Page 104 of What if I Told You

I’m laughing right along with him as I shrug. “Hell, if I know! Griffin was being Griffin!”

“What did you say to Findley?” Harrison asks when Griffin approaches. “And what the hell were you doing? That wasn’t the play.”

“Yeah, I know,” he says with a smirk. “I took a page out of Ella’s fake-out playbook but I didn’t think I could twirl the way she did, so I just asked him how many wieners he thought I could deep throat at one time.”

Harrison, Ledger, Oliver, and I crack up laughing. “You are something else, Ollenberg,” I tell Griffin as I give the guy a hug.

“I thought you deserved a little revenge since they came after you so fucking early tonight.”

“Thanks, man. I owe ya one.”

“Nah. That’s what friends are for.”

Griffin and I set off to the other side of the ice to sit out this next shift. I grab my water bottle and take a few long chugs when I hear a fan from somewhere behind us yell, “Hey Blackstone! Don’t be such a pansy next time. You’ve got to want it if you’re going to survive!”

“Yeah okay fuckhead,” I mumble, not bothering to look behind me. Fans heckle us all the time, it’s nothing new.

Griffin chuckles and then nudges me with his elbow. “Yeah Blackstone. Pansy ass mother fucker. You’ve got to want it.”

“What do I want?” I ask him with a smirk.

He shrugs. “I don’t know. To knock that guy’s teeth out maybe? He was trying to give me shit earlier too.”

“Drunk ass bitch most likely.”

“Without a doubt.”

“Hey Blackstone!” the guy shouts again. “Tell your girl to stop changing her lipstick color! My dick looks like a rainbow!”

A few fans get a hearty laugh out of the heckles being tossed my way and as much as I usually let them roll off my back, I’m so not in the mood tonight. Especially when he starts talking about my girl.

Nobody talks about Ella like that and gets away with it. I start to turn around but Griffin grabs my jersey and pulls my attention back to the game. Without looking at me he says, “Don’t give them the satisfaction man. It’ll only get you in trouble.”

“Yeah but they’re talking about Ella.”

He laughs. “Dude, they don’t know who the fuck they’re talking about. They probably don’t even know who Ella is let alone know that she’s across the ice in the stands leaving a little sparkle everywhere she fucking goes. They’re drunk. Let them be drunk. They’re not hurting anyone.”

They’re pissing me off.

But I suppose he’s right.

I get paid millions of dollars to play the game I love and they’re probably waking up every day and going to a job they can’t stand. I suppose I can take their drunk heckles without taking it personally. He rolls his eyes and shakes his head before he takes a huge gulp of water. “Stupid fucking drunks.” He tosses his water bottle and gestures to me. “Ready?”

“Yep.”

The Stars are upthree to two nearing the end of the third period when I come off the ice for my last shift break, this time with Ledger by my side.

“Tough game,” Ledger says, handing me a water bottle as he’s also handed one for himself.

“Bunch of mother fucking assholes if you ask me.”

“Aww.” Ledger cocks his head. “Is someone salty because he got his pretty little face nicked up?” He laughs and pats my head as someone shouts from behind us.

“Hey Blackstone! You got any naked pictures of your girlfriend?” When I don’t answer him after a second or two, he adds, “Want me to send you some?”

“Fucking son of a bitch.” I stand up to finally say something to the asshole fan behind us but Ledger grabs my arm and yanks me back down.

“Not a chance, Blackstone.”

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