On the Sidelines

Chapter 15 Tanner

I'm more than a little disappointed when Evie moves her stuff back into her dorm room. I understand that she's paying for the room and all of her belongings are there but I still wish she'd stay a while longer.

The police have officially charged Marcus and Jake with drug possession and multiple counts of rape. While Marcus chose to plead innocent, Jake learned that if he pleaded guilty and turned against Marcus, he'd have a lighter sentence.

While I'm happy one of them is willing to take accountability for their actions, I'm not happy it's only because he wants a shorter sentence.

"Dude! Come on! We're going to be late!" Collins shouts from what I assume is the front door. Snapping out of my thoughts I quickly grab my bag and race downstairs. He's right, we have to leave now otherwise we risk pissing Coach off.

We're leaving today for a week-long stint of away games and no one wants to deal with a cranky Coach for that long.

A minute later we are all piled into my truck and on the way to the arena where we were told to meet.

When we arrive I'm thankful to see we aren't the last to arrive. We aren't the first but at least we won't be the ones to incur Coaches wrath. Most of the team has already filed onto the bus so we drop our possessions off in the compartment on the bus before climbing aboard and claiming our seats.

The bus is taking us to their airport where we'll fly to Maine to play the University of Maine. Then we'll fly to Boston to play Harvard. After we beat them we'll take on the University of Michigan in their home rink. Next we fly to Minnesota to play St. Cloud State University. Finally we go to Missouri to play the Lions at Lindenwood.

If we win three of the five we'll go on to the semi-finals for the frozen four. It sucks we'll be on the road for a week and a half but once we go on to get our automatic bid, we'll be playing at home for the rest of the tournament.

I can't wait to ask Evie to come watch me play wearing my jersey. She hasn't come to a game yet, but now that we are officially dating, she knows it's only a matter of time.

We argued for an hour yesterday about the best sport, which she refused to change her answer. The little heathen still thinks baseball is better! The nerve of her! You can't be dating a hockey player and not like hockey, that's ludicrous.

Three hours later and we're stuffed like sardines on a plane that is taxing the runway. We're all still in our suits that we are forced to wear but once we're up in the air we can change.

A few of the Freshmen near the back of the plane haven't stopped complaining about the dress wear since they were told it was a requirement now that they go to a D1 college.

The flight attendants scurry to the back of the plane. One of them brushes my shoulder as she passes, batting her eyelashes at me. Collins laughs beside me at my obvious discomfort. I'm used to women trying to throw themselves at me but when our team flight attendants do it, I've always felt uncomfortable.

It's one thing for women my age to flirt with me, it's a whole nother when someone the age of my mom does it.

"She totally wants you in her tonight." Collins chuckles.

"Not happening. The one person I want to be in tonight is Evie." Dillan is on the other side of the isle obviously eavesdropping.

"She's got you good, huh?"

"What the fuck is that suppose to mean?"

"Dude. We haven't made it off the ground and you're already talking about her. That girl has you wrapped around her little finger." A smirk rises on my lips at how true that statement is.