A pull on my hair dragged me out of sleep. I slowly opened my eyes to see Fox staring at his phone as I rested my head on his arm, his fingers playing with my hair.

After a few moments of staring at the side of his face, he turned toward me, placing his phone down on his bare chest.

"We have to be to breakfast in half an hour," he told me.

I let out a long groan, turning to rest my head on his chest.

"I'm tired," I mumbled into his skin.

"Worn out from last night?" he joked.

"Sh!"

I sat up and slapped my hand over his mouth, turning to look at Josh to make sure he hadn't heard what Fox just said. He was still asleep, his head hiding under a pillow and his leg hanging off the side of the bed.

Fox chuckled, pulling me down so I was lying on top of him. He was about to say something when his phone buzzed, causing him to roll his eyes as he picked it up to check the text.

"What's that?" I asked, rolling off of him.

"My annoying siblings are here to watch the tournament," Fox muttered, answering the text.

"All of them?"

"Yep."

Fox's parents, like mine, couldn't get the time off to make it to the tournament. But his siblings were all on break from school.

I stood up from the bed, stumbling a bit when a dull ache in my back side slowed my movements.

"Shit," I groaned, the pain becoming more constant the more I thought about it.

Fox snickered from his spot on the bed, causing me to send a glare his way, grimacing as my movements fueled the pain.

"I haven't had sex in a while, alright?" I said, glancing over at Josh to make sure he was still sleeping. "It hurts."

"I'm sorry," Fox replied, though he didn't sound all that sorry. "We can switch next time."

My eyes widened at what he was offering.

"You better not be joking," I said, pointing a finger at him. "Because I'll take you up on that."

"I'm not joking," he assured me in a serious tone, standing up from the bed.

I stood still, continuing to be shocked at his words as he came over to me and placed a long kiss on my mouth before heading into the bathroom. Just as he shut the bathroom door, Josh's alarm went off, waking he and Ian.

Ian groaned, sitting up with his hair disheveled and sticking in every direction. Josh continued to sleep like a rock until Ian gave him a hard shove so that he would turn the alarm off. Without picking up his head, Josh shot his arm out from under the covers and grabbed his phone and silencing it.

Once we had all gotten ready, we made it down to breakfast where the coaches were already waiting. The rest of the team slowly showed up, Alex squinting as he made his way to the table, obviously having just woken up.

"Boys we need to make this quick," Coach Silva started. "I need you guys at the rink in an hour so we can get your skates sharpened and get our practice time on the ice."

Coach finished telling us the schedule for the day then allowed us to continue our breakfast.

"Why didn't you two come to our room last night?" Alex asked Fox and me, pointing toward us with his fork.

"We were busy," Fox shot back, looking as if he was daring Alex to continue.

"Busy fuc—"

"Stop," I warned, glancing at him with a glare.

Alex just smirked, nudging Jude with his elbow. "They totally did."

"Alex, stop," Josh hissed.

Jude snickered but didn't say anything else about the topic as we finished our breakfast.

We spent all morning getting ready for our first game. We would have to win two games today if we wanted to make it to tomorrow. Then, we would have to play another game the next morning to make it to the final round which would be later that night. It was an action packed few days.

The only way we would have to play my old team was if we won both of our games today and they won both of their's. Then, we would have to play them in the morning and beat them if we wanted to make it to the final round.

I could only hope they would be losing today.

***

It was a relief that we had ended up winning both of our games. We had fought hard and the work paid off as we would be able to compete again the next day.

Fox and I were resting in bed, my head on his chest as he was texting back and forth with Raven. Josh was in the shower while Ian napped.

"They want us to go with them to the arcade," Fox muttered as a text popped up from Raven.

"Right now?"

"Yeah."

After leaving a note for Josh about where we went, Fox and I met his family down at the arcade where Colt and Wren were partaking in a heated game of air hockey.

"Elijah!" Fawn exclaimed as we made our way over to them.

Fox scoffed and walked over to her, ruffling her hair and earning a loud smack on his arm.

"Fox Lee Ridley!" Fawn screeched, her eyebrows angrily knitted together and her mouth pointing downward in a frown. "How many times do I have to tell you? Don't touch my hair!"

"Your middle name is Lee?" I laughed, earning a glare from Fox.

