Hate Is A Strong Word

9.

"Pack it up. Pack it up!" I shove him again and he doesn't even have time to put his shoes on. When he told me after an hour of teaching, that an earthworm is this pink slimy thing that crawls under the ground, that was the end of it for me. Like he's not completely off, but fuck, I've been learning with him for an hour and that's all he's going to tell me. He's lucky I don't end it with him. Today, yeah, with a sequel this weekend.

"Justine."

"You, no Justine." I throw his jacket at him and he's still trying to put on his expensive Jordans. Realistically, after everything that's happened today, I'm not in the mood for his earthworms. Vondrak, stressing out the board about that stupid Halloween party for kids whose teachers are going to do two smudges on their faces, because they don't have a costume, and now an earthworm. I can't take it anymore. I want to go take a shower, get into bed, cuddle up in the covers and watch The Wife Swap or The Talent.

"I wasn't that out."

"You were more out of it than your father was during shootout." What year was that? I don't really remember, but it was Czech Republic vs. Russia. It wasn't for a medal or a playoffs, just normal group games. There was a shootout and his dad went and you should have seen it. He's picking up speed and getting faster and faster with every hundredth of a second. When he's in front of the Russian goalie and everybody knows that this young talent will definitely outperform the experienced goaltender, because he's already scored one goal in a game. But they were wrong, his dad sent the puck somewhere into the protective net. It didn't touch the stick or the goalie.

"Less off than my dad."

"That's shit." I open the door, grab him, and push him out the door. Only he doesn't fall onto the pavement that's in front of the house, he falls right into my dad's arms and the backpack falls onto my mom, who despite her height has no trouble catching him. When we both realise who is standing in front of us, we realise that we have a lot of explaining to do.

Sebastian gets scared and quickly walks from my dad back to me. He's really scared of him! What does he want to do in that dream Canada of his, where Ovechkin is going to skate to him and what is he going to do. He can't go to the bench and hide there. I personally am quite scared of Ovechkin, even though he seems to be a really nice guy. I find my dad less scary than him, but maybe that's because he's my dad.

Mom throws the backpack at Sebastian and dad keeps measuring him with his eyes. Sebastian stands nervously next to me, wishing he could get on his motorcycle and ride home right now. Let's just say my dad is very protective of me, and both Simon and Juraj have taken over from him. The only advantage of being with my grandmother in Slovakia is that my dad had to work. So he didn't really notice that I wasn't home. He would always sit on the terrace and do his own thing and I could be with my Slovak boy.

Simon and Juraj were always there, but they both knew him. The Slovak with the muscles I've mentioned a few times here is Samuel. We've known each other for a long time, since we were kids, actually. His grandmother lives two houses next to mine in a little Slovak village near Košice, they are neighbors. Our families know each other well, especially the grandmothers and mothers.

Samuel and I have really known each other since we were kids. He started to be friends with Simon at first, but we became more comfortable with each other. They only had hockey in common, we understood each other. We could talk about everything, we were best friends. We looked forward to every holiday or weekend at grandma's. He was my best friend.

We spent all our days off together, there wasn't a moment when we weren't by each other's side. I liked him, I had a crush on him since I was about 11, but then Kristian came along. I fell in love with him and he fell in love with me. After he went to Finland for hockey and I was alone again, Samuel and I got together that summer.