Friendly Banter and a Match Off for the Holidays

[SleepyPlayz 57]

12-22-S96 

 

As the holiday season rolled around, and so did the New Year. I would be spending this one alone after getting used to all my friends and family being around to support me. That was a kind of depressing reality, wasn’t it? I sighed and grabbed a piece of paper. Flipping it over, and it was that one drawing from my friend. He wasn’t the best at traditional art, being more of a digital artist, but it was cute regardless. The last gift I’d gotten about a year ago.

 

I was cold, the weather was already extremely cold, something I was barely used to. I didn’t have much to do nor say and I just wanted to get out of this fucking house. Suddenly, though, my phone started ringing, and a familiar voice appeared over the phone as I put it to my ear. “Hoy, anong meron? Parang ang gulo mo sa bawat interview mo. Hopefully school isn't too difficult [laughter]. Anyways, may bukas na ticket papuntang America so I think we can make it for New Years, but not Christmas. Paumanhin, ngunit pinakamahusay sa iyo. Also before we go, get your anger issues fixed man! It wasn’t fun having all our mirrors broken!" 

“Get over yourself damnit, it’s not anger issues. It’s just sensory overload stuff or something, whatever the doctor said.” I clapped back, a grin on my face. “Hey, wait, weren’t you the one who broke a wall because a girl rejected you?” 

“Girl? What girl? The only girl I’ve ever talked to is my mother!” 

Despite the obvious facts that I remembered from this guy, who’d been rejected by some foreign girl who just came to the country for a few days or something, he seemed to be adamantly denying it. Both of them were 14, one very much head over heels and the other barely understanding what he was saying.

“Don’t you have hockey stuff to get back to anyways, A?” Ah yes, he kept up this tradition of calling everyone their first initial. Something about getting in trouble for harassing me because his parents still viewed me as someone like his sister, and two of his friends of his had the letter A to start their name, me and Alex. He was also technically a foreigner, but his parents moved here when he was 18 months old or something like that he told us. I grinned. “Don’t you have a little sister to catch up on?”  The both of us laughed at our little inside jokes before we hung up, a satisfying end to the conversation or something like that.

 

Oh, right. I did have hockey stuff to do. Not for the VHL, but someone in the agency asked for me to be in a hockey stadium by 9PM tonight. I wonder what that was about. I’d signed with them last week because I got scared of not having someone be my agent, but their pay barely helped since I was mostly getting CAD $75-80 for most of the commercial gigs I was a part of, but they did give me $100,000 to help me on my transition journey. Now if only that appointment could be scheduled…

 

I made my way to the arena, heavy duty coat on and whatnot. I found the guy  who was waiting for me. He was apparently a coach in a basketball league or something like that. 

“Hello Agustin. I’m Sam, the person who signed you over the phone. I already told you the contract details, but let’s recap: 10% of your salary belongs to us in exchange for us paying for a large portion of your medical bills, especially if you enter the United States, which I hear you might be going to soon.” Sam said with a smile. I nodded along, the contract stuff was boring. He already paid me, I checked my account that he helped me set up. “Now, though, since you actually showed up, why don’t we play in a 1v1? I heard you were amazing in the Philippines at field hockey and this is basically your first experience with ice hockey. Let’s get those skills back. I’ll let you choose what side you want to be on, and I’ll go to the other. And no, don’t worry, I made sure we had access. No one else, just you and me, and we have full access.