Galen

"I can be very savage... with the right guy," Hunter says, looking up at me with a saucy smile and eyes glittering mischievously, making my heart skip several beats.

"Not quite what I meant, lass, but I believe ye," I grin, enjoying the gentle blush on her cheeks and the softness of her hair wrapped around my hand. I don't know what prompted me to grab her ponytail, but now that I have it in my hand, I don't really want to let it go again. In fact, I would love to grab a lot more than just her hair.

"I take it you're that right guy?" Xavier asks, reminding me why I came over here in the first place, and I let the silky strands of Hunter's hair run between my fingers as I lower my hand, letting go. I shove both my hands into the pockets of my jeans to stop myself from touching her again.

I saw the glossy girl in her tight black leather skirt and gold and green crop cami top stalk Hunter. I know the kind of girl. I've dealt with many just like her in the past. They're generally very nice to guys and awful to other girls.

Hunter seemed to take her in her stride, but then Xavier showed up. Though I'm still not clear on what exactly happened between them, I know that we're supposed to have Hunter's back when it comes to this guy.

I walked over here to the food table without even thinking about it. I did not like hearing the tail end of their conversation, though it didn't seem that Xavier was being mean to Hunter. The pin-up girl definitely was trying to humiliate her.

"Naw," I tell Xavier, smiling, but knowing how true my words are makes me feel sad. "Guys like ye and I belong with the kind of girls who just throw it all out there, not caring who picks it up and not needing or expecting more than they get."

I can see that Xavier understands what I mean, and the guy looks so miserable that I almost feel sorry for him. I would, but I'm sorry enough for myself already. The stricken expression on Hunter's face was definitely not what I aimed for, though. I don't think she understood what I meant because I was definitely not trying to hurt or insult her.

"I'll throw anything you want anywhere you want it," the pretty girl with the arty make-up and glossy curls tells me, running her fingers over the front of my sweater, and I take a step back, unsure about the destination of those fingers.

"Thanks for demonstrating me point, luv," I tell her, giving her a slight smile, which she returns, looking a wee bit confused. Was she expecting me to take her up on her offer right here, right now? I don't think the girl operates on the same plane of existence as the rest of us. Besides, I'm done with all of that. I've decided to change my life, and I will do it. Party girls like this one are an off-ramp back to my old ways.

I don't like the look on Hunter's face. She seems disillusioned, holding onto Miko's hand while she studies the bunch of scrunched-up serviettes she's holding on to as if they hold clues to the world's biggest puzzles.

"Hunter deserves someone much better than either of us," I clarify, but now she just looks more miserable, and Miko is frowning at me as if I'd said something rude or insulting. She gives her head a subtle shake, and I wish I knew what she's trying to tell me.

I become aware of Xavier watching me with narrowed, speculative eyes, making me feel exposed. Avoiding his look, I allow my eyes to return to Hunter, and my stomach contracts in a spasm when she looks at me with wide copper eyes, hell-bent on stealing the breath from my lungs.

"All I need is someone real," she says, unblinking, and now I'm drowning in her eyes, getting tangled up in the green streaks and yellow sparkles.

"I need fresh air," I grunt, turning away. Grabbing a bottle from the nearest coolbox, I head through the crowd to where I think the front door is.

Aye, I'm running away!

When I leave the foyer and step out onto the patio, the cold wind smacks me in the face, slapping me out of the melancholy blanket wrapping around my heart. It's bracing, and for the first few seconds, I actually feel really good. To the right, the patio stretches on, disappearing around the corner of the building, and I head that way, searching for protection against the wind while I let the cold air refresh my mind.

Someone real?

That's her only criterion? Not someone good, someone kind, someone worthy? The lass has lost her mind, or she is very naive.

When I round the corner, my phone vibrates in my pocket and I pull it out, pleasantly surprised to see an incoming call from Tanner Trent. Struggling not to spill the contents of the bottle I'm holding, I slide the green button to answer the call while I search the rough sleeper tables and benches scattered on this side of the patio for a seat not covered in a layer of ice. I finally get to sit down, settling my drink on the table.

