Page 19 of Revenge Puck

“Good lord, man,” Nick says from his seat beside me on the bench. We’re both trying to catch our breath, waiting for our line to go back out on the ice. “That sign…damn.” He chuckles and holds out his gloved fist for me to bump it. “Best thing I’ve ever seen.”

“Yeah, it is pretty great,” I agree. I’m glad Elle’s seat is across the arena facing both benches, always in sight. If she had been behind us, well, I would’ve hurt my neck from all the times I looked in her direction.

“Riley’s all messed up about it. How did you manage to steal his girl?”

“It’s a long story,” I say, not wanting to tell it now when our heads should be in the game. I wasn’t sure how to explain it later, really, because it’s all fake.

Now, I’m glad I didn’t just walk away from Elle instead of hearing what she wanted. If I had ignored her…hell, I probably wouldn’t have made it to the second period.

Without the distraction of me being thrown out of the game or making my teammates pick up the slack for me that a penalty would give the Bobcats in a power play, the Warhawks are currently up two goals to nothing. That’s right, the Bobcats haven’t made a single goal, and they’ve only taken twelve shots in two periods.

The fourth line comes back to the bench, which means it’s time for me and the rest of the first to hit the ice. Riley is already exhausted, ready for his team’s change up. When my boy clears the puck and Riley has to stay on the ice, I know I’ll still have time to get in a hit on him.

Popping in my mouthpiece, I race toward him as he tries to get the puck away from the wall, slamming into him with all of my momentum and weight, pinning him to the boards.

“Oh, look. You can see Elle’s sign from here too,” I tell him.

“Get the fuck off me!” he roars.

I don’t get off of him. In fact, I keep him smushed like a pancake until Nick swipes the puck from him and hightails it down the ice to the Bobcats’ goal.

When I turn to follow him, I make it about two feet before my legs are yanked out from underneath me, causing me to faceplant on the ice. It only takes a second to figure out what happened.

That son of a bitch tripped me!

Thankfully, one of the refs saw it all. He’s ready and waiting to call the penalty as soon as the Bobcats touch the puck again.

“Oh, come on!” Riley whines when he goes up to the man in stripes. “Lawrence can’t skate worth a shit! He fell all on his own!”

Chuckling, the ref says, “He sure as hell can’t skate when you hook his ankle with your stick.”

I get up and start skating away, but not before taunting the asshole. “Riley’s just jealous my stick is bigger than his!”

Since Riley has to go to the penalty box, our team has the Bobcats outnumbered five on four and take advantage by scoring another goal, making it three to nothing.

In the third period, the Bobcats score once, and their goalie keeps everything the Warhawks shoot out of the goal.

Then, all that’s left is celebrating our first win of the series in the Bobcats’ arena.

One win down, three more to go until that trophy is ours.

I don’t know what it is about Elle, but I can’t seem to stop thinking about her for more than five seconds.

At least my infatuation didn’t hurt my game. I played damn good tonight. The entire team did.

The Bobcats didn’t have a chance, not when their leading scorer couldn’t seem to get the puck under control whenever it was passed to him.

But now that the game is over, and it’s time to head to the bus, I can’t help but wonder if I’ll ever see Elle again.

It’s not like I have her phone number. I guess I could try to find her on Insta since I at least know her name.

It turns out finding her was easier than I anticipated since her profile picture is the two of us.

I debate whether to send her a private message. First, I’ll have to create an account as I’m not currently on any social media platforms. I want my personal life to stay private. But I’ll sign up if it’s the only way to reach Elle.

I don’t want her to think I’m stalking her, but at the same time, I don’t want to lose out on a chance to talk to her again.

Maybe it’s our mutual hatred for Riley that has me so intrigued by her. I want to know what he did to her, even if I can’t ever tell her why I loathe him.

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