Hating the Rookie: Laketown Hockey Series

by A. J. Wynter

  After practice, Coach gave us some notes, shooting me a look when he talked about ‘focus’. I packed my bag, intent on heading back to Casper Cove to finish what I should’ve done the night before.

  “Bishop.” Fitzy walked up beside me. “A few of us are going out in the boat. Want to join?”

  “Now?” It was ten in the morning.

  “Why not?” He shrugged. “It’s hot as hell.”

  This was the first time any of the senior guys had invited me to do anything. And this wasn’t just a senior team member, it was Kane Fitzgerald, one of the guys training with the Thunder.

  “Sure. Sounds good.” I smiled. Brianna would still be there this afternoon, I rationalized. I couldn’t brush off my first invite from Fitzy.

  “Follow me to my cottage. We can go from there.”

  I squinted as we burst from the arena into the oppressive heat. “Okay. What are you driving today?” Kane Fitzgerald was the son of Kent Fitzgerald, former National League player, and hedge fund manager. Kane came from money – old money, and he had a fleet of cars at his disposal.

  “The Land Cruiser.” He pointed to the beautiful vintage SUV in the parking lot.

  “I’m in the Jeep.” I pointed to my very ordinary blue SUV.

  “I know,” he chuckled.

  It was Saturday morning and the world seemed full of potential and excitement. I started the engine and followed Kane through town, down Mustang Point Road, and parked in front of the sign for Pine Hill, his historic family lake home.

  “Nice place.” My stomach fluttered in excitement as I walked down the stone pathways next to one of the top Otters.

  “Thanks,” Kane said.

  I had seen Pine Hill from the lake and thought it was beautiful. It was a stately cottage built at the turn of the century when milk was still delivered in glass bottles. But up close, it was magnificent. It still had all the character of the 1920s, like the leaded glass windows and cedar shutters, but also had modernized touches, like the eight-burner Wolf Range stove and built-in cabinet front fridge.

  “Beer?” Kane opened the fridge.

  “Sure.” It was a little early, but I wasn’t going to say no.

  Kane passed me a bottle of Heineken and we made our way to the six-slip boathouse. A gorgeous brunette was lying on the dock in a red bikini. As we approached, she sat up and took a sip from her water bottle.

  “Hi, Babe,” she smiled.

  I looked away as Kent bent down to kiss her, focusing on the boathouse that was triple the size of my house.

  “This is Brodie,” he smiled and gestured to me.

  “I know,” she said.

  I took a second look at Kane’s girlfriend. It had been years since I’d seen her, and wasn’t expecting to see her at Pine Hill. “Jessica?”

  “Good memory, Brodie.” She stood and pulled a pair of ripped jean shorts over her bikini bottoms.

  “How do you two know each other?” Kane asked.

  “Brodie was a couple of years behind me at Laketown High.” Jessica twirled her brown hair into a messy bun.

  “I haven’t seen you in years. I thought that you had moved away. Gone to the Olympics or something.”

  Kane smiled and slipped his hand around her waist. “She’s working on that last one.”

  “I used to babysit you.” She smiled.

  “I know.” I hoped that I wasn’t blushing.

  “It probably wasn’t legal. I think I was twelve and you were ten or something.” She laughed. “I saw you at Tanner’s party at the beginning of the summer. It must’ve been right when you started training with the Otters.”

  “Oh.” I looked down at the dock boards. My cheeks were definitely burning now. “Was I naked?”

  “Does flour count as clothes?” she laughed.

  “Sorry about that,” I mumbled. I wasn’t one hundred percent sure, because there was more than one party where the rookies had been covered in flour and nothing else.

  “Don’t worry, Rookie.” She pushed me lightly. “I know how things work.” We turned to the boathouse as a powerful engine started. “Come on,” she pushed me gently. “Kane wants to get out there while the water is calm.”

  He never talked about a girlfriend, but nobody on the team really did, so I always assumed that Kane Fitzgerald was single. But, Jessica Moss – a Laketownie was his girlfriend? This made him seem a little more approachable, more like a real person and less like a hockey god.

