Page 27 of First Puck

Lance was one of the best players I’d ever faced, even though I hated to admit it. There was no one that could match him for speed apart from Tommy, but it was his calculating mind that won him the record of most goals scored by any player in our college season.

And he was turning that on Alex, fucking sparkling, before he replied.

“Well, if you have a free moment, just give my door a knock, alright? I’d love to finish our conversation. You know where my room is,” he said with a wink.

I glanced back at Alex, who gave him this weird smile as he tracked Lance swanning away. It was like I wasn’t literally right next to him, waiting for him to notice me.

“What was that about?” I asked him.

Alex looked back at me. I couldn’t tell what was going on, but he just kept watching me like he was waiting for something.

It wasn’t cool. We never had this kind of tension, even when stuff got awkward between us after I sucked him off. We were even fine after, though he didn't talk to me for months.

“Damn, why was he being so weird?” I asked him just to fill the space with some noise. From the way Alex was fidgeting, it was obvious he was nervous; I just didn’t get why. “You’re being weird, too, man. What was that just now?”

“What?” he said, suddenly snapping out of whatever the hell was racing around his brain.

“With Lance… He looked like, you know.”

“I told you, it was an eyelash,” he mumbled, making me not believe him even more. He pulled in a breath. “Look, I’ve got to take a shower. I reek and my shoulder is killing me. That guy slammed me really hard. Can we talk about it later?”

“Yeah, I mean, sure,” I said, reaching for him. “Do you want a massage or something?” I ran my thumb over the ridge of his shoulder, and he flinched back from me.

“I’m fine. I just need to wash it off.” He pushed my hand. I couldn’t let him go so easily.

“But there’s something else we need to do, isn’t there?” I said, opening my arms wide.

His face shifted into an actual smile as the Alex I knew came back to me.

He stepped in close, both of us wrapping our arms around each other as his sweaty smell from the game hit me hard.

And the world went back to normal.

Brad

Everything had been going well since that weird moment between Lance and Alex and me three days ago. Just because Alex had been sitting a little farther away from me on the couch, and just because I came home yesterday to hear him and Lance laughing in the kitchen instead of him waiting for me like he always did, and just because I noticed he’d been escaping the room whenever I walked around the house in my boxers didn’t mean that there was a problem.

It was fine.

We were fine.

Everything wasfine.

I mean, it wasn’t like I was upset that we hadn’t played Xbox together for the past three nights after classes. I just wanted to know what was going on. And that’s why I was sitting in the living room at 7PM on a Friday night instead of going out with the guys from the team like I always did.

Because I wanted to make sure that Alex was okay. Because I wanted to tell him I was okay. Even though I didn’t know what I was okay about. Because I didn’t know what the hell was going on with Lance and Alex, and because I couldn’t get that stupid dreamy look of Alex’s out of my brain.

Who the hell looks at a guy like that when he’s sweeping an eyelash out of his face?

I wanted to be a childish dickhead and pretend to get an eyelash stuck so Alex would come and take care of me, but I’d rather do that kind of shit naturally. Plus, I’d look dumb if there wasn’t actually an eyelash there.

I frowned as I hurled myself back onto the couch—ourcouch. Dad brought it all the way to our house from Alex’s parents’ garage, and we’d spent every single day on it since we moved in. It was another one of our rituals.

And I was just stuck going round and round and round, thinking of ways I could get Alex to relax enough to tell me what was going on. We were best friends, we should be like that.

Or maybe I should have just stormed into Lance’s room and demanded to know what he thought of Alex, like a proper friend would.

I hadn’t felt like this since those months after I sucked him off after high school. He started avoiding me, and I was so worried he was going to leave for the NHL without saying goodbye.

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