Two Minutes for Hooking

Chapter 21*

Jocelyn

Something was wrong with Helly. Her normally cheerful expression had been replaced with a mask of consternation.At first I thought her scowls and grunted responses were merely the result of overindulging at the party the night before.When we took to the ice for warmups, I tried, again, to engage her. When she answered my inquiry with a shrug and a mumbled, "I'm fine." I decided to let it drop. By the time we moved on to special teams drills, I was forced to put it out of my mind. I was listening to Coach Bakers instructions and watching her detail it on the plexiglass when I heard the unmistakable sound of the puck smacking into the glass. The group on that side of the ice was working on one-timer drills, so I didn't think too much of it and carried on about my business. It was when that sound repeated five more times and was followed by an inhuman shriek of "oh for fucks sake" that I finally turned around to see what the hell was going on. Squinting against the glare coming off the overhead fluorescents I watched as the heaving shoulders bent forward over their knees to lean on their stick. "Again," Coach Thompson yelled and blew her whistle for the drill to start again. I watched as the player lifted her torso and shifted her position to accept the pass that would be coming her way. I knew what was going to happen, her posture was all wrong and she looked like she was gripping the stick hard enough that it would have splintered had it been wooden. The pass came, a gorgeous pass right on the tape but again, the puck elevated just a bit too much and smacked into the glass. This time, Helly had enough. Ignoring the calls from our coaches and teammates, Helly turned and skated off the ice, slamming the rink door behind her, not caring when it rebounded and opened again.I turned, eyes wide to see how our coach would react to this. Coach Thompson looked equally surprised, Helly had some of the best discipline on the team, she never got emotional on the ice. Catching her eyes, I hooked my thumb toward the locker room and cocked my head in the universal, should I, gesture. I wasn't entirely shocked when her shoulders relaxed and she nodded before direction one of her group to join Coach Baker and take over for me."Helly," I called quietly as I cautiously opened the door to the locker room. It wouldn't be the first time I had opened the locker room door to talk to a frustrated player only to have helmets, gloves, stick tape or even jill straps sent flying in my direction. To my relief, no such projectiles were hurled at me, so I broached further into the room.Helly was sitting the bench leaning her head back against the wall where her equipment would usually hang. "Helly," I tried again. Helly exhaled harshly and squeezed her eyes shut."what do you want Joss? I'm not exactly in the mood for practice.""Yep, I noticed that." Sitting next to her, I behand pulling off my equipment. Helly's brow wrinkled in confusion as she watched me unhook my elbow pads."what are you doing? practice doesn't end for another hour or so. You'll get in trouble!"Shrugging, I continued, ignoring Helly's wide eyed worry."I haven't missed a practice in two years Helly. Coach will forgive me for having a 'sick' day.""but you're not sick...""meh," I said with another shrug, "I'm just not feeling it today. Plus, I have a major craving for a Culver's ButterBurger. So what do you say Helly, want to play hooky with me?"She blinked at me slowly, her normally sharp mind too wrapped around whatever was wrong to answer me right away. Finally, she nodded and made short work of her own equipment.Ten minutes later, we were showered and changed. I sent a quick text to our coaches and captain, letting them know what was going on. Then I nudged Helly out of the building and drove her away."so," I studied Helly over my burger. "you want to tell me what's going on with you?""nothing, what's wrong with you?" she responded, focusing her attention on the French fry she was viciously stabbing into her cheese sauce."Helly, look at me.""I told you I'm find."I bit back my frustration and took a deep, grounding breath."Janine, you are not fine. Talk to me, please?"Abandoning her fry, she heaved a sigh and dropped her head into her hands."My roommate kicked me out last night.""wait, what?" I responded dumbly. Lowering my burger, I tried to comprehend what she had just said. I knew they had their fair share of differences but Helly and her roommate were generally friendly. "What do you mean? What happened? Are you ok? Where did you stay? Why didn't you call me?"Helly shoved herself back from the table