••• NINETEEN •••
Ashton

The horn blared in the United Center, signaling the game was over and that we had won the first game of the season.  Patrick skated over to me with a huge smile on his face and pulled me in for a hug. "We won our first game as Blackhawks, dude!" He screamed excitedly as I patted his back and chuckled.

To be honest, I barely remembered playing. My mind was too preoccupied with my fight with Sophie before the game and worrying if we were even still together. "Yo, Ash, you okay? You've been quiet this whole game," Patrick pointed out, breaking me out of my thoughts. "Why aren't you freaking out with me? We won!" He chuckled and I looked up at the suite where our families were and then back at Patrick.

Sophie may want to wait one more day for us to tell everyone about our relationship, but I couldn't hide it anymore. Especially not now when I wanted nothing more than to run up to her after I got off the ice and kiss her like my life depended on it. But, I couldn't do that if I didn't tell Patrick the truth.

"I'm in love with Sophie." I blurted out and his smile faltered a little bit as he shook his head.

"W-what?" He asked in disbelief and my jaw opened to say something, but I couldn't find my voice. I couldn't believe I had just said that to his face and before I could say anything else, Justin skated up to us.

"Get in the locker room, Coach wants to talk to us." He shoulder-checked me as he skated past and I wanted nothing more than to grab his jersey and throw him to the ground, but I wasn't going to let him piss me off.

"Please tell me you said that because Justin was nearby and you wanted to keep up the act like you two are dating." He pleaded and I shook my head slightly.

"We are dating, Pat, and I really am in love with her." I said sternly and Patrick just shook his head at me in complete shock.

"What the fuck do you mean you guys are dating? You know how I feel about her, Ashton!" He exclaimed and took his helmet off his head. "I have said since we were in middle school that she is completely off-limits to you. She's my fucking sister!" He shoved me and a few teammates skated up to us.

"Whoa, you guys okay?" Keith, our goalie, asked worriedly as he got between Patrick and me.

"I am never speaking to you again." Patrick declared as he skated towards the bench and I tried to follow after him.

"Patrick, come on-"

"I'm fucking serious, Ashton! You just crossed a line that you swore you would never cross. If you keep seeing Sophie, then I have nothing more to say to you and you are no longer my brother. You're just an asshole who I have to work with." With that said, he skated off the ice and headed straight towards the locker room not looking back at me once and leaving me standing there in complete shock.

"Damn, Ashton, what'd you do?" Keith asked and I shook my head as I followed after Patrick.

When I walked into the locker room, Coach was talking about our performance tonight so I wasn't able to talk to Patrick, but I did sit next to him. I honestly thought he would move away, but he just stared straight ahead and didn't glance at me once. "The last thing I have to say before you all leave and celebrate the first win of the season is, Maverick and Lincoln, you guys kicked ass out there tonight. I can't wait to see how the rest of the season is going to play out with you two." Coach complimented us and I looked over at Patrick.

"Thanks, Coach." He gave him a small smile then Coach ended our meeting and Patrcik immediately grabbed his stuff and basically ran for the exit.

"Patrick, wait, we have to talk about this!" I called after him, but he just continued towards the exit just as Sophie turned the corner with Katie and Christina.

"Babe, what's wrong?" Christina asked worriedly, but he just ignored her and stormed past them.

"Patrick, what happened?" Sophie asked, grabbing his arm, but he shook her hand off him.

"You can have anyone in the world, Soph. Why did you have to take my best friend?" He asked and Sophie stared at him completely taken aback by his question. He just shook his head at her and glanced at Christina. "Did you know that they were seeing each other?" He asked her and she opened her mouth to say something, but he just shook his head and pushed open the exit door to the parking lot.

"I'm so sorry, Sophie." I said as I approached them and she quickly wiped a tear away from her eye.

"I thought I told you to wait until tomorrow to tell him!" Sophie exclaimed.

"I don't want to keep lying to my best friend, Sophie. We just need to give him time and he'll come around." I assured her and tried to reach for her hand, but she quickly pulled it away and shook her head at me.

"You had no right to tell him without me, Ashton. We should've told him together!" She started towards the exit and I tried to follow after her, but Katie stopped me and Christina ran after Sophie.

"Just leave her alone for a little while, Ashton." Katie said gently before following after them.

I fisted the back of my hair as I stared at the exit and couldn't believe that I had just lost both Sophie and Patrick all because I didn't listen to Sophie when she was right all along. We should've waited to tell him together. How in the Hell was I going to fix this?

"Ashton?" I heard my Mother call out to me and I turned around to see my parents walking towards me.

"Why are you guys here?" I demanded, not even bothering to be polite to them.

"Well, that's no way to speak to your parents after avoiding us for the last three years." My Mother scoffed and I rolled my eyes at her.

"You guys made it very clear that if I signed to play with Boston you would never speak to me again." I shrugged and my Father's jaw locked as anger appeared on his face.

"Because we knew you only agreed to play with them because that was the only team that would take both you and that idiot friend of yours. You almost ruined your whole career because of that worthless family." My Father spat out and I clenched my fists at my side as rage filled up inside me.

"Imagine if you would've dated his sister, she would've brought you so much embarrassment." My Mother said as she fixed her hair and that was when I reached my limit. They can say whatever they want about me, but I will not let them disrespect the people I love.

"Don't you ever speak about them like that again! They were there for me when no one else was. They are my family." My Mother's lip quivered as tears appeared in her eyes and my Father looked like he wanted nothing more than to punch me. Well, the feeling was mutual because it took all the strength I had not to punch him until he begged me to stop. "You were a shitty excuse for parents who cared more about your social standing and how successful I could be with hockey instead of actually showing me any love or support as the Lincolns had. Don't come back here because I never want to see either of you again." I hissed and turned on my heel then stormed out of the building.

Now I had to figure out how to make things right with Sophie and Patrick before I lost them both forever.