Page 72 of The Alternate Captain
“Isn’t it her word against yours?”
“What?”
“Well, if she tells anyone, you can deny it and people will go about their business.”
“I’d rather she didn’t,” I say.
“I’m not sure what else you can do, though. Because if someone wants to talk, they’ll talk. Unless you can convince herto sign an NDA or something, but you said it’s nothing that bad.”
“I honestly wish she’d fuck right off.”
“I appreciate you’re not ready to tell me the full story, bud... but, does she know where you live now?” he asks.
Shit, that’s a good question. She knows I live on this side of the city. But I haven’t given her my address or anything, not even for forwarding mail. I asked her to send anything that came through to the rink. The damn rink.
“No, but she obviously knows where I work.” I grit my teeth.
“I guess your best bet is to ignore her and hope she goes away,” Ryan says, sending the puck over to me.
I leave the conversation there, mulling it over as we play around on the balcony, getting over the initial shock of seeing Sarah, and wondering if telling someone helped.
It hadn’t.
“Can I ask a favour?” I say, receiving the puck and stopping play. “Can you not mention this to anyone? I honestly don’t need any more fucking drama.”
“You bet,” Ryan says.
And I take my leave.
The whole thing is stuck in my head for the next few days, and even when I get to the next scheduled practice, I’m hoping that some time on the ice will help my focus.
But when Bettsy rocks up and slinks down in his cubby next to me, I’m reminded of how shit I reacted in front of Kelly. Fucking Kelly. Too-good-for-me Kelly.
I’ve been so wrapped in my rage towards Sarah, I haven’t even reached out to her again.
But Bettsy makes the situation a million times worse.
“What’s up?” I ask him as he tosses his phone into his gear bag.
“Nah, nothing, it’s all good,” he says. But he changes his mind less than six seconds later and turns to look me right in the eyes. “Do you think if you learnt Vicky was seeing someone, and he’d upset her, you’d want to track him down and gut him like a fish?”
“What?”
“Well, probably not Vicky because of all that stuff with Liam, but... I had this feeling that Kelly was seeing someone. She denies it, but I went to her place yesterday to fix something and there’s definitely a guy involved. She hadn’t been that put out since she found out Darren was cheating. In fact, I think this has hit her harder.”
I can hear my pulse beating through my ears. And to make things worse, he goes on and on about it during practice, and since we are linemates, I have no escape.
In fact, the whole thing makes me so nervous, I forget all about Sarah and put all my focus on Kelly. Because, there’s a pain in my heart, knowing I made her feel that way.
I text her when I get home from the rink, desperate to figure things out.
Johnny
I’m sorry for acting the way I did. Can I see you?
Kelly
I’m working but I’ll message you soon.