"We all have L middle names," Fawn answered, moving to stand on the other side of me, away from Fox.

"If you can't tell, our mom is obsessed with themes," Robin added with a laugh.

Raven came over to stand beside Fox, throwing an arm around him.

"Good games today," she said, hugging him from the side. "But you have to watch it at the blue line. You went offside, like, three times in one game because you jumped the blue line."

Fox rolled his eyes. "Okay."

"I really wish we could've taken Ava," Fawn said to me, a look of disappointment on her face.

"That would've been fun," I agreed.

"Elijah," Raven called out, gaining my attention. "You played really great today."

I smiled at her. "Thanks."

"No criticism for him?" Fox questioned his sister with raised eyebrows.

She pat him on the shoulder with a smug smile. "Nope."

"So," Robin started, taking a sip of his beer. "How did you two become so close? Fox has never hung out with one of his friends this much."

"Uh..." I trailed, looking to Fox for help. He stared off into space for a moment, contemplating on what he should tell his brother.

"That's a stupid question, Rob," Wren interjected as he hit the air hockey puck into Colt's goal, a frustrated groan coming from Colt.

"I'm just wondering," Robin defended. "I mean the only one of his friends I've ever seen this much is Claudia and they were dating."

"Ian stays over all the time," Wren pointed out in a bored tone.

"That's different," Robin replied, waving him off.

Wren wouldn't look over at Fox and me but it felt like this was his way of trying to mend things with his brother, taking the attention off of our relationship.

Fox didn't seem to be paying any attention to him as he glanced around the room, his eyes darkening when they landed on a target.

"We have to go," Fox said, still staring ahead.

"You just got here!" Robin complained.

I followed Fox's line of vision to see that Dave and my mom were sitting over in the bar area on the other side of the room. Neither of them seemed to have noticed us.

"Fox, it's fine," I tried to assure him but he just shook his head.

"Is everything okay?" Raven asked, looking around to try to see what Fox was glaring at.

"Are you staring at that guy who's looking over here?" Robin questioned, pointing toward Dave.

My eyes shot back toward where the two sat to see that Dave had noticed me.

"Who is that guy?" Wren asked, turning around to see what we were all looking at.

"No one," I answered, turning around so I wouldn't have to look at Dave.

"We can leave," Fox said in a low tone.

"It's fine," I repeated.

We spent a little while longer with Fox's family. He and Wren hadn't said anything to each other, not that I expected them to. It made me wonder why Wren had come here at all.

We managed to make it through the night without Dave or my mother bothering us. After a little while, we went back to the hotel room to get sleep for the busy day we had tomorrow.

***

The atmosphere as we entered the rink was tense. Although there was noise coming from the large crowd, the room seemed silent as I locked eyes with Dave. His only focus was me, watching my every move as I stepped onto the ice behind Ian for warm ups.

"That the stepdad?" Ian asked as we skated together. I just hummed in response.

Luckily, the other team stayed on their side of the ice for the remainder of warm ups. I knew they wouldn't be that courteous during the game though. Once the puck dropped, they would be coming for me.

Fox's shoulders were tense as I followed him onto the bench. I placed my hand on his back.

"We just gotta play," I reminded him in a hushed tone.

We sat down together on the bench, Fox's expression etched in a frown.

"If any of them go for you, I'm taking them out," he said, looking straight ahead.

"Fox."

"I'm not kidding, if that Landon asshole isn't careful, his head might just become detached from his body."

There was no use in arguing with him.

"Elijah," Coach Silva called out from behind me. "If you feel threatened or uncomfortable at any time, come back to the bench."

I just nodded. I wasn't going to be sitting out of this game.

After one last pep talk, Coach sent us out onto the ice for puck drop.

Landon and Fox lined up at the center dot, both hunching over with rigid postures for the face off. I couldn't help but feel nervous having Fox so close to him.

The referee dropped the puck and Fox won the face off, the puck finding its way onto Josh's stick. I followed Josh as he skated up ice toward our attacking zone. Josh passed the puck cross ice toward Alex, but Landon intercepted it and changed direction.

I started skating backwards before turning and heading for Landon. I forced him into the boards, causing him to send the puck back toward one of his teammates.

