He and the other man whose name I don’t know leave the room, shutting the door with a snap behind them. I flinch at the sound, staring at the door for several seconds as I try to catch my breath.
“Felton,” Coach says and my head whips around. “Take a breath.”
I try. I really do.
“You need to delete those accounts,” PR tells me. “Now.”
I nod and try to fumble out my phone, but my hands are shaking too badly to do so. Coach reaches across the table and grips my wrist. I close my eyes and let his calm seep into me.
“I’m not going to ask why you did this,” he murmurs. “I can’t promise that I can keep your contract. But if you delete your accounts right now, I’ll continue to fight to keep you on this team. All right?”
I nod.
“Look at me, Felton.” I look up but can barely see him. I might be shaking. “Take a breath. Concentrate on breathing for a minute.”
He doesn’t tell me it’s going to be okay. I think we both know it’s not.
FIVE
REN
There’sa last-minute change in the lineup for the game against San Jose. No explanation is offered for why Felton isn’t here. He’s not just been changed out of the game, but he’s not serving as backup on the bench either.
We lose against San Jose. Then when Felton isn’t on the plane home the next morning, I’m seriously starting to worry. He wasn’t hurt, was he? Did he get into an accident after we arrived in San Jose?
Just as I’m trying to work out what happened and whether I should actually be concerned, I hear Dasan say, “Oh no.”
I twist in my seat to look at him. He’s staring at his phone, his mouth wide open in disbelief.
“What is it?” Willits asks, leaning over his shoulder.
The plane is quiet now except for the normal plane noises. So we’re all watching him. I’m not the only one who noticed Felton simply disappeared.
Dasan looks up, meeting Willits’ eyes. “He didn’t really…”
“You going to share with the rest of us?” Marion asks.
Dasan shakes his head.
“No need,” Nason says. “I found it.” It isn’t long before the rest of us get to see what Dasan did since Nason forwards everyone the link.
WINNIPEG AVALANCHE’S FELTON BADCOCK SUSPENDED FOR PORN ACCOUNT
My eyes widen. Holy fuck. I can’t stop myself from opening the link. At first, the images, which are mostly blurred out, don’t prove shit. The man in the porn account is masked. A black leather mask that has cutouts for his eyes, nose, and mouth. It covers his entire face, right down to his neck.
I’ll admit that the tattoos between pictures of Felton (face showing) and masked supposed-Felton look incriminating. I might have scoffed at first because, come on, it’s a damn star. If we put a poll out to survey how many people had star tattoos in Winnipeg alone, it’d be astronomical. Fuck, even I have one on my back.
From what I can tell, they don’t manage to produce an image of this porn star with his face showing. But the article states Felton has been suspended for the next four games while management discusses the offense.
I shake my head. It sounds ludicrous.
“They literally have zero proof that’s Felton,” Dasan says.
“True,” someone else answers. “However, all the Benny Bop accounts are now closed or deleted entirely. The timing seems a little… coincidental, no?”
I sit back in my seat, frowning. Can I imagine Felton as a porn star? He’s always single, so I suppose he could be. But why would he jeopardize his career for this? He could have all the sex he wantedwithoutmaking it public and risk getting fired.
It seems so… just…
