The Road to the Cup ~ Wattys 2015

Fight

I arrived at Consol early the next morning and laced up my skates. I enjoyed having the ice to myself; hearing my skates slicing over the frozen surface as I took lap after lap. There was nothing like freshly resurfaced ice.

"Good morning," Sidney joined me on the ice.

"Morning," I replied.

"I had fun last night; I think we should do that more often," he said.

"I think so, too. It was fun," I smiled, remembering how I had jumped up and hugged him when the Wings won, and how he had lifted me up and spun me around until we were both too dizzy to see straight.

"Hello, Erin, Sid!" Geno said, joining us.

"Hello, Geno!" I replied, brightly.

"Hey, Geno," Sidney grinned at his best friend.

"I see we are getting along. Good. I no need to yell at him again, eh, Erin?" Geno elbowed me and grinned, nodding at Sidney.

"I am behaving myself," Sidney said.

"Uhuh," Geno said.

"No, he is behaving himself, Geno. Don't worry about it," I patted the giant Russian on the arm and he nodded.

"Good."

Sidney snorted, "Were you going to fight me if I wasn't behaving, Evgeni?"

Geno narrowed his eyes at Sidney, "Maybe. You no know what I do. I sneaky. I get you when you no expect it."

Sidney and I laughed. As serious as Geno sounded, neither of us believed he'd do anything to Sidney. "What do you kids find so funny?" Flower asked as he skated over.

"Your face," Geno said. Apparently he had picked up on that joke a few years late.

"Fuck you, Geno," Flower said.

"Fuck you, too, plant boy," Geno shot back.

"Are you bashing my man, Marc?" Sutter asked.

"No," Geno said.

"Liar," Flower said.

"What's going on over here? I smell a fight!" Robert skated up.

"The Russian is getting at my boy, Marc-Andre Fleury," Sutter said, trying to sound impressive by using Flower's full name.

"The McDonald's Flurry doesn't take a little teasing well, does he?" Beau said. Bortz laughed and high-fived him.

"Just wait 'til I get a McShutout..." Fleury muttered.

"What's going on?" I whispered to Sidney, who was standing beside me, just watching them argue.

"They're just messing around. They aren't really fighting," Sidney replied.

"What's that, Golden Boy? You wanna scrap?" Bortz held up his fists like he was a championship boxer.

I saw something flicker in Sidney's eyes and his hands tightened at his sides, but then it was gone. "I'd kick your ass," he joked.

"Not two-on-one, you won't!" Beau chimed in.

"You really want to fight me and the Russian?" Sidney said.

"You on you own," Geno muttered.

"I'll fight with him," I stepped forward, mirroring Robert's pose.

"Aw, man," Robert said, "I can't hit a girl."

"Yeah, and I shouldn't hit my future sister-in-law," Beau winked at me.