She needed supervision. Two nights before, they were in the room, watching a movie. When Claire got up to use the bathroom, she was wobbling. He asked her what was wrong, and she started to slur her speech. Phillip got up, going to her, and she reeked of alcohol. Reaching for her orange juice, he took a sip to confirm what he hoped he was wrong about. She was drinking. He asked her why, and she told him that she felt numb when she drank, and then she promptly passed out. Clearing out the mini-bar while she slept it off, he actually wanted to cry. He had no clue what to do about her, and it was killing him.
Claire’s issues were also affecting his game, and he didn’t know how to leave her out of his mind when he was on the ice. The only reason she was there right now was because he told her he would send her to Alice if she didn’t straighten up. She blew him off, but he could see the fear in her eyes and, even though he hated to threaten her, he didn’t know what else to do. He had done research. Everyone said to make her feel at home, to give her space and try to talk to her, but the only thing that seemed to make her happy was to leave her alone, and that didn’t work for him. She did stupid things when she was alone, so really he was fucked either way. God, he really needed this thing to work out with Harper.
“Go,” Coach Baxter said, tapping Phillip’s helmet, and off he went. Rushing the puck, he looked left to see E. Titov waiting for the pass. Whipping the puck over to him, a forward from the Sharks stopped it, and passed it to his right wing, but Phillip was there, stealing the puck and rushing down the ice on a breakaway with Karson King, with Erik right behind him. He could have dropped it back to either of them, and they would have had a clean shot, but he knew he could deke the goalie out and get it in when the goalie went the wrong way. After doing just that, the Sharks’ goalie laid on the ice, slamming his fist as the King, Erik, Adler, and E. Titov wrapped him up in a hug. As the guys headed to the bench with the crowd going nuts, the biggest smile came across his face. God, he loved a home crowd. It was his first goal since Claire came home with him and, when he glanced up to where she sat, she was on her feet, cheering. He didn’t know if it was the atmosphere of the crowd cheering or if she was really cheering for him, but it made his heart swell. A little ounce of hope was renewed as he watched her smiling face.
Maybe they would be okay.
Or maybe not.
Phillip was starting to think Claire was drunk at the game because, the next day, she was back to her angry self. Throwing her things in a box, she pinned him with a look that said she was pissed. He moved a packed box into the hall as she yelled.
“If you think I’m going over there and being her personal babysitter, you got another thing coming!”
Phillip shook his head. “Harper isn’t going to ask you to do that.”
“Whatever, that’s probably the only reason she agreed to let me stay there, free babysitting,” she sneered at him as she slowly packed her music stuff.
“No, Claire. She agreed because I needed the help.”
“Help? You act like I’m a burden or something! If you don’t want me, get rid of me. I don’t fucking care.”
Phillip was two seconds from pounding his head against the wall.
“Claire, I do want you. I love you, as I continue to tell you. This is what you wanted. You said you didn’t want to travel with me. This way, you can go to school at a really great private school. You can make friends, and you can enjoy being a teenager.”
“I don’t want to live with a stranger. I want to live with you,” she said, before turning to look at him. Her eyes were so sad, and he felt like the bad guy.
Wasn’t he doing the right thing?
“Claire, I’ll be home in four days, and then you will come back to our house. The great thing about Harper’s house is that it is eight minutes from here, so it’s not like you’ll have a different school or different friends. Everything will be the same. Everything is going to be okay, I promise.”
She slowly shook her head, falling back on the bed. He watched as she moved her hand along her cheek before looking up at him.
“I feel trapped.”
“Trapped?”
“Yeah.”
“Why?”