Page 28 of Just Friends
His head bobbed with understanding. “No prob, Riggs. It’s just a skate. Don’t worry about it, man.”
Butwhywas I moody? Hell if I knew. The day started off pretty well, I thought. Piper wasn’t pissed at me about last night and the breakfast I cooked actually turned out pretty good. Plus, Ireallymade her day when I told her I’d help promote her app.
Sure, I was a little disappointed when Piper misunderstood me. She thought I was throwing out the WAG party invite for the Soulmate promo, when really I was askingherto be my plus-one. But so the fuck what?Honestly, she’d probably rather have a really great promo than go to the party herself. She thought it was the best idea ever—I could justseehow relieved she was.
So what’s my problem? I’m helping Piper out. And she’s really happy.
On the bench, Mikey and I caught our breaths in time for our next shift. I was so eager to get back out there, I could barely sit still, my stick squeezed tight between my hands. I was determined to turn this shit around, right here, rightnow,and start playing the way I know I can. Ineededto get out there and prove myself again.
When the tired defense unit came to the bench for a change, Mikey and I jumped over the boards and joined the play.
The other team passed the puck out of their zone and started on the attack. Dane, flying through the neutral zone, received the breakout pass. He raced up my side of the ice with the puck, determined to beat me again. He shimmied to the inside, a feint designed to buy him an extra step on the outside.
But this time, I was ready. Pushing off, I crossed over hard and fast, refusing to let Dane get around me again.
Our competitive natures flared, pushing us faster. We raced through the d-zone, sprinting like race horses, two big bodies jockeying for position. But Dane was quickly running out of real estate. I angled him closer to the boards, lining him up for a big hit—
When he suddenly slammed on the brakes, ice spraying high through the air, and turned his back to me.
But it was too late. I was committed to the hit. I couldn’t let up—my momentum was carrying me through time and space, on a collision course with Dane’s vulnerable backside.
BOOM!
I hit the captain like a car crash, crushing him face-first into the glass. I watched in horror as his lifeless body crumpled, falling to the ice in a heap.
Both benches jumped to their feet and yelled,“HEEEEEEEY!”
I cocked my head, staring at the destruction, trying to make sense of the arms and legs sticking out at weird angles.
Fuck,I thought.I fucked up. Bad.
And I knew I had to answer for it. I had to get my ass kicked for the good of the team.
Okay, this might be hard for the non-hockey people to understand—but us hockey players, we stand up for each other and we keep each other accountable. We’rebrothers,yeah, but sometimes—just like real brothers—we come to blows.
That means when you catch a teammate with a dirty hit, thecaptainno less, you have to answer for it. Yep, even though I didn’t mean to hurt him, and even though we’re on the same team. As crazy as it might sound, the team morale would suffermoreif I hit Dane like that and no one stepped up to defend him. We’ve allgotto know that we’ve got each other’s backs.
So a fighthadto happen.
The only question was, who had the honors of putting me down?
I whipped around and threw off my gloves when I spotted Reavo, the team’s seasoned fighter. He chugged across the ice, shaking his gloves loose so he could throw knuckles. He grappled me and pulled me into center ice so we could square off without anybody in our way.
Reavo didn’t even looked pissed as he chucked bombs at my face—instead he looked disappointed, which made it worse.
I knew I’d fucked up, so I didn’t fight back. Normally, in a scrap like this, the guy who knows he fucked up eats a few good punches as punishment, then goes down. And everyone goes home happy.
But I didn’t want to go down. For all I knew, I’d just ended Dane’s career.
So I stayed up. I took my beating like a man, refusing to go down—and thus forcing Reavo toputme down.
He didn’t want to. He grabbed onto my jersey collar and gave a mighty tug, trying to pull me off balance and knock me off my skates, but I stayed up.
Go down already!Reavo’s bewildered eyes seemed to scream at me.For fuck’s sake, Big Rig, that’s enough—GO DOWN!
But I wouldn’t.
So he had to keep swinging.
