Leaning forward, I dropped my head. I knew it was my fault. I mean, really, what did I expect? She told me we were just friends and that I shouldn’t expect anything more, but that never stopped her from wearing my jersey when we were young.
My next shift out, sweat poured down my face as I fought for the puck again. When I finally gained control and passed to my Ziggs, my D-partner, I high-tailed it off the ice, waving to the bench for someone to replace me because I was completely gassed.
After plopping on the bench, I heard a small, “Thanks, McQuaid.”
Turning, I spotted Niko a couple guys down from me.
“Toe-drag? Really?” I barked at him. If any of us would’ve pulled that move when we were younger, we would’ve had a first-class ticket back to our affiliate team. “Stop with the fancy shit and get to the net.”
Behind me, Coach gave a stern nod. “Well said, McQuaid.” He snapped his gum while walking to the other side of the bench.
Niko gave me a dark glance before hanging his head. “Dick,” he muttered.
“Wanna say that again?” I roared at him right as the buzzer went off to end the second period.
Zukes, another rookie, shoved Niko forward to stop him from saying anything back to me.
Pissed as all hell while walking back to our locker room, I snapped my stick over my knee.
Colt, who was giving knuckle punches to the guys before theyentered the room, stopped me before I could enter. “You good?” he asked.
“No, I’m pissed,” I fumed, my chest heaving with anger.
Colt shrugged. “We’ve had worse starts. We’ll hit our stride.”
“We’re losing to Ontario,” I bit out dryly.
Colt laughed. “I don’t think it’s the game that’s got you rattled, is it?”
I opened my mouth to argue, but Coach cut me off.
“McQuaid!” he bellowed from inside the room. “How ‘bout you get your ass in here and say some words to the group.”
Fuck.
Colt smirked. “Yeah, let’s hear it, bud,” he said, while practically shoving me forward. “Channel all that frustration about Lil Al Pal not wearing your jersey.” He winked at me.
My jaw clamped shut. Mer must’ve told him. The girls all went to Mer’s house to get ready for the game today, so I sent my jersey to his house. She probably left the evidence right there on his dining room table.
Standing at the front of the room, I turned to take in my teammates. “Get your shit together. We’re not focused at all. And we need to stop pulling dumbass rookie moves.” I glared at the new guys—Niko, Nilsson, and Zukes. “Ontario? Really? We’re gonna lose to them? I don’t think you guys are scared enough to get sent back down to—”
“Oookay.” Colt jumped to his skates and practically shoved me back toward my locker stall. “Thanks for that, JP.” My teammates gave me uneasy looks before focusing their attention back on Colt. “Now, we’re down, but we’re not out. We still have a period to turn this around. Let’s give them a game to write about, eh?”
While Coach and Colt detailed plays for the next period, I could barely focus. My mind wasn't on the game, it was on the blonde sitting in section 2A.
___________
Whatever Colt said to the group really rallied them up, because within the next period, we tied the game up 3-3. With five minutes left in the period, Zukes scored one to put us ahead, and then Niko scored to seal our win with only a minute left in the game.
As soon as Niko scored, he went down on one knee and showboated around the boards, making our home crowd go wild.
After the final buzzer, Colt and I hung back while the rest of the team filed off the ice. Kappy always had a superstition about being the last one to touch the ice, and even though he wasn’t on the team anymore, it was still a habit for Colt and I to wait around.
“That Niko kid remind you of someone?” Colt asked as we made our way through the tunnel.
“Yupp.” I squirted water in my mouth. “Gotta Kappy 2.0 on our hands, complete with the pretty boy hair and smartass mouth.” I sighed.
“And same missing tooth.” Colt laughed.
