Page 76 of Hooked
The arena went nuts—with thousands of fans jumping up and down and cheering, the whole building rumbled with energy.
And, before the game even made it to overtime, Vinny would take a slapper that put us ahead 5-4.
We were going to the playoffs.
***
The celebration in the dressing room was wild. But while the boys laughed and shouted and recounted our miraculous third period comeback, I threw off my shoulder pads and jersey and raced for the girl's dressing room.
I knocked on the door. “Come in!” the girls answered.
I threw open the door. I was a sweaty wreck, and my athletic tights were drenched and plastered to my body. But Honor didn't mind. She jumped off the bench and threw herself into my arms. I caught her and we shared a kiss, like long lost lovers who had been separated forwaytoo long. Hell, after the day we'd had, it sure felt like it.
And all the girls in the room went, “aaaaw!”
I put her down at last, smiling at her. “That wasawesome,by the way. The way you knocked Cunningham over.”
“What choice did I have? That creep actuallytouchedme!”
All the girls huffed and puffed with outrage on Honor's behalf.
“Yeah, he's sick!”
“I'm so glad she pushed him!”
“But forget all that—more importantly, you guys are going to be in the playoffs!” Honor squealed.
“I don't even care about that right now,” I said, and I pulled her near again for another kiss. “I just want you.”
Chapter 27:
Out of the Woods
Honor
After Hunter and the team's amazing comeback, the hockey team wanted to hit the bars and celebrate. But Hunter had to shake his head.
“Sorry boys, I can't tonight. I've gotta clean up this mess that Madison left for us. You guys have fun, though.”
His teammates laughed and joked about what hereallywanted to do tonight,wink wink.
After they left us alone, Hunter and I hung out in the men's dressing room. He reached his lawyer on the phone and explained the situation. The lawyer managed to get a cease and desist letter sent immediately, and theGutterSportsblog was taken down by the web server.
Funny twist in that story? The owner of the blog was none other than one Madison Sanguinetti. And, thankfully, she didn't have much of a following—the web server was able to tell us that the page with my pictures had been accessed fewer than 50 times before it was axed.
Whew.
So it wasn't like my pictures were all over the internet. Just on Madison's little corner of it. Lastly, Hunter's lawyer said he'd send a threatening letter to Madison, ordering her to destroy any pictures and information she'd stolen from Hunter's phone, or face legal action.
While I was happy that my pictures didn't go viral or anything like that … the fact of the matter was, my family was one of the few people who'd managed to see them. And that sucked. A lot. My phone had been ringing all night. Now that the game was over, I couldn't ignore it any longer.
I readied myself to answer the phone and face the music—but before I could, Hunter extended his hand. “Lemme talk to them.”
“What?” I laughed. “Are you nuts?”
“No, I'm not nuts. But Ididget you involved in this. It's my fault. Let me talk to them.”
“Um …” I wasn't sure, but I handed my phone over to him anyway.
