*unedited, if you find mistakes let me know*
Growing up in a neighborhood of kids was a treat. Spending hours upon hours playing tag, making games up, eating sunflower seeds and pistachios while spitting shells and playing at the park for hours on end was heaven. Growing up under the watchful eyes of the older kids was even better. You were on top of the world on their shoulders, you had the big kids in your corner and nothing was ever going to hurt you.
That's how I found Brock.
At four years old, I felt the crush growing for the shaggy blonde haired boy. I couldn't run fast enough to keep up with the seven year olds, but he would slow down so that I could. He would hold my hand crossing the nearly always empty streets so that I would be safe. He was everything to me.
By the time I hit 14 he was 17 and practically a perfectionist at hockey. He spent all his extra time at the rink or with his friends, not that it mattered a whole lot. If I went over to his house and he was home, he would always make time for me. That is, until he hit 18. Suddenly, I was a nuisance. Anything I did was annoying, and problems with friends at school were my fault. He hated spending time with me, hated talking to me, hated being around me. If our families got together for dinner, he would make up a lame excuse to not have to come or have a friend call him halfway through and bail him out. It got to the point where I didn't even look at him in school in fear that he would yell at me.
That is until I got myself into a sticky situation. I started horseback riding at 12, loving horses since I was a kid. Riding comes with risks, and I wasn't ready when I got thrown halfway through my freshman year. Suddenly down an arm, I was struggling to get through school. Instead of stepping in and helping, he would taunt me, grab my things and hold them out of reach until I would beg for them back, often in tears before he would relent. It became a game for him.
Finally, I had enough. I begged my parents to not make me go to school, and for once in my life my mom took me seriously. She had been considering transferring me anyways to a school with a riding program, because she believed that I could become a talented rider if I was able to put the time into it. She talked to my dad and they enrolled me into the charter school twenty five minutes from my house. Over winter break, I spent all my time talking to a few of the girls on the eventing team, making friends and finding out who was who.
School became something I loved again. I loved learning and getting to ride horses every day. My muscles got harder and my focus sharper. I was able to problem solve and learn better. Totally forgetting about the blonde haired boy that used to be my everything.

Eventually I graduated, learning that he had made it to the NHL made my heart skip a beat. He did what he wanted to do all the years I knew him. He made it. I made it too. Breaking out into major circuits, riding for several clients. I even got to travel to England and train for six months on some prestigious European horses. My heart always wanted to be back home though.
Eventually? My body decided for me.

"I'm sorry, but the tests show that you have to have surgery." My doctor looks at me, trying to read a reaction.
"How long can I go without it." I ask, trying to calculate timing.
"You can't. That shoulder is at it's breaking point. You should have had surgery when the original injury happened."
"That was freshman year of highschool." I ponder, as she nods.
"I can tell. You are going to need at least four months of rehab. I know it's not what you want to hear, but it's all I got for you." I nod, sighing, I knew I couldn't push it off forever.
My next course of action is to do what any responsible adult would do. I call my mom.
"Schedule it in St. Paul, you can recover here." She tells me. I agree, and a week later I'm back in my old bedroom recovering. It feels great to be home. We lost my childhood dog my sophomore year of college, but my parents got a new puppy, who now is 5. She likes to lay with me, putting her head on my stomach as I scratch her ears. I have Netflix up on my laptop watching Nailed It when I hear the doorbell ring. Mom and Dad are at work, and I'm home alone, so I roll my eyes and force myself out of bed, Sadie jumping down and barreling for the door. I adjust the sling as I walk for the stairs, taking my time. I get to the door and pull it open, not expecting the man on the other side.
"Hello?" I ask as he turns around, and blue eyes lock with mine.
"Hey, is Mary here?" He asks, looking confused as to who I am.
"No she's at work." I tell Brock, wondering if he forgot about me.
"Who are you then and why are you answering Mary's door?!" He seems aggressively protective over my parents house.
"I'm dog sitting for them." I blatantly lie.
"They don't have a dog sitter for Sadie. She's five, not a puppy." He deadpans, rolling his eyes at me, while crouching down to give Sadie attention. I roll my eyes back whispering
"Dummy" under my breath.
