“For Christmas. He says he has a big surprise for me.”
“I will do my best to pass the brother test.”
“He doesn’t know anything about hockey.”
“Does anyone in West Virginia know hockey?”
“Uh, no. We’re football whores.”
“Really?”
“For guys, it’s either football, the coal mines, or moving on down the line.”
“Why?”
“There’s not a lot of opportunities there. Our infrastructure is poor and in order to attract more companies to strengthen the economy and bring more jobs, that needs fixed.”
“Why don’t they fix it?”
“All the politicians make the promise to do just that, but so far, none of them have followed through with it.”
“That’s sad.”
“That’s what happens when politicians let big pharma hook a good chunk of the state on prescription pain pills. They pocket the money and let the state suffer.”
“Is that how your mom got hooked?”
“That’s what Nana said. I don’t really remember it. What I remember is the heroin. Once she got cut off from theprescriptions, she started taking heroin. It became her drug of choice.”
“Has she reached out to you since the last time?”
She nods. “Yeah, asking for money, but I’m not feeding her habit. Nana tried setting her an account up at a local grocery store in the town she lived to make sure she had food, but we found out she was letting people buy groceries in exchange for drugs and Nana stopped it. That’s the thing about an addict. They don’t care who they take advantage of as long as they get that fix.”
“I’m sorry.”
She sighs. “How was your day?”
“Painfully slow. My hand started to cramp after what felt like hours of filling out forms. Then the videos…dear God the videos. I think the words fuck my life echoed in my head over and over. The best part of the whole day was having our uniforms fitted over our gear to make sure everything fit. They also gave us new skates. That took an hour to find a pair that fit right. It was just a long, boring day and it drained me more than the worst day at practice ever did.”
“That sucks.”
“Yeah, but its better now that I have you right here.”
“I’m not good company right now.”
“You’re good company no matter what.” I kiss the top of her head and relax, content to just hold her.
“I kept telling myself all day to just stay busy until you got home and then I might feel safe again.”
Well fuck.
“I was right. I feel safe now that you’re here.”
Fuck yes.
“Go to sleep, baby. We’ll talk more about asswipe tomorrow.”
She nods and it’s not long before her breathing evens out and she’s sound asleep. I stay there until I’m sure she’ll stay asleepand then I slip out of the room to go find Dylan and her phone. I’m hoping she hasn’t set the passcode yet.
