On Thin Ice 2 Read Online Free

painkillers. Oh boy, did that kill the pain. It made me stop feeling anything, and that was way better than what I’d been feeling before. So, I kept taking them. And I took them more and more. I just wanted to forget. I needed to forget. When my best friend, our goalie, Ben, figured out what was going on, he encouraged me to get help, but I refused. So, he went to the team doctors. They told me I had to come here. I was going to refuse, but then the team held an intervention. I realized how much those guys meant to me, and I came. But I’m still not going to play hockey again. I can’t go through that again. I just... I just can’t.”
    I didn’t know what to say, so I didn’t say anything. I rested my head on Daniel’s shoulder as he dealt with his inner demons. Eventually, I spoke.
    “Thanks for telling me your story. I know you feel like you’re the only one who’s ever gone through this, but believe me, I know exactly what you were feeling. I know what you went through. I know the despair you felt at losing something more important to you than anything, and your complete lack of desire to continue on afterwards.”
    “Yeah. Yeah, I can tell you do. It’s tough, you know? It’s fucking tough. When I lost us the match out there, that’s what it reminded me of. My knee gave out and I didn’t have a chance to get at the ball. I freaked out completely. It just reminded me of everything I felt, every single ounce of pain that ran through me as I watched my team lose the Stanley Cup. I just wanted pills. I wanted to down as many as I had to in order to forget again. I wanted them more than anything in that moment.”
    “I know. I know exactly how you feel. Alcohol made me numb. It made me forget, and I didn’t want to remember. It will get better. You will learn to live with the emotion. I promise you that, but it’s never easy.”
    Suddenly, I let out a small cry as I looked down at Daniel’s leg. I hadn’t realized that there was blood pouring down it. He must have hurt it when he fell to the ground. It wasn’t like one of his major arteries had been hit, but there was definitely a good amount of blood. I couldn’t believe I didn’t notice it before, I must have been so wrapped up in his story.
    “I didn’ t realize you were bleeding,” I exclaimed, jumping up to find a first aid kit. I knew there had to be one around here somewhere, we were in a gym, after all. I found it on a shelf near the exit and quickly came back with it to Daniel.
    “Don’t worry, it’s fine. It doesn’t hurt on the outside nearly as much as on the inside.”
    “No, but you’re still losing way too much blood to just leave it there bleeding.”
    I opened the box and grabbed a large bandage, which I pressed to the wound.
    “Keep that there until the bleeding stops, I’ll be right back,” I ordered, grabbing a small cloth from the kit and going into the change room.
    When I came back with my cloth, which was now wet, Daniel was still obediently holding the bandage to his leg.
    “Has the bleeding stopped?” I asked.
    “I think so, mostly,” he replied, moving the bandage aside so I could have a look. Sure enough, the bleeding had basically ebbed, only a tiny amount of red still leaked from the wound. I took my cloth and very carefully cleaned the wound, making sure there were no little bits of rock or anything still inside of Daniel.
    I grabbed some antibiotic cream from the kit and gently spread a thin layer of it across the wound. I was all too aware of Daniel’s eyes watching me as I stroked his skin, and I could feel my own body reacting in a way I didn’t want it to.
    When I was finished, I took a fresh bandage from the kit and wrapped it around the wound.
    “Good. You should be fine. Take these extra bandages and change it every day, then in a few days take the bandage off complet ely and let the wound air heal.”
    “Thank you doctor,” Daniel replied with a grin, and I realized just how close we were to