Page 9 of Full Body Hit: Part 2
“Chase?”
The room spun, a moment of vertigo, but, no. That wasn’t Aunix. The cadence was similar, but the voice was all wrong. “Auston?”
“Yeah, hey.”
Chase had to take a moment to process that. “Uhm, hi?”
“Sorry. I asked Jimmy for your number. Hope I’m not interrupting anything.”
“Uhm…no. But, like. Can this wait until tomorrow?” The last thing he wanted to do right then was have another argument with Auston.
“Well—look. I just wanted to apologise for earlier. I know I was acting like a controlling dick, but I’m just…worried. I’ve seen a lot of guys come back early from concussions, and it’s fucked them up for life. I just didn’t want that happening to you.”
Auston had made him feel a lot of things in the past few months, but this was the most stunned Chase had been since meeting him. “Oh. That’s…thanks.”
There was a beat of silence. “I’m not trying to be difficult, but…you’re really okay?”
Again, vertigo hit Chase between the eyes.
For an instant, Auston had sounded exactly like Aunix.
It made Chase soften up. “I’m okay. I didn’t sleep well, but it has nothing to do with the concussion. Promise.”
“What’s going on?” Auston asked.
Chase blinked. Auston wasn’t exactly someone he felt comfortable talking to about this. “Just…personal stuff. It doesn’t have anything to do with hockey. Promise.”
“Oh, right. Well. If you have someone to talk to about that, it might help.”
“Yeah. Thanks.” Exhaustion coated Chase, crusting over him. “I should probably go, though.”
“Right. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“Yeah. Bye.”
“Bye.”
The line went blank. Chase put the phone away, utterly confused.
What the hell had that been about? Since when was Auston so concerned about Chase?
He buried his face in Joey, muffling a whine. He stayed there for a while, soaking in the warmth of his nest, dozing lightly, a skipping stone on the surface of sleep until he dropped down, down, down, into the dark.
It was only when he woke up in the dawn hours of the next morning that he saw he had a missed call from Aunix.
He left a voice message apologising, telling him to call again whenever.
Aunix simply hearted it back.
***
Auston wouldn’t stop asking him out for lunch.
Not like—on a date. Obviously. But definitely one-on-one.
If it had happened at the start of the season, Chase would have freaked out in the best way. Now? He honestly couldn’t imagine anything more exhausting.
They just…didn’t understand each other. Even with Auston being nice, Chase couldn’t help but be suspicious. It didn’t make sense for Auston to be interested in anything other than hockey when it came to Chase, and he didn’t want to sit through whatever lecture Auston had planned.
