The Hockey Lie

Chapter 19

TY

December 18

"THANK THE GOOD LORD IT'S OVER!" I screamed in triumph as I walked out of the psychology classroom, throwing my hands in the air.

"Whoa, someone's happy," laughed Michaela.

The two of us had just handed our psychology finals into the devil himself, Professor Robinson, and I couldn't be happier.

"I never want to see Robinson's ugly face again," I said disgustedly.

"Trust me, I don't either. I'm so glad we never have to go to that class again," Michaela sighed in relief.

"I swear, when he handed out that final and rolled his eyes at me, I was this close to beating him up," I said angrily, putting my pointer finger and thumb closely together.

"I don't doubt that you would've punched him if he had made one more dumb comment about 'idiotic athletes'," laughed Michaela.

"Well, lucky for me, I'm done with that class and done with finals all together. Psych was my last one," I stated happily.

"Lucky you. I still have to take my Algebra final," groused Michaela.

"You'll do fine. You love math, don't you?" I asked.

"Yeah, but it's still a final."

"I guess you do have a point there," I agreed. "Well, I probably won't see you until after break. I'm going to head back to my dorm for a few hours, but after that I'm going to head home."

"All right, see you later," Michaela said.

"Bye," I said, waving as I headed back to Centennial Hall.

The weather seemed to get colder every passing day. Minnesota winters may look pretty, but they're not very fun to deal with. We had gotten a foot of snow a few days ago, so the long walk back to my dorm building was not fun.

"Having fun out there?" laughed someone as I stomped the snow off my shoes onto the mat at the entrance of Centennial Hall. I looked up only to see Seth standing there, smirking at me.

"Shut up," I grumbled, punching his shoulder. "There's a lot of snow outside."

"We live in Minnesota, what do you expect?" Seth pointed out, and I just rolled my eyes.

"So where are you headed?" I asked him.

"I've gotta go take a history final. It's my last one of the semester," he smiled.

"I just finished my last final. Of course my last final was the worst one, psych," I grumbled.

"Hey, just be glad you're done," Seth said. "After I finish this last final, I'm going to head home. I'm really excited to see my family. All my aunts and uncles and cousins are going to be here until a few days after Christmas."

"That sounds like fun. My best friend's going to be back in Blaine sometime, but I'm not sure when. He didn't tell me," I said.

"Well, I'd better go take that final," Seth sighed. "I probably won't see you again until practice towards the end of Christmas break."

"I'm so glad Coach isn't making us practice much over break," I said gratefully.

"Yeah, it's really nice that he's giving us some time to be with our families. If we all stay conditioned on our own over break, we should be fine. I mean, we don't have a game again until the second week of January."

"Right. I love hockey, but it'll be nice to take a break and rest up."

"Well, I'll see you after break," Seth said, waving as he left.

"Bye," I called after him.

Steph wasn't in the dorm when I finally reached it. I knew she was taking an English final and wouldn't be back for a while, so I decided to pack a few of the clothes I would want to take home over break.

I opened my wardrobe and began throwing an array of sweatshirts, sweatpants, and jeans into the open duffle bag on my bed. I hadn't organized my wardrobe since the beginning of the semester, so I found some clothes in the back that I had forgotten about. After going through my wardrobe, I realized I had a lot more of Easton's clothes than I realized.

After I was done packing my clothes, I grabbed a few other things I thought I'd need at home over break and threw them into my bag as well. Once that was done, I went back to my wardrobe and grabbed the hat Easton had given me and placed it on my head.

"I see you're ready to get out of here," Steph commented as she walked into the dorm room.

"How could you tell?" I laughed, gesturing at my overly-full duffle bag.

"I'm surprised you haven't left yet."

"I wanted to wait until you got back from your last final so I could say good-bye," I told her.

Steph stepped forward and gave me a hug. "I'm really going to miss you over break."

"Me too," I replied, hugging her back.

"I wish you could come to Iowa with me," Steph frowned.

"Why would anyone ever want to go to Iowa in the first place?" I joked.

Steph punched my shoulder and said, "Hey, that's my home state you're insulting."

