Hating the Rookie: Laketown Hockey Series

by A. J. Wynter

  “To see a friend of mine,” I said.

  “An Otter?” she asked.

  “No.” I couldn’t help but laugh. Definitely not an Otter. Even though we grew up together, I don’t think that Brianna had ever seen me, or anyone, play hockey.

  I stood and held onto the back of the captain’s chair as Jessie eased up on the throttle. The sun was in my eyes, and I could’ve sworn that there had been two women on the raft, but now there was only one – and she wasn’t a redhead.

  Jessie briefly reversed before cutting the engine so we could didn’t have to yell over its idle.

  “Nora?”

  “Yeah.”

  She sat back and didn’t smile at us. Tanner and Leo had stopped their conversations and were staring at Nora. “Do you and Brianna want to come out in the boat with us?” I asked.

  If she could shoot fire out her eyes, Nora would’ve had the entire lake churning to a boil. “No, thanks.” She reclined back on her elbows and leaned her head back to bask in the sun.

  “Brianna said she always wanted to try it. Is she around?” Nora and I had never met before last night, but she was being totally rude. She didn’t seem like the type of girl Brianna would have as a friend.

  “She’s busy.” Nora fully reclined onto the raft and draped her arm over her eyes.

  The water lapping against the hull of the boat was the only sound between us, and it was growing louder by the second. “Oooookay, I guess we’ll see you around then.”

  Jessie turned to face me with a quizzical look on her face. I turned my palms up and shook my head slightly. I didn’t know what to say. I nudged my head towards the open water and Jessie nodded. She started up the boat and as we sped away, that snobby blond on the raft didn’t even look up.

  “What was her problem?” Jessie shouted.

  “I don’t know, I don’t really know her.” I looked back again, and Nora had disappeared from the raft.

  “B.J. Anna?” Greer practically spat from behind me. “You’re friends with her?”

  “Her name is Brianna.” I wasn’t sure what was going on with Bree, but I wasn’t going to stay quiet when people talked shit about her. Not anymore.

  Jenna laughed. “That’s not what half the graduating class called her.”

  I stumbled as Jessie abruptly stopped the boat. Greer slid off the bench seat and onto the floor. “Ow,” she mewled. “What did you do that for?”

  “Grow up,” Jessie growled.

  Not a word was uttered between anyone in the boat. Jessie pointed at the girls. “That kind of talk about another woman is disgusting. And a little bit hypocritical, don’t you think?”

  “We didn’t mean anything...” Greer’s voice trailed off. “That’s just what people called her in high school.”

  I was prepared to stand up for Brianna, but Jessie was fired up and took over. “A high school rumor. You want to know the rumor I heard?” Jessie leaned on the back of the seat; her eyes narrowed at the bunnies. I waited for her to start listing off all the guys that Greer had slept with – I knew of at least three since training camp had started. “I heard that she’s got a full-ride scholarship to university for Biochemistry.”

  “So? Your point?” Jenna squared her shoulders, posturing, but didn’t get up from her spot next to Leo – who sat still with raised eyebrows. I could tell he was trying to hide a smile, the prospect of a catfight between Jessie and one of the bunnies, was entertaining to him. “She can still be a slut.”

  “Jealousy doesn’t look good on you, Greer.” Jessie turned around and brought the boat back up to a cruising speed.

  “What the fuck?” Leo mouthed to me. I shrugged. I had no idea why Jessie had so vehemently defended Brianna, a girl she hardly knew, but I liked it. Jessie had class and as I looked over at the bunnies, one was applying lip gloss in the spotting mirror, and the other was trying desperately to get Leo’s attention with her tits. I knew that I never wanted to have anything to do with a bunny ever again.

  Jessie dropped the bunnies, Leo, and Tanner off at the marina.

  “Thanks, Fitzy,” they sing-songed as they got out of the boat.

  I glanced at Jessie and saw her roll her eyes.

  “See you later guys.” Kane waved at the group as they walked down the dock. When they were out of earshot and it was just the three of us in the boat, Kane hissed. “What was that about? You don’t even know that girl.”

