Page 64 of My Best Bet

We made Kappy sit in front of the toilet with the hairdryer to try to melt the water in the bowl so we could actually go to the bathroom.

He got sick of it not melting quick enough and tried to pee in it, thinking his pee would melt the ice.

It didn’t.

Pee splashed out every-fucking-where.

“My dick was going to explode, I had to go so bad,” was his only defense.

We finally asked Coach if we could get a new room, but when he came to see why, he laughed his ass off, then left us to solve it on our own.

Westerly ditched us and slept on the floor in someone else’s room, but the three of us hadn’t really made any new buddies on this team yet… Actually, I think we weren’t liked, because we were so much younger and they thought we hadn’t paid our dues to be playing there yet.

So, we put on every single item of clothing that we brought with us.

“This is like camping, guys. It’s not so bad,” Kappy said.

“Shut-t-t the f-f-fuck up,” JP said, his teeth chattering. He looked like a snowman with the amount of clothes he had on under the frozen covers.

“Guys, we have another problem,” I said, rubbing my hands together and blowing on them for warmth. Our damp gear was now starting to freeze and we still had another game to play tomorrow.

“I m-might cry,” JP said plainly.

Around 4am we couldn’t take it anymore. All of us were shaking and our lips were turning purple. We bailed and knocked on Greyson Scott’s door.

“You think he’ll let us in?” JP asked, shivering in the cold.

“I don’t know,” I muttered. “But I think it’s warmer out here than in our room.”

“This guy scares me,” Kappy added with a shudder.

With all his tatts and scars, Greyson Scott was a pretty intimidating guy. During our first practice, Kappy asked if a puck caused the jagged scar on the left side of his face that cutdirectly under his cheek bone. He just ran his tongue over his teeth and said, “Ask again and you’ll find out how.”

When Scott opened the door, he dropped his head back and groaned in annoyance. He tried to shut the door on us, but Kappy stuck his hand out.

“Please let us in. You’ll feel bad if we die, won’t you?” Kappy asked.

Scott arched a skeptical eyebrow that had another scar running through it. “No, I wouldn’t.”

“How are we gonna play tomorrow if we’re dead?” I blurted out.

He rubbed his scruff covered jaw, then finally relented and opened the door further to let us in. “Only letting you in because we don’t have time to replace all three of you by tomorrow.”

After we were settled on the floor, I tried to call Mer back really quickly just to let her know that we weren’t dead and that we found a place to sleep the rest of the night, but Scott stole my phone and tossed it behind him.

“No women.”

“I was just going to tell her that–”

“My room. No lovey dovey shit.” He gave me a hard look. “Piece of advice, kid– watch it with women. They’ll go ten rounds with you, then waltz away like it never happened while you’re left bleeding out on the floor.”

“Aww, who hurt you?” Kappy chimed in. “You wanna talk about it, buddy?”

He scowled at him.

“I mean, sir, captain,” he coughed into his hand, “Captain, sir.”

His face cracked. “Shut him the fuck up,” he said to me, then he flopped down on his bed and ignored us until he fell asleep.

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