I slowly get out of Leah's embrace and get ready for the game.

My nerves pick up remembering this is the playoffs.

It'll be fine. Tim, Aiden and I have been preparing for weeks.

I do some of my warmup exercises before I wake Leah up.

"Le, its time to get up" I whisper in her ear, kissing her temple.

"Mm, are you sure?" She jokes, a smile on her face.

"Yeah, I'm sorry hun" I smile back at her.

"Are you ready for your game?" She sits up, rubbing her eyes.

"I know, I'm going to touch up my makeup" She laughs, pulling her hands away from her eyes.

"Just take it off, you don't need it" I smile handing her my jersey.

"Oh yeah, sure" She pulls my jersey over her shirt.

"I'm going to ask if I can borrow Ellie's jeans" She walks out of my room, fluffing her hair.

"O-Okay" I stutter.

Fück, that was hot.

I shake my head, clearing my mind from the thoughts.

I need to finish getting ready.

"Mas, should I put my hair up or leave it down?" She asks, reapplying her mascara and concealer under her eyes.

"Down" I answer right away.

"Hmm, someone answered that really fast. So you like my hair like this?" She laughs, running her fingers through the loose, almost wave like curls.

"Yeah, its really pretty" I clear my throat.

"Thank you" She wraps her arms around my neck, staring into my eyes.

"Here, you didn't blend it all the way" I grab her beauty blender from next to her and fix the spot under her eyes.

"Are you a MUA now?" Leah jokes, placing a kiss on my cheek.

"I am actually" I throw my letter jacket on my arms and watch as she applies her lipstick.

She gives me a goofy smile, placing her hand in mine.

"I'm driving" She holds up her keys.

"No you aren't" I laugh filling my water bottle and grabbing a gatorade.

"Yes I am, its your big day" She nudges me with her elbow.

"Leah, just let me drive. I don't care who's car we take" She frowns.

She can drive whenever she wants, but I see how tired she is. I don't want anything to happen.

To her, I couldn't care less about me.

"Let me drive and we'll go out for ice cream after" I try to bribe her.

"If I don't drive there, I'm driving home" She crosses her arms.

"Fine, drive there" I sigh, stuffing my water and gatorade in my bag.

"I'll see you guys there" I call through the house, holding the door open for Leah.

"Thank you" She wraps her small arms around my waist.

What is going on with her?

"Of course Le, you're welcome" She looks up at me with tears in her eyes.

What the fück?

"Leah, what is wrong?" I ask, worry filling my voice.

"I-I'm so lucky" She blinks away the tears, careful not to mess up her mascara.

"Le" I grab her hands.

"Its okay, I'm okay. Just emotional. I'm so proud of you" She smiles.

She has her period.

"Thank you, my love" I leave a kiss on her lips, grabbing her hand.

"Lets go kick äss" I smile as she starts the car.

We soon arrive at the rink and I run to the locker room after walking her over to Daniella and placing my jacket over her shoulders.

"Okay guys, its the 2nd biggest game of this season. If we want to get to the championships we need to win this. We have the ability to win the championship, we just need to apply ourselves. Find something that motivates you and use it to help us win this game. We can do it, I know it. Now, lets go out there and put our heart and souls into this game. Lets kick some fücking äss" I say, trying to hype the guys up.

The guys smile, screaming some things.

After a couple minutes we do our cheer and head onto the ice.

My eyes immediately find Leah's and a huge smile spreads on her face.

She's my motivation.

As soon as the whistle blows my stick is grabbing the puck and I'm off. I weave in and out of defensive players, slapping the puck around.

Finding Tim, I slap the puck his way and seconds later the puck is flying past the goalies stick.

I skate up to him, giving him a high five and repeat the process but with Aiden.

The smile and love on Leah's face is heartwarming and only makes me want to go to the championship more.

•••••••

Theres 5 minutes left in the game and we are up by 3. They can easily come back.

Everyone knows what we need to do. Aiden and I set up in the play we have been working on perfecting for months.

He gives me a nod before slapping the puck to me. I dodge the defensive player, slapping the puck to Aiden who's behind the goal now.

Successfully throwing the opposing team off guard Aiden hurls the puck towards me and I shot it into the goal swiftly.

15-12

I call the guys into a huddle and tell them to stall. We have 3 minutes left, I want to prevent them from scoring.

The game ends and we win. The team dog piles me, causing a chuckle to erupt from my chest.

"Boys, locker room. Now" Coach calls and we head into the room.

"Great game. I'll leave the talking to White" He says when we get in there.

"Awesome game guys. Now, we know what happened last year. Lets not let that happen this year. I want to win. I know you do too. We need to work as a team. Practice tomorrow at 4. Be there or you don't play in the game. Got it? Lets not screw this up boys. We can do it" I rush, wanting to see Leah.

"Okay, you guys can go" Coach dismisses us.

"Hey man, great game. I'll see you guys out there" I say to Aiden and Tim while taking my equipment off.

"Yeah, go get your girl" Aiden hits my back.

I sneak up behind Leah, throwing my arms around her.

"You did it" She shrieks her arms finding their way around my neck.

"We did. We made it to the championship" I whisper, lifting her off the ground.

"Y'all are too cute" Dani says, causing Leah to laugh.

Tim makes his way over to us and I go greet Brooks, Ellie and my parents.

"You were great out there Mason" My mom smiles, hugging me.

"Thanks" I hug her back.

"Aiden, Tim, Leah, Daniella and I are going to go out for dinner. Brooks, Elle, you guys are welcomed to come too" I tell them.