  I kicked off my flip flops, hopped into the red wake surf boat, and settled into the rear seat. Jessica sat up front beside Kane and put her feet on the dashboard as Kane revved the engine and then reversed the boat out of its slip.

  I realized that I had set down my beer on the table when I was talking to Jessica. Kane’s sat in the cupholder beside him. He turned his Otter’s hat backward. I followed suit and we set off at thirty miles an hour down the middle of Lake Casper.

  Feeling like a chosen one, I watched the cottages and pine trees fly by as we roared down the lake. Kane slowed the boat and pulled into the marina and I felt a twinge of disappointment. Waiting on the dock were Tanner and Leo, and two puck bunnies.

  Leo grabbed the bow of the boat as Kane shifted it into neutral. A bunny named Greer slid onto the bench seat beside me, and the rest of the group hopped in.

  Tanner was the first guy to surf behind the boat. Kane put on some reggae and beer was passed around from Leo’s big cooler. Drinking and boating were just as bad as drinking and driving a car, but the guys didn’t seem to care. Kane filled the ballasts in the boat to give Tanner a nice big wave.

  We each took a turn behind the boat and Jessica drove for Kane when it was his turn. As the boat passed by Casper Cove I trained my eyes on the shoreline, looking for any sign of Brianna or the Corbett family. Buddy was standing on the end of the dock, and I could see splashing near the floating raft.

  The girls cheered as Kane tried to do a three-sixty, but instead ate it into the wake. Jessica slowed the boat and turned to retrieve Kane from the lake.

  I could see two girls lying on the floating dock and I knew that Brianna had always wanted to try wake surfing.

  “Hey, Jessica.” I knelt on one knee on the floor beside her.

  “Yeah?” She didn’t look away from the water where her gaze was trained on her boyfriend.

  “Do you think we could go pick up a couple of friends of mine?”

  She cut the engine as we reached Kane. “You going again, babe?” she stood and yelled to him.

  “Nah, I’m good.” Kane hoisted himself onto the platform.

  “Are your friends far from here?” Jessica asked.

  “No, actually.” I laughed. “They’re right over there at Casper Cove Cabins.” I pointed to the shoreline.

  Jessica put the boat in gear. “The boat seats ten.” She smiled and then turned to everyone. “Ready?” she asked at the same time as she pushed down the throttle.

  I held onto the back of the captain’s seat as the Mastercraft roared towards the shore. As we approached, Brianna and Nora sat up, Bree’s hand went to her forehead, shading her eyes.

  “Let me guess,” she smiled. “That’s Brianna Corbett.”

  I couldn’t hold in the smile. “How did you know?”

  “You two were inseparable back in the day.”

  Chapter 13 – Brianna

  THE WAVES LAPPED AGAINST the plastic barrels underneath the raft. I only had goosebumps for a few seconds before the sun evaporated the lake water from my body.

  Nora was having boyfriend issues. The same ones she always had with Nick.

  “He’s just too clingy,” she said.

  The lake was dead calm, but some random boat waves rocked the raft. “Last time he was too emotionally absent,” I pointed out.

  “I know,” she sighed. She rolled from her back to her stomach and propped herself up on her elbows. “It’s just, we’ve been together since high school and I’ve been wondering about.”

  I draped my
arm over my eyes. “Wondering about what?”

  “Well, you know. What it would be like to be with someone else.”

  I shrugged, the wood scratching against my shoulder blades. Nora and I had lived together freshman year in the dorms. She knew that I was a virgin. “I can’t really comment.”

  “From what I saw last night... it looked like you were working on getting rid of your virgin status.”

  “Not even close.” I had been thinking about it all morning. “He was just being nice.”

  “If that’s nice, I want some.” Nora elbowed me.

  “It’s complicated,” I murmured. The rocking motion was lulling me closer to sleep.

  “Bree, that’s what you said last night. How exactly is it complicated? That guy wants you, it’s obvious. And, you’d have to be crazy not to want to get a piece of that action.”

  “When did you become a dude?” I laughed, but didn’t move my arm from my eyes.

