Love at First Sight

13. Aiden

The puck was thrown up and immediately I was in possesion. The puck was a blur in my eyes as I weaved in and out of players. 

sweat tasted salty on my upper lip.

 The puck clacked loudly as I passed to Cole- lead wing attack- and he set up to score, gliding the puck between some kid's legs and I was back in possession, passing now to Ben, the other attack, he swiftly weaved it through the legs of these Fairveiw giants and raised his stick up...

He scored. The bell was dinging furiously and we all cheered like madmen. This. This was my favourite part of hockey. Not the wins, not the loses, not the spotlight, no, it's me celebrating with my team, even after the first goal of the game. We don't even know if we're gonna win, but we're still cheering as if we just won the lottery.

A huge grin cracked my face as I looked up and saw Nyssa trying to fight a smile through the hockey glass.

I looked at her, and instead of her usual withering, unnerving glare, she...looked away? And...smiled?

I'm doing it. I'm breaking through her defenses. My already wide grin reached both my ears as I skated back to the middle for the next throw-up.

Being center means I'm everywhere on the ice, helping defend, attack, score. It gets really tiring, really quick, but I don't really care, if I'm being totally honest...hockey is...everything. I can't imagine not having it, not being able to rely on the support of my team, or a good practise to cheer  me up when i'm feeling less-than-ok.

I cursed under my breath as Fairveiw gained possesion, and skated towards their goal. Miles was the lead defensemen, and a damn good one at that. Despite his...partying tenndecies, i know Miles cares about hockey more than anything, and he's our best defenseman, always stealing and intercepting passes like it's breathing, sometimes, ok, who am i kidding, he always makes jokes and trash-talks the other teams when he steals passes, Coach Blake has been on his ass about it for ages, and frankly, I have too, I've never seen the pint of trash-talking the other team, after all, we're all in the same boat, trying to win and not get hurt in the process, but he doesn't care, not really.

This particular game, Miles decided to skid his skates on the ice so flecks of shredded ice went into the Farveiw wing attack's eyes, and he stole the clumsy pass with a yawn.

I laughed as he passed it to me, and he patted the poor wing attack's shoulder and muttered just loud enough for coach to hear, "I have multiple personalities bud, and none of them like you" he snickered and slapped him on the back, giving coach a condecending smirk.

I shook my head as I skated at top speed scross the rink, the puck flying on the ice, I looked up just in time to see Coach Blake give Miles a withering glare that almost challenged Nyssa's

Nyssa

My mind went blank for a moment as I thought about her, and I fumbled the puck.

Shit-

Luckily, our other attack, Liam was right near me, so he grabbed it  just in time, before a huge Fairveiw kid could. I mouthed a silent sorry as Liam glanced at me, and nodded with a slight smile, before going in for the goal. 

Damnit. That was all my fault. And all because of her. Thats it. I'm not gonna look up there anymore. I'm even going to think about her, or her pretty smile or-

Fuck

I shook my head, my helmet rattling slightly. We scored again. No thanks to me.

I plastered a smile on and went over to cheer with my team, Miles patted me on the back, "what was that Romeo?" He chuckled "Don't let your puppy-dog feelings get in the way of the game man!" He said with a smile i noticed was slightly strained.

I nodded wordlessly, and skated back to the middle.

10 minutes left, we were up 2-0, and i wasn't going to mess it up.

6 minutes. Miles had the puck. He passed to me-

5 minutes, I passed to Liam, he set up for the goal...

blocked

4 minutes, Fairveiw was in possession. Miles intercepted, passed to Ben

3 minutes. Cole had the puck, the steady clack of the puck on the ice was all I could hear, the cheers were backround noise.

2 minutes...

1....

20 seconds. Liam was in position to score, he lifted his stick up-

10

9

8

7

6

5

The puck flew...

4

3

2

It scored.

We won!

We won! I was cheering madly, my team and I in a rib-cage clenching group hug. I was sweaty and probably stank, but I didn't care, the cheers from the stands got louder, and I just had to look up and make sure she was watching-

She wasn't smiling. Damnit. She was talking to Brooke about something. Maybe she'd smiled before? Yeah, lets go with that, she'd smiled before...I just hadn't seen it!

With a huge smile, the team went back to the lockers, to a very pleased Coach Blake.

He greeted us with a gruff smile, patting each of us on the back as we piled in. "Good game today boys, lets keep it up for the rest of the season, yeah?" He grinned "And Miles, how many times have I told you to not insult the other team" he huffed "I don't care whether we're winning by one or by one hundred, you are not to trash-talk the other team, understand?" 

Miles snickered and gave an overdramatic salute "Understood. Sir!" He said in a drill-seargent-type way.

All of burst out laughing and Coach Blake rubbed is forehead in exasperation, "Oh, Rhodes? What was that fumble in the last half just then, huh? You're my best player Aide, you cannot be fumbling like that-"

My cheeks blazed as I thought of the reason for my fumble, "right, sorry, won't happen again coach" I mumbled

While we were getting out of uniform, Miles came over and started talking to me about some afterparty.

"Nyssa'll be there" he said after a bit and my ears picked up.

"She-she will?" I muttered, trying (and failing) not to sound too intrested.

Miles grinned, this was probably some prank, "yeah, and i'll bet she'll still be wearing Huddo's old jersey..." He whispered

Oh no. I couldn't let that happen...

I quickly shoved one of my spare jerseys into my bag and swung it over my shoulder, "pick me up at 8" I said, and walked off.

No way in hell would Nyssa be wearing Cole Hudson's old jersey.