So he needs to go home, except he’s supposed to play a fucking hockey game tomorrow, so how the hell can he go home now?
Do they let players go home when their grandparents die?
“Will you…” Aunt Beth’s voice cracks. “Will you give your brother a call?”
“Yeah, yeah, I’ll… I’ll talk to…” Fuck, he doesn’t even know who to talk to about this. “I’ll see if we can come home, okay?”
“Thank you, Blake. Give me a call when you know, will you?”
Blake promises he will, hangs up the phone, and stands on the sidewalk for a moment longer, frozen to the spot.
He doesn’t remember the night his parents died. Not well.
He woke up in the morning, and he was at his grandma’s house with Evan, because his parents had been on a trip to Boston, and she told them that their dad was at the hospital. Told them that their mom didn’t make it. He doesn’t remember what exactly she said.
Blake remembers endless days at the hospital, weeks, he would have sworn, but a few years ago his grandma told him, no, it was only five days after the accident that his dad died.
He remembers the funeral, realizing that they weren’t coming back. But his grandma was there, Blake’s hand in hers, promising him that she’d always be there for them, and now she’s gone, too, and–
He needs to go home.
He calls Kells, because he doesn’t know if he should talk to Coach or if he should call their GM or whoever the fuck is in charge here. So he calls Kells, because Kells knows this kind of stuff.
Kells answers after a few rings. “Fish? What’s up?”
Blake doesn’t say anything for a moment, because he doesn’t remember how. He should have called Evan first. Not that Aunt Beth will; she doesn’t have to do this twice.
“Everything okay?” Kells asks. He doesn’t sound concerned a lot. That probably means something.
“I…” Blake squeezes his eyes shut. He can do this. “I need to go home.”
“Okay,” Kells says, “did something happen?”
“My grandma, she… she died last night.”
“I’m so sorry, bud. I… Why don’t you give Coach a call? Tell him what happened, he’ll understand. You can go home, take care of everything. It’s okay. Don’t worry about the team, okay? Just do what you need to do.”
“Okay. I’m sorry, I didn’t know who to call and… I’m sorry.”
“Hey, don’t worry about it. Call if you need anything.”
“Thanks, Kells.”
Blake calls Coach Franklin next, talks himself into moving. When Coach Franklin answers his phone, sounding gruff, Blake somehow manages to choke out what happened. After that, Coach Franklin doesn’t sound so gruff anymore. His team knows that his parents are dead, they’ve all met his grandma, know that she basically raised him and his brother.
Coach Franklin tells him to go, tells him to take all the time he needs. Blake thanks him, tells him that, yes, he’s okay to drive, apologizing for whatever inconvenience this is going to cause for the team. He almost cracks when Coach says that there’s no need to apologize, that they’re a family here and that they’ll always look out for him.
By the time he’s hung up the phone, he’s back home. He texts Mattie to tell him he won’t be able to come over for lunch after all. He sends another text to Noah to tell him that he can’t come to his place tonight. He says it’s a family emergency and doesn’t wait for replies.
He doesn’t know how the hell he’s keeping it together right now.
He sits down and calls Evan.
He doesn’t answer. He’s probably on the ice for practice. Blake sends him a text and asks him to call him back as soon as he can. He tells him that he doesn’t have good news.
It takes about twenty minutes for his phone to ring, Evan’s voice small when he asks Blake what happened. Blake just says it. There’s nothing that could soften the blow, no gentle way of putting it. Fuck all those euphemisms; there’s nothing poetic about the death of someone you love.
The way Evan’s voice cracks when he asks if they can go home almost does him in, but Blake makes it through that, too, and says, yes, they can go home. “Is Elliot there?” Blake asks.
There’s some shuffling, then there’s Elliot’s voice, worried when he says, “Blake?”
“Yeah.”
“Your grandma?” Elliot asks.
“Yeah,” Blake says again, quieter. He clears his throat. “Listen, can you… I don’t know, can you talk to your coaches, see if Evan can come home with me?”
“Of course, whatever you need.”
“I…” Blake squeezes his eyes shut. He’s at a total loss. He’s an adult, but no one ever taught him how to deal with this. “I’ll drive your way and you guys can give me a call when you’ve figured things out on your end?”
“Sure.”
“You guys at the rink?”
“Yeah, we just got off the ice.”
“Okay…” Blake lets out a deep breath. “Okay, so… I’ll be there in… Give me an hour? Are you still gonna be there in an hour?”
“Yeah, we have lunch and meetings and… I’ll stick around with Evan,” Elliot says. “We’ll go talk to Coach Warren in a minute.”
“Thank you,” Blake says. “Elliot…”
“Yeah?”
Blake doesn’t know what to say. They haven’t talked in such a long time and Elliot is still dropping everything to help them out. “Thank you,” Blake says again. That’s all he has in him right now.
“Of course. We’ll give
