Miles Away

I drove straight to my mom and dad's house from the airport. I was a little down and out of it. I hoped seeing them would make me smile. The minute I pulled into the driveway, my mom appeared in the doorway. She ran down and gave me a huge hug. "Welcome home sweetheart."

I gave her a weak smile and let her know I was exhausted. She left me alone and I went up to my old room. Looking around at all of the stuff I realized that hockey was a big part of my life, but not the only thing in it. I had old friends to reconnect with, brothers and my parent to hang out with and Ava to figure out. I laid down, my head already spinning with the million things I wanted to plan for the rest of the summer.

A knock on the door woke me up and I realized I had slept for two hours. My younger brother Mark walked in the room. "So what's up bro? You ain't never too tired to come and say hi." He lived a few blocks away with his girlfriend Mary.

"What is going on with you and don't give me no BS. Mom called me and said you look awful and I already spoke to Jeff. I'm gonna assume this has something to do with the girl you met and not hockey." He grabbed the covers off me and grinned.

I smacked him with a pillow and told him to get out. "Don't make me call Matt, in fact get the fuck out of bed, we are going fishing." Within seconds he had Matt on the phone and a plan hatched to go get some beer before hitting the dock near their house. He dragged me out of the house and to the store,

Matt was already standing on the dock when we got there. The minute we hit the open water they both looked at me and waited for me to speak. "Ok, so I met someone while I was with Carts. Her name is Ava, she is the same age as me and is from Philly. She lives in Voorhees and has two little boys, ironically named Michael and Matthew, They are seven and five."

Matt choked on his beer. I kept going. "To tell you the truth, if I didn't have this tourney planned I would have never came home this summer. I intend on trying to make this work. Something about her makes me want to be there for her."

Mark looked at me and gave me a smile. Matt had the typical frat boy reaction I expected. "Dude you are so pussy whipped. That is fucking hysterical. You better go get some ass and get over this broad."

Mark smacked him in the head. "Bro, get her to come up and visit. I'll control the idiot next to me."

I just shook my head at them. "Not that easy, she works and the boys have sports. Once September hits, they go back to school. Plus she won't let me buy her dick. It is ridiculous. A person who should be taking help, that don't."

"Well at least she ain't a gold digger." Mark commented and Matt snorted.

"What like most of his exes, speaking of, I seen Maria slinking around looking for you." I just groaned.

After fishing for two hours we headed back to my parent's house. They adored it when all of us were home. Mark was definitely the brains of the family. Matt was the personality. I guess I was the quiet one, the one who wore emotions on my sleeve. My parents didn't ask any questions tonight. I knew soon enough, they would want to know what was going on. I forced a few smiles and jokes during dinner, but I'm sure they saw through it.

We ended up going to a neighborhood bar that night. We ran into a lot of friends, including a girl I grew up with named Maria. I had hooked up with her numerous times over the past few summers, but nothing was ever serious. She didn't waste any time coming up and latching herself onto me. "Hey sexy, welcome home." she cooed, loud enough for everyone in the vicinity to hear.

"Hey Maria" I said, loosening her grip. After a few drinks, she convinced me to dance with her. Matt gave me the thumbs up sign as the music slowed. She wrapped her arms around me tight and tried to kiss me. I felt sick. I pulled her towards a booth. "Maria we need to talk. I'm not interested."

She threw me a death glare and began to pout dangerously loud. "But Mike I thought we were close, none of those summers meant anything to you? I forgot, you are too good for Kenora now."

"Maria, when did you call me to see how it was going, or call me after I had a bad game just to make me smile." She looked at me and rolled her eyes. "I thought so. I'm just a name to you." I got up from the booth. "Leave me alone or I will get a restraining order." I left the bar without saying goodbye to anyone.

On my walk home, I noticed it was still fairly early and dialed Ava's number. She picked up and the third ring. "Hey Michael. I am glad you called. I was just working it out and I think I will be able to come for the tournament." I couldn't help but grin.

"Listen that is great, but don't buy plane tickets. I have a ton of them ordered already so you might as well use them. A few of the guys from Philly couldn't make it." I was lying through my teeth, but I knew she wouldn't agree otherwise.

"Michael, I don't need you to buy me things, I told you that before. Don't lie to me." She sounded annoyed.

"Ava, listen, I don't do these things out of pity or because I need to. I do them because I want to. You are going to have to give a little too. I can't be the only one who makes concessions for this to work. " I heard her sigh and I took a deep breath.

"I'll give you this one, but only because I cannot wait to see you." She giggled and sound like a little girl.

"Listen, while you are in a good mood I just want to pre-warn you that my family will be at the tourney. They are easy to get a long with though."

She laughed. "Michael, if I can deal with your friends, I'm sure I will survive your family." I felt instantly at ease.

We spoke for a few more minutes before saying goodbye. "Goodnight Michael, I do really miss you." She said quietly as she hung up. Everytime she said my name it gave me the chills. Not even my mom called me that anymore. It made it feel like this was finally a grown up relationship, void of the drama and nonsense I was used to.

I went back to my parents place since it was closer than mine. My mom and dad were watching tv. "Sit down son." My dad caught me as I tried to sneak by. "So how are things son? You look better than you did earlier." I couldn't help the escaping smile.

I told them about Ava, from first meeting her until her agreeing to come up for the tournament. My mom looked thrilled. My dad asked me if I was sure I wanted to be in a relationship that involved children. "Dad, I know I am. I spent the whole week with them. I miss her, hell I miss them two. She is a good mom, she reminded me a lot of you guys.

"Mike now you are smiling. That is all that matters to us. Do you have a picture of her?" My dad laughed at my mom for that one. I showed them the picture from the boardwalk. "She is really pretty. I hope you are using protection son." My dad burst out laughing and I groaned.

"Mom, come on I am not fifteen anymore. I don't know her well enough yet." I hoped this was the beginning of something, hopefully that would last. I headed up to bed thinking of a hundred different ways I could make this work.

Notes