Page 70 of Forbidden Puck
“No, I swear I didn't.”
He let go of my collar and gave me a shove, throwing me right back into the puddle of fry grease. Now it covered the back of my shirt, and the sickly smell of greasy, salty, burnt fry oil made me queasy.
One of the cooks shouted at us. “Hey, uh, everything alright with you guys?”
We both waved and smiled at them. “Yep!”
They shrugged, ended their smoke-break, and went back inside.
Lance squatted over me and stared me down, face-to-face. “Look me in the eye and tell me you didn't add her panties to your fucking collection.”
“I didn't add her panties to my collection, Lance.”
“Were those her panties in the living room?”
“Yes,” I swallowed, “but I wasn't going to take them anyway. They just, uh, ended up there.”
“Oh, they just ended up there, did they?” he snickered. “Why should I believe you weren't going to swoop in and take those panties?”
“Because I'm not into stealing a girl's panties. And if Iexplainedit to her, first of all, and she'd look at me like a freak. Don't you get it? That was something I only did with puck bunnies or girls I didn't care about.”
He gave a snort. “Oh, so now you're saying you care about my sister?”
I paused. I wasn't sure if admitting this part made it better or worse.
“I actually like her, Lance. I like her a lot.”
“What the fuck, Radar. You think you like her? You've known her what, two days? And that's enough to know that you like her?”
“I can't explain it. I've never felt this way about a girl before.” I gave a defeated chuckle. “Doesn't matter, though. She hates my guts.”
“Why?”
“Because. That whole story she told you this morning? About me and the puck bunny I brought home? She made it all up.”
Lance shook his head. “But why would Ella lie?”
“Because I made her. She would've told you the truth about us, but … I was afraid you'd kill me if you found out.”
“Oh.” Lance suddenly looked lighter, and he stepped away from me. “You fucked up, Radar.”
“I know.”
“First, you fucked up when you touched my sister. I meant what I said about getting traded to Winnipeg, bud. Hell, maybe Winnipeg's not even far enough.”
I accepted my fate with a heavy head nod.
“But second, man, if you truly had a thing for my sister? Lying to her is bad, but makingherlie? Youreallyfucked it all up. That's the last thing you should've done. She'll never forgive you for that.” He snickered at me, looking pathetic as I laid in a puddle of trash and grease. “Fuckin' idiot.”
Lance wrung his hands, as if cleaning me off of them.
“Don't bother coming back inside. You look and stink like shit now. You should head home, clean yourself up, and get a head start on packing your bags, because you'll be getting a call from the team GM first thing in the morning.”
“What will you tell the boys?”
“That's not your problem.”
He walked off.
