Crystal Frost's Arc

Chapter 4 of 5

Crystal walked home from the arena with Gerard's words still echoing in her head. See you next game. She had waited two years for him to notice her, and now he had. But when she unlocked the front door and stepped inside, Aunt Matty was awake in her chair, coughing hard into a tissue. The pill bottles on the side table had multiplied since morning. The phone rang at seven the next morning. Crystal listened to the doctor explain that Aunt Matty needed a new treatment, something the insurance wouldn't cover in full. The number he said made her stomach drop. She stared at her season ticket on the kitchen counter, the bright team colors suddenly looking garish under the overhead light. The ticket had cost her three months of savings. The treatment would cost twice that. Crystal sat at the table with her phone in one hand and the season ticket in the other. She could sell it back to the team office. Someone on the waiting list would buy it immediately. The math was simple—one thing she wanted versus one thing Aunt Matty needed. She picked up her phone and started typing the email to the ticket office, her thumb hovering over the send button. But she stopped. She deleted the draft and called the doctor's office instead. There had to be a payment plan, something that would let her keep both. The receptionist offered her six months to pay, interest-free if she started this week. Crystal agreed before she could change her mind. She would pick up extra shifts. She would skip buying new skates this year—the ones she had would last another season. When she hung up, the season ticket was still on the table in front of her, and Gerard's face was still in her head. She had chosen to keep fighting for both, even though it meant six months of being even more tired than she already was. But tomorrow night, she would be back in her seat by the ice, and he would see her there again.