DISCLAIMER: I literally know NOTHING about ice hockey LMAOOO so pls don't come for me for this awfully wrong training scene. Literally the only sport I have any kind of knowledge on is ballet so pls keep that in mind when reading xxx
"Pass over here, Verner!" Someone yelled at me. I was currently in training as we have a game coming up in a couple of weeks.
"Verner, you're kind of distracted." Marcus said, skating over to me. I glowered at him. Marcus just laughed at me and slapped me on the back.
"All right guys, that's a wrap!" Coach called. Marcus and I started skating over to the changing rooms.
Once outside of the ice rink, I sat down on a bench, Marcus next to me, and started to untie my skates. I looked over to the window into the rink to see several girls grinning at me. I looked away again. They were obviously looking in on our training. At me no less. Fuck's sake.
Marcus' comment struck me. I was distracted. With my brother, my family, hockey, my degree, my father's will and a certain brown eyed girl on my mind, I was losing focus.
"Why are you so distracted?" Marcus finally asked, taking a bite from his protein bar.
"No reason." I lied.
"Does it have something to do with Val?" My head snapped up at his remark and it was too late to feign indifference.
"Don't call her that." I snapped. Marcus gave me a look.
"What? Val?" He asked innocently.
"Yes, Val." I replied.
"Why not? She said I could." He gave me a smug look. It annoyed me for reasons I could not explain that Valerie had allowed everyone to call her Val except for me. She was the only person I met that truly hated me and I had no idea why.
"Yeah, well don't." I grumbled.
"Are you guys talking about that hot chick that was skating with her friend?" Simon's annoying voice rung out. By now, most of the guys had left.
"That chick has a name." I said, my frown getting deeper and deeper.
"Alright, Verner. Simmer down." Marcus said, eyeing me warily.
"Hey, you're hanging out with her friend right? Do you think you could get her number for me? She's just my type." Simon asked Marcus. He was grinning. Fucking douchebag.
"No, he can't." I answered for Marcus.
"I wasn't asking you, Verner." Just as I was standing up to teach this jerk a lesson, Marcus stood up with me, pulling me to the door.
"We'll see you around, Simon." Marcus called back to him.
"Hey- Wait! What about her numb-" But Simon was cut off by the door I slammed behind us.
"This is hilarious." Marcus started laughing as we made our way over to the main building of school.
"The fuck are you on about?" I said, my tone harsher then usual. My mood was ruined thanks to that asshole.
"You like her." Marcus said, grinning like an idiot.
"Who?" I acted as if I had no idea who he was talking about but just as usual, he saw right through me.
"Thomas Verner likes a girl." He smiled to himself, as if trying to come to terms with such a thing. "I don't think you've ever liked a girl."
"You're sounding crazy, Marcus." I grumbled. My mood just seemed to get worse and worse. Of course I didn't like Valerie. Why would I? I mean sure her hair was soft and silky, her laugh put a rare smile on my face and she was the number one thought running through my mind- Fuck.
Still, I wasn't ready to admit to anything, whether I liked Valerie Fawkes or not, so I said, "Who are you talking about?"
"I know you know who I'm talking about, Verner, but for the sake of this discussion, I'll say it out loud. Val."
I immediately tensed at the sound of her name. He laughed once again. "See!" He said triumphantly. I was finding this less and less amusing with every second that went by.
"Don't be stupid. Valerie hates me." I said, trying to brush this off.
"Even better!" Marcus looked as if he was about to double over with laughter. "The first girl that Thomas Verner actually likes hates him!"
"Whatever." I mumbled.
"So you admit it!"
"How is saying 'whatever' admitting to anything?" I asked, incredulously.
"In Verner language, that's basically a love confession." Marcus beamed. He looked far too proud of himself.
Just as I was about to wipe that grin off of his face, a soft voice said, "Oh, hey Marcus." We both turned to see the source and it was Mable.
Marcus immediately straightened and I decided that now probably wasn't the best time to get in a brawl with my best friend.
I looked around, trying to see if Valerie had come with her but it was in vain. I looked to Marcus who was casting my a knowing smile.
Jesus Christ.
"Mable! I was just looking for you." Marcus said.
"You were?" Mable replied, warily.
"Yes, I have some very important questions to ask you." Marcus said. I looked at him and I knew, I just knew, that whatever he was about to say next would put yet another scowl on my face.
"Thomas here was wondering why your friend Val hates him so much." Fuck me. Of course he had to go and ask that.
Mable considered this for a second, before turning to me.
"Maybe you guys should ask her?" She attempted, looking unsure.
Marcus shook his head. "Nope, impossible. She hates the guy. Will not talk to him unless she's held at gunpoint." He looked over to me.
"Alright." I scolded. She didn't hate me that much... did she?
Mable just rolled her eyes. "Why do you care so much? Isn't your whole thing like hating everyone?" She looked at me. "What's one girl hating you back got anything to do with anything."
She narrowed her eyes suspiciously at me. "Or do you not hate her?"
I hesitated and therefore didn't deny it and apparently this was all the confirmation she needed because a giddy look overtook her features.
