They eat, Elliot gets himself another drink and talks to two Broadway actors, one of which practically undresses Elliot with his eyes. Elliot shoots him a smile, then excuses himself, because he can’t walk out of here with a guy. The idea is… Shit, he loves the idea of taking that guy home, even though he’s not really Elliot’s type, and it bugs him that he can’t.
“What crawled up your ass?” Adam asks when Elliot returns to him.
“Nothing,” Elliot says. Which might be part of the problem.
“Okay, so…” Adam nods across the room. “What about her? Red dress. Veeeery high heels. She’s single. Ready to mingle.”
“How do you know?”
“Lou gave me a scouting report.”
Lou apparently also fled the scene after delivering said report, which was pretty smart of her, considering that Adam agreed that he’d leave Elliot the fuck alone with this.
“She’s hot,” Adam says.
“Are you allowed to say that? You’re married.”
“If Lou is allowed to sit in front of our TV and tell me how beautiful and luscious Blake Samuels’s hair is, I’m allowed to say that that girl is hot.” Adam’s eyes go wide. “Oh, I forgot that you know him. Please don’t tell him that my wife thinks he’s hot? I’m pretty sure she’d leave me because he has way better hair than I do.”
“I won’t say a word if you leave me the fuck alone,” Elliot says.
“Fine,” Adam says and leans back.
Elliot eventually loses Adam when he leaves the safety of the couch he was sitting on to get some more food. He finds chicken sliders and is still working on his third one when a girl sidles up to him.
“Hi,” she says. That’s it.
Elliot doesn’t immediately know what to do with that. “Hi,” he says. “Sorry, am I in your way?”
“No, don’t worry,” she says. She’s sparkly, too, but not as much as some of the other girls. Her hair is really long. Really long. He almost wants to tell her that he’s impressed, but then she asks, “Are you here on your own?”
“Uh, with friends.”
“Friends,” she echoes, like he told her a secret. Maybe he did. “Are you one of the hockey players? Carly said that her boyfriend brought some friends.”
“Oh. Yeah.”
“Awesome. Thought you looked like a hockey player,” she says. Then grins. “My sister’s actually a goalie. She plays in Michigan.”
“Oh, that’s great.”
“They tried to get me into it, too, but I was always more of a runner. You know, solid ground and all that.”
Elliot laughs, can’t help it.
They talk for a while. She’s nice. At some point, he realizes that he never even asked for her name. Probably too late now. They keep talking. Adam catches his eye at some point and gives him a thumbs up. Elliot doesn’t dignify it with a response. He enjoys talking to this girl, but only about as much as he’d enjoy talking to literally anyone else.
Eventually he says, “Sorry, I think I saw someone I know. Just wanna say hi real quick.”
“Oh, of course,” she says.
Elliot escapes before she can look too disappointed.
He does say hello to Crab, who has a blonde girl sitting in his lap. Her cheeks are red and her words are slurred when she tells Elliot to sit down and teach her friends about hockey.
Elliot tries to give them some interesting facts, then someone’s hand ends up on his thigh and he excuses himself to get another drink before someone ends up in his lap, too. He eventually sneaks into the kitchen, where they’re hiding even more food. He’s not the only one in here. A girl is crying quietly in a corner, another girl, presumably a friend of hers, is whispering to her. Over by the counter, the guys he met earlier are mixing drinks.
“Hey,” one of them says, “I didn’t catch your name earlier.”
“I’m Elliot,” he says.
They introduce themselves as Marcus and Jayden. They mix him a drink and share their plate of appetizers with him.
Jayden, the one who was undressing Elliot with his eyes earlier, says, “So, how do you know Chrissie?”
“Oh, my teammate’s girlfriend knows her. Carly. She invited us all.”
“Teammate? What do you play?”
“Hockey.”
“Like, not to be too forward, but do hockey players all have… glutes like you do?”
“Jay, shut the fuck up.”
“Uh,” Elliot only says. “I guess?”
“You’re straight, right?” Jayden says, already looking devastated.
Elliot could say no. Except he can’t say no. What he does say is, “Sorry.”
