Page 2 of The Puck Chase

Before I can open my mouth to respond, my teammate simply replies, “No thank you.” Then he reaches down and passes her her shirt and gestures towards the door.

I’m sure she looks just as bewildered as I am, yet she grabs her top and slinks it back on without another word, before moving to the door with a shrug. “Oh well, hockey teams have a big enough roster, onto the next I guess.” Then she is gone, and he is staring at me like I came in here and fucking killed some puppies.

“Are we cum buddies now?” I laugh, aiming to lighten the mood, yet his gaze remains sharp and unaffected.

“You’re done, you can leave now.” He pairs his words with holding his door open wide until I have no choice but to move towards it.

I barely pause past the threshold, turning to say, “Okay, see you around.” But the door is already being closed in my face, and somehow I hear the sound of the lock being slid into place over the music.

What the fuck just happened?

I pull my phone out completely bewildered, as I stagger my way through the party and pull up my new teammate's number, who told me to text him if I ever needed anything. Kind of like if there was an emergency, and well, this feels like an emergency.

Archer - Is it gay to cum in another guy's cum and then watch as he licks it up?

The message is read almost instantly, and I’m thankful to see the typing bubbles appear just as quick. I know I had a good feeling about him, and that I could count on him in my time of need.

Nova - What the fuck?

Nova - Were you dropped as a child?

Nova - We just met

Nova - What the fuck is wrong with you?

And that’s how I become best friends with Nova Darkmore, and mortal enemies with Daemon Forbes.

Seniorfuckingyear. A year I have often found myself counting the seconds down until I reach it, but now that it’s here, I wish time would slow the fuck down. Now don’t get me wrong, the first week after summer break is actually my favorite time of the entire year, where the days are still warm and the nights are still cool. Plus, I haven’t even had a chance to fall behind in any of my classes yet, and after not seeing me for months, there is a hoard of beautiful women just vying for my attention.

It’s fucking perfect.

After spending the summer in New York with my family, being back in the small town of Fairfield is a welcome reprieve. I spent the first couple of weeks with my dad and stepmom in the Hamptons, before heading into the city to stay with my mom,stepdad and younger siblings. My sister Aurora was her usual busy self, focusing on her summer studies and volunteering at the local shelters with our mom, but my little brother, Everest, who is only one year her senior, crashed the car his dad bought for him and wrote it off completely. The kid is nothing if not a danger to society, and they couldn’t be more polar opposites if they tried, but I love them both unconditionally.

My parents announced they were getting divorced when I was eight and Aurora was four. Like most kids, I thought it was the end of the world. I was preparing for fights and alternating Christmases and birthdays, but Claire and Evan Gray handled their separation like pros. They always remained more than amicable with one another, still celebrating holidays together, and when my mom met David a couple of years later, my dad welcomed him with open arms.

David Monroe was a widow, who lost his wife when she gave birth to their son, my now brother, and he thought he would never find love again until he met my mom. David and Everest slotted into our family seamlessly, and he and my mom got married when I was twelve. That same year my dad also met Katrina, they fell hard and fast for one another and got married a year later, completing our blended family perfectly.

Most people would probably be sad that their parents got divorced and moved on from one another, but for my family, it was the best thing that ever happened to us. I love all four of my parents, and never once think of Everest as my step-sibling, even if he’s not my blood, he’s still my little brother. Both him and Rora are my best friends, and I wouldn’t change them for the world. I really enjoyed getting to spend time with all of my family, but still it feels good to be back on Hockey Row, which for one more year is where I consider home.

Being back on campus means my schedule has gone from relaxing by the pool and hitting up the best clubs in the city, tolong, full days of classes, and the return of 6 a.m runs with my best friend Nova. The two of us bonded back in freshman year, where I basically appointed him as my first college friend after he failed to shake me off. Now he’s like another brother to me, and as well as being my friend and roommate, he is also the team captain, which means he also chewed my ass out for slacking on my summer training routine.

Nova Darkmore is the crazy calm to my cold chaos, he’s all moody and brooding, and has saved my ass from trouble more times than either of us would probably care to admit, but he loves me anyway.I think. And even though he’s a fucking tyrant sometimes, I love him too. Although I don’t know why he’s so pissed at me just because I didn’t go running this summer, it’s not like I didn’t keep my stamina trained in other ways. I’m nothing if not practical.

Still, I’m heading over to practice early, not wanting to give him or Coach Locke an excuse to ream me out before the season has even started. I’ve already dealt with Nova’s bullshit lecture, I don’t need another from Coach. Not when this is my last year playing college hockey, and despite a position waiting for me at my father’s Fortune 500 company, I want to go pro.

The ice calls to my body like a moth to a flame, and I am ready to feel the burn of the cold beneath my feet, and the weight of my stick in my hand. It’s where I’m meant to be, what I’m meant to do, and I won’t let anything get in my way. Despite fucking around a lot of the time, this is what I want to do, and I will do whatever it takes to get there.

When I push through the doors of the gym I inhale deeply, letting the familiar scent of ice and stale sweat swirl all around me. I love it here, it’s the only place I can ever truly switch off my mind and feel like myself, with no expectations other than to hit a puck. It’s always been like that, as if the ice has a direct link to my brain and can quiet my thoughts. It’s perfect.

The hallways and adjoining rooms are mostly quiet, but I nod to the couple of people I pass on my way, before I push into the changing rooms. I expect to find them dark, or maybe just Coach’s office lights on given how early I am, but the whole place is illuminated in light, and when I round the corner to my gym locker, I find the reason why.

Daemon Forbes.

One of my teammates for the last few years, but definitely not one of my friends. In fact, I would probably go as far to say that we are enemies with the amount of times we have butted heads. We may play on the same team, but Daemon goes out of his way to actively ignore me and hate me at the same time, in a way only he can seem to achieve. Yet for some reason I love every second of it.

After our first meeting in his dorm room back in freshman year, I thought we would be fast friends, high-fiving over shared conquests and becoming comrades, but I was wrong. When I saw him again after our first meeting, he pretended to have no idea who I was, while also acting like he had no recollection of what went down in his room that night. Now most people would take this as a hint, as a fuck you, and leave him alone, but those people are suckers. I instead take great pleasure in pissing him off any chance I get, and enjoy reminding him that he knows exactly what our cum tastes like mixed together.I’m nice like that.

Dumping my bag on the floor beside his, I lean on my locker, which just so happens to be the neighbor to his own, and reach out and ruffle his already messy black hair. “Well, if it isn’t my favorite teammate,” I preen with a smile, as he ducks away from my touch, flicking his now scathing stare to mine.

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