Equal Ice // Harry Styles AU

Chapter 72

Chapter 72

Harry’s POV

Just a few minutes after I had sat down and ignored Zack and Adams succeeding attempt to get everyone to make fun of me, coach finally came back in with the cones and he stepped out onto the rink to set them up the way he wanted, and then he had all of us come out onto the rink. Coach had us get our hockey sticks and then handed all of us a hockey puck and told us to line up and everyone go around the cones while managing the hockey puck.

When we got in a line, Zack had gotten behind me and when coach told us to all start, Zack would purposely speed up a bit and he would hit the back of my skate with his puck and cause me to trip, and once I actually fell. I wasn’t sure what exactly he was doing with his hockey stick to the back of my skate that was making me trip, but it was messing me up and that is what Zack wanted.

I soon figured out how to move my skate when he did it so I wouldn’t trip, and he soon began to slowly stop doing it once he realized that I had figured out a way to get it to not affect me.

The only thing that I really enjoyed about practice today was that when we did a scrimmage game, Zack and Adam were on a different team than me. I was so determined to beat them, not just winning, I wanted to destroy them. I knew I couldn’t literally destroy them because I knew coach would say something to me even though he didn’t say anything to them when they would knock me onto the ice, he sure as hell was going to get angry with me if I did anything to them.

I bet you he would probably even blame me if they just fell down and I happened to be nearby.

Anyway, I was determined to beat them. I was so furious with them today, they got everyone to tease and bother me before practice about something that wasn’t even really true, and I’m pretty sure that he had talk to Gabrielle if he told me that he saw her. It wouldn’t make sense if he saw her and didn’t try to bother her. I hoped they didn’t bother her too much, but if they did she knew everything they would say was just nonsense so I didn’t think that it would get to her too much.

The team that I had been split up into for the scrimmage game ended up beating Zack and Adam’s team by two, so that obviously made me happy. I guess I had played better than I really thought today, because some of the guys that were on my team actually came up to me and told me I did a good job an everything, only to quickly skate away from me if they saw Zack looking over at them.

At this point I didn’t mind if they would go away from me if Zack saw them, I was just happy the some of them were talking to me now and saying nice thing instead of just glaring at me or saying some mean comment under their breath when I would walk by. It made me feel like maybe this all was going to get better soon if the rest of the guys on the team were only going to go along with Zack when he was starting up something to make fun of me. When Zack wasn’t doing anything, they would talk to me and it wouldn’t just to be to add on to something that Zack had said earlier.

I began to wonder that maybe I should try and go to the buffet today and see how it worked out if I sat at the opposite side of the table from where Zack would sit. Then I could attempt to talk to anyone who was sitting around me and since Zack would be occupied with eating and probably talking to Adam, he would not be paying attention to if anyone were talking to me.

Then I realized that Gabrielle was here, waiting for me back in the lobby, and I couldn’t even consider bringing her along for so many reasons. I wasn’t sure what Gabrielle was planning on doing after I was done with practice. Her dad wasn’t going to be home from work yet, so maybe she would be willing to go home, however she might also want to stay with me for the rest of the day.

As much as I loved spending time with her, I also wanted to work on making things better with the rest of the guys on the hockey team, I knew I couldn’t even try to fix things with Zack and Adam, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t try to make some new friends on the team since they were originally my closest friends on the team.

Once I was back in the locker room, I quickly took my skates off and did everything I could to get out as fast as I could, this time for two reasons instead of just one. The first reason being that I of course wanted to get out of here before Zack and Adam came in so I didn’t have to deal with them. The second reason being the sooner I got out of here, the sooner I could get out to Gabrielle and figure out what she want to do and hopefully I could make it to the buffet somewhat on time.

I felt like I was probably having some false hope with how I thought going to the buffet would turn out today. I figured that I really had nothing to lose though and that I might as well try to accomplish what I wanted to.

The worst thing I knew would probably happen was something that I would be expecting either way, and that was of course encountering Zack since I knew he would see me at the buffet, and I knew that he would have something to say to me, but I wasn’t going to sit near him so once we all got our food and sat down it shouldn’t matter.

I made it out of the locker room just as everyone was walking in, Zack muttered something about me being in a rush to get to my girlfriend, but since I actually was in a rush, I didn’t hear exactly what he said, and I didn’t care. I headed across the lobby until I was where Gabrielle was sitting on one of the couches.

“Ready?” I asked once I was standing in front of her.

She nodded, and I held my hand out for her, and she hesitated at first, but soon accepted.

“So are you want me to drop you off at your house or…?” I trailed off asking her, deciding to get straight to what I was want to figure out.

“Um yeah, I guess I need to go back home at some point, might as well go when he’s not there,” she told me, and I was happy with how easy that ended up to be.

Once we had walked out of the building and got into my car, Gabrielle began to speak again.

“Harry?” she asked me.

“Yeah?” I answered as I backed out of my parking spot.

“I was wondering if we could talk about something,” she said to me, and I began to feel just a bit worried, but I told myself that it was probably nothing.

“What is it?” I asked her. “Well so much has happened at the rink lately, and we haven’t really talked about it. I don’t know how or if any of this is affecting you,” she said to me.

“Is it affecting you?” I asked.

“Well maybe not so much at first, but all the comments and the glares are really starting to bother me,” she told me.

“I guess just try to find a way to help yourself ignore it all, or just do what my aunt said and just think about how it’s all going to go away soon, and anyone who says something to you is just trying to get a react from you, so you need to just act like it doesn’t bother you,” I told her.

Even though I didn’t really believe or listen to my aunt when she first told me that, now that I had been thinking about it recently, she was actually right, I just needed to do my best to let them think that what they’re doing doesn’t bother me.

“It’s not that simple for me though,” she said.

“Listen, I didn’t think what my aunt said was going to work for me, but honestly if you just don’t listen to them, it won’t bother you so much,” I tried to assure her.

She just sighed though, “Okay,” she said, and it was silent the rest of the drive back to her house.