Page 25 of Drop the Gloves
“No punching,” Evan repeated.His heart was in his throat.He was suddenly hyperaware of how close he and Barczyk were.It hadn’t mattered when Evan had been the only one grabbing, but this was more…what?Intense?Personal?
Intimate?
He shook off the thought and instead skated away to grab his gloves and get some space.Space that almost immediately evaporated, because as soon as he’d squared up with Barczyk, he winked at Evan and dropped his gloves with lightning speed.Evan threw his gloves at Barczyk more than onto the ice, but he dodged Barczyk’s first attempt to grab hold of his jersey.Not the second, though, and before he could return the favor, Barczyk had gently slapped his face.
“How the fuck”—Evan took a deep breath, heart racing—“do you do that so fast?”
“Lots and lots of practice.Let’s go again.”
They did it again and again and again, like they were practicing a dance, so quickly that Evan soon lost his self-consciousness about their proximity.He focused on the task at hand, trying to get faster at it.He got better at aiming his hand for Barczyk’s chest, grabbing a fistful of coarse fabric.Sometimes their hands knocked into each other as they lunged, and after a few minutes, Evan was breathless and laughing.This was stupidly fun.
And maybe chasing that feeling made him bold and reckless.As they squared up again, Evan went for it.He was going to try to pull Barczyk’s jersey over his head.
When Barczyk dove for him, Evan side-stepped him and instead of going for the front, he reached for the back of Barczyk’s jersey.Barczyk squawked indignantly and flailed to stop Evan as he started pulling the jersey (and Evan appreciated that he didn’t start punching out of instinct), but there wasn’t much he could do once Evan got it over his face.The helmet made it impossible for him to take it off, and instead Barczyk was trapped in his practice jersey.Eventually his knees knocked against Evan’s, and they both went down onto the ice in a heap: Barczyk fell backwards and Evan didn’t let go quick enough, tumbling after and landing right on top of him.
“Jesus, Abs, you weigh a ton,” Barczyk said through laughter as he wiggled and tried to get his jersey off his face.Evan, proud of himself, showed mercy and helped.When Barczyk’s face reappeared, rosy-cheeked and grinning from ear to ear with his stupid missing tooth on display, Evan froze.His heart did a weird flip-flop he didn’t understand, while his dick reacted in a way he definitely did.
“You might win a fight yet,” Barczyk said.He leaned back on his elbows and looked up at Evan, and yeah, Evan’s dick was feeling a certain way about having Barczyk pinned beneath him.“You gonna get off me or what?”
“Huh?”His brain hadn’t put those words in the right order at first, and his cheeks burned before he realized what Barczyk had actually said.“Right.Sorry.Lemme just…” He untangled himself from Barczyk and backed away.How was the ice not melting, because fuck it was too hot in here?
“I think that’s a successful first lesson,” Barczyk said as he picked himself up, stopping to grab his mouthguard from the ice.He popped it back in his mouth, chewing on the end like that wasn’t absolutely disgusting.“Probably can’t get much done on the road trip next week.We’ll figure something out when we’re back in town?”
Evan didn’t know if he could handle any more rounds with Barczyk, but he nodded.“Yeah, sure thing,” he said, distracted.
He turned his back on Barczyk and headed off the ice.He changed as quickly as possible, avoiding eye contact with the few guys left chatting in the locker room, and disappeared into the showers (a refreshingcoldshower).It was an enormous relief that Barczyk had disappeared by the time Evan finished, because Evan he absolutely zero clue how he would ever look Barczyk in the eye again after…whatever the heck had just happened on the ice.
13
Evan had learnedhow to compartmentalize a long time ago.It was an important skill when you had a high-pressure life, and he’d had to add it to his coping skills as a kid.Between school and money issues and hockey and travel, there’d always been something stressing him out.He’d gotten good at ignoring the things he couldn’t control right now.Couldn’t pay for new skates?That was a weekend problem.Grade dropping in French class?He’d worry about it after practice.
Accidentally got a boner while roughhousing with a teammate?He’d put a pin in that and circle back, hopefully never.
He hadn’t had to do much compartmentalization since he’d graduated from high school, and even less since he’d made the Riveters’ official roster and moved up from the AHL.Mini-golf and the occasional cheat day were enough to mellow him out, but that was before Riley Barczyk, so Evan carefully packed away the incident after practice and decided he would ignore it until absolutely necessary.
He figured it would be easy enough.At home, he could shift his focus to TV.At the gym, he could use his heart rate and breathing to ground himself.He figured at practices and games, there’d be plenty of distractions built in.That would give him time to figure out what the fuck had happened, and if it was a fluke or an actual problem.Ideally, he’d ignore the issue indefinitely.
The one wrinkle in his plan: they had a road trip to Vermont and New York.Normally, Evan sat with Dalton on the team bus and plane rides.Maybe he’d taken that for granted, because he grabbed himself a window seat and started fiddling with his phone while the rest of the team filed onto the plane.He’d just pulled up his travel playlist when someone sat next to him.He’d looked up, expecting to say hi to Dalton, and found it wasn’t Dalton at all.
It was Barczyk.
“There’s nothing more boring than plane rides,” Barczyk whined.“Amirite?”
Evan blinked at him.“I think you picked the wrong career if you don’t like flying.”
Barczyk pouted.Pouted!“Sucks, right?At least I just think it’s boring.Can you imagine traveling as much as we do and being scared to fly?Had a teammate like that back in Jersey.Basically had to hide in the bathroom or sleep the whole flight.”
“Who was it?”Evan asked.
“Nah, bro, I’m not telling.He was embarrassed about it.”
“Oh.”That was rather decent of Barczyk.“You’ve played on a bunch of teams, right?”
Barczyk shrugged.“I’ve played on my fair share, yeah.”It amazed Evan that he seemed unfazed by it.Unexpected or frequent trades caused a lot of anxiety and bitterness among players.If the Riveters ever traded Evan, he might cry.
“It doesn’t bother you?”he asked.“To get traded so much?”
“It’s not always trades.Sometimes it’s just time to move on.But no, not really.”He took in Evan’s skeptical look and laughed, nudging Evan with his elbow.“For real, I don’t mind.Sometimes, a change of scenery is a good thing.And it’s cool to get to live in different cities.”