abruptly, causing our beverages to jostle and nearly spill. She crossed her arms over her chest and leveled me with a brooding glare."This is why I didn't say anything. You have enough going on in your life already without adding my drama to it.""Helly," I leaned forward, forcing her to maintain eye contact. "you can always come to me. I don't care what's happening. You are my friend and you matter. Don't ever think you can't come to me for any reason. Don't ever think I don't have time for you or that I won't care. I will always be here and I will always make time for you."Helly's golden irises shined with unshed tears as she swallowed audibly and nodded."I know Joss, I'm sorry for not telling you."I cut her off before she could continue. "Don't do that. Do not apologize when you don't need to."She glared at me but I could see the corner of her mouth twitching as though she was fighting a smile."I never should have let you and El see that movie. You're both monsters." She was referring, of course to the movie A Simple Favor which El had talked us both into seeing the year prior. As a result, we always called each other out when one of us apologized for stupid crap."True, but you love us. Now tell me what happened before I stab you with my spork." I smiled as menacingly as I could manage, which wasn't very menacing at all. "Can we finish eating first? I promise I'll tell you, just not here. In the car?"She looked so sad and genuine that I readily agreed and we talked about trivial matters until there was nothing left but crumbs.When we got into the car, she let out a long breath and began."Melanie came onto my last night. And I don't mean in a joking or playful way like she has before. I cam home from the party a little more than buzzed and she lit into me. She kept asking if I knew what the hell time it was and then she noticed I had Tremblay's jacket and she went completely postal. She kept asking if I had fucked him too and why everyone else was good enough for me to fuck but not her." The tears were streaming down Helly's face and she kept pulled her hair tight in her hands."She was hysterical Joss. And I didn't know what to do. I was just frozen and I didn't even notice when she crossed the room but the next thing I knew she was kissing me and her hands," she gulped, her pale complexion turning green at whatever she was going to say next. Then she shook her head and I knew she wouldn't tell me everything, at least not right away. But I thought back to the locker room and how she didn't usually have modesty but today she showered at the farthest stall and stared into the corner until she was done."Anyway," she continued shakily. "I told her to stop. And she started yelling at me, telling me she hated me and calling me a slut. Then she told me to get my shit and leave.""Geeze Helly. No wonder you're not okay. Where did you stay last night?""I called Tremblay, he was on his way home so he came and got me. I spent the night over there last night. He slept in your boytoys bed since he was mysteriously unaccounted for last night." Her eyes flicked to mine again but this time there was a glimmer of the old Helly shining in their depths."You wouldn't know anything about that, would you Joss?""No comment." I pinned my lips shut and made Helly laugh. "so, what's your plan now?""No clue, Ryan told me I can have his room for as long as I want but I'll probably find another apartment or move into the dorms."I carefully tucked away the fact that she was referring to him as Ryan, cataloging it for another day when she wasn't as mentally exhausted."I might have an idea. Give me one second." I quickly typed out a message to El, asking her if she still wanted to find someone to rent the third closet sized room in our place.El: that depends....are they hot?Me: It's HellyEl: Janine? Really? Girl, you didn't even have to ask. Tell her sexy ass the room is all hers.Me: you're the best El: yeah, yeah. Love you too. Let me know when you're headed home, I have the best idea ever.Me: I'm scared...El: (evil smiley face)I set my phone down and smiled. "El says the third room in our place is all yours if you want it.""are you serious?" her eyes lit up with genuine happiness."yep, but don't thank me just yet. El says she has a surprise.""oh no, well I guess it's a good thing I'm desperate then, huh?"We laughed as her phone chimed with a text message."Oh, speaking of Ryan." Again with the Ryan thing, I noted. For now I continued to chalk it up to her emotional rollercoaster of a day."He says they have forced team bonding this afternoon so I'll have their place to myself." She paused before looking up her phone with an evil grin that matched the emoji one El had just sent."Call El," she said. " tell her to meet us at Walmart, I just had the best idea."