Cheap Shots

00:05

UNEDITED

5.

That Friday in the athletic office was one of my more fun days. I got to sit there with a heat pack on my ankle as Beckett sat unknowingly across from me, heating his thumb while blasting some shitty country music. I had a sly smile on my face the whole time, thinking of how funny it would be to see his face as he realized that his senior homecoming game wouldn't exactly be the game of the week.

I tried to ignore the settling guilt inside my stomach, telling myself that he deserved it for all the asshole things he's said to me in our years on the hockey teams, so when Jacque walked in I immediately forgot about the guilt.

"Jackie!"

"Hey, Orion. How's the ankle?" She asked.

I shrugged. "Getting better," I sent a sideways glare at Justin who was setting a different Pandora station.

"Obviously not if it's swelling." He said, still clicking through songs.

I huffed and sat back on the table, leaning back until my head hit the white brick wall. "Feels better. I could play on it."

"Highly unlikely." Justin said before leaving on some old rock music.

"What are you doing here?" I asked Jacque, turning my attention to her sweating face and running shoes.

"Hannah got hit with a ball on the inside of her ankle, so I ran down to get ice for it."

I nodded, "Hope she's okay."

"I'll go up and check on her," Justin told us, grabbing a walkie talkie and walking out of the room while trying to clip it onto his belt.

"Can I come?" I yelled loudly, earning a glare from Beckett as he ripped off his earphone.

"Be a little louder why don't you!"

"Screw you. Justin!"

I saw him walk by the window and he shook his head no. My lips pulled down in an awkward frown as I flipped him the middle finger even though he had already walked by. Jacque laughed and rolled her eyes, calling a soft goodbye as she left the room.

I got up off the table, hobbling over to Justin's spinning chair and sat down, clicking on the Google Chrome icon and going immediately to the already open Pandora. I looked at the song title and turned it up a couple more notches.

"Mad that ice hockey's going to get more people coming to our game than yours?" Beckett teased.

I rolled my eyes. "Yup," I muttered happily.

I watched his eyebrows furrow as he looked at me in confusion, before whipping out his phone from his pocket and typing a little.

A few seconds later his face turned angry and his eyes blazed as he showed me the screen of his phone. "At 7? Trying to make our fans late, are we?"

Shit. "Sorry, man, I don't know what you're talking about."

"Bullshit. I didn't realize you stooped so low, Smith."

"How'd you even figure that out anyway, you never go on Facebook," I muttered grumpily, sitting back in Justin's spinning chair.

He snorted. "You didn't have a bitchy comment lined up."

"Next time I will," I told him.

"There won't be a next time." He leaned forward off the table so his face was closer to mine. "You messed with the wrong person."

"I'm so scared!" I mocked.

"You will be," he said quietly before leaning back against the wall and putting his ear buds back in, turning up the music so I could hear the bass from where I was.

***

"He's going to get you back, you know." Jacque told me as soon as I got out of the trainer's and went into the locker room to change.

"Yeah, I figured. What's he going to do, though? Tell people not to come to our homecoming game? They won't come anyway."

Jacque rolled her eyes. "Have a little positivity, will you?"

"No thanks."

"Orion!" Lauren called from a couple rows down.

"Yeah?" I called loudly making a few freshmen girls next to me stare.

"You going to the hockey game?"

I almost snorted. "No!"

"You're no fun!" I watched her blonde head walk into my row, leaning against the locker across from me. "We'll party after?"

"Tempting me with alcohol? You know we're underage, right?"

"Yep."

I rolled my eyes. "Can I just go to the party and not the game?"

"It doesn't work like that, Rye."

"Fine!" I threw my hands up, giving in, and sending her a playful glare. "Whose house is the party at?"

"Sean's if we win, someone from Ardale if we lose," she said like it was obvious.

I laughed, "So if we lose we'll be crashing a party?"

"Basically," she told me. "Finish changing quick because we have to go to my house and get ready!"

"For the game? Why can't I wear this?" I was wearing leggings, an old field hockey warm up shirt and bean boots.

She scrunched her nose up in disgust at my clothing choice. "You could do better. And anyway, don't you want to look hot for the Ardale guys?"

"Well they're all rich snobs, so no."

"Orion!" She whined, pulling her t-shirt off her head and slipping on a sweatshirt, "They're cute rich snobs."

I shook my head at her grinning softly and grabbed my bag out of my locker before shutting it. "Well why didn't you say so?" I asked sarcastically, grabbing her arm and pulling her out of the locker room, Jacque close behind us laughing at our exchange.

"I can't believe you guys are fighting over how cute and snobby the other team is."

"Shut it, dumpling," I told her, causing her to let out another round of loud laughter.

"Dumpling? Who the hell came up with that?"

"Charlie," I told her. "But pretend I'm taking credit for it."

"I love Asian jokes," Lauren said.

"That's racist!" Jacque joked, even though it was. But we always made jokes to her, and it was friendly, so it wasn't like there were any hard feelings, hell, Jacque made Asian jokes too.

Lauren just laughed and got into her Jeep, which most of our grade had. "Let's just go get hot."

I rolled my eyes as she turned on the radio and blasted the new Taylor Swift song that was about another boy problem.

This was going to be a long night.

***

Ugh I have to pick a cast?!?!?!?! fuCK HELP ME! (Also sorry this is a filler but I mean, I can't have the exciting party details now, can I?)