Chapter Text
Wham, was the sound that echoed as Till hit the side boards. As Till slammed into those boards, he could feel his shoulder shatter into a million pieces. The realization hit him like a bullet (literally), the pain was so intense that after newton’s law pushed him back away from those boards, he curled into a ball whilst he fell to the ground. The coldness of the ice that had been badly cut up throughout the game (sorry, Zamboni driver) soothed some of his nerves but not all; especially not his shoulder that felt like a four-hundred pound man sat on it. Even though Till had a high pain tolerance, breaking his collar bone turned him into a writhing mess. One of Till’s hands was still grasping his stick (which surprisingly didn’t break, despite how cheap it was) like his life depended on it while the other held his right shoulder during this whole ordeal. Till’s eyes were so blurry and his ears rang loudly to the point where he couldn’t hear one of the opposing side’s teammates calling to him.
“Hey, hey! Can you hear me? Emo boy! Fuck, Marty! I told you not to play dirty because of what happened last time!” The somewhat unrecognizable boy called distraughtly.
Till’s vision slowly began to revert back to normal so he could partly make out the other’s face. The boy looked somewhat familiar to Till. “I swear I’ve seen him somewhere, theres no other reason he could call me…that name” Till thought which in turn distracted him from the agony he was currently in.
Through Till’s cage and the other boy’s cage what he could somewhat make out was that the other had sharp features. The boy’s eyes were like those of a cat’s; black and sharp. He was wearing a black and purple jersey that belonged to the team that Till had gone up against many times before, The Bolts (short for thunderbolts). The distraught cat-like boy had medium sized lips and full black eyebrows along with a sharp jawline Till saw as he turned to the referee who also looked to be in shock. I mean, the rink typically hired younger referees to not have to pay them fully so it wasn’t surprising that the young boy didn’t know how to deal with this situation.
After a few seconds passed which felt like minutes due to the current pain Till was in, the young referee snapped back to reality and yelled to the random people who had stepped onto the ice (probably concerned parents, definitely not Till’s though. His dad could care less about him) to call an ambulance. It seemed they tried to find Till’s parents, but to nobody’s surprise, they weren’t there.
Till’s mom, Io passed away when he was born. Ever since then, a switch flipped Till’s father’s brain that made him treat Till like complete and utter trash. I mean, Till didn’t even want to play this sport. He was forced. His dad, Urak thought Till wasn’t “manly” enough because he wanted to play the guitar instead of a sport so he enrolled Till into the manliest sport of them all; hockey.
Till hated hockey. It reminded him of everything he repulsed; rich racist jocks who had disgusting personalities. He wasn’t wrong because after all, it was hard to find a hockey boy who wasn’t corrupt in the head or face.
Whilst Till ravaged his thoughts for a boy who matched what he was currently seeing, he felt light-headed. His glassy eyes slowly closed and the agonizing pain slowly faded as he drifted into unconsciousness.
An hour later
Till began to slowly open his eyes in an unfamiliar environment. He could see a spackled white tile ceiling above that didn’t ring any bells in his memory. While he was still waking up, reality hit him of what just happened and he sprung up into a sitting position while his hands gripped the white blanket he also noticed was carefully placed on him.
Before Till could even think, the sudden movement caused immense pain in his right shoulder. “Right, some stupid fuck cross checked me into the boards. If i see that shithead again I’ll-” Till thought to himself as a sour expression covered his face before he was cut off by an unfamiliar voice.
“Don’t sit up so fast, it’s only been an hour since you were injured” the voice said in a strangely affectionate tone.
Till turned to the right to see the same cat-like man sitting in a stool next to him. Now there was confused written all over Till’s face that was sour a moment ago. “Who’re you?” Till questioned.
“You’re hurting my feelings. You don’t remember me, Till?” The cat-like boy asked while jokingly clutching his heart.
Till once again ravaged his brain until it grazed one memory during Algebra class where the same boy supposedly lended him a pencil when he lost his. Another second passed while Till tried to remember the boys name until it clicked, “Ivan?” he immediately asked like an invisible cartoon lightbulb seemed to have turned on above his head.
“Wow, so you do remember me, emo boy from Algebra!” the other teased.
“Shut up. If you don’t like me, then why the hell did you help me? You could’ve left me for the poor confused ref” Till snapped back.
“Come on, I’m only teasing you” the boy replied quickly, almost as if he didn’t want to get on Till’s bad side for whatever reason, “Anyways, how are you feeling? I was worried. I even rode in the ambulance with you and helped get your gear off”
“Like shit. Do you want a medal or something for your oh so hard endeavor, pretty boy?” Till remarked sarcastically.
“I guess theres no winning with you, but you have to get used to me, Till. I’m going to be helping you get back into the game from now on” he said while smiling. Till noticed that a snaggletooth appeared while the boy smiled.
After Till noticed the tooth, the second part of the sentence clicked into his brain, “What the hell do you mean? Don’t I get a say in this?”
“Nope, I’m the best in our league. Your coach personally asked me to help you because apparently you’re the best on the team” Ivan replied while mirroring Till’s snappy tone while getting up from the small hospital stool that probably couldn’t hold his weight.
After all, Till noticed that Ivan was fit through the compression shirt he wore to accompany him to the hospital. Ivan had a six-pack and huge pecs that showed through his Bauer branded compression shirt. Till stared a little too hard to notice which brand it was. I mean, it was kind of hard to not. Every time Till looked down, he was reminded of how much bigger the boy in front of him was compared to him. Till couldn’t gain much weight despite how hard he tried. Even the gruesome training his coach made him do couldn’t even put on one singular pound. Till was probably stuck small and skinny forever.
Ivan began to leave and Till stayed silent while contemplating how much harder the next few months will be for him because that shithead decided to crosscheck him into a make out session with the boards.
Till looked up to the sound of Ivan saying, “See ya, Till. Hopefully you’re out of the hospital soon. I’m sure you’ll miss me during your boring stay”
Till flipped Ivan off which in turn made the boy chuckle to himself as he walked out the hospital room door.
“What the fuck have I gotten myself into?! Man, the next few months of my life are going to suck ass if they don’t already” Till thought to himself while contemplating if he should just jump out the hospital window.
Little did Till know, his life wouldn’t be the only one sucking ass.