"That's the point," I laughed.

"So do you have anything special planned for break?" Steph asked.

"Well, I think Easton and I will finally get the chance to spend a lot of time with each other over break, so that'll be good. We're going to his parents' house for Christmas Eve and we're going to spend Christmas Day with my family," I said.

"That sounds like fun," Steph replied.

"What are you going to do?" I asked.

"I think I'll just spend the whole break with family and maybe catch up with a few high school friends. I don't get to meet up with my friends or family much anymore."

"It'll be good for you to finally spend some time with your friends and family again," I commented.

"You're lucky you live so close to home."

"Yeah, I guess. It's nice to be so close to home yet feel like you're farther away since there's so many people here on campus. I feel like a see a bunch of new faces every day I'm here. I don't feel like I live fifteen minutes away from home."

"Well, I should probably start my own packing. I've got a long drive ahead of me," sighed Steph.

"You're driving the whole way home tonight, right?" I asked.

"Yup. It'll be great," she said sarcastically.

"Well, have fun with that. I should probably head home. I think my dad's going to make spaghetti tonight since I'm going to be home," I smiled. I loved my dad's spaghetti. It was my favorite.

"Lucky you. I'll probably grab some fast food on the way home."

"You're welcome to come over for dinner tonight if you want to," I offered.

"Thanks, but I wouldn't be able to make it home tonight if I stayed that long," Steph declined.

"That's all right. Maybe next semester you could come over for dinner at my house a few weekends," I suggested.

"Yeah, that'd be fun!" she said excitedly.

"I'll see you when we get back," I said, hugged Steph one last time.

"Text me over break. I want to stay in touch," she demanded.

"Will do," I laughed, grabbing my duffle bag. I slid my coat on, grabbed my keys, and headed out of the dorm for the last time that semester.

I headed out to my truck and made the short trip home with ease. I pulled into my driveway and saw an unfamiliar car parked across the street.

I grabbed my duffel bag and headed into the house. "I'm home!" I called, dropping my bag by the door along with my shoes.

Nobody answered so I headed into the kitchen. When I saw my old friend standing near the refrigerator, I ran over to him and pulled him into a bear hug.

"Cal!" I cried happily.

"Ty!" he shouted back mockingly.

"Why didn't you tell me you'd be home tonight?" I interrogated.

"I wanted to surprise you," he smiled.

"Really?"

"No, I actually just came over here because I heard Tom was making spaghetti," he joked.

"You're a jerk," I said, punching his shoulder.

"Ty, Cal, I hate to break up this reunion, but you're taking up too much kitchen space," Dad said impatiently, implying that we should head to the living room.

"Sorry, Dad," I apologized, and Cal and I headed to the living room.

"I missed my best friend," Cal said, hugging me again.

"I missed you, too. How did your finals go?" I asked.

"I think they went really well. I should have a decent GPA for this semester," Cal shrugged.

"Good. We don't need you failing out of college and losing your hockey scholarship," I teased.

"How were your finals?" Cal asked, ignoring my jokes.

"They were all good except psychology," I said through gritted teeth.

"What, do you think you failed?" asked Cal, concerned.

"No, I think I passed. I just hated that class so much. My professor was a psychopath," I said, rolling my eyes.

"That's kind-of ironic," laughed Cal.

"Shut up. Okay, I don't want to talk about classes anymore. We don't have to worry about those for a good month. Let's just focus on how great this break is going to be," I suggested.

"All right. Now the real question is, what are we doing for New Year's?" asked Cal.

"Actually, I have a great idea for that..." I started, but Dad cut me off.

"Kids, dinner's ready!" Dad called to us from the kitchen.

"Man, we're freshmen in college and he still calls us kids," Cal scoffed, shaking his head.

"That's the way it's always going to be," I shrugged.

"I know, I know," Cal replied. "I guess I don't really mind. All I care about right now is eating as much spaghetti as humanly possible."

"I bet I can eat more," I smirked.

"You're on," Cal replied, flashing a smirk right back at me.

"It's good to be home," I smiled, following Cal into the kitchen.