the couch and walked into the kitchen, ignoring her as she tailed him.
“You’re food’s on the top shelf,” she finally sighed as he rooted through the fridge. “I can’t tell if you would starve to death without me or eat everything in sight.”
He grabbed the suspicious looking green smoothie and yogurt and sat down at the table with his back towards her. Most of what he ate looked suspicious these days, but he didn’t have much of a choice. Everything he ate was decided by a series of sports physicians and dietitians and all the other people with titles in front of their names that he paid so that they would make him do things he didn’t want to do but somehow increase his chance of winning in the process. At least Kassidy was nice enough to make his green sludge for him. He turned around to thank her when Theo stumbled in, clearly exhausted.
“Dude, you look stoned,” Linc smirked.
“Nah bro, just tired,” he smiled but caught himself on the fridge handle, carefully rolling his shoulders before opening it.
“Theo, did you sleep?” Kas frowned, starting towards him. Lincoln picked up on the unusual amount of concern in her voice, and wondered if it was warranted. He eyed Theo once more. He obviously hadn’t slept much; dark circles ringed his eyes and he moved stiffly, as if he was in pain.
“No, I mean yeah, I’m fine,” he cringed, avoiding her gaze. She wrapped an arm around his shoulders and whispered something Lincoln couldn’t hear from across the room. He shifted his gaze to his food and wished he hadn’t left his phone in the other room. They’d been doing this a lot lately, acting like he wasn’t listening or whispering out of earshot. He knew that he hadn’t been part of their group for years. They’d all been friends once, but not anymore. He’d been the one to leave, but it didn’t make him any less annoyed when it became obvious that they didn’t really know each other anymore. It made him nervous. If he couldn’t call Theo and Kassidy his friends, did he really have any?
He stood quickly and took his food back into the lounge, where he grabbed his phone and pulled headphones over his ears to avoid quiet conversation still continuing in the next room. He barely had a chance to breathe before Kas and Theo walked in with their breakfast. They didn’t sit together, and both smiled at him as he pulled his headphones down around his neck.
“Guys, I don’t want to sit around here all day. We should do something,” Kas leaned back against the arm-rest, still watching Lincoln. He got the uncomfortable feeling that she knew exactly what he’d been thinking moments before.
“Like what?” he mumbled.
She shrugged. “We could hit the slopes and just have fun.”
Theo and Linc both groaned.
“Ugh, why? It’s our day off,” Linc whined.
“When was the last time you guys carved for fun though? We’re always trying to nail something down for a run. It’s never like it used to be,” she turned her gaze melodramatically towards the slopes visible outside the window.
“I don’t remember it ever being that great,” Linc rolled his eyes.
“Oh, c’mon guys. Remember when we were in high school and I’d call you at ten on a school night to go carve up whatever powder had just come down? You’d sneak out your window with your board,” she grinned at Theo, “and Linc was the only one who could drive, so we’d all climb into his old pick up truck through the window because it’s door didn’t work. We wouldn’t get home until three in the morning and I always had to hide my wet snow pants from my mom,” she laughed. Lincoln looked down to hide a smile. Those had been the best nights.
“Man, we used to do that all the time,” Theo grinned. “You ran that truck into a snowdrift on the way home once,” he turned to Linc, “and it took us two hours to dig it out. It was like six am by the time I got home and my mom came into my room five minutes after I finished hiding my gear.”
“In my defense, I wanted to put snow in the back before we left. That truck barely stuck to dry roads, and it was like, blizzard conditions.”
“Whatever, man. We survived,” Theo laughed.
“Guys, c’mon,” Kas stood up, “One more time. We won’t get to do this again before qualifiers.”
Theo and Lincoln exchanged a glance. “Fine,” they sighed together.
“But only for a couple hours,” Theo begged. “I actually might have time to catch up on the Walking Dead today.”
“Um, no. Boarding trumps zombies any day,” Kas grimaced.
Theo continued to whine as Lincoln trailed them to the garage, where they grabbed their boards and gear and piled it all in the trunk. Minutes later, Kassidy’s pick-up was plowing through drifts towards the snow covered Colorado slope looming above them. Orange-yellow morning light cascaded down through valleys and made the powder glow and glitter. Lincoln shielded his eyes from the glare and smiled.
