“Yes!” Ruby says, getting to his feet. “Come on, Reeve. Go.”
There’s a hush in the stands, then everyone groans when one of the other team’s players gets in his way. He can’t keep his balance when they knock shoulders, resulting in the ball being stolen.
Ruby sits with a huff.
There’s definitely far more cohesiveness on the field now. Reeve and Dorian are the only players I know by name. Reeve because he and Ruby are still friends and Dorian because he’s the captain and I’ve heard both Harper and Alka call on him a few times.
It’s weird referring to everyone else as numbers, but… Maybe that’s what they deserve to be. Either they were dicks, or they stepped aside and did nothing while a handful of people were absolute assholes to another. They pretended it wasn’t happening.
Our number forty-seven makes an attempt on goal. I’m not sure it should have gone in, but it does. Their goalie dives, andhis hands hit the ball to send it out. One of their own teammates tries to dodge out of the way, but he’s already in motion as the ball comes at him. It hits his shoulder and ricochets into the net while the goalie is still down.
“That’s a shitty way to win,” Ruby says as he leans into my side.
We do win. We’d already been up by one, but the accidental goal really seals the deal. The last fifteen minutes are the ball being kicked and guys chasing it. I see some fancy footwork that never fails to impress me. I don’t think I’m that coordinated.
Ruby detaches from my side as soon as the last whistle is blown. He wraps his arms around Alka, hugging him tightly and kissing him unabashedly. I suppose if there was a win in this situation, it’s that Ruby no longer feels the need to hide their relationship. So he doesn’t.
I join them a few seconds later as the team gathers around the bench. “Nice game, Coach,” I say, kissing his cheek.
Alka smiles. “We did okay.”
“Go coach. We’ll wait for you,” Ruby says as he lets Alka go.
Alka kisses us both again before turning to the team. Ruby and I step away. We spend a few minutes with our friends who attended the game to show Alka support, but they break off to head home before too long. I will never forget how much they stepped up to show Alka a solid front when he needed it.
Those are the kinds of friends Ruby should have had on the team. Instead, two of the men he thought were friends were the complete opposite. Thankfully, Reeve turned out to be a good guy. He and Ruby still talk sometimes.
“What do you want to do while we wait?” I ask.
Most of the time, we just linger around the bleachers, talking to whomever until Alka’s finished for the day. Sometimes, we head to the café to get drinks. Sometimes dinner if we’re too hungry to wait until we get home. A few times, we’ve gone back to Ruby’s dorm and shared a couple orgasms.
“Let’s go check out the hockey arena,” Ruby says, surprising me.
“You thinking of taking up hockey instead?”
He laughs, taking my hand. “No. Lix is looking for something to invest in, and he keeps forgetting to check out the arena when he visits so he asked me to.”
“Ah. Then let’s go.”
The rink isn’t far, though from the outside, I can tell that it’s relatively new. We’re talking the last five or six years. The last decade at the most. Either that or the school isreallygood about keeping it looking amazing. With Rainbow Dorset, it could seriously be either.
I push the door open, and we step foot inside. It looks no less new and shiny than the outside. We look around before stepping through one of the doors that leads down to the rink below. Even the seats look new.
“Well,” Ruby says as we make our way down, “I don’t think this is what he has in mind.”
“I was thinking that too. We must have missed the plaque dedication when it was opened, but if I had to guess, it hasn’t been very long.”
He shakes his head. “Same.”
We stop at the bottom, and Ruby leans against the glass. There’s a small, soft smile on his face.
“You ever play hockey?”
“Eh,” he says, shrugging. “Lix is fifteen years older than me, so by the time I could walk, he was in the middle of his second-to-last year of high school. There’s a picture of us on the ice together. I’m barely one, so I can’t stand on my own for shit. But I’m all bundled up with these tiny skates on, and my brother is holding me upright by my arms as he glides me around the ice between his legs. I have the biggest smile even though my nose and cheeks are rosy red because it’s so cold. It’s one of my favorite pictures.”
“That’s sweet.”
Ruby nods absently. “I think I might have played hockey if Lix was there when I was growing up. Don’t get me wrong. Even though he was playing hockey and rarely home, we talked all the time. Constantly. He was the best big brother ever. But I think because he wasn’t there, my interest in hockey never fully formed. When I was eight or nine, I signed up for soccer. If Lix was ever disappointed, I never saw it. He celebrated every damn moment I was in soccer as if he were proud of me just for running across the pitch.”