  Jessie had left high school early to train at a fancy figure skating academy, so she wouldn’t have been around for all the drama of our senior year. “I know Brianna. Not well, but it doesn’t matter. I can’t stand women tearing each other down like that. Especially...” she pointed to the bleached blond duo on the shore, “bunnies like that.”

  “Isn’t that kind of the same thing?” Kane asked. “Calling them bunnies?”

  I wondered if they knew I was still sitting in the boat. I had a front-row seat to their argument, and if I were a judge, I’d say that Kane just scored a point.

  “Ugh,” Jessie groaned and then kissed Kane on the cheek. “They like being called bunnies. That’s the difference.”

  And a point for Jessie.

  “They don’t like it.” Kane smiled at me and then gathered Jessie into his arms and shouted, “They LOVE it.”

  Jessie giggled. The two of them seemed to have it all figured out. I wished that I could have what they had.

  “What are you still doing here, Rookie?” Fitzy looked at me.

  “M-m-my car is at your house,” I stammered.

  “Just kidding,” Fitzy laughed and slapped my knee. “Come on, let’s go get drunk.”

  As Kane started the engine, Jessie pushed the boat away from the dock and the three of us headed back to Fitzy’s cottage.

  THE BEER BOTTLES ACCUMULATED on the table in front of us as the afternoon sun made its way across the sky in front of Pine Hill. With the help of the beer, I started to feel a lot more comfortable with the assistant captain of my team, and Jessie.

  “Another?” Kane held up his bottle.

  “Sure.” I chugged the rest of mine and handed him the empty bottle.

  Jessie leaned back in her chair and stretched her arms over her head. Kane returned to the table with two Heinekens and a soda water. She hadn’t had one drink and my eyes drifted to her very flat abs wondering if she and Kane had a secret.

  “What was up with that girl today?” Jessie asked.

  “What girl?” I asked although I knew exactly who she was talking about.

  “The girl on the raft at Casper Cove.” Jessie cracked open the sparkling water and poured it into a heavy crystal glass. “There was a bee in her bonnet, that’s for sure.”

  Fitzy laughed. “Bee in her bonnet, Jess?” He took a sip of his beer. I swear there is an old flapper from the twenties inside of my girlfriend some days.

  “Easy there, ol’ chap.” Jessie grinned. “Or, I’ll wallop ya.” She made a lazy slapping motion with her hand and then took a sip of her water. “What was up with the crusty blond?” She raised her eyebrows at Kane. “Is that better?”

  “Much,” he nodded. “What’d you do to her, Rookie?”

  They both stared at me through their matching aviators and even though I’d done nothing wrong, I felt my hands start to sweat with their interrogation.

  “Nora? Nothing. I just met her last night for five minutes.”

  “Well, she sure doesn’t think much of you,” Fitzy laughed.

  “Yeah, but I didn’t do anything wrong.”

  “To her,” Jessie interrupted. “She was protecting her friend. What’s the story with you and Brianna Corbett?

  “Jess...” Kane narrowed his lips at her.

  “What?” She shrugged and then looked at me. “You don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to.”

  The beer was cold and going down smoothly. “I am so confused about it myself. I wouldn’t know where to start.”

  “That’s alright, dude.” Kane shot his girlfrie
nd an ‘I told you so look’.

  “But...” I paused. “Maybe I could ask your opinion.”

  This time the look was shot from Jessie to Kane. “Of course.”

  “Brianna and I grew up together. She was my neighbor.”

  “On Portage Street.” Jessie popped a potato chip into her mouth. “I remember.”

  “Yeah, so we grew up playing together. She was probably my best friend,” I smiled. “Although I would never have admitted that to my buddies.”

  “She was a cute kid.” Jessie smiled. “I remember she had those long braids like Anne of Green Gables.”

  “That’s what everybody said. I never watched that show.”

  “It was a book too,” Jessie said wryly and crunched another chip. “So, what did you do?”

  I clenched my fists under the table. “Why do you assume it was something I did?”

  Jessie tilted her head as if pondering. “You’re a hockey player and she’s a bookworm. I’m hedging my bets.”