“Aw, too bad.” Jayden winks at him. “If you change your mind–”
“Idiot,” Marcus says and turns to Elliot. “Ignore him. You have a girlfriend?”
“No, but my teammates think they need to change that.”
“They trying to set you up?”
Elliot shrugs. “I think I got them to stop.”
“It’s okay, you can hide with us,” Jayden says. “You’re pretty.”
“I swear to God, Jay.”
“Are you uncomfortable? I promise I’ll stop if you’re uncomfortable.”
“No, you’re fine,” Elliot says. Honestly, he doesn’t mind so much. Jayden is clearly just having fun and he’s keeping his hands to himself, which is more than he can say for the girls he was talking to. It’s nice to be flirted with.
“Marcus, did you hear that?” Jayden whispers. “I’m fine.”
“That’s not what he meant.”
“I know.” Jayden nods at Elliot’s glass. “Drink up, darling. I’ll make you another one.”
“Stop flirting with him.”
“You’re not my mom, Marcus.”
“Yeah, thank fuck for that.”
Elliot laughs. He likes these guys.
It’s where Adam eventually finds him, on to his third drink with his new Broadway friends. “Dude, there you are. Come on, some of the guys just got here.”
“Gotta say hi to my guys,” Elliot says.
“Oh, your guys?”
“I’m the captain.”
“Nooo, you didn’t tell us you were the captain.”
“Hey, if you ever want to come to a game, tell Carly to let me know and I’ll get you tickets, okay?” Elliot says as Adam tugs him away.
“Thank you, Captain,” Jayden says and blows him a kiss.
Adam laughs. “Who were they?” he asks when they’re out of earshot.
“New friends,” Elliot says.
#
The party they’re invited to is… a party.
They get there pretty late and it’s exactly as bad as Blake was expecting, but at least they have good food. Like those tiny burgers. He loves the tiny burgers. He eats about ten of them and is only mildly disgruntled when Charlie hands him a beer.
“How do you talk to girls?” Charlie asks.
“I…” Blake is distracted, because he’s pretty sure that he saw Brammer talking to Adam Ishida. Who plays for the Ravens. On Elliot’s line. “I don’t know,” Blake eventually says, because that’s the truth. “You just talk to them.”
He tries to find Brammer again. Yeah, that’s definitely Adam Ishida. Elliot mentions him a lot. Obviously, that doesn’t mean that Elliot is here. Elliot cries when he has to go to nightclubs, so he probably wouldn’t jump on the opportunity of going to a New Year’s party.
A guy nods at them as he passes them. It’s Keith Taylor. The kid the Ravens call Crab.
“Oh, hey,” Blake says.
The kid freezes. “H…i.”
Blake grins at him.
“I’m so sorry about when I, you know… I’m really sorry about that. I honestly didn’t mean to.”
“No hard feelings, kid,” Blake says, because he scared the crap out of him, he had his fun, and he knows that the kid really didn’t mean to give him a concussion.
Keith Taylor smiles uncertainly and then practicall
y runs away from them.
“What was that all about?” Charlie asks.
Blake only shakes his head.
Maybe half of the Ravens are here. No Mariners. They’re out of town. As he and Charlie walk around, they also come across a few more of their own teammates, but it looks like most of them ended up going to the rookie party. Or they’re home with their families.
Blake would also prefer being home with his family of two cats.
“Okay,” Blake says, “find someone to talk to.”
“What?”
“That’s why we’re here, right?”
“I mean, yeah, but…”
“Excuse me,” a girl says, smiling at them as she passes, “could I… You guys are right in front of the tiny burgers. Which might be your plan, you know, hiding the tiny burgers, so you can have them all.”
“That’s exactly what we’re doing,” Blake says. “But I think we’ll share. Right, Charlie?”
“Right,” Charlie says.
Blake steps aside so she can get some burgers, then he gives Charlie a pointed look.
Charlie gives him a pointed look back, looking absolutely helpless.
Blake waves. Just say something.
“You should try the ones with chicken,” Charlie tells her. “They’re good.”
“Oh, I will, thanks for the tip,” she says.
“I’m Charlie,” says Charlie.
