by Lucy Smoke
“She isn’t a Puck,” I stated straight up, forcing myself to stand tall as I dropped my player status. “I’ve been seeing her for a couple of weeks; I was planning on asking her to be exclusive tonight and declaring Whip tomorrow morning at the pre-training Puck meet.”
Christian’s eyes widened at my statement. The amazement on his face would have been almost insulting if I hadn’t been so focused on protecting Scoop. Justin’s body just seemed to get tenser if that was even possible. A deep frown formed on his face.
“She’s not a Puck for me either. I was taking your advice,” he explained as he held up the bag. “On the drive over I decided I was just going to ask her what she wanted for us.”
Fuck, he wanted to declare Whip too.
We both turned to look at Christian.
“Not a Puck either. We went on a date last night. I was going to ask her to be my girlfriend over burgers,” he said as he looked away. Christian tried to hold it together, but I could see the stress pulling frayed ends on his carefully put together persona.
He went on a date with her last night? And didn’t Justin say he went on a date with his girl last night as well? How is that even possible if I went on a date with her last night as well? Of course.
“I was the miniature Christmas trees.” I just put it out there.
“Snowman,” Christian muttered as he raised his empty hand to rub his eyes.
“Horse and carriage,” Justin said as he tilted his head back to stare at the ceiling.
I took a deep breath. This was crazy. This chick had played all of us.
No, I refused to believe that, there were genuine feelings there. There had to be.
“Did she play us? Is this about the Puck Games?” I asked needing clarification. Needing them to confirm that I hadn’t read her wrong. That she cared about me, about them.
“No,” they both instantly replied.
Glad that we all thought the same thing, but it still didn’t help us decide what we should do next.
“I don’t suppose either of you would walk away right now?” Christian asked hopefully.
“No,” we both replied; the word shot out like a bullet.
“I thought as much,” he muttered. “Well, since we can’t all go in there because of the fucking rules, I suggest we all go home. We can figure out what to do… later.”
“Fine by me,” I replied. It wasn’t really, but we all needed to leave. No one could see us all with the same girl, or Hayden’s name would end up on the board. And I really doubted any of us wanted that to happen. No matter how angry we might all be right now.
But what the hell was going on? How had one girl gotten to all three of us? Was it all just a coincidence? Had she really gone on a date with all three of us last night? Had she kissed them too? My chest constricted at that last thought. I didn’t think I wanted to know.
I looked between my two best friends as we all stood facing each other, none of us willing to make the first move to leave. I could see why they both liked her; I could see her fitting with both of them. Her bubbly personality would soften Justin’s hard edges, and her sass would combat Christian’s entitlement.
But she was mine, and there was no way I was giving her up, especially to see her everyday with one of them instead of me.
Justin gestured in front of him as he took a step forward, forcing Christian and I to turn and head back down the hallway. All of us still carrying Hayden’s food.
30
Justin
Sunday 10th December – 15 days until Christmas
Last night was… I still had no words. After we had all left the hallway, we’d walked in silence to the entry, going our separate ways to our vehicles, practically forming a convoy on the way home.
Up in the apartment had been no better. Christian had gone straight to his room with his burgers and Vinnie had taken over the video games with a one player shooter game. I’d ended up hitting the gym downstairs needing to work off some of the tension; my phone lit up occasionally with new messages. I’d turned on my screen to see the notifications and saw there were three from her, but I just left it, not sure what to say.
The workout hadn’t really helped; anxiety clawed through my gut keeping me from falling asleep. We had a home game tomorrow; some minor scouts would be there. I needed to sleep so I could perform. Instead I’d lain there, staring at the ceiling, so many questions running through my mind.
Had she intended to go on three dates last night?
Had she kissed all of us?
Did she know we were all hockey players and therefore knew each other?
If she did, how long had she known that? Was this some sort of Puck Games thing? But why go on dates?
Did she have any real feelings for me? For them?
How could she feel anything for me when I was competing against Vinnie and Christian? Those two looked like they had stepped out of a fashion magazine. Taking up the bathroom for ages every morning. Me, I just showered, shaved, applied deodorant and got out of there.
Was this just some big misunderstanding or was it a massive joke? Was I the punchline? Vanessa had always made me the punchline.
I rolled over, my clock brightly telling me it was seven-fifteen. Great, I’d gotten about four hours of sleep.
I flopped back onto my back. I was tired of girls playing games with me. Vanessa had fucked with my head with her messed up bullshit. We’d had a plan: I’d go to a college that would put me in front of the scouts, she was going to go to the community college back home, and then when I got drafted she would come to be with me and finish out her degree at whichever college was near our new home. We’d talked about it for years.
Then, I’d gone home to find Stephen in her bed. Which to be honest, hadn’t been as much of a shock as everyone thought it had been. The last few times I’d gone home for a surprise, I’d seen a guy’s shirt she had ‘borrowed’ and there had been photos on her phone she had scrolled past really quickly clearly not wanting me to see them. And if she knew I was planning to come home, she would suddenly get sick that Friday night, telling me it wasn’t worth me coming home. So, I’d known something was up, but just had hoped that it would work itself out once I’d gotten drafted.
