Phantoms of the Otherworld (In Spiritu Et Veritate)

by Reed, Zoe

  “Hey, hey, hey,” the ref called after us, and I stopped to see what he wanted. He was pointing toward the exit of the rink. “She’s out.”

  “Son-of-a-bitch,” Holly growled loudly as she pulled away from my grasp and made her way to the exit. When she reached it she turned around to shout more parting words to the ref. “Get your goddamn eyes checked will you?”

  Curious how the other team’s defender had gotten her player to settle down so quickly I glanced over as I made my way back to my own bench, where everyone else had gathered. I wasn’t able to catch her trick though, because the girl, whose jersey read ‘Becks’ with the number sixty-four on the back, was already leaned over the boards listening to her coach talk.

  The second I got back to my own bench the same ref skated to the scorekeeper’s box, which separated the benches of the two teams. “Number three,” he called over the glass to the scorekeeper, “Two minutes, roughing. Two minutes, unsportsmanlike.” Then he made his way to our coach. “I need someone to serve the penalty.”

  Every girl on my team groaned. Holly had earned a four-minute penalty, and by now there were less than four minutes left in the game. Seeing as I was the newest player, and no one else wanted to do it, I started for the penalty box. “I’ll serve it.”

  The boxes sat next to each team’s bench and were separated by glass, and when the game picked back up Victoria came over and pressed her mouth to the corner so she could talk to me. “They’re going to score now. I’m going to have to kick Holly’s ass.”

  “I’m not serving your penalty too,” I teased, and then to make conversation I looked out into the bleachers. “Is Austin here now?” I scanned the full area outside the rink for Victoria’s boyfriend, but I couldn’t see him amid the crowd of people.

  She nodded and followed my gaze to the area where she, too, had to search. “He got off work right before this game. He should be out there somewhere.”

  Another whistle accompanied by uproarious cheers from the crowd caused both Victoria and I’s heads to turn, and then slump when we saw that the other team had scored, breaking the tie with only two minutes left in the game, and making the score four to three.

  “Told you,” Victoria said with a shake of her head. Her spirits picked up quickly though as she looked at me with a grin on her face. “So, coach says he wouldn’t mind you playing for us from now on.”

  “Vic,” I whined. It wasn’t that I didn’t like playing, it was actually even more fun than the scrimmage games, but almost every bit of gear I was wearing at the moment was borrowed, which meant in order to play I’d have to buy new stuff.

  “J,” she copied sternly, raising her eyebrows and challenging me to complain.

  “I can’t afford to buy all this gear.”

  “We’re like… halfway sponsored.” That earned a laugh on my part, and she glared. “No seriously, you’ll get pants, jerseys, and gloves for free. I have some shin guards that I don’t use anymore, and nobody really wears elbow pads. You already have a stick. All you need to get is skates and a helmet.” Then she batted those big blue eyes at me and gave an innocent smile. “Please.”

  I was about to protest, knowing that skates were extremely expensive, but then I remembered the hockey rink Victoria worked at had a pro shop. “Only,” I started with a sigh, “If you can get me a discount on gear.”

  The grin on her face grew bigger than I thought it possibly could, and as the buzzer for the end of the game went off I nearly thought she was going to come over the penalty box wall and hug me. Luckily she saved me the embarrassment, and we all made our way to the center of the rink to go down the line and shake hands with the players on the other team. We waited around on the rink while the announcer called all of our names and gave us all our second place, fake silver medals, and then had to wait a little more while he gave the gold medals to the other team. Then we were released to the locker room.

  “Second place bitches!” one of the girls shouted excitedly as she ripped off her jersey and plopped onto one of the benches that lined the walls of the locker room.

  Everyone laughed while another girl, Charlie, pulled a case of beer out of her hockey bag, not at all to my surprise since I’d already adjusted to their habit of drinking after scrimmage games. She held up a can and made shushing noises until she had everyone’s attention. “First beer goes to Holly.” She tossed the can across the room to Holly, who had been sitting in the locker room waiting since she’d gotten kicked out of the game. “For hit of the night, girl, that shit was epic!”

