AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Something is up everyone’s ass lately. Mine included. Callie throws a fit every time I try to talk about anything important. Willa is mopey. Well, as mopey as Willa can get, which isn’t much but it’s noticeable. And Damian is damn near missing in action. Sort of, anyway. He’s answering texts, but I haven’t been able to connect with him to hear his voice in days.
Not to mention I’m still getting the occasional snide comment from other players on the ice. I can’t kill the rumors. Professional hockey is too small of a world, everyone knows everyone else. Per Coach’s instructions, I’m ignoring it as much as I can. Focusing on the game, not the bullshit spewing out of random mouths. But even he knows hockey rules only allow me to take so much of it before I shut those mouths up.
Other hockey players I can handle, everyone in my personal life griefing me is a different story.
It’s all really starting to wear me the fuck down. Everyone has a problem these days with something…
I suspect it’s me. It’s a strong suspicion. I’m the problem.
But what the fuck did I do? I’m having a great season on the ice, so much so that I think I’ve cemented a solid spot on the team. I got my sister out of that hell hole of a house. I’ve admitted to the two people I love that I want a relationship with them both. Fuck, I even told Coach.
So why is everyone still so goddamned pissed off?
To be fair, the only ones angry are Callie and me. But I’m angry enough for everyone. Mostly because my kid sister isn’t acting like her normal adorable self. Instead, she’s like a Demogorgon skulking around ready to scream at whoever comes around the corner.
It’s enough to put anyone on edge. I don’t know, maybe this is what all teenage girls are like. How would I know? But I can’t take another few years of this shit, we need to get it handled.
What if this is because of her new friends? Callie is at a vulnerable age, easily influenced by others. It’s possible she’s learning bad habits from them or taking on their shitty-ass personalities. Or, fuck, maybe she’s being bullied.
So help any little brat that’s treating my sister like crap. I’ll lose my mind.
Her tuition is non-refundable. If I have to pull her out and find her a new school, I will, but damn. It would be great to get through a couple of months without fires to put out. Seems like there has been a constant iron ball of drama chained to my ankle since I got called up.
After my game the other night, Willa waited with Callie until I came out of the locker room but then quickly left. She hasn’t been herself since. I know she went to Damian’s, and he left the next day for New Orleans. The abruptness of his trip is concerning. He’s been working so hard lately, I’m sure it’s just burn out that he needs a breather from.
Willa’s birthday went over so well and now only days later nobody wants to talk to me.
“What’s the frown for, Fane,” Vaughn asks. “You’ve hardly got any weight on there.”
“Fuck you, man,” I retort. I’m pressing as much as I always do in the weight room.
“Just giving you shit; I can tell something’s spinning in that tank of a head. Spill it.”
“I don’t know how to raise a teenage girl. For starters,” I grumble.
“Dude, there’s no manual on that,” he says. “How old is she?”
“Almost fifteen.”
“Ah, rough age. They’re figuring their personalities out, finding their paths, you know? Except they’re doing it while their bodies wreak a hormonal civil war inside them. Give her some leeway, would be my advice. But not too much.”
“I’m not sure that’s helpful,” I grunt out through my next leg press. “What’s enough but not too much?”
“Again, there isn’t a manual, Fane. You’re going to have to figure it out with her. Don’t let her get away with too much, but also be sympathetic to what’s she’s going through. You know her best.”
Do I though? I’m trying to, but I’ve been away for most of her life.
“How old is your daughter?”
“Nineteen, so it hasn’t been long enough for me to forget how she was Jekyll and Hyde for a good couple of years.”
“She’s good now?”
“Nah man, she’s feisty as hell,” Vaughn says with laughter. “We fucked up though, we threw a divorce at her in the middle of all that turmoil. But she’s easing up on us little by little.”
Divorce must have been hard on them all. I haven’t ever really contemplated marriage. How would that work with three of us in a marriage? Maybe a commitment ceremony or something. Obviously, nothing legal. But does that matter? Why do we need the state to sanction our commitment anyway?
I’m sounding more and more like Willa by the day.
