Page 11 of Goalie interference

“For your leg?” she asked as I sat up carefully, dragging my leg like it was a dead weight on the bed. “Is it bugging you again? I thought it was better.”

“You and me both,” I muttered, shaking out my head with a sigh. “Here, just,” I started, taking her hands slowly and resting them on either side of my knee. “Just kind of…I don't know–massage it or knead it, please.”

Callie seemed confused, but determined, working her hands similarly to how Thayer did. It wasn’t exactly right, and her hands were much smaller, not as firm, but it felt alright enough.

“Just…move up slowly,” I mumbled, awkwardly lying back down as she worked her hand up my leg.

I wanted this to work so badly.

I wanted to be able to solve this with Callie and not need Thayer to do it again, because it was one thing to have me moaning like I was in heat for my girlfriend touching my leg, but not my coach.

Very different things.

The only problem here was that the further she worked up my leg, the less I believed it would work. I didn’t know what Thayer was doing that was so magical that day, but whatever it was, Callie wasn’t doing it.

She was trying–for sure–but it didn’t feel good at all.

In fact, it kind of hurt.

“Stop,” I grumbled, resting my hands over hers before she made it to the worst part. “I’m sorry–I thought that might work–”

“It’s fine, I guess.” Callie huffed and puffed, straightening up before sliding off my bed, irritable. “I’ll just see you later, Ash.”

“Wait,” I said suddenly, wincing at sitting up too quickly and climbing out of bed. “I’m sorry. You don’t have to go–I can go down on you or something–”

“Don’t sound so excited about it,” she scoffed, rolling her eyes with a dainty hand on her hip. “I’m good, okay? I’ll see you tomorrow–today’s clearly just a bad day for you.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

Callie raised an eyebrow, coughing out a laugh like I was an idiot for missing the point here. I stuttered out a few breaths, waiting for an answer from her, but she was clearly waiting for me to get there on my own.

Another reason relationships didn’t work well for me–I was too busy and tired for mind games like this.

“Hello–”

“I’ll see you later, Ash,” Callie sighed, half-heartedly waving goodbye at me as she left.

Honestly, watching that door shut was a relief.

I liked Callie, of course, but I never felt relaxed around her–I always felt like I was performing. I thought it was just jitters from our relationship being so new, but we were almost a year in now, and I still felt so on display when I was with her.

Even when we were alone.

It was so bad–and I knew this pissed her off–but I'd never been able to actually sleep over at her dorm or have her sleep with me in mine. I could never seem to settle enough to actually sleep at night with anyone, even before her. I’d never done a sleepover with my friends, or at the very least, I didn’t sleep during the ones I did attend.

My mom thought it was a control thing for me, but all I knew was that I just never felt comfortable unless I was in my own space, and alone.

The only person I'd ever told that to was Coach Reed, and only because I needed to explain why I had to have my own room when we traveled. It pissed off most of our team, but Reed kept the reason why quiet for me.

Things didn’t get better for me after Callie left. I was still in pain, and the longer I lay down, the worse it got when I’d finally get up. I must have wallowed there for an hour before I finally got up and got changed into running clothes, forcing myself to get active.

It always helped, even if it burned.

Today was a rare rest day–no game or practice. I hated those days, if only because my leg always got worse on days when I did nothing. I would try to relax and rest, but I always ended up at the rink, even just skating for fun or bullying Carp–our captain and my roommate–to shoot at me for a while.

Carp was the only person I'd ever successfully slept in the same room as, and I had no idea why. I was in a single dorm for my whole first year, but when I came back in the fall, I was rooming with him.

The entire hockey team was housed on the same floor in the same dorm building, which was great for team spirit, not so much for my weird sleeping habits.