Fuck yeah. I’m in.
Laramie
What’s the plan? Scrimmages or what?
Depends on how many of you assholes show up.
Mix
Think Coach will go easy on us if we tell him we’re skating with Calds after?
Coach
No.
Eminem
Wait who TF added Coach to the group chat?
Baddy
There’s an adult in here? WTF?
Coach
Sounds like someone wants to bag skate.
Eminem
(crying emoji)
Baddy
(halo emoji)
Coach
(eyeroll emoji)
When I showed the exchange to Avery in the parking lot before our ice time, he stared at it with wide eyes.
“Whoa,” he murmured as he scrolled throughthe lengthy conversation. “They’re… Are they reallyallcoming?”
“I know Baddy, Eminem, Mix, and Laramie will be here. Some of the other guys had stuff going on, but they said to keep them in the loop if we do this again.”
He fixed that wide-eyed stare on me as he handed back my phone. Then he looked around the players’ parking lot behind the training center, and he shifted from surprised to a little crestfallen. “Well, their cars aren’t here, so…”
I clapped his shoulder and gently steered him toward the building’s entrance. “We’re early. Give them time.”
Boys, you better come through.
Sure enough, about twenty minutes later, the door banged open and voices filtered up the hall.
“—swear to God, if you do that again,” Baddy was saying to someone, “I will put ghost pepper sauce in your jock.”
“Dude, that’s messed up.” Eminem’s voice, followed by what sounded like a smack. “You touch my jock, and you’ll be wearing it on your face.”
“For fuck’s sake,” Mix said. “Now you’re just making it kinky.”
