Chapter 7 #2
He didn’t have a chance to enjoy his solitude for long because Niko plopped beside him, fumbling when the cookie he had been holding in his mouth broke apart.
Harrison was sitting in a recliner chair, looking miserable with a heating pad strapped to his leg.
August’s respect for Killinger had skyrocketed after he heard how he taunted the guy trying to murder them into chasing him on the lake, knowing full well he would fall through and die.
What must it be like to have a love like that? August couldn’t imagine saving himself, let alone another person.
Jett was sitting on the opposite side of the sectional in the closest place he could get beside Harrison. They were…cute, which sounded like the wrong word to use, but it was the best he could come up with.
The way they kept looking at each other. Touching each other, even if it was as simple as a tap on the wrist. And yeah, August could feel the love between them, but they were newlyweds, so it’s not like he didn’t expect it.
“They’re gross,” said Jin, stabbing his fork into his salad like it owed him money. “You’ll get used to it after you stop hating them for having something you’ll never have.”
Jin was really pretty, even when he was scowling.
Especially when he was scowling.
Jett elbowed the pink-haired man since they were sitting beside each other, and then shifted his focus from admiring his husband to smiling at August. “Did you get enough food?”
August glanced at his plate, which was about to spill over. “I think I’m good.”
“Don’t be afraid to get more!” Robert shouted from the kitchen. “I’ll feed you better than a farmer feeds his prized herd of cattle.”
Again, August had no idea what the old man was saying. Was speaking in weird phrases a Nova Scotian thing?
“Robert got into the alcohol,” Harrison muttered. “Wait until he starts singing about fishing and mixes it with Christmas songs. We’ll be carolling about mackerel trees by the end of the night.”
These people were speaking in riddles. August didn’t know what the fuck a mackerel was, but it sounded ominous.
The attention turned away from him when the door opened, and two snow-covered, shivering Montreal players tumbled inside.
“Who ordered the fucking snow?” Arlo Killinger, the first line center for the Basiliques, said as he ripped off his Jacket with more drama than required.
étienne Leroux, the captain and first line right-winger of the Basiliques, followed his rookie inside, frowning severely.
“Niko did,” said Jin, nodding to August. “Ha. I beat Bash to it.”
Arlo froze mid-dress down and glared at the back of Jin’s head. “Can we normalize not scaring away new members of our group? August is cool as fuck, unlike you and your ballerina twink vibes.”
“Keep your dick in your pants, Arlo,” Harrison ordered.
Arlo kicked off his boots and marched into the living room, storming toward August in a similar way that Jin had not long ago.
August quickly set his plate down on the coffee table and stood, taking Arlo’s hand when he offered it and pulling him into a friendly shoulder bump.
“Nice to meet you off the ice,” said Arlo, and yeah, he looked like a smaller, prettier version of his cousin. Those blue eyes of his could melt anyone’s heart. “I can’t get over how fucking massive you are. I know you probably get tired of hearing it, but dude, it’s fucking impressive.”
August grinned because he didn’t mind when people had this kind of reaction to his size. Arlo wasn’t treating him like he was a freak of nature; he was envious of him. Only athletes understood how much work he put into his body when they looked at him, and he appreciated the attention.
“Thanks,” said August. “Sorry for that hit last year. You were faster than I was expecting, and I checked you too hard.”
Arlo punched him gently on the chest, barely making August sway. “Don’t worry about it. I should have kept my head up.”
“Arlo!” Robert shouted from the kitchen. “Get over here, son! I need me a hug.”
“Coming, Pops!” Arlo smirked at August, making him bump fists before he sprinted to the kitchen.
étienne approached the moment Arlo was gone, introducing himself with a handshake and a polite smile.
“Thanks for watching out for Niko,” étienne spoke softly, so he wasn’t overheard with the multiple conversations going on. “I think Jett has been worried about him since the trade, but he’s too proud to say it.”
“I could be doing a better job,” August admitted.
étienne was only a year older than him, but his presence was soothing in the same way that Robert’s was. And even though August was taller than the Montreal captain, he felt like a kid compared to him.
“Then do it,” said étienne, his smile making the sliver of grey in his eye seem brighter. “And also, welcome to the family. You will never know peace again.”
August believed him.
étienne left to greet Jett, Harrison and Jin, and August sat down, suddenly starving again.
He had an entire piece of pizza shoved in his mouth when Niko nudged him, making him spill a cookie off his plate.
“See? We’re not so bad.”
No. They really weren’t.
August had never cared for Christmas because all he knew was what he grew up with, which was a string of miserable days filled with religious bullshit and yearly beatings, but it wasn’t like that here.
He wasn’t being starved for his sins. Food was so abundant that he nearly made himself sick a few times as the days passed by.
He wasn’t forced to repeat verses of a book that held a more important position in his family than he did. However, he was forced to sing Christmas songs he didn’t know the words to.
He wasn’t hit, slapped, punched or locked in the closet because he had asked for a drink of water. Hugs, high-fives, and roughhousing were his constant companions until the moment he and Niko got on the plane and flew back to Vancouver.
And he wasn’t made to sit in silence alone and pray to an invisible man who must have hated him, because he did nothing to stop the hurt.
But when Niko dropped him off at his house, and he was faced with the silence that awaited him behind closed doors, he didn’t hesitate to turn and offer something he had never offered anyone before.
“Are you interested in renting a room?”