Ian was able to steal the puck back and shoot it up ice as we made our way to the bench for a shift change. We watched as Ryan sped up the ice, ripping a shot toward the net and past the goalie. Getting an early lead in the game caused an eruption of cheers from our bench.

Eventually our line got put back on the ice against Landon's. I could tell he was frustrated he was losing so early in the game. He always got more aggressive when the team was losing. Landon slammed Alex into the boards and stole the puck. Fox and I were quick to follow him. His shot deflected off me and Fox took the puck.

The rest of Landon's line left the ice for a change but Dave signaled for him to stay. Landon chased down Fox and shoved into his shoulder with so much force it nearly knocked him over. Fox was still able to get a shot off and the goalie stopped it, resulting in a stoppage of play.

"Landon," I called out, causing him to drag his narrowed eyes toward me. "Cool it."

An evil looking smirk overtook his face. We skated by each other as we made our way back to our respective benches.

"I found out the best way to mess with you is to mess with him," Landon said in a low tone, his eyes directed toward Fox.

He stepped onto his bench and earned a nod of appreciation from Dave.

"Fox," I hissed as I quickly made it back to our bench. "Fox!"

"Not right now," he said as Coach Silva was drawing something on a whiteboard for him to see.

"Landon is trying to hurt you," I told him, nudging his side. Fox turned to look at me with a confused expression.

"He's not gonna hurt me," he said, trying to be reassuring but it did nothing to ease my nerves.

I could deal with Landon trying to hurt me but if he did something to Fox, that would hurt me more and he knew it.

"Fox," I whined.

It seemed like we hadn't been on the bench that long but it was already time for us to go back out. A pit formed in my stomach as Fox lined up across from Landon.

Fox won the face off but soon after Landon got the puck and the two of them were in a battle at the corner. Landon's elbow came up under Fox's chin as he slammed Fox into the boards. The refs didn't call an elbowing penalty which caused an uproar from Coach Silva.

Landon and Fox continued their rough pursuit of the puck. Words were exchanged between the two of them, Landon obviously getting angrier by the second.

The next few moments seemed to happen in slow motion.

Landon lifted his stick and cross checked Fox across the chest with so much force both of them went tumbling to the ice. The whistles blew as Landon grabbed at Fox's helmet, ripping it from his head to land a punch on his face.

Without thinking, I sprung into action but I was pulled back by one of my old teammates.

The moments after that happened quickly.

I shoved the guy off me but he was quick to grab the back of my jersey and spin me around. I didn't know how it happened, but a full on brawl began to take place on the ice.

Players from the benches swarmed onto the ice, throwing their gloves and helmets off and getting themselves someone to fight with. My helmet flew off my head and I was immediately hit with a punch in the face.

The punch left me disoriented for a few moments before I realized another was coming and I dodged it. I swung a fist and landed a hard hit, spinning around to try to get to Fox.

Fox was still down in the ice with Landon, the refs preoccupied with other players. I sped over to the two of them, knocking Landon off of Fox.

"Are you hurt?" I asked him in a panicked tone. He just stood up and made his way back over to Landon.

I tried to stop him, but someone grabbed me from behind, pulling me away. My elbow repeatedly prodded into the person but they just held me tighter.

"Elijah stop it right now," Dave's voice said from behind me. This only caused me to start writhing, desperate to be free from his grip.

I noticed the coaches were all out on the ice, trying to control their players. Coach Silva grabbed ahold of Ian who was fighting an old teammate of mine that was way bigger than him.

Ryan was down on the ice on top of someone, holding his arms down as he tried to throw punches up at him. I caught a glimpse of Alex throwing a punch to someone's face when suddenly there was a collision behind me and I was released.

I turned to see Josh had shoved Dave away from me.

"Stay away from him," Josh seethed toward Dave who wore a dramatically offended expression.

I didn't have time to stay and thank Josh. My skates glided back toward Fox and Landon to see their fight had progressed. Both had bloody knuckles dripping onto the ice and injured faces.

I couldn't make it all the way to them before security had gotten onto the ice and started pulling everyone apart.

When Fox was grabbed I could finally get a good look at his face. His nose was bleeding and his lip was split. The rest of his face had some bruising but it seemed like he had given a similar treatment to Landon.

We were all being shoved into our respective locker rooms about to face the wrath of our seething coaches.

**