*I guess the first thing you should know is that El and Helly were the sweetest and most humble people you would ever meet. The second is that they are both generally reserved and responsible with their money even though they were two college girls with giant trust funds at their disposal.None of us were really shoppers unless you count annual excursions to Monkey Sports and Pure Hockey for seasons end clearance as shopping. If you do, well then I guess Helly and I will shop until we drop and there is nothing wrong with that. But back to the topic at hand.Even though El and Helly both had a disposable income neither of them really spend money frivolously. Which made the fact that our first act as roommates had been to go on a giant shopping spree at Walmart, ironic.Yet here we were with El pushing a cart in between us on a determined path toward bedding."How long will the boys be gone again?" El asked.Checking my phone, I reread the text James had sent.James: Hey, we're doing team building stuff this afternoon but should be done around eight. Want to grab a late dinner?"James said around eight, so we have three hours tops.""What do you think Janine, is that long enough to carry out your master plan?"Helly grinned, "Yep, it'll be tight but it should work. Joss, what size bed does Collings have? I know Tremblay has a twin but I'm already fixing that."And she was back to calling him by his last name again. Rather than pointing out this fact I decided to focus on her comment about "fixing" his bed."What do you mean you're fixing his bed?"She shrugged, playing the part of nonchalance. "His mattress is old and has springs that kept stabbing me all night. So I ordered him a new bed that should be delivered in an hour and a half."El and I shared a look of incredulity. "That's really nice of you Helly, but are you sure he'll be ok with that?"Her smile grew larger and more mischievous. "Oh, I'm sure he won't be. But he can get over it. Plus, I ordered a California king, so I'm pretty sure he'll thank me eventually."I was amazed my eyes didn't completely bug out of my head as I stopped in my tracks and wondered if my friend had gone completely insane."No offense Hel, but their place is as small as ours, there is no way that bed would fit.""oh it'll fit," she replied as she scanned the bedding. "I measured it. It will fit. He just won't have any space in his room for anything else."Raucous laughter burst from El with a snort and the only thing keeping her from falling on the floor was the shopping cart she leaned on." I will never understand you" I said with a shake of my head."Okay, okay, okay. So we need to find a cali-king and a..." El trailed off, looking at me to fill in the blanks."Queen" I supplied. " and you wanted to get kids bed sets? Will we even be able to find those in the sizes we need?""How about you and Janine work on finding the bedding and I'll go wrangle some 'decorations'," she said, using air quotes for the last word."Be nice," I called as she abandoned us and the cart and headed off to who knew where.We spent the next thirty minutes or so scouring the shelves for the perfect sets. El had been right, most of the bedding in the sizes we required were very sober and respectfully adult. So not at all what we were looking for. It wasn't until we were ready to give up that I spotted them. Breathless with excitement, I grabbed Helly's arm and pointed to the bed sets crammed into the corner of the lowest shelf.Her eyes lit with delight, "oh my god those are perfect. Are they the right size?"She dropped to the floor immediately to check the labels and to our disbelief they were exactly the right size.*Three hours later we were just walking in the door to our apartment when James' ring tone sang out from my jacket pocket. "Hey," I answered. Squeezing my phone between my shoulder and ear as I let myself into my room and dropped the odds and ends I had picked up onto my bed."Hey, we just got done. Are you still up for dinner?" his voice was rich and low and I could tell he was fighting to keep his exhaustion out of his voice."Of course. Did you want anything in particular? You sound totally gassed.""Nah," he yawned. "I'm good. Want me to come over?"I was too curious to see how they would react to their bedroom makeovers to let him put off the unveiling."How about if I pick up some Pho and come to you?""That sounds incredible. I'm just waiting for Ryan to get out here, so I think I'll be home in twenty minutes. Or at least close to that.""Perfect, I'll meet you there."