Kiss Cam

Chapter 4

As halftime was almost over, Oliver bolted up to me. He gave the pretty girl a glare like none other, I'd never seen that kind of look from him. He still had his pads on, and his skate guards were a mess, but he still walked right through the bleachers to yank me up out of my seat.

"Hey now, what's up with you?" I tried for a more lighthearted tone as he tried to drag me to the stairs, but my bitchass stayed right where I was standing. "Give me a reason to move and I will." He paused in his spot and turned to me.

"Coach is mad." His broken English seemed to make him more frustrated because he couldn't tell me why. "Coach is very mad. He mad," he paused, "because you uhh-" He paused, again as if looking for the word in his head "kiss, you had to kiss fremmede."

"Hey, take a breather, kid," I said to him as I sat him down in my previously vacated plastic chair. "It's okay, do you want me down there for the rest of the game?" He nodded so fast I thought the kid would get whiplash. I laughed a bit and stopped his head with my hand. "Okay, let's go, Norway." Norway, my newest nickname for Oliver, was because he was the only Norwegian on our team.

Before I could push Oliver through Pretty Girl's legs and the seat in front, Sexy Guy's hand caught mine and he slid a piece of paper into my hand.

"That's for you, cutie." He was 100% French, that accent was too good to be true. "I'm Louis Dubois and that's Juliette Laurent." Louis pointed to Pretty Girl- or should I say Juliette- and she smiled at me. "This is our 'snap's as you called it in the texts with your friend." I cringed at myself and I'm sure I was blushing from the nape of my neck to the tip of my ears.

"Thank you, Louis and Juliette. The hockey team needs me so I better go." I tried to go towards Oliver but Louis's grip was really strong and I would be lying if I said it didn't turn me on a bit.

"What's your name darling?" Juliette asked me with a smile on her face as she eased her (friend? Boyfriend? Fiance?)'s hand off of mine.

"Bailey." I said as I walked in front of them, I turned to them with a warm smile and fifty shades of red on my face and said, "Bailey McGall." I gave the two French students a wave and walked Oliver down the aisle of people by his shoulder.

By the time we reached the bench, Coach was rattling off a whole new line of Swiss cuss words that I'm sure he would've been fired if a staff member was within earshot. His shoulders were shaking and I swear steam was manifesting out of his ears like some kind of stick your saliva behind your right ear and repeat his name three times TikTok spell.

"Hey! Keep your head on straight, Coach!" I called with Oliver in tow. "Norway over here says you're mad about something, and you're taking it out on the men who you run on this rink. I'd rethink if I were you." I took off my cap, ruffled my hair a bit, and walked up to him.

"Who is running that damn control booth McGall?" He asked through a clenched jaw and I saw his balled-up fists. If I say the wrong thing here, Coach is gonna explode. I guess I paused too long because he turned to face me, all six feet of this man towing over me which was honestly, more terrifying than that kiss cam. "Give me a name, damnit!" Bachmann was two words away from going ballistic on Jessie and her crew and I was two words away from never leaving the bench again.

"It's a friend of mine, she was trying to help me," I decided that would work because Coach cares about all of us, and if it were Liam or Terrence or Oliver or even hotheaded Ivan. The coach was our dad when we weren't at home because he knew we needed one. "She did, in a way, and she was doing something that she thought would cheer me up."

Coach seemed to like that because his shoulders untensed, his fingers went loose, and his jaw relaxed. He shook his head as he spoke to the team this time.

"I'm sorry I lost my shit on you guys, I'm just tired of my players being treated like shit, especially McGall." He ran his hand down his face and continued, "You boys are like the sons I don't have and I will keep it that way by protecting you when you need it and yelling at you when you're stupid." I almost corrected his use of the English proverb but kept it to myself because Coach was showing us his sensitive side and that was something.

"Alright boys, huddle up!" I called after we had our silent, sensitive moment. The players flocked together and I made my best attempt at an emotional speech of my own. "I'm not a gooey guy like Coach but we got this! We are the fucking Tigers and this is a home match!" I put my hand in the middle of the weird oval we had made around each other, "We are stronger than any other team out there because we know our team like we know our brothers and sisters, we are a family! Family on three!" I counted us off and every guy in that oval-ish circle had his hand in and yelled 'family' at the top of his lungs like a battle cry.

I'm pretty sure that the speeches did it cause once the Tigers started they didn't stop and soon enough we were up by seven points. I took that as the time to excuse myself back to the bleachers, but paused when I realized that if I went back I was stuck back in whatever hellish-heaven it was sitting between Louis and Juliette.

I decided that it was better safe than sorry and kept my ass on the bench as the Tigers finished strong and won the game. I heard at least 20 different languages of the words 'yeah', and 'let's go', and my favorite word ever from the German section, is 'wonderful' which for them is 'Wunderbar' and every time they say it around me I unintentionally giggle.

Once the boys finished off their win and came back to the bench, I was told of the party that was being held. Boy, I love parties. I told them I'd be there and texted Jessie,

Jessieie <3

Party @ Hockey House, u down?

Always ;)

K but we have to dress semi-hooker

Whos rule was that?

Mine

Okie dokie pokie 👗 👠

👍