"Howya, Tan!" I say when Tanner's face appears on the screen. He is not alone, though. He is surrounded by faces I know all too well, and they all talk and say hello simultaneously.

"I heard you scared my cousin," Kyle laughs, his mug suddenly filling the screen. "Lousy job, Gan, really lousy! I was hoping you would give him at least one punch to get back at him for blowing me off for over a year."

"To be sure, to be sure," I chuckle. I always say that Ahmi (as he's fondly known) is an evil mastermind. "I'll remedy that as soon as I can."

"Thank you, I'm counting on you."

"Don't listen to this bastard, Gan," Ronan says, shoving his best friend away so he can grin at me from the screen. Ronan has one of those smiles that always causes people to smile with him. He is one of the friendliest, most easy-going guys I know. "If you get expelled for fighting, they'll send you back here, and then we'll have to put up with you again."

Except for now...

"Cheers, mate, I miss ye too," I laugh.

For a moment, I'm confused to see them all in their school uniforms, gathered on the lawns where they always hang out during break time; then I remember that the semesters here do not align with the ones in Briar Cove. They're at school, and this is, in fact, their break time.

It's already Monday over there. Freaky!

The phone gets passed from one kid to another, and I enjoy seeing their faces and hearing their voices despite the fact that they mostly just insult me.

That is their love language.

"Where's me brother?" I ask Tanner when his face once again appears on the screen.

"Meeting with Doc."

Right! My brother is the head boy and often has meetings with Doctor Townsend, the headmaster, and Blanche, the head girl.

"How is he doing?"

"Well," Tan sighs, pushing his fingers through his hair.

He shaved it all off a while ago to get rid of the multicolour brown and blond streaks left from when he was still doing modelling, and it grew back dark chocolate brown. He is done with modelling now and is systematically getting rid of any reminders of the lousy time he had under his corrupt, perverted agent. I've grown so used to seeing him half-blond that I forgot that his hair is dark again now.

"You know what Dex is like," he says. "He seldom complains about anything. He's fine, but I know you being gone gets to him a lot."

I know. It's getting to me too. I constantly find myself wanting to tell him something or just looking for him in a crowd. Not all identical twins get along with each other, but I've always felt as though Dex was part of me, and I was part of him. Even during the stormy period in my life when I took my frustrations out on him.

"Oh," I say, changing the subject before I get all weepy and weird again. "Funny story. Hank Fairlane has a daughter."

"Yeah, that is pretty funny," Tanner says, and he's eating something that looks a lot like his bacon and cheese puffs. I love Tanner's food, and those puffs are in a league of their own.

"Shut up," I grunt, laughing, and Tanner gasps dramatically.

"That was actual English!" he exclaims. "What are they doing to you in that horrible place, mate?"

I almost tell him to shut up again, chuckling when I realise that I'm always telling the plonker to shut up. Now I have Jax to carry on the tradition. To be fair, Tan often tells me to shut up too.

"Her name is Hunter."

"What about Hunter? He's sitting here with a lunchbox stuffed with fritters, and he's not letting anybody have any. Not even me, and I'm the one who made them. Before she left, even Paisley had to bite him to get him to give her one.

"You gave me the container that makes them my fritters," I hear Hunter talk in the background.

"You're supposed to pass them around."

"Make me."

"Sure!"

Nothing has changed over there, and I wait patiently for Tanner to make Hunter pass around the fritters while I look at a blade of grass and some mud. I think I also see a brave ant dragging a carcass around. When Tanner appears on screen again, his cheek is bleeding.

"Wow! He really wanted those effing fritters!" I gasp. "Ye're bleeding!" Those two are the most violent friends I've ever known in my life.

"Tanner traces his fingertip over his cheek, finds the bloodied spot based on my directions and happily wipes it off, sticking his finger into his mouth to lick it clean.

"It's just some dip," he tells me. "I think he tried to eat me."

"I won't eat you," Hunter grunts. "You're gross."

