Page 3 of Hockey Bois
When he looked up, still smiling, he caught Brady’s eye. Brady raised an eyebrow in challenge, and Nick immediately turned away and focused on tying his skates. He pretended not to feel his cheeks flush and hoped his helmet would do a good enough job hiding it. It would only make things worse if Brady saw how easily rattled he was.
After they were all dressed, the team lined up to get on the ice, waiting for the Zamboni to finish its last lap. Benns nudged his way to the front of the line.
“All right guys. New season, clean slate, blah blah blah.” There were some chuckles at that; Benns ignored them. “We’ve played these guys a million times. We know their game. They’re physical, they’re loud, but they can’t skate half as fast as our worst guy, so let’s keep it clean and stick toourgame, all right?”
There were eye rolls and words of assent; Nick quietly hoped he hadn’t inherited the role of “our worst guy.”
“Do your best—that’s all I can ask—and let’s get this W, boys.” A pause. “And lady.”
“Fuck off,” grunted a petite woman near Nick. She was a full head shorter than him, her hair tied in a braid coming out the back of her helmet, and she looked more menacing in her gear than the teammates twice her size.
He liked her already.
A horn sounded and Benns opened the door, ushering the team onto the ice and giving each of them a word of encouragement as they headed to the bench.
Before it was his turn, Nick felt pressure on his back. He turned to find Brady staring down at him. The guy wasn’t that much taller than Nick (barely had two inches on him!), but in his gear he managed to tower over him.
“Hey, stick to the blue line on the backcheck. I can make up the difference in our zone, you just be ready for the breakout, okay?”
He stared up at Brady as his brain worked to process what he’d heard. “You’re defense?” he asked.
Brady looked like he could feel his soul leaving his body. “Yes,” he said, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world and Nick was an idiot for even asking.
Hell, maybe itwas, and Nick had somehow missed it.
“Okay,” Nick said. He could manage focusing on scoring instead of balancing both offense and defense. One less thing, right? Then with slightly more composure, he added, “You gonna pass it up to me?”
If he’d been feeling braver, he might have added a wink. As it was, he figured he was better off leaving it at that.
Brady snorted, though with somewhat more warmth than before. “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. First we gotta see how you skate and stickhandle.”
“Fair,” Nick said. He tried not to grin too widely.
This was happening. He was really going to do this.
This might actually be fun…
*
Jenna May (9:34 p.m.)
Cuz you suck bro
Lemme know your captain’s email so I can congratulate him for making a smart move
(I am assuming bottom line = bad thing)
Jenna May (11:42 p.m.)
How was the game? You score??
Jenna May (11:59 p.m.)
Dude????? You still alive???
Jenna May (12:04 a.m.)
OMG DID YOU GET IN A HOCKEY FIGHT!? TELLLLL MEEEEEE