"Are you going to tell me or not?" I asked angrily. I'm not sure I liked this girl. She seemed to know far too much about me for my liking.
She sighed before she began, "Okay, I'm only telling you this because you seem to actually care." She paused as if thinking over her words and deciding on how much to reveal. "Look, I know it's not entirely your fault because you probably don't know about the letter, but shoving her into a puddle and not saying sorry is kind of a dick move."
I blinked at her. What the fuck? My thoughts must have registered on my face because Mable went on to say, "You don't even remember? Yeah, you're just as much of an asshole as Val makes you out to be." She gave me a disgusted look. "Fuck! And I definitely should not have told you that. I'm such a bad best friend." She shook her head and suddenly looked very worried.
"When was this?" I asked, thinking of all the possible ways I could fix this.
Mable looked unsure on whether she should answer me before giving in and saying, "The first day of school."
I cast my memory back to that first day but all I could come up with was my brother being in hospital for alcohol poisoning and me having to leave school to go and get him. When I thought harder, I was pretty sure I did remember bumping into something but being too focused on my brother and whatever I bumped into being quite small, I brushed it off and carried on walking.
Fuck, I was an asshole.
I had never cared about what anyone had thought about me up until now.
"Letter?" Marcus asked, interrupting my thoughts.
"Hmm?" Mable said, avoiding our eyes.
"Yeah, you said something about a letter." I joined with Marcus by saying.
"I don't know what you're talking about. I didn't say anything." Mable said, looking like she was about to walk away.
"No, you definitely did." Marcus said.
Mable sighed, defeated. She turned to me and said, "Look, the only reason I mentioned the letter was because I thought you remembered pushing Val into a puddle but just forget it."
"I can't forget it. If there's more to it then I need to know." I stated truthfully.
"Why?" Mable asked, suspicious.
"Because he lik-" Marcus started.
"Because I don't want to be an asshole." I finished, shooting daggers at Marcus.
"Well, I can't tell you." Mable said.
I sighed. "Why the hell not?" I felt like I was in elementary school and we were telling each other secrets.
She glared at me before saying, "The letter is really personal to Val. I've already told you guys too much. I will not be the one to tell you about the letter. You'll have to ask her yourself."
"Can't you just tell us now?" Marcus asked, giving her puppy eyes but it was no use, Mable was set on this.
"No. I can't. It isn't my place." She started to walk away but before she got too far she turned back and said to me, "Oh and Thomas, if you do ask, please be careful and don't push her." A wave of guilt washed over her face like she had again revealed too much before making her way to class.
"What the fuck was that about?" Marcus asked me.
"I don't know." I replied truthfully.
As we walked to class, I knew that I had to fix this. I didn't know why I wanted to so badly but I was trying to not focus on that part too much.
---
I was sat in class, barely paying any attention to Professor Twine because I was too busy glancing secretly at the girl next to me. Her hair was in a plait today that went down her grey sweatered back. She was scribbling down notes in her notepad. I frowned at this. She didn't have a laptop. I glanced down at her bag to see a book peaking out. My eyes made their way back to her face to find them staring right back at me.
"Is there something on my face?" She whispered to me and my eyes caught on her pink lips.
"What?" I whispered back, utterly confused.
"You keep on looking at me. Is there something on my face?" She asked again.
A smirk made its way onto my face. I couldn't help it. I liked the way her face looked when she was cross.
Her cheeks flamed up in response. "Oh my God there is, isn't there!" She huffed, turning away from me. "And you didn't even tell me."
She reached into her bag, pulling out a small mirror while muttering "Asshole." Under her breath.
Great. I had successfully made her hate me even more.
"What? No, no. There isn't." I said, pushing her mirror down with my hands. "Your face is... nice." I said, looking at her while turning my own head.
Jesus Christ. Your face is nice? What kind of compliment was that? I needed to get a grip, and quickly.
"Right." She said, her cheeks pinking up again. She looked away, too stubborn to admit that I had had an effect on her. A surge of triumph hit me square in the chest.
I had spent the two thirds of the lesson thinking about how I was going to apologise to her and the other third staring at her. I needed serious help. On top of all the things going on in my life, I did not need a girl on my mind.
How was I going to apologise to her? I couldn't just come out and say it. It had been weeks since I pushed her over like the dickhead I am. How do you smoothly apologise for something that happened weeks ago?
Just before the lesson was about to end, Professor Twine handed out our essays that we had written a week earlier. I was dreading this. This was around the time I had found out about my father's will reading on my birthday and had definitely not tried to get a decent grade.
Twine handed out mine and Valerie's papers at the same time. I peeked at her grade selfishly to find a big, fat A. She deserves it I thought. This girl just seemed to be perfect. She stared at it before tucking it into her bag quietly.
I turned over my paper to find a much less impressive grade. C-. This was bad but not unexpected. Maybe I peaked in high school or maybe I just needed to get my head back in the game but whatever it was, I knew that I was fucked.
---
I just wanted to make this chapter slightly longer as the last ones were so short and I wanted to put in another Val and Thomas scene. I promise that there will be way more of those in the upcoming chapters!
Word count: 2171