  I could see where she was coming from, and the fact that what Brianna did was so out of character had made it hurt all that much more. I don’t know why I decided to tell Jessie about that night at the party. I’d never really spoken to anyone about it, but it felt like something I needed to get off my chest.

  “She was dating this guy.” My heart sank a little just like it had the day I discovered she had moved on. I cleared my throat and continued. “We had...” I rubbed at the back of my neck and looked up at the bluebird sky. “There was something between us. I mean, we kissed once...” My throat felt like it was constricting. Why was this so hard?

  “She dumped you for the dude?” Kane interjected.

  “No. Well, not really,” I sighed and looked back at Jessie. It was easier to tell the story to her face, not Fitzy’s. “We decided that we didn’t want to ruin our friendship by dating.”

  “Smart.” Jessie nodded.

  “Then she started dating someone, like, right away.”

  “Ohhhh.” Jessie scrunched her lips. “That must’ve stung. Unless you had a few bunnies on the go.” She rolled her eyes at Kane. He reached over and held her hand. “It’s all you now, Jessie. You’re my main bunny.”

  Jessie and I both laughed. She was the furthest thing from a bunny. She was beautiful without makeup, super smart, and an Olympic hopeful who spoke her mind. She was a lot like Brianna. “No. No bunnies. It was senior year and all I could think about was Bree.” My voice cracked and I took a sip of my beer that was starting to get warm. I chugged it back, the empty bottle clunking on the glass table when I set it down. “There was that big party at Jake Moser’s place.” Neither showed a glimmer of recognition and then I remembered, Jessie was away at the skating school, and Kane didn’t go to Laketown High.

  “Wait, was that the one where people trashed the house? Like tried to make grilled cheese sandwiches with the mom’s iron and almost burned the house down?”

  “Yeah,” I nodded. “I wasn’t there for that part though.”

  “Everyone still talks about that party,” Kane said. “Another beer?”

  “I shouldn’t, man, I have to drive home.”

  “Whoa, whoa, whoa. You’re not driving anywhere. I’ll take you home.” Jessie shook her head. “You guys have to grow up a little bit. I can’t always be the designated driver.”

  Kane put his hand on Jessie’s shoulder and leaned to kiss her on the cheek. “Jessie’s got a big competition coming up and her coach Veronica will murder her dead if she catches her drinking alcohol.”

  Jessie looked up at Kane and held onto his hand. “Murder me, dead babe? I think that’s usually what murder means.”

  “You know what I mean.” He patted her shoulder and disappeared into the boathouse.

  She pushed her sunglasses up onto the top of her head and leaned forward on her elbows, staring me right in the face. “Come on, Rookie, the story was just getting good.”

  “Right.” Part of me had hoped we had gone far enough on our tangent for her to forget about the Bree story. “Where was I?”

  “She showed up at this legendary party with her new boyfriend.”

  Troy. The biggest asshole on my Junior team. “Yes. By that time, I was good and drunk.”

  “Oh no.” The sun came back out and Jessie lowered her sunglasses over her eyes.

  It was easier to talk to her when I couldn’t see her eyes searching mine for emotion. “I told her that I loved her. And that we should be together – even if it ruined our friendship.” I paused, remembering how I had held her hand, and hers had squeezed mine back.

  “And?” Jessie said. “I’m on the edge of my seat.”

  “She agreed. She told me she was going to break up with Troy.” I didn’t give Jessie time to interject or ask any more questions. “Long story short. She didn’t break up with him. As a matter of fact, she lost her virginity to him that night and gave his buddy a blow job.”

  “No,” Jessie gasped. “Right after she told you she loved you? Was she wasted?”

  I tried to think back to that night, a lot of it was a blur. “She was drinking, but I think she knew what she was doing.”

  Jessie leaned back in her chair and tapped her finger on her lip. “Something’s not adding up here. How did you find out?”

  Kane came back with another round of beer. “What did I miss?” he asked.

  “Shhh.” Jessie swatted her hand at him.

  “Troy told everybody – and his friend corroborated the story.” It hadn’t taken long for the tale of their night of passion to spread through the hallways of Laketown High.

