Page 60 of Fresh Ice
“That’s a waste of goddamn money,” his dad cursed. “What, you’re too good to live with us, now?”
Alonso kept his expression neutral. “It’s not that. I just need my own space. I’m twenty, dad.”
His dad opened his mouth to protest further, but Alonso’s mom cut him off. “Frank, letmijobe. You cannot stop him from growing up.”
Alonso’s dad huffed. It wasn’t the last Alonso would hear about the topic from him, but at least he was allowed to pack his stuff and leave in relative peace.
The only truly good moments were his phone calls with Levy. They would FaceTime despite the time difference, Alonso staying up late and watching Levy’s skin get darker than it already was as the weeks went by.
Levy always seemed to be coming and going from somewhere, lakes and blue skies in the background, grin even brighter than the sun shining down on him.
It was one of the rare times when there was no one around Levy, ensconced in his room instead of outside. “Hey,” Levy greeted cheerfully as Alonso picked up the phone.
“Surprised you’re not on the boat. Did they finally kick you off?” Alonso joked.
“It’s my family’s boat, Olive. They can’t kick me off.”
“Yeah, tell that to your sister. She’s been complaining about you leaving your dirty bathing suit everywhere. Gross, by the way.”
“I’m notleaving it everywhere. I hang it out to dry, jeez,” Levy protested. “And since when do you talk to my sister?”
“She texts me to rant about you.”
“And you encourage it.”
Alonso smiled, shrugging. He flopped on his bed, groaning as his sore muscles stretched.
Levy lifted an eyebrow. “That didn’t sound good.”
“I’m fine,” Alonso muttered. Truth was, he was absolutely exhausted.
Obviously, he’d been aware of how much time he spent with Levy during the season, but he hadn’t realised how used to being with his teammates he’d become. Now, there was no one to hang out with, forcing him to spend hours alone or with his dad pushing him to work harder.
It was tiring, and lonely, and boring.
“Uh-huh. You’ve been training like crazy, then,” Levy shot back.
“Like you haven’t? You’ve put on weight already.”
“Olive…are you admiring my muscles?” Levy teased.
Alonso made a gagging noise, to which Levy just laughed.
“For real, though,” Levy said. “Don’t hurt yourself. We kind of need you next year.”
“Yeah, because I made such a difference.” Alonso went on quickly before Levy could say anything about that. “Hard to say no to my dad when he’s the only person I talk to.”
Levy frowned. “There’s so much to unpack there, I don’t even know where to start.”
“No need to unpack anything.”
“How come you don’t have any friends there? Aren’t the guys from Juniors there?”
“Not really. The team is based a few towns over, and everybody’s aged out anyway. Most of the people I was with were in billets, like Zee.”
Something weird passed over Levy’s face at the mention of Zee, but he didn’t say anything about him. “That sucks. You should make friends with guys at the gym or something.”
Alonso snorted. “Yeah, sure. That’ll work.”
