On the Ice (Stick Side, #1)

by Amy Aislin

Mitch rubbed a hand over his chest and leaned his head back against the stall wall. Sometimes he wished he had an Eddie. Someone to come home to. Someone whose family would welcome him. Someone to soothe his hurts. He was usually too busy to acknowledge the loneliness inside him, but listening to Eddie and his girlfriend kiss not only with affection but with tenderness? The loneliness hit him suddenly, like a check into the boards he hadn’t seen coming. He might’ve promised himself that he wouldn’t let anybody close again—he had to protect himself somehow, so he wouldn’t be hurt when the world found him lacking—but that didn’t mean he didn’t miss the connection with another human being. Not necessarily a sexual one, but an intimate one, like the one he used to have with Dan. It was because of Dan, and because of his mother’s callousness, that Mitch had come to GH in the first place, determined to start fresh. No one knew him here except for Cody, so he could be whoever he wanted to be with everyone else, hide behind a brash exterior. But that meant that nobody really knew him. Sometimes, he felt the pressure of hiding who he was wearing him down, but he’d gotten into the habit and he didn’t know how to make himself vulnerable, how to let anyone in. How could he, when he didn’t really know who he was anymore? Had he turned into the person he’d been pretending to be for over a year, the one that was only meant to keep his heart safe? Or was he still the same person he’d alwa...