And now, for H to be playing me like this. All of us. I seriously liked the girl, but fuck this shit was messed up. Whatever the story was, she had been lying to me. To us. And from the looks on Vinnie’s and Christian’s faces I knew they were as upset and confused by her actions as I was.
I really needed to talk to them both, especially before the game tonight. We all needed to be on the same page, gelling, not fighting over a girl. Davidson had messaged me last night to say he’d heard that there would be minor scouts at the game tonight and that two agents and their scouting team would be at the Wednesday night game, so we needed to bring our best game. A girl could not come before our futures.
Decision made, I rolled out of bed and hit the shower, going through my usual process. Once I was dressed in some dark grey sweats and a black hoodie with no sleeves, I headed into the kitchen and started lining up our three shakes. Those two were hopeless when it came to remembering which shake they were supposed to be up to. And with all that money Christian had spent on that fancy nutritionist guy, I figured we should at least stick to the shakes part of the plan. I heard the shower start up as I started measuring everything out.
I was just capping mine to shake it, when Vinnie came down the hallway with just his Rudolph flannelette pajama bottoms on. His mom had gotten them for him last year as a joke present, but he chose to wear them anyway. His hair was all over the place and his eyes were red like he hadn’t slept either. Good.
“Mornin,” Vinnie muttered as he reached the bench.
“Morning,” I returned simply. I flipped the cap open and then lifted my shake to take a sip. I’d switched our flavor from chocolate to strawberry for a change. I wasn’t going to analyze the fact that Hayden’s shampoo smelled like strawberries.
> Vinnie reached for his shake, capped it, and gave it a shake. “Thanks for the shake,” he said as he hoisted himself up onto the kitchen bench. The shower shut off.
“Welcome,” I nodded. We just stayed in the kitchen, both alternating between drinking our shakes, flicking looks at each other, and staring into space looking for answers in the silence.
Christian emerged from the hallway, freshly showered and dressed but that was about it. His hair was still wet, no product making it look all slick and shit. He was dressed fairly similar to me except he had a blue Eagles zip up hoodie with the sleeves pushed up his forearms.
“Thanks Justin,” Christian said as he reached for his shake. He closed the lid and shook it. I gave him the privilege of having a mouthful before I brought up the elephant in the room.
“We need to talk,” I stated.
And just like that the room got tense. Well, tenser than it already was. I watched as a mixture of anxiety and anger flashed on each of their faces. Confusion. Hurt. Betrayal. Yeah, I knew they were seeing those on my face too.
Christian lowered his drink back down to the bench, bracing his forearms either side of it. He nodded his head slowly. “Yeah we do. I just don’t know where to start.”
I glanced at Vinnie who was spinning his empty shake in his hands between his knees, shoulders hunched as he sat on the counter. The little metal spring inside was jarring to the silence.
“How about when and how we met her?” I asked, figuring starting from the beginning was probably the easiest.
Neither of them responded, so I took their silence as agreement. “She’s my TutorAid. We met about two and a half weeks ago.”
Vinnie went next. “She’s the journalist from The Press who wrote that article about me. Davidson lined it up. That was about two and a half weeks ago as well.”
I nodded my head, remembering when he had mentioned the coffee meeting.
“She’s in my Psych class. I actually recognized her from the rink though. At our first training session after Thanksgiving,” Christian stated before taking another drink of his shake.
“Recognized her?” I asked, because I had recognized her from the rink too. The figure skater with the aqua beanie and gloves.
“She was there skating before training, and she caught my eye because she was doing some amazing moves and tricks out on the ice. I’m surprised neither of you noticed her, you were both right there with me,” he said as he looked up at me.
“I recognized her too,” I replied. This seriously went all the way back to that moment? “From her aqua beanie and gloves.”
“Yeah, I recognized her too,” Vinnie stated as he jumped off the bench. “So what, she’s been playing us since the very beginning? You can’t tell me she didn’t know who we were, especially after she did the article on me. She got my picture from the team website, surely she would have seen a team photo or something.”
That was… a really good point.
Fuck.
“I don’t think Hayden would have been playing us,” I said remembering the look on her face the first time we had actually met. “She may have known before Friday night that we were all hockey players, but that doesn’t mean she was playing us.”
Vinnie was agitated, pacing backwards and forwards around the kitchen. “We need to talk to her, find out what the fuck is going on.”
“No offense Vinnie, but I don’t want you going anywhere near Hayden right now. I don’t want her name on the Puck Board.” Christian stood up straight, staring right at Vinnie as if he were issuing a challenge he was willing to defend.
Vinnie froze with his back to us muttering something.
“What?” I asked, already thinking I knew the answer.
He turned to face both of us and took a deep breath. “She isn’t a Puck. I was going to take my own advice to Justin last night and ask her to be exclusive.”
Well, blow me down.
“You were going to declare Whip? You, Vincent Morello, last year’s highest scorer, the biggest player on the team, was going to settle down with a girl? With Hayden? Right, yeah, I don’t believe that for a second,” Christian stated with disbelief thick in his tone.
