Page 63 of Bad Teammate
If I didn’t have a guilty conscience, I might’ve demanded to smell his breath. Instead, I backed away slowly.
“Well, I’ll get started on cooking,” I said as I made my way to the door. “Get dressed and I’ll see you out there.”
“See you.”
22
Derek
The locker room was filled with the usual banter: dumb jokes and big laughs. Normally, I’d be right in the middle of it, joking around with everyone, but I obviously didn’t feel like it today. I put my head down and quietly went about my business.
Hath’s locker sits next to mine. He bumped me with his elbow. “Reavo.”
“Sup, Hath.”
“You’re awfully quiet today.”
“Guess so.”
“You need to talk about it?”
“Not really, bro. Nothing to talk about.”
He gestured across the room at Niko’s empty stall. “This got anything to do with that?”
I blew out a sigh. “I don’t know anything about that. I woke up and got here at my usual time.”
“Alright, Reavo. Just asking. You know you can talk to me if you need to.”
It was a nice sentiment—but that wasn’t really true, was it? He’d made it clear what he thought: that I’d be an idiot if I did anything with Katerina. How could I possibly tell him how bad things really were?
“Thanks, bud,” I said. “Appreciate it.”
I continued to gear up. Other members of the team continued to arrive, until only one absence remained: Niko. Was he coming? I didn’t know. I had no idea what to expect. Maybe last night was a ruse. Maybe he reallydidget on that first airplane to Russia. Would I even be upset if he left? Would he even tell anyone why?
Once again, Niko’s tardiness was becoming a hot topic in the locker room.
“Hey, Reavo! Where’s Niko at?” Vedros asked.
“Brown bag flu again?” Parisi joked.
I felt the room’s eyeballs on me as they waited for an answer.
“Don’t know.” Carefully, I ran a toll of tape around the blade of my stick. “Don’t care.”
My flippant remark earned a few uneasy chuckles around the room.
“Things not going well atChez Reaves?” Dane asked with a laugh. “Do we need to put in an official request for a roommate change?”
I shook my head. “Everyone’s always asking me where Niko is, or what he’s up to, and I’m getting sick of it. I’m his roommate, not his damned babysitter. If he wants to be a goddamn hockey player in the NHL, then he’s gotta start acting like he wants to be here, dammit.”
A tension gripped the room.
“Well, I was an idiot when I was his age, too,” someone muttered, trying to defuse the situation. It worked; the conversation turned on a dime, and everyone was chomping at the bit to share the tales of how they’d driven theirroommates insane with their wild teenage antics. One guy admitted that, in junior, he banged his billet family’s daughter. Another guy had a similar story, only he’d slept with the billet wife. The stories of betrayal and depravity went on and on—and they all hit a little too close to home.
Listening to their stories, you’dalmostthink what I’d done with Katerina could be forgiven … except for the fact that I wasn’tthe moron teenager in this scenario. I was the adult who was supposed to know better.DidI know better? Nope. Here I was, trying to fuck the future of the franchise’s virgin sister.
“You got any stories like that, Reavo?” Dane asked.