  Charlie then proceeded to throw cans of beer to every player in the room, but stopped a throw short when she came to the last, and youngest, player. “Hey wait, you’re not twenty-one. More for me.”

  I couldn’t help but chuckle at Charlie’s teasing. The youngest player on the team was only nineteen, but I’d seen the girl drink after scrimmage games plenty of times, and none of the other players, especially Charlie, seemed to mind. So the teen dropped her jaw, offended, and held out a hand for the beer. “Give me the beer, Charlie.” Charlie held the can in front of her, eyes locked on the younger girl and smirk growing wider by the second as she slowly inched her finger toward the tab to open it. “Charlie!” the girl yelled, shout interrupted by a laugh.

  The tip of Charlie’s finger slid under the tab, but before she had a chance to pop it up the girl pounced on her, wrapping her arms around Charlie’s neck and taking them both to the ground. As they wrestled over the beer that Charlie still held tight, the coach walked in, smacking his forehead with the palm of his hand as he took in the scene before him.

  “If you guys practiced half as much as you partied,” he started, a smile breaking his scowl, “We might actually take gold.”

  As if to deliberately ignore his comment, another girl named Linda pulled out her mp3 player and put on dance music as loud as the volume would go. At the sound, a few other girls, who by this time had their skates and jerseys off, got up and started dancing. The coach just rolled his eyes and leaned against the door of the locker room, patiently waiting to see if anyone would listen to him.

  “Come on, coach.” One of the girls grinned, trying to get him to dance with them.

  He shook his head, so another girl chimed in. “Yeah, Nick, come on. You won silver too, you know. You should celebrate.”

  Again he rolled his eyes. “I’m too old for this.” And with that he pushed open the door, laughing as he left us in the locker room.

  The girl who’d started the music, Linda, shrugged indifferently as he left, and sitting back down she lowered the volume. “It’s lady’s night at The L. Who’s down?”

  Cheers went up from a majority of the girls in the room, and only two shook their heads. “It’s twenty-one and up, jerk.” The youngest player sipped on the beer she’d wrestled from Charlie and gave our teammate a playful glare.

  The other girl who shook her head gave a shrug when Linda looked at her questioningly. “I’ve got church in the morning.”

  “Wow,” Linda mumbled disappointedly, and then glanced over at Victoria and I. “Vic? Jordan? How about you?”

  By this time I’d finished taking off all my gear, and was in the process of putting my short shorts back on when Linda invited us. I beamed as I finished tugging them and then my flannel shirt on, and gave an excited nod. “I’m in.” Then as I pulled my hair back into a messy ponytail I gave Victoria a look that told her she had better say ‘yes.’

  Even though I shot her the look, I knew she liked dancing as much as I did, so it didn’t take long for her to nod in agreement. “Yeah, sure, I’ll go.”

  Victoria was ready to leave as I pulled on my tennis shoes, so I chugged the rest of the beer Charlie had given me and tossed it in the trash. Austin was outside the locker room waiting for us when we left, and he came over to give Victoria a kiss hello.

  “What, no hug?” she joked as we continued to walk out to the parking lot.

  He grabbed her hand to show her he loves her,
but winced at the thought of a hug. “You’re all sweaty.”

  “Wimp,” Victoria chuckled. “Hey, we’re going to The L.”

  “Okay.” Austin shrugged, and then tossed his head to get his long brown hair out of his matching brown eyes. “You going too, Jordan?”

  I adjusted the straps of the enormous hockey bag I had draped over my back as I nodded. The rest of the walk to the parking lot, I let Victoria and Austin have their moments. When we finally got there I opened the trunk of my little black sedan and threw the bag into it, then put my stick into the back seat. I was about to get in when Victoria, who had parked right in front of me, waved to get my attention.

  “Hey,” she called, already halfway in her car. “We’ll follow you to your sister’s and then all drive together in my car.”

  I raised an eyebrow, even though she probably couldn’t see it under the dim of the streetlamp. “Okay, but why don’t we just go straight to the club?”