"What did you just say?!" He asks, and looking back into his eyes tells me he's catching on.
"I called you a dummy Brock, what else can I help you with?!" He looks startled that I called him out, before his eyes bug out of his head.
"SARAH?!"
"In the flesh. Can I help you?"
His eyes dart to my shoulder before coming back to my face.
"Yeah. My mom wanted me to give this to your mom but you can give it to her I guess." He hands me a card and I nod, smiling at the handwriting on the envelope.
"Sure."
"I uh, I gotta go. See you around?" He asks. And I nod, not knowing what else to do. He smiles, before turning and walking away.

A week and a half later I'm feeling good enough to meet up with some of my old team friends. We decide we're going to meet at a little coffee shop, and it's amazing to see them again. Getting iced coffee is always the move, and as I'm ordering I have a big smile on my face.
"That will be $5.24 please." The barista tells me, and I go to pull out my card.
"Just add hers to mine." I hear behind me, and I turn around to see Brock. Ok, whatever, I'll take a free coffee. I nod a thank you to him, mumbling the words, before she tells me to wait on the end and she'll have it ready soon. When it does come to me, it's a size larger than I ordered.
"Wait, I ordered a medium!" I tell her, and she smiles.
"He upgraded you to a large. Just take it hon." I nod, grab it, and go to my friends.
We talk for about twenty minutes about riding and the gear we use before I feel a hand on my back. I look to see (no surprise) Brock behind me.
"Sorry to interrupt ladies, but I just need to ask you a quick question." He says to me.
"Sure, what's up?" I try and act as normal as possible, even with my heart pounding. That crush never went away, I just shoved it down when he started being mean.
"Your parents are coming to dinner to my house tonight, you're coming too, right?"
I shrug.
"Wasn't planning on it."
"Please? I'm going to be bored out of my mind." He pushes.
"Maybe. I'll let you know." I tell him, knowing full well I won't. He smiles, and nods, taking it as a yes apparently.
"Cool."
He walks away as abruptly as he came,
We talk for several hours before we head our separate ways, mine being out to the barn. I trailered my horse back with me, knowing he wouldn't do well without me around. He has separation anxiety.
"Pretty boy!" I call down the barn isle, causing a giant whinny to come back at me.
I get to his stall and smile, opening the door and walking inside. Even with a busted shoulder, I'm not afraid of him. He's too gentle of a giant to hurt me. He drops his head, searching for treats. Luckily I still have some in my truck and I brought one in for him. He lets out a knicker of contentment before he allows himself to enjoy the scratches I'm giving him. I decide to groom him, spending ample time with a curry comb and a hard brush getting every little bit of his body. It's hard and time consuming one handed, but I do it. I have a friend do his hooves for me right now, as I can't.
I lose track of time, before finally checking my phone. 6:30. Dinner at Brocks was at 6. Guess I can't make it. Oops.
As I'm looking at my phone I hear footsteps in the barn, but figure it's just another patron.
"Well, Warner boy, at least you look less like Chewbacca." I mumble to him as he takes a drink out of his waterer.
"WARNER!" I exclaim as he shoots his head out of the bucket, turning so he sprays me with it. That little turd. I quickly stick my good hand into it, flinging water into his neck. He lets out a whinny, and if horses could laugh it would be the equivalent of a belly laugh. What a stinker.
"Sarah?" I'm jolted out of my mini water fight to the sound of someone right outside of the stall. Brock. What?!
"Brock?" I look at him confused. "What are you doing here?"
"Came to see why you didn't come to dinner?" He says, his tone slightly sharp like it hurt.
"Oh, so you get a free pass to skip out and leave early for a hundred dinners and I miss one and it's the end of the world?!" I ask slightly sassy. I shouldn't start a fight, I don't want to fight, but I don't want him to walk all over me.
"I was a stupid teen back then, your a grown adult having a water fight with a horse." He shoots back, his tone getting sharper.
"He started it." I mumble, grabbing my grooming bag and opening the door to come out the stall.
"Still. Seriously? I thought you were responsible." He doesn't mean to set me off, but he does.
"Oh, because your oh so responsible Brock. Don't even go there with me." I snap.
"Can you stop being a jerk for one minute and listen to yourself? Chill out ok? It's not that big of a deal." He snaps back.
