Page 9 of Unlovable Player

“Are you just gonna stand there and stare?” he asks.

Fuck, that accent is sexy. I keep the grin painted on my face, despite the fact his voice makes my legs feel kind of wobbly.

“No, I’m going to go and get changed.”

He looks away without responding.

“Want me to put the goalie pads on and get between the pipes?”

His head snaps up. “I wouldn’t touch Olivetti’s shit if I were you.”

I laugh, because, yeah, I know, goalies are weird about - well, everything.

“Fine, I’ll put my own jersey on.”

“Nota Yale one!”

There’s the familiar sound of a puck being smacked against the boards as I make my way to the locker room.

A couple of the guys have arrived and I get taunts of - “hey it’sYale.” So I guess this is my new nickname then?Original.

Captain comes in about ten minutes later, looking flushed, but not out of breath.

I’m amused when they refer to him asDonno.

“Good pre-practise Captain?” I ask.

He shoots me a cloudy look and I can see he wants to ignore me, but realizes he probably shouldn’t. Whether he likes me or not, I am on his team, and I haven’t technically done anything wrong, yet.

“I see you got yourself some new jerseys.”

“Coach gave them to me.”

“You can burn the Yale ones now,” someone says. I still haven’t learnt all my teammates’ names, and with my track record, is there really any point? Who knows how long I’ll even be here?

“Then what would your sister wear when she stays over?” I ask.

The face of the guy I just insulted is bright red, and I think I might have misjudged how far I could push him.

Captain steps between us. “You’re not playing at Yale anymore, Sebastian Huntington the third.” His lips curl into a nasty smirk and the guys snicker behind him. If my insides didn’t feel like they were turning to water, I’d remind him that he said he’d never call me that.

“We don’t insult our own teammates’ sisters here.”

I hold my hands up. “I apologize, I didn’t know.”

Austin looks me up and down like he’s trying to consider if I’m being serious.

“It was a stupid joke, I don’t even like girls.”

Austin rolls his eyes as he walks past to get to his cubby.

“Seriously, I’m gay.”

His eyes flicker back to me and his expression changes. The guys all start to shuffle and back away. Was it okay to intimidate and bully me when they thought I was straight? But now I’m telling them I’m not, they’re scared of being labelled homophobic? Or are they all just trying to think of the best way to cover up without me noticing?

“So like, don’t lock your sisters up.”

Everyone falls back to their own cubby and starts getting changed. Some of them are definitely trying to cover themselves as they slip out of hoodies and sweatpants and into their pads and jerseys.

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