  “Come on, Bree. Tell me he’s not the hottest guy you’ve ever seen.”

  I sighed and sat up. “We’ve known each other since we were in diapers. I’ve told you about him.”

  “That’s the neighbor?” She fanned herself theatrically. “Wait, he did something shitty, didn’t he?

  “Yep.” I nodded. “He did.”

  “We all make mistakes, Bree.”

  “You might want to hear his mistake before you give him a get out of jail free card.” I crossed my legs and held onto my ankles and prepared to rehash the memory I’d tried so hard to forget.

  “Are you going to tell me? I’m on the edge of my seat here.”

  I realized that I had paused. “Sorry, I don’t know where to start.” I looked to the dock; Buddy had been pacing but hadn’t jumped into the lake to join us just yet. “Brodie was my neighbor. But he was more than that. We grew up together, he was like a brother to me. We were inseparable as kids. His dad was away a lot and his mom worked hard, so he was always over at our house – I’m pretty sure he thinks of my parents as his own.”

  “I think I knew that part,” Nora prodded.

  “It all changed in high school. I started to get feelings for him, and I think he had feelings for me too.”

  “And?”

  “And, we kissed once.” The porch swing was never the same for me after that night. It had snowed, his nose was cold, and the swing had frost on it.

  “The drama is killing me.” Nora elbowed me again. “You keep staring off into the distance right when you get to the good parts.”

  “Sorry.” I blinked hard. “After that kiss, we decided it was best for us to just be friends. I think that we were both so scared of losing each other. I agreed to it, even though all I wanted was to be his girlfriend.”

  “Did he date other people?” Nora asked.

  “No.”

  “Really?” She raised her eyebrows.

  “I did.”

  Nora gasped. “Bree. Why?”

  “I told myself I needed to move on, to have a normal high school romance. But I think I just wanted to make him jealous.”

  “Did it work?”

  The sounds of the party came back to me like I was there. Post Malone was playing in the background, practically drowned out by the cheers at the beer pong table. I held a red plastic cup full of keg beer in one hand and Troy Sneer’s sweaty hand in the other. He nuzzled into my neck, but the smell of his breath – beer and Doritos made me want to throw up. I pulled my hand from his and pushed my way through the crowd to the bathroom but ran into Brodie on the way.

  He asked if we could talk and I let him lead me through the crowd to the balcony. His hand was dry and huge.

  “Kind of,” I said, picking up the story. We were at a party and he pulled me aside to tell me that he was in love with me.

  “Oh, my god,” Nora gushed. “It sounds like a movie. What did you say?”

  I scratched at the cuticle on my thumb with the other thumb. “I told him that I loved him too.”

  “Bree...”

  “And then I threw up.” I shook my head with the memory.

  “What? In front of him?”

  “No, I told him that I loved him. Then, I ran to the bathroom and threw up. When I came out of the bathroom, I couldn’t find him.”

  A boat droned in the distance and Nora flipped on her side, cradling her head in her hand, her elbow on the raft. I followed suit, turning on my side. I followed the grooves in the wood with my fingertip.

  “Where did he go?”

  “I don’t know. I remember scanning the room, trying to find him, but my boyfriend Troy found me first.”

  “Did he hear? Did he know what you said to Brodie?”

  “No, nobody was around to hear that conversation.” I knew that I had to break up with Troy, the sooner the better. Looking at Brodie made my stomach flip as though there were a billion butterflies in there. There had never been one butterfly with Troy – not even a moth.

  “I told him I wanted to go somewhere quiet. I planned to break up with him, but he thought I wanted something different.” Just saying it out loud brought back the nausea from all those years ago. I hugged my knees to my chest, hoping the pressure would take away the urge to throw up. “He thought we were going somewhere quiet to do something else.”

  “Oh no.” Nora sat up and rubbed my arm. “Are you okay? You don’t have to talk about this if you don’t want to.”

  I realized that she thought something bad had happened with Troy. I had to clarify. “I’m fine, Nora. Really. And nothing happened with him that night. I broke up with him and spent the next hour looking for Brodie, but he was gone.”

