Page 80 of Scoring Position

This was why he didn’t take ZzzQuil on a regular basis. He should’ve packed his stupid white noise machine.

“Yeah, well, it is.” Yorkie sounded wrong. “Sorry, but you have to get up. Now.”

Bleary, Ryan sat up, and a strange, uneasy undercurrent ran through him as he met Yorkie’s gaze. “What’s wrong?”

Yorkie ran a hand through his hair. “They traded Nico.”

Third Period

What Just Happened: A Post-mortem on the Kirschbaum Trade

Three Athletic Writers Make Sense of the Senseless (at 1 am)

Cassie:So for those of you tuning in from home… the Fuel just traded Nico Kirschbaum to Vancouver. At one in the morning. Because that’s a totally normal thing to do.

Eric:WHAT

Neil:Why????? Wait, no, I’m looking up the return, which is decent… but WHY? I mean… they can’t be gearing up for a playoffs push without him. And why 1am? Maybe Rees was hoping no one would notice and he could avoid the backlash?

Eric:Maybe Kirschbaum sneaked into Rees’s office and traded himself?

Neil:Tbh, Kirschbaum trading himself would be the least surprising revelation from the Fuel this year.

Cassie:I hate this team. Why do they hurt me like this? I am HEARTBROKEN.

Neil:To be fair, the Fuel absolutely needed those defensemen. The problem is that they need Kirschbaum too.

Cassie:Who’s supposed to score now?? I’d crunch the numbers, but it’s after midnight and I only have so much Double-Chocolate Brownie Fudge ice cream in my freezer. The depressing statistical analysis can wait until morning.

Neil:And not to be that guy again—

Eric:You love being that guy.

Neil:Am I the only one who’s suspicious of the motives here? I mean, you’ve got two gay players who live together and made their own Bert-and-Ernie comparison….

Cassie:Guys. Come on. I just said I do not have enough ice cream for this.

Eric:A conspiracy theory about a bad breakup is the closest thing we have to making this make sense.

Neil:Apart from the bit where it’s the budding superstar who gets the boot, sure.

Cassie:To sum up, we have no idea what anyone in the Fuel front office is thinking. Or IF they’re thinking. Watch this space tomorrow for a mathematical breakdown of what this means for the Fuel’s financial and game-play situation.

Eric:And a personal breakdown from Cassie over Nico Kirschbaum.

NICO WOKEup with a sore neck and a mouth that tasted like the outside of a sheep. The house still felt empty. Four inches of snow dusted the living room windowsill. A glance outside confirmed the only tracks in the snow were his own.

Ryan hadn’t come home.

Nico rubbed his eyes and fumbled for his phone to check the time. It was still off. He’d shut it off last night, not wanting to spend hours wondering why Ryan hadn’t texted.

He turned it on to multiple notifications from Yorkie, his dad, and a handful of numbers in an area code he couldn’t identify… but none from Ryan.

It was pretty obvious what had happened. He skipped over his dad’s messages and went right to the voicemail from the unknown area code. It turned out to be a message from the assistant manager of the Vancouver Orcas, welcoming Nico to the team and asking him to get on the next available flight.

Once, when Nico had been cutting veggies to go with the dinner Ryan was cooking, he sliced open his thumb. Ryan had bought a set of expensive kitchen knives, and they were so sharp Nico didn’t feel a thing. He didn’t realize what happened until he started bleeding all over the carrot sticks.

This was like that, Nico thought. He’d been gutted, but the knife was so sharp he didn’t feel it yet.

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