Back on my old team, I could remember the fun of away games and tournaments. Sure, the actual games were fun, but what we did at the hotel was better. Hanging out in each other's rooms and ordering room service at ungodly hours of the night were always highlights of the trips.

Walking to the indoor pool with Josh and Fox brought back fond memories of my old team. Most of the team was already at the pool when we got there and everyone was laughing and having a good time while a game of chicken was going on in the middle of the pool.

I followed Josh and Fox over to a set of chairs where they each put their towels and tore off their shirts. I tried not to let my eyes linger on Fox's defined torso, but he made it hard. I hated him for being so hot. My shirt was off along with their's a few seconds later and I wished I could have said that Fox was looking at me, but instead, he was looking down at his phone.

"Come on," Josh said, nodding his head toward the pool.

"Do we really have to go in?" I whined.

"That's the whole point," Josh argued.

Instead of joining in on our conversation, Fox went ahead of us and wordlessly jumped into the pool, splashing everyone around him, including the two of us. While I was slightly annoyed at the action, everyone else cheered and hollered, grabbing onto Fox's shoulders and shaking him as he surfaced.

Fox turned to look at me, pushing his soaking wet hair back on his head. He nodded toward the pool, motioning for me to come in.

I shook my head.

"At least put your feet in," Fox encouraged, swimming over to the edge of the pool closest to me.

I let out a sigh before giving Fox an amused look and humoring him by walking toward the edge of the pool. As I was about to sit down, Fox's hand wrapped around my ankle and he pulled, causing me to tumble into the water on top of him.

Fox grabbed onto my arm and pulled me above the water and I began to uncontrollably cough once I surfaced. The guys around us were cheering and Fox smacked his hand onto my bare back, trying to help subside my coughs. Eventually, I got my breathing to be even and that was when I notice how close I was to Fox. For the first time, I noticed a small scar above his eyebrow which was the only blemish on his otherwise clear face.

"Sorry, dude," Fox apologized, "we had to get you in here somehow."

Before I could reply, Josh jumped into the pool and resurfaced beside me, wildly shaking his head and splashing me in the face with the water that came from his hair. I shoved Josh away from me in annoyance and glared at him before turning back to Fox.

"Or, you could have just let me stay out of the pool," I responded to Fox's earlier statement to which he shook his head.

"If you're going to be my friend, then I'm going to treat you how I treat my friends," Fox reasoned with a shrug. I couldn't help but let a smile creep up on my face.

"So you made up your mind?" I asked him in a happy tone.

Fox rolled his eyes and leaned back to float on his back in the water.

"I guess you could say that," he said.

I lowered myself into the water to hide the smile on my face from Fox. He didn't know his friendship could change the trajectory of how my life here was going, but I knew that being able to connect with him was going to make it easier.

"Ellis!" Ian exclaimed, causing me to stand and push my soaking wet hair out of my face. "Get on my shoulders."

"What?"

"No, I get Ellis," Alex argued, poking Ian on the shoulder. "He's the easiest one to lift."

Ian rolled his eyes and shoved Alex away from him.

"That's why I called him," Ian rudely retorted.

"I'm not getting on either of your shoulders," I told them, shaking my head.

"C'mon, Ellis," Ian tried to persuade me, walking toward me. "I'm a chicken champion, I need you for a competitive advantage."

"Come on Alex, go on my shoulders. We can beat them," Fox stated with a challenging look in his eye.

With that comment, my mind was made up for me. I walked over to Ian and wordlessly placed my hands on his shoulders. He crouched down in the water so I could get on his shoulders and then stood up, hooking his arms around my legs and gripping me above the knee.

Fox and Alex did the same and suddenly our team gathered around us, shouting and cheering for who they wanted to win. Ryan took the position of referee and stood between us, waiting to give us the go ahead.

"The rules are, there are no rules," Ryan announced with a smirk before motioning for us to begin.

Ian gripped me tighter as he made his way over to Fox and Alex. As soon as we were close enough, I reached out to shove Alex's shoulders. He wavered a bit, but Fox was able to keep him up and the two of us grabbed onto each other's arms and tried to pull each other down. I worked to make myself immovable, straightening my back so Alex wouldn't be able to use his strength against me.

Ian started moving closer to kick at Fox's legs, which only ended up making it harder for me to stay up to fight against Alex. While Fox and Ian were using their legs against each other, I continued to push forward on Alex. I gave him one last good shove that sent him toppling over, taking Fox with him. The cheers around us grew louder and Ian let go of my legs to throw his fists up in the air out of excitement. He crouched down so I could get off of his shoulders and as soon as I was down, I was being shoved and pat on the back by my teammates.

"No fair!" Alex exclaimed when he surfaced. "You know I'm not good on top!"

I couldn't help but laugh at the unintentional connotation of his words. A few of the guys caught on and gave him a strange look, but Alex didn't seem to notice.

"Josh, grab my phone!" Ryan called out as Josh hopped out of the pool for a drink of water. He dried his hands on a towel before picking Ryan's phone off of the table. "Take a pic of me and the chicken champs."

Before I could protest, Ryan grabbed me around the shoulder with Ian on his other side and Josh took a picture of the three of us, a few of the other guys jumping into the background.

We spent some more time in the pool before deciding to get out. A bunch of us gathered around a few tables just to hang out while we dried off. I sat between Josh and Fox while Ryan was across from me with Alex and Jude, Ian and Liam completing the circle beside each other.

"Ellis, what's your insta?" Ryan asked me, looking up from his phone. "I wanna tag you in this pic."

"I don't have one," I answered, leaning back in my seat. I was met with strange looks by the rest of the guys.

"Who in this day in age doesn't have an Instagram?" Liam rhetorically asked, sharing a look with Alex.