  “Because anytime you get drunk you end up going home with some random girl,” she said, mouth turning up in a smirk. “At least this way, tomorrow I don’t have to drive to pick you up and take you all the way back there to your car. I can just pick you up and take you home.”

  I was about to protest the change in pattern, but then I realized she was right. Instead, I gave a playfully flattered grin. “You’re such a good friend.”

  “Yeah, yeah.” She waved me off and finished getting into her car.

  Following the plan, I drove the eight minutes to my sister’s apartment and parked in my usual spot on the street. Part of me wished there was time to go upstairs for a quick shower, but I couldn’t keep Victoria and Austin waiting, so giving up that wish I jumped into the back seat of her car. The ride was quiet for a few minutes, all except for the radio, which played quite loudly from the front seat, until Austin turned around to face me.

  “Let me ask you something,” he started, pulling at his seatbelt so he could turn all the way around. “What’s your secret?” I chuckled at the glare Victoria shot him, but my dark blue eyes must have shown my confusion. “Pimp much?”

  I laughed even harder now as Victoria’s glare turned into a full-blown grimace, but Austin pretended not to notice. “I don’t know.” I shrugged. “Everybody loves a cute lesbian?”

  “Yeah, that’s true,” Austin agreed dazedly, eyes glazing as if he was daydreaming. He smirked when Victoria caught his tone and pretended she was going to punch him in the arm. “Just kidding, babe. But seriously, I was just wondering, because you’re single and you get laid more than I do.” This time Victoria did hit him, and he mouthed the word ‘ow’ as he rubbed out his arm.

  My mouth dropped, and my voice gained a teasingly surprised tone. “Vic, are you one of those girls that uses sex as leverage?”

  “No,” she growled quietly, though in the glare of the dashboard’s lights I could see her cheeks tint to almost the same color as her auburn-red hair. I almost snorted with laughter as Austin turned just enough to nod his head at me, earning another glare from the girl beside him.

  “Sorry bud, not everyone’s as charming as me.” I patted Austin comfortingly on the shoulder. Then I leaned forward as if to whisper in his ear, but spoke loud enough so Victoria could still hear. “But, here’s a little tip. Vic’s the back rub loving type. Quickest way into her pants,” I told him with a wink. Now Victoria turned to scowl at me, but I was having too much fun embarrassing her to stop. “Seriously, she could hardly keep ‘em on for me, and you know how straight she is.”

  He was laughing hard now, and he grinned excitedly as he pounded his fist against mine. “Thanks for the advice.”

  “Oh my God.” Victoria covered her face with one of her hands, shaking her head in exasperation. “How about I just drop you two off at the club so you can pick up chicks together?”

  Teasing even further, I shrugged and nodded, but Austin leaned over and pulled her head to roughly plant a kiss on her cheek. “You know I love you.” Victoria grinned happily now that Austin wasn’t picking on her, but she had grinned too soon. “Besides, what luck would I have at a gay club?”

  I tried to stop a snicker, which only ended up coming out in a snort, and Victoria gave a defeated sigh. Deciding maybe it was time to lighten up I changed the subject. “You know what I want know?” Both her and Austin ‘hm-ed’ curiously. “How is it that at least half the girls on our team are gay?”

  Victoria giggled and looked back at me through the rearview mirror. “That surprised you?” I nodded. “That’s how it is for almost every team. Hockey attracts gaybos like you,” she said sarcastically and stretched her arm back to poke me in the forehead.

  With a giggle I shoved her hand away. We arrived at the club a few minutes later, and after waiting in line outside for about twenty minutes made it in. Since Austin agreed to be the designated driver, the first place Victoria and I hit was the bar. Then after finding a few of the girls from our team we danced for a couple hours. Going back to the bar every once in a while for another shot, it didn’t take long until I had quite a bit more than a pleasant buzz going on. Eventually we split from the rest of the group, and after a little while longer I split from Victoria and Austin, but that didn’t stop me from dancing and making the occasional trip back to the bar.

