Page 74 of Falling

23

MILES

IT’S A LONG STORY

A loud crashstartles me out of my sleep, and I’m instantly on high alert. I reach for Wren to find she isn’t in my bed. She was basically clinging to me like a koala all night. Or maybe I was clinging to her. It’s hard to tell.

When I sit up, my heart roaring in my ears, I find her on the floor next to my bed. She’s still wearing the clothes from last night, but her tote bag is around her shoulder, and her hands are flat against the floor as she peers up at me.

“Hi,” she whispers.

“What are you doing on my floor, Wren?” I ask, rubbing the sleep out of my eyes.

“I was about to wake you up, and I was rushing and tripped over my own feet, and now I’m seriously contemplating why I took up figure skating if I can’t even walk properly,” she rambles, slowly standing to her feet. She brushes her hands against the shorts she borrowed, her face pink, and her nose turned up.

God, she’s fucking adorable.

“You’re still here,” is what I end up saying after staring at her for too long.

She shrugs. “I told you I would be.” She gestures to the bedside table. “I, uh, made you a sandwich, and there’s some aspirin and water too. Sorry. I’m not a nurse, and I really don’t know what’s going to help. You haven’t eaten since before the game, so I knew you’d be hungry, and I wanted to make myself useful.”

I clasp her hand in mine. “You didn’t have to do any of that. Thank you,” I whisper, squeezing her hand, and she shrugs again like it isn’t a big deal. “What time is it?”

“It’s early afternoon, just after two. I didn’t want to wake you. You sleep like the dead.” She laughs before pulling her hands away from me, running them down the front of the shorts again. “I have practice, so I’ve got to go.”

I check my phone and then turn back to her. “Didn’t you have class this morning?”

She bites her bottom lip. “I skipped to stay with you.”

I skipped to stay with you.

“Wren, you animal,” I say with a gasp, and she rolls her eyes.

“Well, you needed me, and I didn’t want to leave you alone,” she explains, her eyes glossing over. I don’t think either of us is ready to talk about what happened last night. Part of me still thinks I dreamed it. “Don’t die on me, Milesy.”

“I’ll try my hardest,” I say, winking at her before she slips out of my room. I drop my head back onto my pillow, glancing at the sandwich she made me and the three bottles of water she’s piled on my nightstand.

She might be one of the most stubborn people I’ve ever met, but I know she has a soft side. A quiet side. A side to her that I’m desperate to get more of. When she’s not busting my balls, she’s spending the night running her fingers through my hair just because I asked her to.

I down the water and take a few pills before eating half of the sandwich. I already feel a thousand times better, but the guilt of getting into that fight is gnawing away at me. I’ve always prided myselfon not being a rough or violent player. I can usually hold my own on the ice, and hockey is a violent enough sport without me needing to add any excessive force, especially when it’s banned on the ice at college level. Coach Tucker has always taught us to play clean and play fair. But what Jake was saying in the locker room got to me. I was stupid and in a vulnerable enough position to let his comments weave their way into my head.

The rest of the afternoon goes by in a blur, and I’m already feeling restless. There isn’t a practice today, so I couldn’t go watch it even if I had the energy to. Most of the guys are on campus, studying or in classes. I pulled out some work to do and forced myself to get a couple hours in and tried my hardest not to think about Wren.

It doesn’t last very long because a couple hours after she leaves, I get a text from her.

Wrenny

Hey, I just got out of practice. I hope you haven’t got any internal bleeding.

Not that I know of. Do you think I should get that checked out?

Wrenny

As we established this morning, I am not a doctor.

You’d be a hot one though.

Wrenny

---