Page 37 of Always Been You

I shake my head and stand up. Grabbing my sticks, I head out to the ice to warm up. Olivia and her friends have grabbed some seats on the bleachers right beside our bench. She looks over at me as I place one of my sticks behind the bench. I smile at her before heading onto the ice.

I skate a few laps around our half of the ice before getting down on the ice for some stretches. When I finish those, I test the flex of my stick on the ice and then do some practice shots on the net. When the game horn sounds for us to clear the ice, I head to the bench.

“So, what do you say Livvy, we bringing back our pre-game ritual?” I ask, throwing in the nickname I used when we were in school.

She grins at me and claps her hands together before getting up and meeting me; I grab a pull-top water bottle and place it on the edge of the boards beside her. She makes a fist with her right hand, and I make one with mine. Hers starts above mine and then comes down as mine goes up, and we repeat it three times, then we fist pump three times, we turn and hip bump once and then she grabs the water bottle and sprays my hair. I smile, and she smiles back, and we just stare at each other for a few seconds.

A chuckle from behind me has me breaking eye contact. Her friends are staring behind her with their mouths hanging wide open. I turn and see every member of our team staring,some from the other team, and the refs watching us. Olivia notices and her entire face turns a beautiful shade of pink, it spreads down her neck to the tops of her breasts.

Matt walks up and claps me on the shoulder with a wide-ass grin spread across his face.

“Hey Liv,” he kisses her on the cheek, “nice to see you here. I wish you had said something. Although with you two doing your pre-game ritual again, hopefully that means we will win this season,” he chuckles.

“It was a last-minute decision,” she says. “Good luck,” she calls as she turns around and joins her friends.

Oh my god,I can still feel myself blushing as I return to sit with my friends. I can feel the eyes of Hannah, Zoey, and Eliza on me. Hannah is the first to say something.

“What in the hell was that?” she whisper hisses at me. I turn and face them.

“When we were younger, I was at all of Josh and Matt’s practices and games. The summer before his freshman year, he was trying to come up with a pre-game ritual. I offered to help, and we came up with that. They won their first game. They did really well in their season, so we decided to keep up through their senior year.” I shrug like it’s no big deal, but I remember coming up with that with Josh over that summer, it was hard at times doing it while we were in school and I had feelings for him, but I was able to work through it. Now we are seeing what we can be and he wanted to do it again in front of his team. I can feel the blush that was fading come back in full force.

“You had a pre-game ritual with Josh for four years?” Liz asks.

“Yeah, it’s not a big deal,” I say and turn back to face the ice.

I can feel Zoey’s stare on me, she was there in high school. I’m sure that she remembers I was at all the practices and games, and I’m sure she also remembers how much I loved our little pre-game routine then, too.

The guys are now skating toward centre ice, getting ready for the first face-off of the game. Josh is at the centre getting into his stance gripping his stick as he lowers his upper body. Matt’s a defenceman and is getting into position too.

Hannah, who is sitting right behind me, leans forward, placing her chin on my shoulder. “It is a big deal, and you are so going to be fucked.” She sounds like she is super happy about that fact.

I turn and face my friends in a quick movement, sending Hannah rearing back. “First, it’s not a big deal; and two, I love you guys. I’m glad to have you here, but I will actually watch this game.”

I turn and face the ice again. I throw my hoodie on over my head and pull my hands into the sleeves.

“Babe, you know we don’t understand hockey,” Zoey says.

“I’ll explain the calls, but we will watch this game,” I say seriously.

The puck is dropped at centre ice. Josh wins the face-off, sending the puck back and to his right and the guys are skating toward the other team’s goal. The puck is passed to Josh, who skates to his left and then passes it to Sam as he skates behind the other team’s goal. He gets slammed into the boards, fighting for the puck.

They battle against the boards for the puck, the other team gets it. It’s passed, and they start skating back to centre ice.They cross centre and Matt skates past, stealing the puck and passing it to Josh. Josh connects and skates back to the other team’s goal. He shoots and scores in the top right corner. I jump out of my seat, cheering. His team surrounds him on the ice, and he skates up to his team on the bench as he bumps all their fists. He skates down the boards before coming in front of us and he points at me and mouths ‘for you’. Once again, I feel the blush across my cheeks and down my neck, remembering the promise I made to him in the parking lot.

He returns to the bench and a new line heads out to the ice for the face-off. Zoey is sitting beside me and shoulder bumps me. “What was that?” she whispers.

“Nothing,” I say, avoiding looking at her.

The puck drops at centre ice again the other team wins it. The play moves along with a hooking call made against our team. The puck drop is now to the right of our goal, our team wins it and sends it flying behind the net, the puck connects with Luke’s stick, and he skates to the other side of the ice, he passes to Nick, the puck connects, he shoots, and the goalie catches it in his glove.

The game keeps moving. I explain any calls to the girls and at the end of the first period it is 1-0. The guys all skate off the ice, getting water and do a shift change. I look over and Josh is already looking at me with a smile. I smile back, tucking a stray piece of hair behind my ear. One of his teammates calls for him and he looks away.

I turn and face the girls. “So, what do you think so far?” I ask, knowing they aren’t really into hockey.

“I think you are in dangerous territory with Josh. I think you could easily fall head over heels for him,” Liz says with a serious look on her face.

“We are seeing where this goes, but we are not telling Mattyet. The last thing I need is to ruin their friendship if this doesn’t work out,” I say.

“I don’t think you have anything to fear,” Zoey says. “I think Matt would be happy for the two of you.”

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