  “They could’ve been lying you know,” Jessie said. “Did you ask her?”

  Kane went to take a sip of his beer, “Troy who said what?”

  I really didn’t feel like starting the story over again and was thankful when Jessie muttered that she’d fill him in later.

  “I did.” Suddenly the day felt like it had gotten ten degrees hotter. The sun popping in and out from behind puffy clouds was searing my bare shoulders. “She denied the whole thing.” I left out the part where she cried and begged me to believe her.

  “So, it was her word against theirs?” Jessie sounded dubious and Kane just looked lost.

  “She lied to me,” I whispered. “I heard them... that night. When they were...” I couldn’t finish the sentence.

  “Oh.” Jessie looked disappointed. She’d been trying to find a way to make Brianna the good guy. “I can see why you’d hate her, but why does she hate you so much?”

  “Well, I didn’t believe her, and then the rumors got out of control. The girls at school, Greer was one of them, were so cruel to her. I remember one day someone poured a vanilla milkshake over her head in the cafeteria. They said she was used to having white stuff all over her face. The entire room had laughed.”

  “Ugh.” Jessie groaned. “That’s terrible. Did you laugh too?”

  “No. I was still furious with her. I didn’t laugh, but I didn’t stick up for her either.” I wasn’t proud of this part. “Later that day I called her a whore.”

  Jessie nodded. “Guaranteed she told her friend that part of the story. That’s why she was a total bitch to you today.” Jessie fanned her chest. “I can’t say I blame her for hating you. But why the hell did she bang that Troy guy that night?” She stood up and unzipped her jean shorts. “I’m going to go for a swim.” I made a point to look away. I didn’t want Fitzy to think I was eyeing up his girlfriend, but really, I was watching the way he watched her. It was plain to see that he was head over heels for Jessie – and vice versa.

  “Troy who? Slept with your girl?” Kane’s eyes followed Jessie’s ass as she strode to the end of the dock before swan diving into the lake.

  “Sneer.” I hated saying his name.

  “Troy Sneer?”

  “That’s him,” I muttered.

  “The Troy Sneer that’s training with us starting Monday?”

  “What?” I almost spit out my beer
. “What are you talking about?”

  “Your boy Troy, he lost his college scholarship. Coach is seeing if he’s a good fit for the Otters.”

  The world seemed to tilt on its axis at that moment. I hated Troy Sneer more than I hated the Red Wings.

  Fitzy was staring at me as I struggled to find the words to explain why that scum-sucking bottom-feeding asshole had no place on our team.

  “I thought you knew. Coach had his name on the board the other day.”

  I had misread the name scrawled on the whiteboard. “Coach needs to work on his handwriting, I thought we were getting a guy named Sheen.”

  “Is playing with him going to be a problem?” Kane asked. “I heard he’s a decent player.”

  I took a deep breath. “That’s all in the past.” I lied. It was going to take every ounce of self-restraint in my body to not slam that asshole into the boards on the ice – and kick his ass off the ice.

  Chapter 15 – Brianna

  THE SMELL OF FRYING bacon wafted through the open windows of Cabin One. My stomach growled and I rolled onto my side, squinting my eyes at the brightness coming in my bedroom window. I guessed that it was nine in the morning. I grabbed the berry-stained wine glass from my nightstand, wishing that I had been forward-thinking enough to drink some water before bed.

  I could see Nora’s hair draped over the arm of the sofa, and could hear her breathing, deep with sleep, as I padded to the bathroom. My mouth was stained purple and I bent to try and scrub the wine from my very dehydrated lips.

  Some days I wished Nora wasn’t old enough to buy alcohol.

  I turned on the shower and brushed my teeth while I waited for the water to heat up. I stripped out of the clothes I’d worn to bed, which happened to be the clothes I’d worn the day before, letting them fall to the bathroom floor. I stuck my hand in the shower to test the water and yelped.

  “Is everything okay in there?” I heard Nora’s voice from the other side of the door.

  “I think we’re out of hot water,” I grumbled and wrapped a towel around my body.

  “Something smells good,” Nora rubbed at her forehead. “I’m pretty hungover,” she added.