Page 13 of Puck You Very Much
7
ZANE
“Let me get this straight,” Jax Echlin said as we took a breather from practice. “Not only did you not get Jakob Martin outside and pound the shit out of him, but you almost got hauled off to jail?”
“Hauled offis kind of dramatic, don’t you think, Jax?”
“A cop did stop you and ask for your I.D., though. And you really did demand Jakob meet you outside in front of witnesses. Getting thrown in the can wouldn’t have been totally out of the question.”
“Yeah, but…I—Jakob…he?—”
I cut myself off there, knowing I’d grown tongue tied enough as it was. Before, I thought only Jakob Martin could fluster me on that level and then found Jax on equal footing. No, wait, it wasn’t Jax. I couldn’t even handle the topic of Jakob Martin without going a little crazy.
“The cop stopped me,” I said, “and, yeah, he asked to see my I.D., so I gave it to him, no arguments. That’s how you’ve got to handle these things. He wanted to know what was going on, so I told him.”
“You admitted to picking a fight in a candy store? Seriously?”
“Jesus, man, when you put it like that.”
“It’s the truth, isn’t it? You walked into Parkside Candy, spotted Jakob browsing the sour gumballs and picked a fight with him?”
“It was sponge candy. And it wasn’t?—”
Again, I paused because I just couldn’t win. That wasn’t supposed to happen. Jax should’ve applauded me and wished to enjoy the same opportunity himself. But he didn’t. God, he was impossible.
“So, what did the cop tell you?” Jax asked.
“Said he was going to let me off with a warning, especially since it would be my word against Jakob’s.”
“Or everyone in the store at the time, you mean. And anyway, that would be moot if they have any store cameras.”
“Yeah, the cop said that, too.
“So, you just got lucky.”
“I don’t think I just got lucky. Look, it was really no big deal. I’m sure the cop didn’t have time for a petty squabble between hockey players with the murders and robberies going on in the city.”
Jax half-smiled. At least it looked that way when he lifted the corner of his mouth. That meant he didn’t take me seriously. No, he thought I was a joke. Oh, he hadn’t said those words, but I could fill in the blanks. The fact that he would practically defend the enemy surprised me the most. Normally, he would’ve been only to happy to villainize any member of the Larkin Lions. What the heck was going on?
“You know, you don’t have to take Jakob’s side,” I said.
“What the hell are you talking about, bro?”
“Come off it, Jax, you know exactly what I’m talking about. I would’ve thought you’d be totally onboard with what I was doing. Now I wonder what you would say if I had bashed Jakob’s smarmy little face in.”
“I dunno, that’s totally hypothetical.”
“Notthathypothetical. Think about it. If he’d had the stones to step outside with me, he would’ve had a black eye, a swollen nose, and been short a few teeth.”
“Either that or we would’ve had a repeat of the Colter Bay Grill fiasco.”
“Meaning what, exactly?”
“You could’ve been laid out flat again.”
He shrugged like he honestly considered that a legitimate possibility. As if! Hearing that made me want to layhimout flat, which I would’ve done had we not played for the same damn team.
“Um, excuse me,” I said, “but I seem to remember you spending an awful lot of time looking up at the lights that night, pal.”