"That's why you were dunking me in the dip."

"Will ye stop being a fecking eejit for five seconds?!" I yell at Tanner... and Hunter, and whoever else wants to mess up my story.

"Have you even met me?!" Tanner yells back, and now we're both laughing because, yes, I have met him, and it's impossible for him to stop being an eejit... ever.

"The girl's name is Hunter."

"What girl?"

"Hank's daughter!"

We're quiet while Tanner opens the book I'm in, finds the right page, and then gives me a sly smile. Finally, we're in the same conversation.

"Is she hot?"

"Well..." I have no idea what to say to Tan. Aside from Dex, he is the one person I never lie to or hide anything from, but I have no idea what to say to him about the girl. She makes my brain overheat, and my heart want to act all valiant. "Sure look..."

"Oh, it's like that, is it?" Tanner chuckles. He is very capable when it comes to reading me. "Galen and Hunter sitting in a tree K I S S I N G! Never thought I would sing that song."

"Yeah, you really shouldn't," Hunter grumbles.

"It feels so right, though. Galen and Hunter. It's like it was meant to be."

"No, it's not," Hunter grunts. I don't think he heard the part where Hunter was Hank's daughter, and until fairly recently, he and I were almost enemies.

"Talking to you is like getting me teeth plucked with tweezers," I assure Tanner.

"Hunter and Galen, sitting in a... ooooooooow!"

I shake my head gazing at the blue sky in Briar Cove, wondering if the ant made it to the nest with its treasure, while I hear Tanner threaten to bite Hunter if he doesn't let him go. Biting people is a family trait shared by Tanner and Paisley.

"Gan, I'm putting Tan on the next plane to you. I cannot handle the bastard anymore; he needs you to keep him in line," Hunter says, lifting the phone so that his face appears on the screen. His dark hair is standing on end, and he has a mud streak on his chin. He has an arm around Tanner's head, trying to keep him subdued, but I know from experience that it is a tough job. The guy is like a strong eel. "I'll just stuff him in a box and mail him. Some re-assembly might be required because I'm going to use a small box. Please send me your address."

Before I can even respond, he disappears again in a blur of activity when Tanner breaks free and tackles him to the ground. Seriously having a conversation with these muppets is impossible. If I were over there, I would... have been in the middle of that brawl getting dirty too.

Tanner finally appears on screen again, looking a lot more dishevelled than he did before. I'm disappointed and relieved when he gets to his feet and walks away from the group, heading for the small tree-filled section of the school grounds.

"Where are the girls?" I ask him. They're usually much better behaved if the girls are there too.

"They left," he snorts. "They said they needed tranquillity; we're giving them heartburn. Hell knows what that was supposed to mean."

"To be sure, to be sure," I laugh.

"What's up with you, Gan?" he asks, sinking to the ground with his back against a tree, and I know that despite the fact that we've only talked for a few minutes and my friends were a shower of savages as usual, he still saw right through me.

"I'm not sure," I tell him honestly, shrinking into myself to block the increasing cold. "We're having a welcoming party, and I just realised that all the guys here are really skilled, and the other recruits have all had good training and played for high school teams and clubs that are pure class. I'm the only yoke who's had no training for the last five years, and before that, it was only me aul fella who trained me. Seriously, Tan, what am I even doing here?"

Tanner doesn't try to give me false self-confidence by telling me I'm awesome and talented and that I will do great. He also doesn't scold me for feeling anxious and not being grateful for an opportunity many people would die for. He quietly listens, all joking set aside, and then he smiles.

"You're there to try and make your dreams come true," he tells me. "Gan, you're the guy who worked for peanuts at that crummy skating rink in Thunder Ridge just so that you could use their rental skates for free and skate as much as you wanted while they're open. You're the guy who did some..." He pauses, swallows, and takes a deep breath before he continues.

"Did some shitty things to save up money to buy more or less decent ice hockey gear. You're the guy who played hockey for years behind his mother's back while she was seriously set against you playing. You're that guy, Gan. You want this," he reminds me.

