“See you in July, hey?” Jake says, and David doesn’t know why it sounds like some sort of promise, like more than a simple acknowledgement that they’ll be in the same place in a few months, but it does.

“See you in July,” David says, and Jake leans in for one last kiss, pulling away before David’s quite ready to let him go.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

The time until July passes slowly, somehow simultaneously busy and boring. David trains hard. He knows exactly what he needs to work on for camp, what they aren’t going to be working on in camp, his weaknesses, and the things he’s good at but could be better, and he makes sure to do all of them. He works hard enough to be exhausted at the end of the day, but not hard enough to get rid of a restlessness that sits within him.

He and Jake continue to text. It’s something a little less structured than Jake’s game of question and answer, though he still asks plenty of questions, albeit more often about what David did that day than anything more abstract.

David’s unsure how to respond to some of Jake’s texts, updates about his own day. It seems silly to send a text just to acknowledge that he’s seen Jake’s. But texts like whatre u up to our trainer bagskated us for no gud reason hes evil are a little simpler, because there is an obligation to answer, even if Jake didn’t bother with a question mark.

That sucks. David responds, because it does — bag skating is meant as a punishment, and David’s frankly curious what Jake and his training group did to bring it on, because it’s rarely utilised otherwise — then, Strength training today.

nice, Jake replies immediately, and then the texting ceases until the next time Jake gives him a training update, asks how David’s is doing, like he knows that unless there’s a question involved, David never knows quite what to say.

*

David gets to Toronto two days early. It’s unnecessary, really — he’s not escaping from Ottawa this time, and Jake isn’t getting in until late the night before camp starts anyway, because it’s apparently a friend’s birthday and he can’t miss it. David doesn’t know why it’s so important, why he’d compromise a good night’s sleep just to go to a party, especially one he’ll have to leave early, but he knows that isn’t the sort of thing he can say aloud.