Matthew Chandlers is the captain of his school's hockey team, whose dad just happened to be the coach of. But if you ask Matt he'll tell you, his dad being the coach is far from the reason why he's on the team or why he's captain. He's captain becau...
My blood was burning. Pumping through my veins like a fire that not even water could touch. The adrenaline pumped through me like a poison. My eyes in slits as I focused solely on the ice under my blades. It wasn't a game, but Joey was acting captain on the other team of the scrimmage, and I wanted nothing more than to kick his ass.
I had the puck on my stick, and faked a right and went left around Tents shooting the puck between his legs before catching it on my stick again, just in time to shoot it past Night on the net and scoring my third goal of the game. I had a feeling everyone knew rightfully to leave me alone. It had been four days. It was Thursday now, and I still hadn't heard from Henry and I couldn't give myself time to think about it.
I couldn't understand it, it made my head hurt and the more I thought about it the angrier, the sadder. I got. And I couldn't let my emotions get in the way of this game. Not when I knew scouts would be there watching me play. My whole career as an NHL player hung on the line of this game coming up and I didn't want to let Henry be the reason I didn't win.
Even though I knew very well that if he were in the stands that night, I would play better then ever, just so I could impress him.
Because he meant more to me than any stupid hockey game. And I knew how silly it sounded it was stupid to pick a boy over... well, anything. But I couldn't help it, because in the short time that we were together again was enough time for me to realize that no, I might not be gay. But I was in deep for him and I always was.
After practice, I kicked off my skates and huffed as I through my jersey into my bag. Everyone steered clear of me. As of lately, I was quick to temper. Nobody brought up the locker. I don't think half of them knew what happened, but rumors spread fast and before I knew it, the whole school was thinking I was gay. There were a few people who were dicks about it. Picking fun at me like I was some kid who couldn't whip their asses if I wanted to. Most of those people shockingly enough were friends with Joey. And speaking of Joey. He had been more chatting than usual with me. I hadn't made it known that I knew it was him. Well, I didn't know for sure, but it was pretty obvious. My mom had made sure to look at the camera's for that day and someone spray painted them a week earlier. The tapes run over after a week so they couldn't even say who painted the cameras.
Did I really care?
No.
No, I did not. All I cared about was hearing from Henry again, but he had gone off the grid and I was starting to worry. I went home after practice and decided it was the best idea to just go to bed. I hadn't planned to go to sleep but what else did I have to do? Looking at my phone one last time I sighed before turning over and sleeping until my alarm went off on game day.
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"I know you little shits are shaking in your skates for this game. But. Let. Me. Tell. You. We will play. And we will win. And if we don't win, we will kick ass and we will take names while doing it. Can I get an Amen?!"
'AMEN"
"Now go out there and kick some Bennington ass!"
"Yeah!"
We all broke from our huddle in the dressing room and walked down the small hallway and down the tunnel onto the ice. We did a quick warm up and I looked up to the stands seeing classmates wearing colorful wigs, face painted, school colors. My mom standing with a big smile while she held her time coffee standing with Night and Liam's moms, talking about god knows what while their dads hung closer to the glass.
But between the bars of my helmet, my eyes fell on someone sitting in the third row next to Tara.
His glasses were fogged, he wore a pea coat with a stylish scarf around his neck, mitted hands in his armpits like he was freezing to death. But he was here. He was watching the game. And for a moment we locked eyes and felt a smile tug on my lips.
And with his eyes on me. I played the hard, pushed myself to go the extra mile.
And with his eyes on me, I scored three goals, we won the game 8-5
And with his eyes on me, I felt heavy, but yet so light at the same time.
