Stupid Love

21

I look up towards the scoreboard as it reads "Home: 5, Away: 3" I smile as I feel myself becoming more confident in my game. As soon as I look down towards my teammates my head begins to pound and my ears ring as if someone put a bell right inside my head. I closed my eyes and shook my head disregarding it. My teammates come up to give the traditional hockey hug. I couldn't hear what they were saying. My head was filled with the continuous ringing. I skated back towards the middle of the rink with them and prepared myself for another faceoff when someone caught my attention from in the stands. I looked confused when I thought I saw Mia, she was wearing the jersey she made with me from back in the day. It had our team colors and my number on it with glitter and sparkles. I look down towards the ice and shake my head.

"Why am I seeing these girls?" I thought to myself as I looked up and got into position for the faceoff. Just as the ref was skating over to us I heard a rumble from the crowd. I look over to see Matt and Luke fighting two different players at the same time. I couldn't help but watch, it looked like another hockey fight, lots of waiting for someone to make a move. Then within a second I see Matt get punched in the face and he went down to the ice, and Luke was thrown to the ice. The refs finally stepped in and broke up everyone. When they finally picked up Matt and Luke they skated with them over to the rink door and told them to leave. The linesmen came over to me and said

"You guys will be on a 5 on 3 for the rest of the game since your guys started it." He says to me

It didn't click until I realized that it was us getting the penalties. " When the fuck did they change that rule? They all fought, what about their penalties?" I say as I point to the other teams players. I can hear the whole crowd call me a cry baby. I really didn't care, I just wanted to know why they got away with two penalties. The linesmen continued to skate away from me, disregarding everything I said. The whole arena erupts as the chant "Lets go Falcons!" fills my ears. I shake my head and skate back towards our zone for the new faceoff. The other team brought in a whole new line. I noticed it was all of their top scorers from the film I watched with the coach. My stomach dropped a little as I realized they might be able to put the game away. I finally get over to my spot at the faceoff circle and look over to my bench. Coach had his hand on his mouth, the entire bunch was just staring at me, hoping I would do something. I look back to my defensemen and goalie, all three of them looked defeated or nervous. I couldn't feel anything besides my head pain, everything else felt ice cold.

"Hey are you ready?"

I look back and see the ref and center ready, waiting on me. I nod my head yes and bent forward with my stick on my knees, My eyes locked on the puck. He blows his whistle and drops it. I slam my stick to the ground and pass it back towards my teammates. I looked towards the other team for a moment, they were spread out. Their defensemen were back by the blue line, their center was standing three feet away from me, and their forwards were going after the defensemen. I turned around when I saw the puck heading towards me. I just reacted by slapping my stick on the ground and I sent the puck flying towards their zone. I saw their defensemen and the center that was just guarding me start skating after it, I finally realized what was happening and started skating after it as well. The puck flies through the neutral zone (middle of the rink) as I skate past the center who was breathing very heavily already. I see one of their defenseman slow down as he was reaching the puck, I run into him knocking him over and taking the puck from his stick. I saw the other defenseman come charging at me when I looked down at the puck and positioned it to the far corner of the stick when I duck under and around their defenseman, leaving me one on one with the goalie. I flicked my wrist back and forth as quickly as I could, and positioned my stick for the goalies' right side. I flicked my wrists again and shot the puck in between his glove and the crossbar. The puck goes in and the lights behind the net light up red indicating a good goal. I skate around his net and back towards my bench. The crowd was silent except for our fans which wasn't a lot. My coach yells at the ref for a timeout, and the ref blows his whistle. I get to the bench where I hear my coach is berating the rest of the team.