Page 18 of Lucky Sucker

“I’m just kidding,” I said. “You will be fine, but maybe you should talk to the physio, and they can check you over, maybe give you some pain meds if they hurt.”

“Maybe a sucker,” he said with a big smile. “Like you’d get when you visit the doctor or something.”

“You’re real funny, you know that, Wren,” I said, unable to contain my own smile in his face. “If I get you one, will you omit the part where you fell to the ice because of me?”

Wren really contemplated it, or at least, looked like he was. “I still have more questions,” he said. “Can you get my bag?”

I fetched his bag and the stuffed orca which had also seen the fall happen. I saw Wren’s face really light up when he was back with his toy. And once more, there was something strange happening in my stomach. There were flashes, almost of bright colors, like I was on ride at a carnival, a carousel that was going a million miles and all the neon trim lights were coming at me. I was on the verge of being sick.

“Are you ok?” he asked. “You look pale.”

“Mmh, all good,” I told him. “Oh, that’s another, you need to get a scarf and a hat. It’s gonna get cold soon and you’ve gotta rep the team.” My head slightly spinning still from the whirlwind of whatever was happening inside me. I hoped I wasn’t getting sick.

Wren nodded. “Yeah, I know I need to get them,” he said. “I think I have a scarf, but I might have left at my mom’s. I had to leave so much stuff that I wanted to spring.”

I sat up beside him on the seats as the women’s ice hockey came out. They hadn’t even registered us being there, and if they had, they were keeping it a secret. “What couldn’t you bring?”

“I have a lot of yarn,” he said. “So, all that for starters, and then there were a couple of other comfort items too, but it’s not a big deal, I’ll see them over Christmas break.”

Endearing, that’s what this was. That’s what this feeling had been squeezing in the pit of my stomach, I was endeared to him and his soft sensitiveness. It was a feeling I hadn’t experience before, and if I had, then it had passed quickly.

“I’m still feeling ok if you want me to ask you more questions,” he said, hugging his teddy orca and his knees to his chest. “Like, what’s your goal for the season.”

I’d been asking myself that too. The goal was always to win the league play-offs and get to the division 1 championships to be best of the best. I knew that wouldn’t happen. We had talented players on our team, but when it came to all D1 schools, we did not have any division championships under our belt.

“Stumped you?” he giggled.

“No, no, well, maybe a little. I think it’s a good question. You know, I should have an answer for it. I would like to build our social media presence and get more support for the team. Maplehaven is such a small town, but it’s incredible the amount of support we get here.”

“Do you have a plan for that?”

“Some of them suggested lip-syncing to popular songs.” My throat drying at the comment I’d made and the small backlash that occurred from it, mixed in with seeing his rainbow pin, and how he was probably under that umbrella. “What do you think about that?”

He nodded. “I think it’s definitely a fun idea, but also I think showing off the players too, like—” he paused, mouth slightly open as he gasped. “Like dating profiles. Like, obviously, not dating profiles, but like—” he stumbled over his words a little more, the excitement catching in his throat. This was the most animated I’d seen him. “Ok, you post the players, the role on the team, which year of study, and like thirst traps.”

“Thirst traps,” I laughed, mostly because some of the guys were very active on social media posting pictures of their bodies post-gym session. “And you think it would get more people in?”

“More girls” he said. “And gays.” It was a quiet addition, but he wanted me to hear it. “So, yeah, that’s my idea.”

I nodded. “It is a good idea.”

“You haven’t said any of your ideas.”

“Doing trends and stuff, there’s some teams online that do these challenges, I wanna hammer into that. We’ve got a knew social media person working for the department, the last guy was more of just doing the media side of promoting. A bit older, you know, the older folks never really get social media.”

“In my write-up, I’ll say, you plan on leading the team to victory, which is a given, and I’ll even mention how you were really kind with the ice-skating lesson.”

“Just don’t mention falling, please.”

He nodded. “Got it. I have more questions.” Removing his knees and teddy from proximity to his chest, he reached into his bag and pulled out a notebook. On the page, it was filled with questions. I tried not to look at them, I liked the surprise.

“Hit me with it.”

The first question came. “Do you have a girlfriend?”

“Oh, we’re starting there.”

Wren smirked before turning his face to hide it. “The readers wanna know.”

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