Page 75 of ICED
I let out a dry laugh. “You’d lose.”
“True, but I’d be annoying the whole time. Like, relentless.”
“Like a wasp with a podcast.”
“Exactly.”
We both laugh, and I feel something in my chest loosen.
It’s easy to forget how much I needed this connection. A mate who gets it. Someone I can talk to about more than tape brands and post-game beers. Ollie’s always been the joker, the chaos coordinator who steals the last muffin and blames it on Dylan. But underneath all that, there’s a heart. Big and steady and loyal as hell.
And today, he’s showing up for me.
“You ever feel like you’re scared of being happy?” I ask, quieter now.
He turns toward me, surprised. “All the time.”
“Like, the second you let yourself feel it, it’s gonna vanish.”
“Yeah,” he says. “Like it’s notyoursto keep.”
“Exactly.”
There’s a long pause. Then Ollie says, “I think happiness isn’t a prize. It’s not something you earn once and get to keep forever. It’s something youchooseevery day. Even when it’s hard. Especially when it’s hard.”
I blink. “That’s unexpectedly deep.”
“I contain multitudes.”
“You contain crumbs and chaos.”
“And wisdom,” he says. “Don’t forget wisdom.”
We sit in easy silence for a minute. Just two blokes in a locker room, sharing the kind of conversation most people don’t expect from guys like us. Big. Bruised. Built for collisions.
But that’s the thing no one gets. Some of us bruise easieroffthe ice.
Some of us have been carrying weight so long we forgot we could share it.
I lean back against the lockers. Let my eyes close for a second. “I think I’m falling in love with her,” I say.
Ollie doesn’t gasp. Doesn’t jeer. Doesn’t joke.
He just says, “Then fall.”
And it feels like permission.
I’ve been waiting my whole life for someone to say it’s okay to want this. Tohavethis. A home that isn’t made of bricks or banners, but of warmth and laughter and frosting in your hair.
I open my eyes.
“You ever been in love?” I ask.
Ollie exhales. “Yeah. Once.”
“What happened?”
“She left,” he says. “Moved back home to take care of her mum. We tried the distance thing, but life happened. And I wasn’t ready to give her what she needed.”
