Apparently it can because practice is a scrimmage, and Dimitri and I are on opposite teams.
The way he’s baring his teeth at me across the ice makes me fairly certain he’s going to draw blood before practice is over. I’m starting to regret my decision to play offense.
The puck drops.
It’s mine.
I fly across the ice toward the goal.
Shit, here he comes.
Aiden’s clear.
I should pass it to him but I hesitate. Why does he get to take anything else from me?
Instead, I wing it over to Max who immediately…
Suddenly, my ass is on the ice and I’m three feet back from where I was.
Coach blasts his whistle. “What are you doing, Volkov?”
“Sorry, Coach.” Dimitri shrugs. “Guess I lost control of my brakes.”
“Fix it, or I bench you. Everyone, get back to your positions. We're running this again.”
Dimitri gives him a salute and skates off.
Prick.
We end up running that play five more times, each time Dimitri taking every chance he gets to elbow me or whack me with his stick. The only difference is, he gets sneakier about it after each run-through.
Aiden’s getting it too, but that bastard deserves it for hooking up with Liv behind my back. Why would he ever think keeping something like that from me was okay?
Would you have said anything if the roles were reversed?
I shove the thought into the back corner of my mind and focus on the new play.
Puck drop.
Lost it.
Shove my stick in the way.
Got it.
Fucking hell here comes Dimitri again.
I’m not going to let him push me around this time. I’m beyond tired of his shit today.
At the last second, I slap the puck to Max, even though it’s supposed to go to Aiden, and jump out of the way.
I extend my stick and trip Dimitri as he blows past me. I wouldn’t be surprised if the ice cracked with how hard he falls.
Next thing I know, he’s up and there’s a fist in my gut.
We’re a blur of fists and sticks. At some point, Aiden comes in and tries to force us apart, but he just gets dragged into it.
When we finally break, we’re all bleeding and Coach looks like he’s ready to murder us.