Page 100 of Two Guys One Puck
I can’t hold back the laughter anymore. “Is true, yes?”
Coach rolls his eyes. “Bashful.” He points his pen at a winger. “Dopey.” He moves to the goalie. “Sneezy?” He points at me. “You don’t sneeze…”
“No. The water boy is Sneezy. They call me K-Pop.”
“That doesn’t fucking work. How can you be a team if you’re not uniform?” Coach has a point. Kind of.
“We should just go back to our other nicknames,” Grumpy says crossing his arms.
“No. I’m voting. Your line is now the seven dwarfs line. So which are you, Ktytor—Doc or Snow White?”
“I’d prefer Doc?—”
“The puck is Doc,” Bashful cuts me off, totally screwing me. But it’s not his fault; he really doesn’t understand social cues.
“Snow White it is,” Coach says and cringes.
“I didn’t think it could get worse than K-Pop. Fuck my life.”I better never let Seaborn know, or I’ll never hear the end of it.
“You started this,” Grumpy tosses out, probably still annoyed his nickname stuck. “But just tell people it’s Snow because you’re from Siberia or some shit.”
“I’m not from Russia. Nice try.”
“Whatever you say, Snow baby.” He taps my helmet.
“This is not going to turn into a grumpy-sunshine romance, if that’s what you’re hoping.” I wink to really drive home my point.
Grumpy fake gags. “Don’t fucking start with me on that homo shit.”
“We’re all homo erotic. It’s fucking hockey.” I roll my eyes and look to Happy and Sleepy for support.
“He’s got a point,” Sleepy adds.
“Don’t be homophobic, Grumpy,” Happy says. “My brother is gay.”
“And I won’t be tolerating any of that shit,” Coach adds. I didn’t know he was even listening. “There are out guys in every level in sports now. You’re just being ignorant.”
Grumpy huffs, “Whatever” and skates off.
I’m still thinkingabout what Grumpy said the next day, sitting in the common room with Happy and Sleepy.
“Your brother is gay?” I finally ask.
“Yep.” He looks up from the YouTube he’s watching.
“You never told us.” I’m hoping it’s not because he thinks we’re going to be shit about it.
“I didn’t know if you’d be cool, and to be fair you don’t really talk about your family much either.” He shrugs.
“Yeah, you’re kind of quiet.” Sleepy adds from where he’s curled up on the sofa napping.
“Go back to sleep,” I say jokingly. “You’re right. I’m not used to opening up and having friends.” I know I need to do better about that. Even if Seaborn and I keep dating, the odds are we’ll end up on teams across the country from each other and I need friends.
“It only took you two and a half years to warm up to us!” Happy is delighted which I’m pretty sure is genuine. “I told you we could break him,” he says to Sleepy.
“I had my doubts but you were right.” Sleepy stretches like a cat.
“I think I’m gay,” I say on a whim, taking a bigger risk than is smart.