"Well, I have one," I confessed. "I just don't use it."

Social media didn't mix well with the way I had been treated at my old school. Since getting a new phone from my Dad, I hadn't downloaded any of the social media I used to use.

"Why not?" Ryan curiously asked, looking as if he couldn't understand why.

I shifted in my seat, feeling uncomfortable. I didn't want to tell these guys that I stopped using all of my social media because my old friends, and people I didn't even know, started to cyber bully me. They would think I was weak, but I didn't want to see what was written on there because I knew none of it was good. From what I had seen of it, it was unpleasant and would only make me feel bad about myself.

Josh, noticing my discomfort, intervened, "Lay off, Ryan."

Ryan gave me a sympathetic look and that was what made me decide to come clean. I didn't want his sympathy. I wanted to act like it didn't bother me.

"It's fine," I assured them. "I stopped using it when I came out, I just didn't want to deal with the bullshit," I nonchalantly lied with a shrug.

"I don't blame you," Jude said. "Your old team seems like a bunch of ass hats." They weren't always ass hats, but they definitely were after my coming out.

"We should probably head up to bed," Fox told the guys, standing up from his seat. "If you guys are tired tomorrow for the game, I'm going to kill you."

And with that everyone got up and grabbed our things, heading toward the elevators to get to our rooms. I followed behind Fox with Josh and Ian beside me and soon enough the four of us were in our hotel room. I changed into a pair of sweatpants, leaving my shirt off, and hopped into bed.

"Next time, me and Elijah get the window bed," Josh warned, pointing a finger at Ian who just rolled his eyes.

"Get over it," Ian retorted, tearing his shirt off and throwing it at Josh.

Fox scolded Ian, telling him to go to sleep, before shutting the light off. That was the end of conversation for the night.

***

After the laid back night we had, the next day hit me like a ton of bricks.

I fell to the ice, a searing pain traveling up my leg. I let out a loud groan and tried to shove myself up off the ice despite the pain. It was late in the third period of the game and we were tied. I had just blocked a shot in front of the net, the puck hitting me in an area of my leg that the pads didn't protect.

I pulled myself onto my knees and stumbled as I tried to get to my feet. The play was finally blown dead when our goalie held onto the puck after stopping another shot. As soon as the play was dead, Fox skated over to me and grabbed me by the arm, allowing me to use him for support, and brought me over to the bench.

"Are you okay?" he asked me as Josh made his way over to us.

I nodded. "I'll be fine, just need a sec."

"You should sit for the rest of the game," Josh suggested as we stopped at the bench.

I shook my head. "I can still play."

"Ellis!" Coach Silva called out, motioning for me to get on the bench. "Sit down and ice that."

I had to stop myself from rolling my eyes, but I complied with my coach anyway. Getting hit by a puck hurt, but it wasn't something that was going to keep me from playing. I just needed a break.

Fox and Josh skated back over to the face-off dot near our goal and another defenseman headed out onto the ice to replace me, setting himself up opposite of Ian.

"That was a good block, Elijah," Coach Silva complimented, slapping a hand down on my shoulder and handing me an ice pack. "It just got you in a bad spot."

"I'm fine," I assured him, lifting up my pants to place the ice pack on my leg.

Coach Silva nodded. "I know, I'd just feel better if you sat for a bit."

I wanted to protest, but I wouldn't speak out against my coach. I hated having to sit out when it was supposed to be my shift on the ice, even if the game was almost over.

Throughout the rest of the game, I watched from the end of the bench. The other team scored with about a minute and a half left and our team wasn't able to tie it up again, so we ended our short road trip with a win and a loss. My leg was still sore when we stood up to head to the locker room, but I could walk on it and that was an improvement.

"How's your leg?" Josh asked, catching up to me.

I told him it was better and then we went into the locker room and listened to Coach Silva tell us what parts of our game needed to improve and what we would be doing for practice on Monday.

It was late by the time we got back to the school and Josh drove us home, but Dad and Mindy had waited up for us like I assumed they would.

"How did your games go?" Dad asked as we entered the house. I was about to tell him about our loss, but Josh spoke up before I could say anything.

"Elijah got hurt," he told him to which my father's eyes widened in concern. I sent a nasty glare to Josh, but he ignored me as he walked over to his mother.

"Are you hurt Elijah?" Dad questioned, standing up from the couch and rushing over to me. "Why didn't you call? Why didn't your Coach call?"

"Dad," I groaned. "I just got hit with the puck blocking a shot. It's not a big deal," I assured him. He visibly relaxed when I told him what happened and I sent another glare Josh's way. I hated his big mouth sometimes.

After telling Dad and Mindy about the trip, we all headed upstairs to go to bed. I stopped Josh before he could hide in his room.

"Can you stop telling my dad about every aspect of my life?" I hissed quietly, looking down the hall to make sure Dad and Mindy weren't around.

Josh rolled his eyes. "He worries about you."

"That's exactly why I would rather keep some things to myself," I argued, placing my hands on my hips.

"Listen, Dan is like a dad to me and he asked me to watch out for you and tell him things he needs to know. He needs to know when you're hurt, Elijah," Josh sternly retorted.

I scoffed and shook my head in annoyance, looking up at the ceiling so I wouldn't have to look at him.

"I don't need you to babysit me, I'm not a kid," I angrily seethed.

"Take that up with your dad," Josh shot back before turning to enter his room, leaving me alone in the hallway.

I let out an angry breath and stormed to my own room, shutting the door tightly. Just when I thought this had been a good weekend, something had to come along and ruin it right at the end. It wasn't like I could avoid Josh considering the people on the team I befriended were his friends.

I was starting to think Josh and I would never truly be brothers.

**