"I can't stand you Brock Boeser I really can't." I snap and proceed to walk away.
"STOP." I haven't heard him yell like that in a long time, it even spooks several of the horses. He lowers his voice, but I can hear him holding back his temper.
"Why? What did I do to make you hate me?" It's not an innocent question, it's laced with unspoken 'I dare you's'
"Oh, I don't know Brock, maybe it was the taunting, maybe it was the making me cry. Maybe it was the making me hate school so much my parents made me change schools. MAYBE IT WAS BECAUSE YOU SAID YOU WOULD NEVER LET ANYONE HURT ME." I finally unleash the beast on him, but his stance never changes.
"I did what I did to protect you ok? I knew I was leaving, I knew you wouldn't have me forever. I knew you were gonna have to be able to handle the real world, so I showed you the real world." He seethes out.
"Stay out of my life Boeser, you don't know me anymore." I spit back, not even going to attempt to have that argument.
"That's it then, you don't even have a response for my reason." He challenges.
"You don't wanna hear my response." I sethe back.
"Try me."
And with that, I unleash everything and quite possibly use every bad word he ever taught me against him. He seems shocked, but I'm just getting started. After about ten minutes of me yelling at him, he finally stops me.
"I'm sorry."
"What?" I'm in shock. Brock does many things, but admitting he's wrong is not one of them.
"I'm sorry, I treated you wrong and I shouldn't have."
I start looking around me frantically.
"What are you doing?" He asks, not amused.
"Trying to figure out if hell froze over." I deadpan. "Brock is admitting he's wrong."
"Yes, I am, dummy. I want my friend back."
That sentence stops me cold in my tracks.
"Why?"
"Because I hurt you. I hurt you bad. And the only way I know how to fix it is by treating you the way you should have been treated all along." He tells me.
"But."
"No. I want to fix this. I want my friend back."
I almost want to tell him it's too late, but deep down I know it's not.
"Fine."
Brock lives up to his word after that. He calls me, texts me, FaceTimes me, whenever he's not in meetings or busy he's with me. I don't know how to tell him I'm leaving to go back to Vermont with Warner but I have two weeks to tell him. I still procrastinate until a week out.
"Hey sunshine, what's up?" He answers my FaceTime call. He's out of town until the day before I leave. I broke down while calling him, I feel so guilty about not telling him sooner.
"Hey hey hey what happened? Are you ok?! Did you hurt your shoulder?! Are Warner and Sadie ok?" The questions come much faster than my brain can handle.
"I'm leaving Brock." I finally get out.
"What?!" He barley breathes.
"I'm going back to Vermont on the 15th." I finally calm myself to the point where I can talk.
"That's the day after I get back." He says quietly. I nod.
"I'm so sorry, I didn't have plans finalized and then my boss called me and said they need me and..." I start but he stops me.
"Hey, it's ok. I get it. I'm proud of you for coming back and getting your head back in the game after surgery. Hell, even I couldn't do that."
I nod.
"It's not like we won't talk, there's a thing called a phone."
I nod again.
"Say something." He deadpans, knowing me too well.
"I don't wanna cry again." I mumble.
"Hey, I'll come visit and bring some buddies." He smiles at me, and I roll my eyes. Just what I need. People that encourage Brock.
"Promise me one thing." He asks me. I nod, looking at his eyes cause I know that's what he's expecting.
"Promise you'll save enough time for me to take you out before you go."
"Like with a rifle or on a date? Cause I really don't care if you want you can surprise me." I joke. He rolls his eyes.
"On a date, dummy."
We call pretty much everything dates, we don't mean it as like relationship dates, it's just us spending time together.
"Bet."
"No I mean it." He pushes. "Like on a real date." I look at him so confused.
"Why?"
"Because ever since I was 7 years old? I knew you were the right heart for mine. At 18 I knew it was the wrong time. So I'll make you a deal. You let me take you on a date. If I make it successful, you consider finding a job closer to MN or Vancouver. If not, we act like it never happened as we continue to be best friends."
"Bet, dummy."
Needless to say, within six months I had a job lined up in Minnesota, and a relationship to boot with the blonde haired dummy from my childhood.