"You've always wanted this. If anybody is stubborn and strong enough to play elite players off the ice, it's you. That's why you're there. The coaches at the Zoo saw something in you. Probably the same thing I've always seen in you."

"It's the Farm, Tan, not the Zoo," I tell him, and I think I've told him this a hundred times. "Though, the house I live in might qualify as a zoo."

His words are hitting home. He is spewing facts; I can work with facts. I'm not so sure about the part where I play elites off the ice, but the rest is true, and he's right; I want this. I've wanted this so much that I was prepared to debase myself for it.

"It's also possible that they took you in because they need a dummy for their good players to knock around on the ice," Tan grins, again in teasing mode. "Maybe you're hired to be equipment. Exactly what does that contract of yours say?"

Listening to Tanner being honest and supportive (he never showers me with empty praise) and being a melter, taking the piss, I start to feel the tight knots in my stomach loosen up. While I'm becoming more aware of the cold settling into my bones, my heart floods with warmth.

"Cheers, me mucker," I tell him when the school bell rings after we've chatted for a while, and it's clear that he is not going to say goodbye and go to class. "It was good to hear from you. I really miss ye."

"F#ck, Gan," he snorts. "I'm not your girlfriend; don't go all lovey-dovey on me."

"Oh, dry yer arse!"

"And two seconds ago, you were missing me, crying into your pillow! You're so fickle!"

"Seriously, don't make me come over there, ye muppet!"

"I wish you could come over here," he tells me, suddenly serious. "It's not the same without you, but Gan," his grin is back, but he is not about to mess with me anymore. "You are exactly where you're supposed to be. Go for it, buddy! Go big!"

I smile, nodding my head. He is right; I need to keep my eye on my goal. It doesn't matter that my beginnings are inferior; it's what I make of this chance that matters. If it doesn't lead to anything great, I will at least have a whale of a time playing hockey full-on with my new friends.

"Thanks, Tan," I tell him, really starting to shiver now. "I needed to hear this. Now, go to class before ye get detention again."

"Look at you being all responsible," he laughs. "It's like I'm talking to Dex. Introduce me to Hunter next time," he says, getting to his feet.

I know I insisted he go to class, but I still feel lonely when we hang up, and his laugh (and teasing song) is no longer on my phone. It's only been a couple of days, but it feels like a lifetime since I was home.

I'm glad I brought my packet of cigarettes with me tonight. I need something to warm me and settle the last of the tension still coiling in my gut. There are not many cigarettes left in the beat-up pack. It's lasted me about a month so far. I usually only take a couple of drags on a cigarette, put it out and stick it back in the pack. Last night, at the station, I threw away my last used cigarette.

I pull a fresh one from the pack and fumble my icy lighter a few times with cold-stiff fingers before I manage to coax a decent flame from it to light up. I've barely taken a drag when I hear footsteps coming my way from around the corner. I huddle deeper into the shadows where I'm sitting, regretting that the red tip of my cigarette is probably giving my presence away.

My heartbeat spikes, and a smile leaps to my lips when I recognise Hunter in the light spilling from inside the house, catching her in the spot where she appears when she turns the corner. She's wearing her thick blue jacket and is carrying mine over her one arm and a plate of food in her other hand.

"You do know that even if you froze to death, you will still have to do tomorrow's evaluations, right?" she says, walking over to me. She places the plate on the table and drapes my jacket over my shoulders. "They'll just chip off the ice and drag you into the barn."

"Cheers a million," I say and put the cigarette between my lips to pull on the jacket. I instantly feel warmer, but it isn't just the jacket blocking the cold doing the trick. Feeling Hunter slide onto the bench beside me and catching a whiff of her subtle perfume cause my blood to flow faster and heat to pool in all the places that bring me comfort.

"I saw you through the foyer window and figured you'd need your jacket," she tells me. "I know all of this can be overwhelming, Gan. I'll go back inside if you need to be alone."

"Naw, lass," I smile, taking a meatball from the plate she'd moved to within my reach. "I don't want to be alone."

~~~