Page 96 of Drop the Gloves
All the fuck no’s on that one.
Riley got up to full speed before he charged into Walker, sending the larger player sprawling onto the ice.There were whistles and shouting, though Riley ignored it in favor of watching to see if Walker was going to come up fighting.
He did spring to his feet, red-faced and pissed, but he saw who it was who’d hit him and wisely chose not to drop his gloves.
“What the fuck, you piece of shit!?”he screamed at Barczyk.
“You’ve been acting like pond scum all period,” Riley drawled.They hated when he didn’t yell back.The calmer he was, the more worked up other people got.They didn’t need to know he was fucking seething under the surface.“It was only a matter of time until it came back to bite you on the ass.”
“Fucking rich, coming from a guy like you!”Walker seemed a lot braver now that the refs were here, yelling at them about penalties.
“You see me going after anyone that doesn’t deserve it?You want to stay on your feet, then make sure you let my boys stay on theirs.”
They were ushered to the penalty boxes—Walker with 2 minutes for tripping, Riley with 2 for charging—and Riley felt he’d made his point.He was willing to leave things at that (like,mostly; he was still going to fuck with Walker at face-offs, but he wasn’t going to go out of his way to hit the guy or anything), but the fucker just didn’t know when to accept the L.
“You talking about Abs?”Walkers yelled from the other penalty box.“You of all people donotget to give me shit about Abs.”
Riley had a lot to say about that, but he was acutely aware of how public this conversation was with the fans banging against the glass right behind him.So instead of engaging, he held up his hand in Walker’s direction and mimed him running his mouth.
Undeterred—there was no fixing stupid, after all—he kept talking.
“Don’t pretend like you’re some knight in shining armor,” Walker snapped.“You aren’t rescuing him from me.Just because they all seem to have forgotten what you did to Abs last season, doesn’t mean I have.”
The fuck?
Riley spared him a glance.“Did last season?You’re reaching, bro.Learn to play some hockey, fuckhead.”
It looked like Walker said more, but the arena erupted in cheers.Riley looked up to see a replay of the Scorpions scoring.Ugh.Riley hated when the other team scored during his penalties.Worse, it was four-on-four, so Riley still had to sit out the rest of his two minutes.
But the thing about being stuck in the box was he had a lot of time to think.So he thought about Walker sitting a few feet away, so confident that he was the good guy and Riley the bad guy.What was it he’d said?
What you did to Abs last season.
He’d never fought Evan before, that was for damn sure.Riley couldn’t remember ever doing anything to Evan in particular...but he didn’t exactly remember every hit he’d ever dealt.Was it possible there was some truth to what Walker had said?
And if so, why hadn’t Evan ever brought it up before if it was such a big deal?
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After getting tripped by Walker,Evan was upset.The trip was bad enough—he’d seen the footage on the Jumbotron and was pretty sure it’d been intentional—but Evan couldn’t shake the feeling that Walker had targeted him because they’d played together.Like he knew Evan wouldn’t retaliate, so it was a freebie.
Though Walker should’ve learned from the game in Pittsburgh: just because Evan wouldn’t fight him, didn’t mean he could get away with being rough.
Riley had swooped in and put Walker in his place, which only added to Evan’s annoyance about the whole thing.Riley thought Evan couldn’t take care of himself.Riley was still going around hurting people.If Walker had gotten hurt, was any of it Evan’s fault?
The answer to that last one was of fucking course not, but guilt decided it needed to make an appearance along with the mess of everything else he’d been feeling lately.
There was also the tightening in his gut, like Walker had awakened Riley’s bad side.Some nights Riley was a ticking time bomb, waiting for the wrong trigger to set him off, and his shouting match with Walker had all the makings of setting him off.
Except...it didn’t.Riley came out of the box, scowling and surly, but he played a somewhat lackluster (though physical) second and third periods.He didn’t instigate anything, ignored the Scorpions trying to rile him up (notably, Walker wasn’t among them), but also didn’t drive play the way he usually did.
He was just...there.He barely spoke on the bench, with a faraway look on his face, like his mind was elsewhere.Riley was normally the loudest person on the team, yelling support and chirping the other team as they skated by.On the days when he was pissy and fighting everyone that moved, then he was muttering expletives at everyone within earshot.
Obviously, Evan was concerned.And it wasn’t just him who’d noticed.
“You were very quiet tonight,” Vassiliev said as they boarded the bus back to the hotel.“You didn’t let Walksie get under your skin, did you?”
A vein pulsed in Riley’s temple.“What?”
