Falling in love is okay, just don't forget to take your brain with you.

From: griffincaleb@gmail.com 

To: Skylarlodge@gmail.com 

Subject: Therapy 

If the doctor took part in lying to you about an illness that you didn't have shouldn't he have his licenses cancelled? 

No I don't think you are stupid for not noticing that your life was made up of lies, I just think you loved and trusted your family enough to refuse to see the signs.

Things can be right in front of us but we only see what we want.

 ~~~~~~~~~

A continuous rapping sound stirs me from my dreamless slumber.

I categorize it as sounds coming from the other rooms and pull my cover up to my neck.

"Sky! You better be getting up or I am going to pour cold water on you," a voice shouts through the door.

I don't know who is at the door but I already hate them.

6:30. What the hell?? It's a freaking Sunday.

I drag myself off the bed and head to the door, 

"You better have a good reason for waking me up this early," I say as I open the door. "Caleb?" 

What's he doing here?

I stand straighter, more awake knowing I look like a mess while he looks like a freaking model.

"We have to get to the arena," he says, pushing into the room.

"Of course, come in," 

"Don't sass me. Get dressed, we have training to get to," he scolds.

"Training? It's Sunday?"

"And you are a horrible hockey player," he says, walking around the room picking up my gear.

"Really?" I am still holding the door.

"Not my words, Mark's," he has all my gear in hand.

"Fine then, will you get out," I ask.

"Two minutes you better be done," he leaves the room.

I want him to use that voice with me again but saying different words.

I quickly change into my grey pink gym tights and a top.

I find him leaning against the railing of the porch, "how did you even get in?"

"Some girl let me in. We are running all the way to the arena," he says, grabbing his gear.

"Wait.. what?" He is already running.

Picking up my gear, I race after him.

"Couldn't you have texted me to meet you at the arena?" I ask matching his pace.

"I was knocking at your door for ten minutes, I doubt a text would have woken you up," he increases his pace.

I am panting by the time we get to the gym.

"We will start with rigorous exercise for the next two hours then hit the ice to find your position," he says, picking up some weights.

I swallow my complaints. He is the best centre this school has, and even though I don't share his dreams of making hockey a career, I still do want a chance to play it while I can.

*******

We are in the middle of the rink playing against each other and so far I am getting shown dust, when I noticed how sluggish he was. 

Skating closer I notice the bags forming under his eyes.

"You didn't sleep last night!" I pull the puck towards me.

"Huh?" He is confused.

"You are sluggish and you have bags under your eyes, you didn't sleep last night," I explained.

"How could I? With Luca and Amelia fighting through the night," he takes the puck and starts to skate in the direction of the goal post.

I quickly followed behind him, snatching it before he could hit it into the post, "why were they fighting?" I ask skating back to the middle of the ice.

"Amelia won the giraffe from Mark, when you agreed to tutor me," he tried snatching the puck again.

"What does a giraffe have to do with the fight?" I skate away with the puck heading for the goal.

He follows, "the giraffe has a camcorder and Amelia found it. It's filled with sex videos of Luca with other ladies,"

I maneuver the puck away from and aim for the post, striking the puck quickly before he gets to me.

"That's fucked up!" I say doing a small dance for scoring a goal.

He has scored seven goals since we started playing, while I had zero.

Not anymore.

"Fucked up is finding your cousin staring in most of the Mock porn videos,"

"Her cousin? Damn!! She must be devastated?" I skate closer to him.

"I don't think I have ever seen her broken like that before,"

"Damn," I say, not knowing what else to say.

"I think that's enough for today," he's putting the puck away.

"Want to start tutoring today?"

"Yes please. I have an exam on Wednesday,"

"Okay then. We can do it at the library,"

"Actually, let's do it at the house, Amelia would be happy to have you there,"

"She is still with him?" I want to slap her.

I may not know what she is going through but I know how it feels to be betrayed.

"No. She is in my room,"

"Okay then. But I need to get a shower first," I tell him packing up my gear.

"Okay see you back at the house in an hour? He asks.

"Sure, " I say leaving the rink.

"Nice ass," his voice floats to me before the door shuts behind me.

*****

"You didn't have to come here?" Amelia is snuggled under Caleb's duvet, her eyes puffy and hair sticking everywhere.

I haven't even been here for a week but I have seen her cry twice in less than two days over the same guy.

"I was coming anyway for Caleb," I sat next to her on the bed.

"How are you feeling?" I ask.

That is a stupid question. Obviously, she is a mess.

"I feel like an idiot," she sighs fresh tears flowing from her eyes and pooling at Caleb's pillow.

"You are not an idiot, just in love. And he is an asshole for playing with your feelings and breaking your trust," I sooth her.

"But I gave him the power to make a fool of me,"

I don't know what to say because it is true.

"What are those?" She points to the container I was holding.

"My cake pops. I usually eat them when I am not feeling okay, so I made them for you," I opened the lid and offered her one.

She takes a bite,"hmmm. This is amazing, Sky."

"You think?" Erik's the only person who's ever tasted my cooking and he likes everything so I can't be sure if they are really good.

"Yeah, really good," she takes another.

"What's that?" Mark asks from the door.

Without waiting for an answer he walks to the bed and takes one, Caleb behind him.

"These are good," he moans.

"So good," Caleb adds.

I blush at the praise. It feels nice having other people aside Erik comment on my food.

"Let's study downstairs," Caleb says, grabbing another.

"Will you be okay?" I ask Amelia.

"With this one here? Am bound to break my ribs laughing," she says pointing at Mark attempting to smile.

"Okay," I place the container next to her and follow Caleb who is juggling books and my cake pops.

I don't offer help.

We head back downstairs, of the Victorian styled home that the school rents for the male hockey team not to far from the school.

The living room looks much like it did at the party except for the hormonal young adults, sticky floors and loud music. What was being used as a dance floor is now fitted with a dark grey sofa matching the wallpaper.

We stop at the kitchen. There's no makeshift bar, but the counter has a cup of coffee and a tray of croissants. Caleb drops the books on the counter.

"I know you didn't have breakfast but I picked this up for you. Mark said this is what you ordered before, hope it's okay," he says rubbing his left forearm.

Awww! How considerate.

"Yes, it's okay thanks," I take a seat biting into the croissant to sate my already grumbling stomach as I had nothing to eat except for spaghetti that Lelia brought me back last night from the cafeteria.

"Am glad," he takes a seat.

"You said you have an assessment test this week? Let's just go over what you have been learning in the last few days," I say, sliding his books between us.

"I swear these cake pops are amazing, you have to make them for me some other time," 

"You think they could sell?" 

"Hell yeah. They would definitely make me broke. Why?"

"I have to find something to sell for a project to get my grades up,"

"Seems we are on the same boat,"

I roll my eyes at that.

"So microeconomics"