  “Where did he go?”

  “You know, we’ve never talked about it.” I realized that I was holding my breath.

  “What an asshole,” Nora shook her head. “How did you get home?”

  “I stole a rowboat.” I couldn’t help but laugh. It seemed so absurd now.

  “Bree.” Nora’s voice had gone from playful to serious. “You could’ve drowned.”

  She was probably right, but I hadn’t thought about it that night, and I hadn’t thought about it until that moment. “I suppose so.”

  “Suppose? He left you drunk at a party on an island.”

  “That’s not the worst part.” My voice started to waver.

  “Oh no,” Nora whispered. “What happened?”

  “Troy told everyone that we had sex that night. And another guy, Troy’s friend, said I gave him a blowjob while Troy watched.”

  “But you’re a virgin...”

  “I know. It’s ridiculous. But EVERYONE believed it.” I sighed. “From that day on, I was B.J. Anna.”

  “Why did Brodie believe this story?”

  “I don’t know.” I shook my head and pressed my fingers to the bridge of my nose. “There were two of them and one of me, and I was drunk? I don’t know.” The tears welled up in my eyes as I remembered the look on his face when I tried to tell him the truth. “I’d never seen him so angry Nora. The things he said to me, they were cruel and mean. And when other people said things about me, he didn’t... he didn’t...” I couldn’t believe that the tears were free flowing down my face. “He didn’t stand up for me.”

  “Oh, Bree.” Nora shimmied closer to me and draped her arm over my shoulder. I let my head rest on her shoulder. “It didn’t get better,” I sniffled. “The names, the rumors. I just gave up. I didn’t have any friends. I just studied. And I ate.”

  Nora nodded. She met me just after all of this happened. She knew what I looked like. “I gained sixty pounds and then the school slut turned into the fat school slut.” I sniffed and lifted my head from her shoulder. “I hated Troy, I hated the girls that teased me, and I hated him.”

  “I would too,” Nora whispered.

  I wiped the tears on my face away angrily. “Is that the kind of thing I can just forget?”

  “No,” she whispered. “It’s not.”

  “WHO’S THAT?” NORA ASKED.
/>   I flipped from my back onto my belly to look where she was pointing.

  “I don’t know.” There was a wake surfing boat blaring Bob Marley, its towers full of surfboards, headed directly for us. “I don’t know anyone with a boat like that one.”

  “Well, it looks like they’re coming here...” Nora combed her fingers through her wet hair and adjusted her boobs in her white bikini top.

  I put my hand over my eyes but couldn’t make out any of the faces.

  Drawing my legs in, I sat up and hugged them, wishing I had a towel or something to cover up my body. As the music got louder, so did the pounding of my heart. Who was coming here, and why?

  The driver stood up and waved. She looked familiar, but I couldn’t quite place her, but the smile beside her, I knew it back and forth.

  “It’s Brodie.”

  “Go to shore,” Nora whispered.

  “It’s alright, I—”

  “Go,” she interrupted. She didn’t have to tell me twice. A boatful of puck bunnies and Brodie was headed my way. It was fight or flight time – and I chose flight. I stood, and without looking at the boat, dove into the lake. In five long, slow, deliberate strokes I was at the dock, face to face with Buddy. I gathered up my towel and rushed to Cabin One. I didn’t look back until I heard the boat disappearing around the peninsula.

  “Thank you, Nora,” I whispered.

  Chapter 14 – Brodie

  MY HEART WAS HAMMERING so loud, it almost drowned out the sound of the boat. As we approached Casper Cove Cabins by water, my hands started to sweat, and I was thankful for the blue and white striped beach towel on my lap.

  “Where are we going?” Greer, the tallest of the puck bunnies asked. She had been bumping her knee against mine and laughing overly loud at everything I’d said since she got into the boat. Before Brianna came home, I might have considered flirting back, but the two girls just seemed so ordinary, and boring, compared to Bree. Bree was the prettiest girl I’d ever seen, and as a biochemistry major, the smartest.