Vinnie squared his shoulders. “Yeah I was. I really like her, she gets me and makes me laugh.”
“Doesn’t hurt that she’s beautiful,” I muttered a little bit too loud since I wasn’t buying it either.
“No, you’re right, it doesn’t hurt. But Scoop and I connect, I’ve never felt this way about anyone. We’ve been on three dates –“
“What? Three?” Christian demanded.
“Yeah, well the first one was a follow up interview but turned into a date, then we had coffee together again and I asked her to the Winter Wonderland, which clearly you both know she was in charge of. So I volunteered, and when she came to my stall it was our third date,” Vinnie explained, his hands spread out palms wide.
Holy shit, he was serious. He really did want to declare Whip for her.
Before Christian could start comparing details, I cut in.
"I think we are all pretty serious about Hayden," I started, putting myself a little in between the two, who had gotten within arms’ length of each other. "Which is why I think we should come up with a plan. Now that we know about each other, we need to find out what the hell is going on."
Vinnie still held his hands up defensively, and Christian still looked like he was ready for a fight, but eventually he did look away. It was a start.
"Okay, so do we want to be direct? Just come out and ask her?" I asked, knowing that I wasn't exactly in the right headspace for that option; I would definitely say something I would regret.
"I don't think I’m ready for that," Christian replied. "Right now, if I said what I was thinking, it would be over between us, and I am not sure I’m ready to let go."
"I say we just confront her. All of us at once. Show of force," Vinnie suggested. "I can't not know. It can't have been fake; I know she felt it too."
Tie breaker.
"I agree with both of you, I'm not ready right now, but I think in a few days we should confront her." Before either of them could interject, I continued, "We need to agree on this now. Davidson said there's going to be some scouts at the game tonight, and then on Wednesday there will even be a few agents."
The interjection that had been sitting on the tip of Vinnie's tongue was visibly swallowed, his Adam's apple bobbed up and down. "Fine. We wait, but Thursday we need to talk to her."
Christian nodded his head. "Thursday. But what do we do about any plans we had with her for earlier this week?"
"Cancel them," I said firmly.
"I was supposed to have a study session with Hayden tomorrow," he replied. "Exams start on Wednesday, our exam is Friday."
I shrugged my shoulders. "I have tutoring on Wednesday."
Christian stared at me like he wanted to take a swing; I knew he wouldn't, but the anger was there, and it needed to be let out.
"Come on, we have to head over to the stadium anyway. Coach wants us all to hit the gym today. Davidson asked for a meet up in the old change rooms first," I said as I raised a hand and dropped it, with a bit of added pressure, onto Christian's shoulder. So, I was using my size against him right now, sue me. It was for his own good.
"Fine," he muttered before turning to head back towards his room.
I turned to Vinnie. "How about you?"
"Whatever man, I just need to get in front of those scouts and wow their pants off." Vinnie brushed past me, closing himself off in the bathroom.
This was going to be a long few days, I could tell already.
I grabbed up all the empty shake containers, rinsing them and leaving them in the drying rack before flopping down in the corner of the lounge.
I seriously couldn't believe this was happening. All three of us, hooked on one girl. But seriously, she was amazing. Smart, funny, witty, a heart of gold, protective. Gorgeous. I could see what they both saw in her because I saw it
too.
I opened my phone up to the messages with her and scrolled to the picture of her with Santa Claus. Her cute cheeky smile as she kissed him on the cheek under the mistletoe. I’d had so much fun with her that night and that kiss at the end. I was pretty sure my heart had latched onto that little red Christmas ornament I’d given her. If this was all just an innocent mix up, then I wouldn't have any trouble forgiving her, and hopefully, we could all just move on.
A few minutes later, the other two finally came back out; all of us grabbed our bags that were by the door and headed out to Christian's SUV. The ride over was silent. Not even the radio played, which was fine by me; Christian always picked alternative radio stations anyway.
As we pulled up behind the other players’ cars by the entrance, Christian turned to both of us. "Don't mention Hayden. Technically, unless one of you is lying, she is not a Puck." His voice was dark, anger leaked through his normally crisp exterior.
Vinnie and I both nodded our agreement. We did not want the rest of the hockey team going anywhere near Hayden.
So out we got, and in we went, bypassing the new rooms and heading to the old. When we arrived, we weren't the last, so we just sat together, backs leaning up against the old cubbies.
Eventually, Davidson called the team to order, his gaze coming to rest on us. "Okay men, we have one spot left on the board, who wants to fill it?"
There was silence in the room for a second before one of the second-string defensemen spoke up. "Don't have a new one, but Ange Sullivan, got it done last night, solid seven."
"Good job," Davidson said as he turned to write a seven below the guy’s name and on the same row as Ange Sullivan. "I've got one to add myself, Tori Schaefer, Friday night. Eight point five."
After a few more updates were called out, Davidson turned back to the room. "Okay, so any more?" He asked as he looked directly at us three. I shook my head at him.
"Well, Vanders, I actually think you do have someone to declare, same as Morello and Alderidge," he stated with a smirk.