(Hockey Bxb) Whistle In The Wind -𝐈𝐈-

╔══《”No thing defines a man》══╗
like love that makes him soft.”

       Lucien had just gotten off the phone with his best friend. Him and Aksel clicked in ways he couldn’t put into words. He laid back down in his bed, staring at the ceiling: boring and white.

       He always enjoyed spending his time at the Lien family household more than he did at his own. At his house, he always had to deal with his bubbly mother and extroverted father who both cared too much about his boring life.

       Boring. He supposed it was boring. His only friends were guys on the school hockey team, and the only one he was really close to was Aksel. He got mediocre grades, had a median social life, and a non existent love life.

       His mind wandered to love. He always had no luck in that department. It seems that no matter how many girls showed interest in him, he could never find it in himself to reciprocate.

       Maybe I just won’t ever get a crush. He wondered. But even as he thought this, he knew it wasn’t true. He knew deep down, something he swore to never admit.

       His wandering thoughts were cut short. The familiar sound of his phone going off alerted Lucien from his day-dreaming. Did Aksel butt dial me? He began to question. They had only hung up within the last hour.

       Begrudgingly, Lucien stretched over to his bedside table, contorting his body to reach the ringing device. He grabbed his phone, cringing as the bright screen illuminated his face in the darkness of his room. The blackout curtains pulled over his windows blocked out the light of the moon.

       He squinted at the screen, finding it a struggle to read the words. Not only had he taken his contacts out, causing the world around him to be blurry, but his dyslexia helped him little in deciphering the name at the top of the screen.

       Váli. His mind registered the unfamiliarity. He sprung upright in bed. Váli? His mind searched for a possible explanation but came up empty. He and Váli had only shared passing words, and only in the presence of Aksel. The two were never close, but like a shadow, Váli was always around. He seemed to follow Lucien, taunting him.

       Without wasting another second, Luc accepted the facetime, suddenly scared that something had happened. However, upon accepting, the screen showed only a ceiling. Silence followed.

       Letting out a sigh of relief, Lucien moved his thumb to hover over the hang up button. He accidentally called, it’s no biggie. He reassured himself.

       Before he was able to press the red button, he heard the shifting of blankets. “Hello?” he spoke quietly into the phone. Upon uttering those words, the screen–which once displayed a plain white ceiling–changed.

       Did I wake him up? Lucien contemplated. All of the sudden, his heart stopped. He could only watch, paralyzed as Vál picked up his phone, facing it toward himself.

       With his eyes still closed, and his mind not yet conscious, he slowly rubbed at his face. Lucien could only watch in debilitating silence. A distant light lit up his face, and Luc found his eyes mapping every surface. His long eyelashes, which were light colored like his hair. His nose, which was small and cute–Wait what.

       Quickly, Luc looked away from the screen. How long have I been holding my breath? He found it hard to suck in, attempting many times before finally breathing deeply.

       A small groan brought his attention back to the sleeping boy. Lucien watched in utter amazement as the younger began mumbling in his sleep. Like a potion had captivated him, Luc couldn’t look away. Every atom in his body was screaming at him to hang up and forget this even happened, but his body remained frozen.

       For some inexplicable reason, he couldn’t stop. He couldn’t pull his eyes away from the gentle image. Suddenly, Váli changed once more. This time, his eyes slowly opened in a daze.

       In that moment, Luc’s breath had vanished like a mirage. His eyes. They were so pale as the faint light reflected off them.

       Vál and his brother simultaneously looked similar, and completely different at the same time. While they shared the same features, Aksel’s demeanor was more rugged. So despite looking at Aksel’s bright blue eyes everyday, nothing could have prepared Luc for Váli ‘s .

       They were delicate, and matched his facial harmony. Lucien quickly noticed he was staring, and blinked repeatedly to break his trance. It seemed that even though his eyes were slanted open, Vál hadn’t woken up.

       He was in limbo. That state between consciousness and unconsciousness.

       Slowly, his gaze locked in on the screen, staring at Luc. His eyes were wide, but still sluggish in a way that resembled sleep, glazed over with tiredness. Leisurely, his lips turned upright. A second later, his eyelids fell closed again and his slight smile dropped to a neutral position.

       Luc knew he had lost the boy to sleep. Would he remember this in the morning? Do I want him to remember this? Overwhelmed, Lucien quickly hung up, placing his phone face down on his bedside table. He stared at the ceiling, knowing he would get little sleep that night.

…

       The sun rose the next morning like always. Lucien’s room remained dark and cold like a cave, thanks to his dark curtains. He would’ve slept through the whole day if he could. It was only a matter of time before–

       “Luc!” a young woman came bounding into his room, throwing the door open and waking up the sleeping boy. “School! Come on, get up,” She urged, walking over to his bed and ripping the covers off.

       Lucien bolted up, his bare chest being exposed to the cold air. “I’m up, I’m up!” he screeched, scrambling to grab the blanket back. “Ma! Could you have been a little gentler waking me up, my god!” he complained.

       “You know if I’m any gentler you’ll sleep right through it,” she smirked, “Now hurry up, you don’t want to leave Aksel hanging.”

       “I know, I know,” Luc uttered before climbing out of bed. His mother left quietly, and he used the opportunity to dress himself. Running a hand through his curly brown hair, he dragged his hands over his face and sighed. Making his way to the hallway bathroom, he turned the bright light on before splashing water over his face.

