Flossie gurgled.
“See? Floss believes me.”
Wolfie frowned. “I’m sure it’s just coincidence. She’s been in a lot of surgeries, and maybe when she’s come in you’ve been asleep. I’m sure she’ll be here.”
“It’s just weird. She did my surgery and she hasn’t come in to check I’m okay. Instead, that cheese Reyes keeps coming in. Not to mention she’s one of my best friends, and I’m currently living twenty-four-seven in the place she works. She’s definitely avoiding me.”
It was official. I’d turned into fifteen year old girl.
“Felix, it makes no sense. Molly isn’t the type of person to avoid someone. I’m sure it’s nothing.”
“I’m not going crazy,” I huffed.
Wolfie rolled her eyes. “She said she had rounds or something, but do you want me to go and see if she’s free?”
I thought about it. I would definitely run the risk of her thinking I was crazy. But I didn’t care, because it was making me crazy already.
“Yes. Yes I do.”
“Okay.” Wolfie got up and walked out of the door.
“Felix, what’s going on?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know.” I looked down at Flossie, who’d fallen asleep. “I just have this feeling about something and I can’t explain it.”
“You’ve been through a lot in the last week, I’m sure that’s all it is.”
“Maybe.” I didn’t want to keep going over it, it only made it worse. “Anyway, how are you feeling?”
“Like I swallowed a basketball, but okay otherwise. I’m not looking forward to this away stretch you guys have, but at least our parents are here.”
A pang of disappointment hit at the thought of not playing until next season. “I’ll be home, I won’t be going anywhere. Please come and hang out with me.”
“I will. Do you know when they’re letting you go home?”
“The day after tomorrow I think. They need to assess how well I move, but I’m not sure I can cope with being in here much longer.”
She shuffled around on the couch. She, like me, was struggling to move normally. “Yeah, I get that. You need your own bed.”
I thought of my giant bed at home, waiting for me. After five nights in here, being in my own bed at home almost filled me with more happiness than I’d ever felt before.
“I do.”
The door opened and in walked Wolf, on her own.
“Sorry, darling, she’d already gone back into surgery. People certainly break a lot of bones, don’t they?” She noticed my shoulders slump as she sat back down, misinterpreting it. “Are you okay there? Do you want me to take Florence back?”
I looked down at her, still asleep. “No, I’m good. I like holding her.”
“We’ll be coming to hang out with you a lot. We know it’ll be hard not travelling with the boys, but we’re looking forward to having you around when they’re away.”
I never had siblings growing up, I’d been adopted by my grandparents after my mom and dad decided they were more interested in making money than looking after a kid, and I hadn’t seen or heard from them since the day they dropped me off before I’d passed my second birthday. My grandpa had loved hockey and brought me up to love it too. He bought me my first pair of skates, laced them up and pushed me out onto the ice, watching as I fell on my ass over and over, picking me up each time until I could do it by myself. Then at weekends, my grandma would pack up some sandwiches for us and he’d take me to watch the Spartans at Michigan State, his alma mater, where I’d ended up too. Where I’d met Drew, and where we’d been drafted to the Rangers together. And I’d found a new family; I’d found my brothers.
Then when Wolf and Freddie had arrived, they’d become family as well. I’d never really hung out with many girls before them, except Molly when she wasn’t studying, although she’d usually just get annoyed with us and leave. I could never persuade her to stay longer even if I was only trying make her laugh, because I did love making her laugh. But Wolfie and Fred had been around for a couple of years now, and some days it was hard to remember a time when they hadn’t been part of our group. If anything was going to make this next nine months bearable, it was them.
But what the fuck was I going to do about Molly?
That dream. That fucking dream.
