Page 140 of The Alternate Captain
“You know what? Fuck it. Let’s do it.”
The universe is on our side, because whoever was trying to force their way in earlier is nowhere to be seen when I peek around the door to sneak Kelly out.
And when she’s safely out of the back door, I wander back to the locker room. It’s as if I never left. In fact, I blend right into the background—which is fine by me.
He’s been fighting.
“It’s not what it looks like,” Johnny says, standing in the doorway to my room.
“It looks like you’ve been fighting,” I say, rushing over to him. “Have you, or have you not been fighting?”
I give a stern look right into his eyes and the guilt glows hot on his face.
“It was a complete fucking mess. Rodgers came on to my sister and said something hugely inappropriate to Jenna, Ryan’s girlfriend. What do you expect? I mean, I didn’t ask him to punch me. I got in the way.”
His lip is swollen, and there’s a tiny cut on the left side of his mouth. And when I reach up to touch his cheek, I can see my hand shaking.
“Oh my God. I hate hockey,” I say. “I told you I hate it. And this is why.”
“This is why I didn’t see you last night—I knew it would upset you,” he says. “But in my defence, I wasn’t even playing at the time.”
I stare blankly at him, taking in his face a centimetre at a time while I survey for further damage.
“Is your head okay?” I ask.
“Yeah, it’s fine. Honestly, it’s fine.”
Johnny leans down and pulls me into a hug.
“You should see the other guy—”
“And my brother? Was he involved?”
“Bettsy’s fine, babe. I promise.”
Johnny moves towards the end of my bed and sits down, elbows on his knees.
“Turns out he was using.”
“Who?” I say, knitting my brows together. “My brother?”
“No, Rodgers. Remember, I—”
“Oh yeah, right. Sorry.” The worry has set in. “But I’m confused as to how someone could be using and they didn’t pick it up on a drug test. They still do those, right?”
“Well. We had suspicions. But he was micro-dosing and using some sort of masking product—but it’s all out now anyway, and the club has dismissed him.”
“Well, as long as—”
There’s a knock on the front door and I turn to head towards my half-open bedroom door as someone rushes past. There’s a clattering of something in the hallway, then Sally’s voice sails through the air as she greets the visitor.
“Hey, is Kelly here?”
My brother.
“Oh, yeah, she’s just in her room. Do you want to come in?”
I push my door shut, clicking it as quietly as I can before rounding on Johnny.