       This action did little to wake him up, and as he lathered toothpaste and shoved his toothbrush in his mouth, he found his eyes closing naturally. As he stood at the sink for two minutes, brushing back and forth, he kept his eyes closed gently. Afterwards, he quickly put his contacts in before heading back to his room.

       All of a sudden, he remembered the previous night. He glanced over at his phone, quickly picking it up off the table. Turning it on, there were no notifications from Vál. It was an accident, and he won’t even remember it happened. I’m overreacting. He sighed.

       Trying not to think too hard about it, Lucien grabbed his phone, then reached down to swing his backpack over his shoulder. School mornings were always especially hard. He didn’t have his driver’s license yet, but his best friend was always kind enough to drive him to school. His birthday was late in the year, so although he was a junior in high school, he was young for his grade.

       Trudging down the stairs, he wasn’t surprised to see Aksel sitting at his kitchen table, shoving a bagel into his mouth. He was chatting with Luc’s mom, chewing with his mouth wide open. “Gross, close your mouth,” Lucien cringed, walking over to the fridge to fill his water bottle.

       “Hey sleepy! You sure slept in late today,” Aksel exclaimed, ignoring Lucien’s previous request. “Did something keep you up last night?” he asked innocently. Lucien froze, cold water overflowing onto his hands, breaking him out of the daze. Aksel’s comment was innocent, but his words struck Lucien.

       “Just had trouble falling asleep is all,” He responded while screwing on the lid.

       “Ahh, that sucks, man,” Aksel casually muttered, shoving the last of his bagel into his mouth. “We better hurry, Vál’s in the truck waiting and he gets cranky if I take too long.”

       At the mention of the name, Lucien’s heart sputtered. Trying to keep up a relaxed front, he nonchalantly acknowledged his friend’s words, and rushed to grab a banana before following Aksel out the front door.

       “Bye Ma.”

       “Bye Mrs. Cordes!”

       “Bye boys!”

       The front door slammed behind them as they rushed for the red truck. Hauling his large hockey bags behind him, Lucien quickly shoved them into the trunk, throwing them on top of Aksel’s bags.

       In Aksels’ truck, it was an unspoken rule that Lucien got shotgun and Váli sat in the back. Lucien didn’t force Váli to sit back there, that’s just where he always had sat.

       “You should come inside one time, Vál,” Aksel suggested, beginning to reverse out of the driveway.

        Looking up from his phone, all he uttered was “Næh (Nah).”

       “Why not? Mrs. Cordes is the sweetest woman ever, you’ll love her,” He protested.

       “I don’t know her. How would you know she would like me?” Vál doubted.

       “Jeg vet bare (I just know),” he countered.

       Lucien’s mom did know Vál. Not directly, but Váli had become the subject of many conversations in their household. Luc couldn’t not talk about him. His mother would sit down on his bed and ask about his day and his only option was to tell her.

       Tell her that after hockey practice he would catch a glimpse of ‘Aksel’s brother’ figure skating. That’s all he would say, though he had to resist adding how delicate and fascinating it was to watch. How peaceful–how calm.

       Snapping out of the delusion, Lucien barely had time to register that the truck had been parked before he was getting out and walking into the crowded school. FareCreek High School. Also known as: Hell on Earth.

       FareCreek always brought a frown to Lucien’s face. Despite being considered ‘popular’, Lucien still struggled to find joy in the beige walls and boring classrooms. Each class passed slowly, as painful as watching paint dry.

       As he walked into his first period class, Pre-Calc, he slumped against his desk. Entering right behind him was the face of his problems.

       It was no surprise that Váli was a genius. He was in all advanced classes as a Sophomore, which happened to include Honors Pre-Calc. Every day, Lucien had to resist the urge to turn around and stare at him.

       He used to be able to. For the first few weeks of the school year, he sat behind Vál. he could stare at his white-blond hair that was slightly wavy and always a little ruffled up. However, after one too many incidents of being caught sleeping, Lucien now found himself sitting in the very front.

       Blinded by the LED lights, he put his head down to shield his eyes. He laid on his left ear, facing the aisle. Observing as Váli walked right by him when heading to his seat. Lucien closed his eyes tight. It felt wrong to stare at his butt. Am I sick in the head?

       Not having time to think that over, the teacher entered as the first period bell rang. Attempting to focus, Lucien grabbed a notebook, pencil, and calculator out of his bag before turning his attention to his teacher at the front of the room.

       Mr. Cooley was not a bad teacher. He was chill, and not too harsh. He was still stern with his teaching, however. He was young too, and Lucien felt comfortable in his class. Today however, he struggled to understand a single problem that was taught. He stared down at his blank page before glancing up at the chalkboard, scribbles covering the entire thing.

       Sighing, he placed his head in his hands and accepted that his brain was not in the right mindset to learn anything today. He felt the class drag on, as though eons were passing each second. He had just finished counting to five hundred in his head when the bell finally rang.

       Not wasting another second, he packed up and stood. Before he was able to reach the door however, he collided with two people. Getting knocked over, his head collided with his desk on the way down. Closing his eyes for a second, he opened them painfully to find himself on the floor, his legs tangled in someone else.

       The smell of peaches was the last thing he recalled before his eyes closed again. The ringing in his ears loudened as his consciousness slipped away completely…

Question of the chapter: Do you guys use alarm clocks, or get someone else to wake you up in the morning?

╚══《Word count- 2,160》══╝

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