  ***

  I woke the next morning feeling like I hadn’t just woken up on my own, but was unable to figure out what exactly had caused me to stir. It wasn’t the unfamiliar ceiling I was staring at now, or the silky green sheets that felt pleasantly and surprisingly cooling against my naked body. It could have been the mild hangover that materialized in the form of a pounding against my temples. I lay there for a minute, trying to figure out what it was. The feel of the sheets was inconsistent across my hips, and thinking that might have been it, I slid my hand beneath the covers until I reached skin, not mine. I carefully peeled back the covers to reveal a slender leg, draped delicately over me.

  I remembered enough from the night before not to be shocked at finding myself with company, or in somebody else’s house for that matter. It wasn’t the leg that had woken me either, but it did catch my attention now. With my eyes I followed the smooth skin up to a feminine pair of hips, then a waist, a shoulder, to a gentle face half-covered by light brown hair. She’s cute, I thought to myself, and almost jumped out of my skin at a vibrating beneath my back. That’s what had woken me up! Trying not to wake the girl beside me, I reached my arm underneath me and pulled out my phone.

  “Wakey, wakey.” The text from Victoria flashed across the screen, and I unlocked the touch screen to find that she’d texted me three more times before I’d woken up.

  I checked the time before texting her back. 8:30, a little too early if you ask me. “Morning,” I responded, and then as smoothly as possible eased the leg off of me.

  A light groan made me pause, but when the girl shifted herself away I sighed with relief and silently pushed myself off the bed. It took a minute to find my clothes amongst the scattered articles on the floor, but eventually I managed, and I was just pulling on my shorts when the phone vibrated in my hand.

  “Where you at? I’ll come get you.”

  Tiptoeing out of the room I strolled down the short hall of the one-bedroom apartment to the kitchen and living room. Hoping to find what I was looking for, I made my way to the kitchen, eyes scanning every inch of the counter. A smile creased my lips when I glanced the pile of mail sitting neatly in the corner, and I hopped up to sit on the countertop as I picked up the first envelope. So, your name is Kristen. Below the brunette’s name was the information I was looking for.

  I unlocked my phone and pulled up my text messages. “136 Shady Street. Huntington Beach.”

  After hitting send I hopped off the counter and patted myself down in order to check my pockets, and was happy to find that my wallet was still in my shorts and I didn’t have to risk going back into the bedroom to get it. I was on my way out the door when my bare foot his a sneaker. Oh shit, shoes
. That’s what I was forgetting. The one I had stepped on was mine, so where was the other one? Knowing me I’d kicked them wildly any which direction the second I made it through the door. Under the coffee table? No. Back in the kitchen? No. Under the couch? Nope. Ah-hah! On top of the couch. I grabbed my shoe from off the back of the couch, vaguely wondering how I’d managed to get it up there in the first place, and sat down to pull it on.

  As I hit the cushion my phone vibrated in my pocket, so I pulled it out to read Victoria’s text. “Thanks for picking somewhere close this time :P. GPS says be there in 5.”

  Before getting up to leave I took a brief look around. The small apartment was nice enough. A flat screen TV hung on the wall opposite me, and directly below it was a small bookshelf with various pictures on it instead of books. The coffee table at my knees caught my attention. That had a book on it. I turned the book so that the title was facing me and read it. Ethics of Medicine. So Kristin’s pre med, not bad. I pushed the book away from me with my index finger, scolding myself for even taking a curious peek. I wished I had the guts to stay for a cup of coffee, especially on those mornings I woke up with a pounding head, but I could never get over that I thought it would be awkward to stick around. Usually a name was the most I wanted to know, and I didn’t want any obligation beyond that. Not a second meeting. Not a phone call. Not even a text. What did Victoria call it? Emotionally unavailable.

  The door quietly clicked shut behind me, and I strolled down the stairs to the first floor. The second I left the indoor building I had to shield my eyes with a groan, since the brightness of the sun caused my head to throb, but after a few moments I got used to it, and squinting was enough to ease the pain. I had to pause at the exit and look around, my eyes scanning the area around me for the likely place Victoria would drive to. The apartment complex was two buildings set perpendicular to each other, and I’d left through an exit that put me smack dab in the middle of the two. The complex’s only parking lot stretched wide in front of the two buildings, so I made my way to the edge and sat down on the curb.