I got there first, but was then slammed into the boards, his elbow against my head. He’d been doing that all game. I felt anger and adrenaline raging inside of me. He held me against the boards then, not letting up. Where was the whistle?
Next thing I knew, I wound up and slammed my glove against his helmet.
It moved fast then.
Our fist slamming into each other.
At some point my helmet fell off and I took one squarely to the face and felt the blood gush.
It just gave me more ammunition.
I usually wasn’t a fighter. But this guy pushed me to it.
I felt one ref jerking me back by my jersey and another stood between us.
He got one good punch in, but looking at him, I knew I won the fight.
I smiled at him, which caused him to start chirping. I just blew him off and laughed, pussy.
I thought it was funny… until the ref was ushering me toward the door and not my team bench.
“What the fuck, he started it!” I protested, trying to yank my jersey from his grasp.
The ref just shook his head at me, “Keep it up and I’ll give you a game suspension as well.”
I shook my head at the injustice. If he would’ve done his job I wouldn’t have had to take matters into my own hands in the first place.
I looked back at the bench. I could hear Max’s dad, our head coach, arguing on my behalf from all the way across the ice.
Walking down the hallway to our locked room, I took stalk of myself.
The front of my jersey was covered in blood. I wasn’t in any pain yet because I was so pissed that I couldn’t finish the last ten minutes of the game. I only felt a throbbing beginning from my nose as I opened the locker room door.
There were only two games left and everyone was fighting for some kind of commitment for next year. And here I was, sitting one of them out and losing opportunity. I shouldn’t have let him get to me.
I kept the locker room light off. I wanted darkness; I was starting to feel a headache coming on.
Another concussion was not what I needed.
I threw my helmet at the wall and sat my ass down.
I tried some breathing exercises Jules had taught me but it really wasn’t working. I was letting my temper get the best of me lately. I needed to check myself before it got worse. I couldn’t afford many more head injuries. I had one bad concussion this season and I wanted to stay clear of anymore for the rest of my career.
I muttered a curse and started ripping my skate laces undone.
I heard a little knock on the locker room door then. Who would knock?
“Uh… yeah?” I called.
The door peeped open and I saw a fluttering of long light brown hair.
“Jules?” I asked incredulously. She wasn’t supposed to be back here… but I guess the rest of the team was kind of busy at the moment.
She pulled the door all the way open then, and was immediately taken aback… it must’ve been the blood.
She flipped the lights on and took a couple strides toward me then and plopped herself next to me.
She touched my cheek and gave a sheepish grin. Her hand on my face made me feel better. She had a way of easing the trouble and anger stirring inside of me.
