𝓜𝓲𝓰𝓱𝓽𝔂 𝓓𝓾𝓬𝓴𝓼 𝓘𝓶𝓪𝓰𝓲𝓷𝓮𝓼

Luis Mendoza

Iceland played rough and everyone at the Games knew it. Team USA knew they were big, tough, and strong, but they hadn't played them and now they were. USA was currently losing and no matter what they did, they never got anywhere. They couldn't score any goals because Iceland was always a few steps ahead of them. Bombay and USA went into the game with strong hearts and minds thinking they were going to nail the game, but they were all wrong.

The game was half through now, USA was taking hard hits from Iceland. It didn't take much for the bigger guys to take down USA's average guys, and girls. Out of all people, Avery Dawson found it to be quite hard as she was such a sweet and kind girl. She'd never hurt a fly, no matter how mean one could be to her, she did take it to heart, but she always felt bad saying or doing something bad to someone else. Avery was new on the team, much like everyone else, but she was close friends with Luis.

They had clicked well together as friends and had one another's backs during the games they played. Off the ice they hung around together and at practices they partnered up together. Bombay usually did put those two out on the ice together since they worked well together and with everyone else. 

As Avery got off the ice from being pushed down, she felt some pain in her side from how rough the Iceland players had been pushing everyone around. She had taken hit after hit that game and it still wasn't over. She was waiting for the timer to go off, for them to be done, for them to just sit down and sleep, for her achy body to sleep, for her mind to relax, but Avery knew it wasn't going to be that easy.

"Come on, Guys!" Bombay hollered from the bench. "Let's go!"

Coach Bombay was getting upset with his team's playing, he believed they were better and they were to win because he didn't want to leave. He was wrapped up with Hendrix and money, he wanted win after win because that promoted Hendrix, which boosted him as well. In order to do so, his players needed to perform and he wasn't seeing much of that now.

"Avery! Get that puck! Fulton! Get him!" He continued to yell.

Avery, as kind as she was, rolled her eyes and sped down the ice to catch up to the others. As Iceland went to shoot, she'd gotten into the way in front of the net where Goldberg groaned as he stretched to save the puck, but it had hit Avery's side instead when she attempted to shove an Iceland player aside so they couldn't retrieve the puck. With a groan as well from Avery, she fell back onto the ice and Goldberg cocked a brow, staring at her.

"Gee, now ya know how I feel, Avery." He spoke, getting up and brought his stick forward for her to take. But, she did not take it, her side too sore now to get up.

"Come on, let's go!" Bombay yelled. "Get back in the game!"

Luis skated over and held on to the side of the net so he could stop. Gazing down at his friend, he felt bad and extended his arm for her to take. She refused his help and got up herself, unable to wipe the tear of pain from her cheek as she stood, stumbling as her side gave out. Luis had held her up and Iceland laughed in front of them, bumping into Luis, who bumped into Avery. "Hey, man, leave her alone." Jesse spoke up, skating in front of his two teammates as he shoved the boy away.

The rest of the game hadn't ended well at all. Team USA lost with a total score of one point compared to Iceland's twelve points. In the locker room, the entire team was tired from Coach Bombay's awful and un-encouraging speech about the game as well as his dreadful hard practice in which every skated back and forth. He was punishing them for his own faults. Avery had done the practice, but she wasn't the fastest and tried to keep up, but no matter what she did, it was useless.

The players were all tired, yawning and stretching their achy muscles as they packed up their things in order to get back to the dorms. Luis and Avery were the last few to leave the locker room. Avery half asleep on her bench with her lower hockey gear still on. Luis had a towel wrapped around his lower body after showering, wearing shorts of course, he'd noticed his friend asleep at her bench, a hand holding her side as she leaned into the locker, hair a sweaty mess.

He laughed to himself before getting dressed and then meeting her. "Hey, Av, I think you should finish getting undressed and head to your dorm." 

"Mmm." She mumbled, not opening her eyes.

"Come on, let me help you." He extended his hand for her to take. She took it and stood up unwillingly, taking her gear off slowly as he put it away in her locker. "How bad is your side?" He asked her.

She shrugged. "Dunno." She inhaled, lifting the side of her shirt to reveal the already bruised and tender side. Her ribs were a little sore, but it was more her waist that was sore, her side wasn't nice and she was in pain, but there was nothing she could do.

He brought a hand to her side to feel it gently, but she flinched slightly at the touch of his cold hand, which in a way, felt good. "Sorry." He spoke.

"It's okay." She breathed, looking at her side. "Is it that bad?"

"Sorta, I guess. I couldn't say." He told her. 

"Um, thanks, Luis." She spoke sincerely. 

"It's cool. We're friends, Avery."

She nodded. Just friends, she wished not. She wished more. He was a nice boy with a genuine smile and good athletics. "Yeah..." She trailed.

"Come on," He nods towards the door. "Let's head back."

She nods, bringing her arm around his shoulders and he brought his arm around her lower waist, careful not to touch her side as he helped her out and they walked out of the locker room together. They were quiet and not many people were there, the arena about to close for the night, the dorms building always open as long as one had a key. The two had walked back slowly to the dorms in a peaceful silence, not having much to say.