“Nice to meet you, Charlie, I’m Emma.”
“Hi,” says Charlie.
“Hi,” says Emma.
That’s Blake’s cue to leave. He grabs another small burger and sneaks away. Charlie doesn’t even seem to notice that Blake is begging off. He’s not going home immediately, because he didn’t come all the way here from fucking Newark to spend half an hour at a party.
The good thing is that there are so many people at this party that it’s easy enough to hide, the partygoers spread out across several rooms, no one really paying any mind to Blake as he wanders about. He slips past a bunch of Ravens players who apparently just arrived, hangs out in a corner, scrolling through Twitter on his phone for a bit, and then ducks into the kitchen when a girl across the room keeps smiling at him.
In the kitchen, he finds a teary-eyed girl and her friend and two guys who are bickering.
“–can’t believe you wouldn’t stop flirting with him. Fuck’s sake, Jay.”
They look up when Blake wanders into the kitchen and fall silent.
“Sorry, didn’t mean to interrupt,” Blake says.
“No worries, tall one,” says the guy named Jay.
The other guy shoots Jay a murderous look.
“You want a drink?” Jay asks.
Blake holds up his beer. “I’m good.” He does grab a plate and some appetizers, though.
“You a hockey player?” the nameless guy asks.
“Yeah,” Blake says.
“There are so many of you,” Jay says.
Blake snorts.
“And all so handsome,” he continues. “We were talking to one of your fellow… hockeys. He was pretty. But so are you.”
“I swear he’s not harassing you.” The long-suffering guy holds out his hands. “I’m Marcus. The one without a brain-to-mouth filter is Jayden.”
“Blake,” Blake says and shakes his hand. “What do you guys do?”
“Jay’s in Wicked, I’m in Jersey Boys.”
“Oh, so you’re… actors?”
They nod. Jay winks at him and Blake is weirdly pleased.
“I have to admit, I’ve never been to a Broadway show,” Blake says.
“Well, I’ve never been to a hockey game, so I guess we’re on the same page,” Jay says. “Although our new best friend did offer us tickets. What do you do in the hockey? Score a lot of goals?”
“I’m a goalie, actually.”
“Ohhh,” Jay says. That’s probably the first time that I’m a goalie elicited such delight. “Is that why you’re so tall?”
“You need to stop drinking,” Marcus says.
“Shhh,” Jay says and gently puts his hand on Marcus’s face. “So do you play with Captain Elliot?”
“You guys know Elliot?”
“Yeah, we just met him,” Marcus says.
“He’s actually on a different team,” Blake says. He can’t run off and try to find Elliot, right? That would be ridiculous. “But I know him.” He really wants to talk to him. He’ll say hello real quick. Then he’ll make sure that Charlie is doing okay. Then he’ll go home. “Maybe I should find him and say hi.”
“Yeah,” Jay says, “and tell him we love him.”
Blake laughs. “Sure, I’ll do that.”
#
“Hey, it’s your best friend.”
“Wha–” Elliot looks up. He was distracted, scrolling through Instagram. “Oh.” It’s Blake. He’s across the room, looking over at one of his teammates, Charlie Trainor, who seems to be deep in a conversation with a girl over by the food.
“And he brought his luscious hair,” Adam grumbles.
“Ohhh, it’s Blake Samuels,” Lou says, across the table.
Adam looks like he’s about to crawl under the couch.
“You wanna say hi?” Elliot asks, because Adam was a dick to him earlier and he deserves it.
Lou tilts her head, eyes on Adam. “Will you still love me if I ask him for a selfie?”
Adam rolls his eyes dramatically and says, “There are maybe two things that would make me stop loving you and that’s not one of them, so I guess it’s fine.”
“Love you,” Lou says and makes grabby-hands for Elliot, who offers her his arm and leads her over to Blake.
Blake sees them coming and smiles when he spots Elliot.
“Hey, Blake,” Elliot says. “This is Lou, she really wanted to meet you.”
“Hi,” Blake says and shakes Lou’s hand. “Nice to meet you…” His eyes flicker to Elliot for the briefest of seconds, then back to Lou.
“She’s Adam’s wife.”
