Page 39 of Drop the Gloves
“You’re not on the team right now, and you fucking crosschecked him.Don’t pretend?—”
“Enough!”yelled the ref.“Barczyk, get in the box.Two for slashing.Walker, get out of here before you get two for unsportsmanlike.”
“What!?”Walker looked appalled.“I didn’t do shi?—”
The ref started raising his whistle to his lips, so Walker held up his hands and skated away.
“Smartest thing you've done all night,” Barczyk called after him.“Skate away like a little?—”
And that’s when Walker came back and punched Barczyk square in the face.
* * *
“Did you see Barzy draw that penalty?Fucking textbook.”Dalton fistbumped Barczyk on his way to his stall.They’d won 2-1 against a very disgruntled Nevada bench.Their line had mostly gotten benched after the Walker incident, only going out when Coach Jack was sure he could control the matchups enough to guarantee Walker wouldn’t be on the ice with them.In the end, they’d won with a late power play goal from Moreau after a delay of game miscue from the Scorpions’ goalie.
Still, the most memorable thing about the game was Barczyk getting Walker to sucker punch him.
Barczyk winked and shot him a finger gun.“All in a night’s work.”His chest was bare except for his shoulder pads.Despite the bravado, he seemed tired.“Luckily your boy punches like a middle schooler, or I might have more than a black eye.”
“He’s not our boy,” Evan said.He liked Walker well enough, but he hadn’t much liked that he’d been competing with Barczyk for cheapest hockey play.He liked it less that Walker had won.
Barczyk turned the full weight of his hazel eyes onto Evan.“Am I your boy?”he asked, unblinking as he watched Evan.
Evan’s mouth went dry, which was the only thing that saved him from answering because he didn’t trust what he might say right now.
“Of course!”Vassiliev wrapped an arm around him to envelop Barczyk in a side-hug.“Walker is such a shit.”
“He’s not that bad.”Evan swallowed; Barczyk was still watching him.“He wasn’t that bad when he played for us,” he amended.
“Yeah?”Barczyk teased.“Bet my old teams say that about me too.”
Evan couldn’t help it; he looked away.
“Walker always was a punk,” Vassiliev said, unaware of the tension between his linemates.“But he was cleaner with us.The Scorpions dropped the first seven games of the season.They’re playing desperate, and it shows in players like Walker.”
Talk shifted as the coaches came in to debrief them after the game, and Evan, for once, relished the breakdown.It gave him somewhere to look other than two stalls to his left.
* * *
Walker
Yinz wanna go grab drinks later?We’re in town until tomorrow afternoon
Miss hanging out with you guys
Ten minutes passed.
Walker
???
Five minutes passed.
Walker
Wtf this isn’t about that thing with barczyk is it?
That guy’s a dick I can’t believe you’re stuck with him this season