"Yeah, go have fun" She smiles.

"I'm taking Ellie out tonight, but another night? Thanks man, great game" Brooks dabs me up as the leave the rink.

I head back to everyone else, Leah's face immediately lights up when she sees me.

God I love this girl so much.

I stand behind her with my arms around her shoulders. She leans back into my chest. I lean down, whispering in her ear.

"We are going out to eat. Is that okay with you?" I ask. "Yeah, of course Mas" She gives me a smile.

"Alright, they need to get a room. Stop talking dirty to each other while there is people here. Gross" Tim says, laughing.

"Judging by the lack of blush on Leah's cheeks, they were not dirty talking" Daniella smirks.

"We were not" Leah crosses her arms.

"Man, chill. Lets go eat" I grab Leah's waist, causing her to shriek.

"That tickled" She smiles at me.

It takes me a second to catch my breath.

"I love you" I kiss her cheek, grabbing her hand.

"I love you too" She blushes, pulling me to the car.

"I got the keysss" She sticks her tongue out, sitting in the drivers seat.

"But you don't know where we are going" I watch as her smile falls from her face.

"Come on, hand them over" I hold out my hand.

She huffs, placing them in my hand and climbing over to the passengers seat.

"Can I sleep over tonight?" She asks a couple minutes into the drive.

Her tone of voice throws me off.

It sounds nervous, scared and desperate.

"Yeah of course, is everything okay?" I ask pulling into Buffalo Wild Wings.

"I just haven't been sleeping very well at all. That nap was the best sleep I've gotten in days" She explains, looking at me with tired eyes.

"Yeah, I'm sorry, you should have told me" I pull her over the arm rest.

"I thought I would sleep better within a couple days but I didn't. I-I'm sorry" She stutters.

"Shh, don't apologize. It's okay" I pull her close to my chest, resting my head on top of hers.

She must be having nightmares. I wish she would tell me what they are about. I don't want to pry but it makes me more nervous when she doesn't confide in me.

"Lets go eat so you can get home and to sleep" I explain, opening the door.

"Okay" She nods, climbing off my lap and out of the car.

She grabs my hand as soon as I step out of the car. I bring our hands up to my lips and softly kiss her hand.

We find our friends and sit down with them. Leah sits next to Aiden and I sit next to Tim.

"Hey little sis" He smiles at her. My stomach churns.

I know both, Aiden and Leah don't have any feelings towards each other besides friendship. I still can't help the pang of jealousy I feel.

Leah notices the thoughtful look on my face and places her hand on my thigh, sending me a soft smile.

I return the smile to her, all my worries fading away for the moment. Conversation spreads around the table, laughs, smiles and memories are shared.

The car ride back to my house Leah falls asleep.

I carefully pick her up, placing her under the covers on the bed.

I take a really quick shower, change and fix my hair.

"Le" I wake her up, reluctantly.

"Hey" She yawns.

"You fell asleep in the car so I let you sleep while I showered but that can't be comfortable" I laugh.

"Yeah, thank you. Can I borrow clothes?" She stands up, stretching.

"Yeah, of course" I grab her one of my t-shirts and a pair of my boxers.

"I know you like to sleep in shorts and my shorts are definitely too big on you" I explain.

"Okay, thank you" She blushes, going into my bathroom.

A couple minutes later she comes out, holding her clothes and my jersey in her arms.

"Do you need anything else?" I ask.

"Do you have a spare toothbrush? I'm sorry, if not its no big deal" She grabs the spare hair brush Ellie gave me for Leah whenever she stays here.

"Yeah" I grab one from under the sink.

"Thank you" She gives me a small smile.

I give her a nod, making my way to the bed.

I turn off the lights and turn on my lamp. I lay down in my spot and place my arm under my head.

She steps out of the bathroom, looking drop dead gorgeous.

My shirt hits the middle of her thighs, the bottom of my plaid boxers showing a little. Her almost straight hair is pulled to one side and her small feet pad across my hardwood floor, to the bed.

She blushes, noticing my eyes on her.

"What? Did I miss something?" She questions.

"No, no. You look perfect" I respond, wrapping my arms around her waist, pulling her body to mine.

Her small, fragile figure fits perfectly on mine.

"You want to know what my nightmare was about, don't you?" She calls me out on my thoughts, outlining my abs with her finger.

"Yeah, I do. But I don't want to pry or force it out of you. I'm just worried about you Le" I run my fingers through her hair.

"It's okay. I don't remember it all. I just know it wasn't a happy memory. I think it was right after I first started getting abused" Her breathing hitches.

"I, um. I know that when it first started up, I didn't know what to do. I didn't know that the right thing to do was to take it. So I would fight back. It always ended worse"

Her voice is broken. It sounds tired, hurt, scared. I'm brought back to the time her voice always sounded like this. When I had no idea.

"I'm sorry. You shouldn't have went through that. No one should" I try to comfort her.

"It's okay. You don't have to say anything Mas" She whispers.

"Go to sleep Le" I hug her, bringing her back even closer to my chest.

"Okay, I love you Mason" She says before soft snores are heard.

"I love you too Leah" I say before darkness welcomes me.

That has got to be the fastest the goal has been reached! Thank you. I'm now officially done with school and on summer vacation! So far I have passed all my regents which is great news! I hope you enjoyed this chapter. A little longer than the previous one. Don't forget to vote, comment and share!

We went from 44k to 46k reads in two days?!?! Thats absolutely insane, thank you so so much!

14 votes and 25 comments

Word count: 2294

~Leah