“Yeah, he’s having a breakdown right over there,” Lou says and points at where Adam is sitting, glaring at them.
That tickles a laugh out of Blake.
“Could we take a picture?” Lou asks.
“Yeah, sure,” Blake says.
Lou hands her phone to Elliot, beaming when he snaps the picture. “Thank you so much, Blake, I’m from Jersey, so I sort of root for you guys. I’m very conflicted. My mom loves you, by the way, she thinks you’re the best goalie we’ve had since Frank Parrish.”
Blake smiles, his cheeks faintly pink. “That’s very nice of her to say.”
“She’ll absolutely lose it when I tell her that I met you. Oh, could you…” Lou pulls a notebook out her bag. “Would you sign this for her? Her name is Jane.”
“For sure,” Blake says and takes the notebook from her, writes, Thank you for your support, Jane, then signs it and puts a 33 and a drawing of a little fish next to it.
“Oh no, the fish. It’s so cute,” Lou says. “Thank you so much.”
“My pleasure,” Blake says.
Lou thanks him one more time, gives Elliot’s arm a squeeze and then returns to Adam, who only sighs, resigned, and leans over to kiss her temple.
“Adam told me he wasn’t sure if he could date her when they first met because she was a Knights fan,” Elliot says.
“Seems like it worked out in the end,” Blake says.
“Yeah, I think he eventually realized that she’s a catch.” Elliot gives Blake a nudge. “Didn’t expect to see you here tonight.”
“I didn’t expect to see me here tonight either,” Blake mutters. “Charlie needed someone to hold his hand. For like three seconds. So I came here with him. The food is good.”
“So good,” Elliot says.
“The next time you cook for me, you have to make tiny burgers.”
“Who said that I’m cooking for you again?”
Blake pulls a face. “Sorry, shouldn’t have assumed…”
“No, I mean, I totally will. Tiny burgers sound good. I might try to make some of that other fancy stuff, too. Quiche or whatever.”
Blake grins. He looks good tonight, but he always does. He’s wearing a sweater that looks incredibly soft and that Elliot would want to bury his face in if he’d had more drinks.
“Did you have a good time with your parents?” Blake asks.
“Yeah, it was nice to have them around. I miss them sometimes.” Elliot kinda wants to kick himself for that one. Blake doesn’t even have parents anymore. “Sorry, that was–”
“Elliot, come on, it’s okay. You know it’s okay.”
Elliot lets out a soft breath.
“I’m glad you got to see them,” Blake says and taps Elliot’s back with his knuckles. “Hey, uh–”
“Blake.” Blake’s teammate has appeared behind them, looking apologetic. “Hey, sorry, do you have a minute?”
“Yeah, sure…” Blake nods at Elliot. “I’ll talk to you later?”
“Yeah, absolutely,” Elliot says.
He tries really hard not to be mad at Charlie Trainor for stealing Blake away.
He doesn’t manage.
#
It takes Elliot over half an hour to find Blake again.
Adam calls him over right after Charlie tugged Blake away, then Adam introduces a girl to him and her only interest seems to be finding someone to kiss at midnight, because she mentions it about half a dozen times in the five minutes that Elliot spends talking to her. Elliot slips away, quite rudely, when she’s distracted for a second, saying hello to a friend who walked past them.
Elliot wanders around the party, starting to wonder if Blake might have gone home, or maybe to another party. He can’t see Charlie anywhere either. Blake probably doesn’t owe him a goodbye or anything; it’s not like they came here together, but the thought of Blake being gone leaves him weirdly disappointed.
He’s on his way back to Adam when a glass door ahead of him opens and two girls come stumbling into the hallway, accompanied by a gust of cold air. Elliot peers outside, at a mostly deserted balcony. They’re still over an hour away from midnight and it’s freezing out there. Two people are making out, leaning against the wall a few feet away, barely visible in the low light, and a group is huddled together over by the edge of the balcony, cigarettes lighting up orange in the night. And then, as far away from them as possible, there’s Blake, face illuminated by his phone screen, hair mostly hiding his features. He’s bundled into his coat, his breath clouding in the winter air.
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