Page 29 of Drop the Gloves
“Scottish,” he said.
Barczyk squinted at him.“Hmmm.”Then he stretched and wiggled deeper into his seat, eyes fluttering shut.Still with the string in his mouth.“My family’s Polish.My grampa speaks it and everything.Rest up, Abs.We’ve got a lot of work to do.”
* * *
It felt like he blinked and when he opened his eyes, he was at the far end of the team gym where the mats were laid away from the weight racks.He poked the mats with his foot, suddenly worried they weren’t thick enough.It couldn’t be worse than falling and hitting the ice, though, right?
He’d gotten there before Barczyk, and, not knowing how to prepare for fighting practice, he sat on the mat and stretched.
“You’re pretty flexible for a big guy,” Barczyk called, startling Evan so badly that he nearly pulled a muscle in his groin.“Is that useful in hockey if you’re not a goalie?”
Evan took a measured breath in and out, then gently rose out of the stretch before turning to Barczyk.“Shouldn’t you…” He trailed off as he saw Barczyk in a too-big Riveters tee with the sleeves cut off (why?) and bicycle shorts.Very tight spandex bicycle shorts.He also stood close enough to Evan that his dick was at eye level.
Evan immediately went back down to stretch again so he could regroup and try to forget the mental image of Barczyk’s dick outlined in dark spandex.
You’ve seen him naked before,he reminded himself.In the locker room and showers.Dozens of times.You don’t care about his dick.
His own dick disagreed.He bit the inside of his cheek and prayed he didn’t get hard.Why was this happening?Thank fuck his own gym shorts were loose.
Barczyk poked him in the side with his bare foot.“Bro, stop.You’re not going to pull anything.That’s not how fighting works.”
Thankfully, Barczyk’s annoyingness worked as well as a cold shower.Evan pushed out of the fake stretch and stood up, crossed his arms over his chest, and scowled at Barczyk (mostly to remind himself he barely liked Riley Barczyk so he couldn’t be attracted to him).
Or any guy,he told himself firmly, as if that put the period at the end of his worries.
“So howdoesfighting work?”Evan asked.
“Well, aside from the equipment stuff we already worked on, mostly just punching.”
“That’s it?”
“No, but the other stuff is too advanced for you.Took me years to master tripping someone while we’re fighting, and it’s hard to wrestle guys to the ice without practice.No offense, but I don’t want you tackling or tripping me when a good right hook will do the trick.”
There was a bag slung around Barczyk’s shoulder—it was a testament to how out of it Evan was that he hadn’t noticed it before—and he pulled out what looked like a pair of goalie blockers.He tossed aside the bag and started putting them on his hands.“I stole these from my apartment gym so we could work on stuff, so don’t break them.Hopefully no one misses them and checks the security cameras.”
“You don’t need to worry about breaking them,” Evan said.They looked deceptively soft, but he was more worried about bruising his knuckles than doing any damage to the pads.“I don’t think I can punch hard enough.”
“Let’s see what you've got.”Barczyk raised the mitts and squared his feet.“Put ‘em up.”
Evan rolled his shoulders before balling his hands into fists.He raised his fists, aimed for Barczyk’s right blocker, and stepped into the punch?—
Barczyk jumped to the side, swinging the blocker out of Evan’s reach.Evan’s momentum carried him a few steps forward, and he had to scramble to keep from faceplanting.
“What the fuck, Barczyk!?”he yelled, not sure if he was more surprised or angry.“If this is some stunt to piss me off so I’ll punch harder, I swear?—”
“Not a stunt.”Barczyk used his mouth to undo one of the mitts and wiggled his hand out.“Trying to keep you from busting up your hand.”He motioned Evan over.“C’mere.”
Still peeved, he strode over.
“Gimme your hand.”
He lifted his hand and watched goosebumps rise along his arm as Barczyk lightly grabbed his wrist.
“Make a fist.”
He did, and Barczyk knocked him with the blocker on his other hand.
“Never do that again!”
