Page 37 of Broken Hearts
Allison and my dad are talking about her last game again, all things they’ve already told me, but they’re both really excited so I let them chatter on. I’m tuning them out, anyway, watching the game. Number twenty-three comes onto the ice and I can’t tear my eyes away from him. Valley has the puck and he speeds down the ice. Several guys take shots at the goalie, but nothing makes it in. Finally after three or more attempts, Rhett rebounds a blocked shot and passes to Adam on the other side of the net for the first goal of the game.
“Oh my gosh!” I yell. Josie and Olivia look up to see the Valley players huddling up, congratulating Rhett and Adam on the goal.
My family stops talking to see what the commotion is about.
“We scored.” I can feel the blush creep up my neck. I don’t think I’ve ever been so excited about a goal in a hockey game. “Valley is up by one with three minutes left in the second period.”
“That’s a lot of time,” my sister says. “Is Luke Ketcham in the net?”
“Uhh...” I glance at the screen. I’m not about to tell them I only know the name and position of one Valley hockey player. The team is huddled up celebrating, but then it pans to the goalie and he turns so I can read the back of his jersey. “Yep.”
“He’s one of the best. The highest number of games won and most saves in a single game. I think he was drafted already.” She looks to me like I might know. Yeah… nope, my hockey obsession is more a singular hockey player obsession.
The rest of the second period goes by scoreless, but when the third begins, Josie and Olivia abandon their schoolwork and I say goodbye to my family so I can sit and watch with my friends.
“Have you heard from him since they left?” Josie asks.
“We texted back and forth this morning, but just about the game.”
“I hope they win. Can you imagine? It’ll be nuts.” Josie squeaks with happiness.
“There goes what’s left of our ice time,” Olivia says.
Josie laughs. “Hey, I think we should continue to share. It’s some serious motivation to land a jump when a group of hot hockey players are watching. It’s been the best week of practice ever for me.”
I snort. “I doubt Coach is going to find your reasoning solid.”
The final minute has us sitting shoulder to shoulder in front of Josie’s laptop, holding hands. If they win, I have a great excuse to text Rhett later.
Prescott has the puck. They pass it around looking for opportunities. Valley uniforms are everywhere trying to cover every inch to block any shot attempt. Still, Prescott manages to get it within a foot of the net. There are too many bodies in front of the goal to keep track of the puck. They hack at it looking for an opening.
I hold my breath as another shot’s fired. This one gets by everyone but the goalie. He keeps his pad down on the ice protecting it until the final buzzer sounds.
“They won!” Josie screeches and bounces up and down, still clutching my hand. “They did it. Oh my god.”
We jump around our room and squeal with happiness. I send Rhett a text before I talk myself out of it.Congratulations!!!
“This is crazy,” Olivia says. “I think I can hear people yelling outside.” She moves to the window and we follow.
Sure enough, people are screaming and dancing around in the grassy area outside of our dorm.
“Let’s go down there!” Josie rushes to the door. The hallway is filled with people who had the same idea.
Outside music is playing and one guy even has his face painted blue and yellow. People are hugging and high-fiving as if they’d been the ones to win tonight. It’s insane and absolutely amazing.
I snap a couple of selfies with the chaos in the background and send those to Rhett too. The mood mellows, but people hang around. Olivia eventually leaves to finish studying and Josie and I take a seat on the grass with a hundred or more people wanting to enjoy this crazy moment together.
“This is incredible,” I say, looking around the darkened campus. The glow of street lamps is the only light.
“It’s a shame the hockey team missed this.”
“I’m sure they went out to a bar or something. The bus doesn’t come back until tomorrow morning.” My stomach sinks as I imagine a drunk, charming Rhett pulling women into dirty, bar bathrooms to celebrate.
“Still. It isn’t the same.”
“Isn’t it? Girls and booze are interchangeable.” I check my phone to see if he’s texted back yet. He hasn’t.
“Do you really think that Rhett believes that?”
