Page 59 of Until We Burn
“This guy’s so boring,” they scoff, “Bet he’s more fun when he’s high.”
They chuck the sharpie at my feet and walk away. My hands shake at my sides.
I remember when bright-eyed first years used to approach me for autographs after my games. So many started playing because they wanted to do what I did.
Now I’m nothing more than a joke.
Anthony sighs and crouches down to pick up the trash.
I shake my head. “Don’t worry. I-I got it.”
“Nah, it’s fine.” He tucks the sharpie into his pocket before he tosses the crumpled photo into the trash. When he turns to me, the pity on his face makes me shrink back. He claps me on the arm. “It was nice talking to you, Kai.”
“You, too.”
Anthony brushes past me to join his teammates at the picnic tables.
My heart falls. Embarrassment warps the high I was feeling. I had a chance to show my childhood hero the kind of guy I am off the ice, and I fucked it up by spinning out the moment those jackasses messed with me.
A swell of panic slowly invades my thoughts. I try to calm myself down as I grab more sponges for the car wash.
Anthony saw your game and he saw what happened with those boys. If anything, he knows you’re not the problem. Your future in the NHL will be fine.
I scrub hard at the windows of a bright green Toyota. But no matter how hard I wipe down the grime, it doesn’t budge.
“You shouldn’t have done that, Andrea.”
“It’s not that big of a deal.”
Through the windows, I can see Diana on the other side of the car wash. She fiddles with her media pass, denting it slightly. She’s fuming while Andrea, with her smug smile and angled head, is clearly reveling in it.
“Benedict and the rest of the board suggested that you needed some help,” Andrea points out. “It’s nothing personal, Diana.”
“Helpentails uploading footage to Adobe to make the editing go by faster,” Diana stresses. “Not scrapping an entire shot list that I approved.”
I shift over to the other side of the car where their voices grow louder.
Andrea snorts. “Judging by what happened with you and your brother, I don’t think your judgment is the soundest right now, don’t you think?”
Those words kill all the fight Diana has left. She relents; her crossed arms fall apart.
“What do you expect me to do?”
“Nothing for now. But we’ll call you if we need you, ‘kay?” Andrea smiles and brushes past her.
Diana scowls, shaking her head and muttering under her breath. Then, she storms towards the coolers.
A few days have passed since we sealed our mutually beneficial agreement of being friends with benefits. It kept us relatively sane enough to finish Mellonbaum’s project, and I even had a steady streak of wins at our away games. But judging by the fury on Diana’s face and the ache in my head from trying not to worry about that embarrassing moment with Anthony, I have a feeling that keeping each other sane is going to get tougher every day.
I put down my bucket and my sponge.
“I’m taking a break,” I shout. “I’ll be back soon!”
I jog over towards Diana.
“I swear that girl is going to be the death of me–ugh!”She tears out a bottle of water from the cooler.
I bend down to grab a box of root beer from the bottom of the table.
