Page 5 of The Puck Chase

He leads me downstairs, shoves a beer in my hand, and then we settle in with Levi and Landon to watchStar Wars: A New Hope.

And the fucker thinks I’m predictable, he’s lucky he’s my best friend.

All in all it’s a good day, despite the efforts of my fucking prick of a teammate.

The next few weeks are a blur of the same routine, working out, going to class, studying, hockey practice and before I know it we are already at the first game of the season. The atmosphere tonight is different, like some of us can feel it’s our last first game as an FU Flyer. It doesn’t matter that half of us spent the summer not working out, it doesn’t even matter that every practice has ended with most of us throwing up. No, the only thing that matters now is the game, and that little black puck.

The locker room is alive with a buzz of tension, as my teammates are a mix between filing out onto the ice, and finishing getting ready for the game, but my focus is still on my pregame ritual. Every game it’s always the same, a brand new pair of boxers to go beneath my base layer, and this game is noexception. My best friend always laughs at my tradition, but has been known to buy me a pair or two over the years, and our other friend and roommate Reign, goes out of his way to find me the most ridiculous ones he can manage, like it’s some sort of game to him. Which is how I find myself standing in the locker room with a picture of his face across my junk.

“Alexander, if you wanted to get up close and personal with my dick, all you had to do was ask,” I tease, leaning over the bench towards him and mimicking kissing noises, as he bats me away.

“Piss off, you wanker, I wouldn’t even touch you with Darkmore’s dick,” he claps back, as our captain in question rounds the corner, and looks between us both before shaking his head.

“Now, now children, don’t bring me into this sordid love affair,” he declares, slipping into his jersey, and I know right now his focus is on nothing but the game, yet still I choose to rile him up.

“Nova would love to get up close and personal with my dick, wouldn’t you baby?” I coo, wrangling him by the neck and rubbing his hair with my knuckles, as I dry hump him, because if you aren’t being confused as lovers, are you even best friends?

“Get off me you fucking predator,” he grumbles, shoving me away from him, and I hastily knock back into someone else.

Turning around I find a grumbling Josh Peters, who stares at me with nothing but detest in his eyes, before dropping his stare down my body and grunting at me. “Do you take anything seriously?” He scoffs, dumping his bag on the bench, as his best friend appears behind him.

Daemon ignores me, of course, moving toward his locker next to mine, as I shrug and reply to Josh, “I don’t know, I take fantasizing about your sister pretty seriously.”

Josh Peters is the son of the Mayor, and when his sister arrived on campus a year after him, he made it perfectly clear to everyone that she was off limits. It doesn’t help his case that Madeline Peters is an absolute smokeshow, and though I have no true interest in the baby of the Peters’ family, I still enjoy pissing him off any chance I get, especially given the family history between him and Nova, choosing chaos is my daily motto after all.

His father might be the mayor but he is also a piece of shit who screwed his secretary and then fired her when everyone found out. A secretary that just so happened to be Nova’s mom, and well, let’s just say it makes playing on a team with them very hostile. Yet I have my best friend’s back at every turn, and all of those turns include pissing off Josh Peters, just like I do his best friend.

“Gray, I swear to god,” he starts, turning towards me, but before he can take a step, Daemon is there blocking his path.

The two of them share a look, and when Josh steps back towards his locker I smirk, focusing my attention on Daemon. “What about you, Forbes, you think I look good, right?” I ask, holding my arms out wide and showcasing the body that hockey and the gods gave me. “Go on, tell me I look good.”

Daemon actually looks at me for once, letting his stare slowly eat up my entire body, before his eyes lower to my groin, and then flick back to mine. “No, you look fucking ridiculous,” he tells me flatly, before dismissing me completely and opening his locker.

I roll my eyes as I reach for my base layer. “You guys are a bunch of assholes, you’d be fucking lucky to bag someone as hot as me,” I tell them, pulling on my pants and covering Reign’s face, as the rest of them laugh. Daemon excluded of course, but it’s Reign that comes to my defense.

“If I was gay, I’d totally fuck you, buddy,” he tells me, with a comforting hand to my shoulder, that I instantly push off.

“I love you, Alexander, but that fucking giant pole of yours is going nowhere near my ass,” I tell him sternly, and the fucker just laughs.

“Always knew you were a bottom, Gray,” he snaps back with a wink, before leaving me to finish getting dressed.

The rest of the team are quick to finish getting ready, and by the time I look up, I note it’s just Daemon, Josh, and I remaining. With my own focus now on the game, I don’t bother trying to rile them up any further, and instead watch as Daemon begins his own pregame ritual. It’s something I’ve seen him do at least a hundred times, yet every time I see it, I can’t help but stare.

I watch in wonder as he reaches beneath his jersey and base layer, pulling out the silver chain and pendant he always wears around his neck. Apart from practice and games, I have never seen him without it, even the night we met, and I can’t help but wonder how long he’s had it. He unfastens the clasp of the chain and then holds the pendant to his mouth, kissing it gently, before tucking it into his locker.

When his eyes meet mine and he catches me staring, I open my mouth to defend myself with some baseless barb, but a ringing cuts me off, and Josh instantly turns around at the sound of Daemon’s phone cutting through the locker room.

“Is that him again?” he asks, and Daemon looks between me and his phone, before he nods. “Well, aren’t you going to answer it?” Josh adds, and once again, Daemon looks my way to find me still staring, only this time I am totally lost.

“Not here,” is all Daemon responds, and the look in his eyes has me dropping my own to the floor, and reaching for my skates, but not before I spy the name Jasper, across the screen of his phone.

Without another word, the two of them finish getting ready, and then Coach appears, screaming for us to get our lazy asses on the ice. Yet still, I can’t help but wonder what the hell just happened?

Once we hit the ice, everything else fades away, as we warm up and my thoughts are lost to the hype of the crowd. With it being the first game of the season, the arena is packed, and I am more than ready to give them a show. I warm up beside my teammates, flashing my smile to a few girls in the front row, spying a few of the familiar bunnies, but when it’s time for the game to start, I am locked in.

When the buzzer sounds I become one with my stick, nodding to my captain, and then we move in sync, stealing the puck, and blocking the opposing team from getting it back. Like always, Nova and I work seamlessly together, and every time our line is on the ice, we dominate, and that is no different tonight.

By the time we are in the third period the game is tied, and with less than two minutes left on the clock, I spy the puck flying in Nova’s direction, and with him being wide open and ready, I help block the opposing team from taking it back. Which means I don’t see one of their other players coming up behind me. He slams me roughly into the boards, knocking the breath out of me completely, and tossing me a wink.

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