On the Way Down - Andre Burakovsky

Ch. 5: "Did you bring enough for the whole class?"

 It had been about a month since I had started working with the team and I was loving it. I had gotten close to the guys in such a short amount of time, and Emily was becoming one of my closest friends. I came to work every day excited for what adventures lay ahead because it seemed every day with Gabe Landeskog and JT Compher was an adventure. I loved watching the bond the team had, even the new guys like Andre seemed to fit in seamlessly and I was glad to see him making friends quickly. The regular season was starting today and I was excited to see how the day went. I had worked through some preseason games, but wasn't sure how these differed.
  "Hello boys." I said as I walked into the locker room, locating Emily in the corner I walked over and handed her the coffee I had brought her.
  "Hey did you bring enough for the whole class?" EJ piped up.
  "I brought enough for this class." I said gesturing between me and Emily. "You guys have way too expensive taste for me." I gasped as my cup was taken from my hands and looked up to see Gabe taking a drink from my cup.
  "You're right. This is disgusting." he handed my cup back to me, and I glared.
  "Then why'd you drink the whole thing? How am I supposed to deal with you guys without caffine?" I whined. He gave me a wide grin and walked away to get ready for practice. I glared at his back.
  "We can share, then go get some more after practice." Emily said handing me her cup. I took a small drink and handed it back before walking out to the ice to wait for practice to start. I sat on the bench and Andre came up and sat next to me.
  "Gabe is an ass." he said and I laughed.
  "You all have your tendencies, but its what makes you guys fun. This job would be super boring if you guys were nice all the time."
  "You're right." he said before climbing over the boards to get on the ice to start practice. Emily came and sat down next to me and we finished off her coffee in just a few minutes and started focusing on practice.
  "Why won't EJ look at the camera?" I whined. Everyone else was smiling when they saw us with the camera, but EJ legit would look away or hide behind another player each and every time he saw them.
  "He's obnoxious. He really likes making our jobs harder. You gotta be sneaky with him." she winked and I laughed.
 When practice was over I was getting stuff together to head home for a nap before tonights game when EJ walked up to me. I smiled tiredly up at him.
  "Hey, since Gabe was a jerk and stole your coffee do you wanna go grab a cup?"
  "I was just going to go home and nap, but yeah we can."
  "How about you go nap and we can get one before the game?" he offered.
  "Sounds great EJ thanks. I'll see you in a bit." I smiled when he hugged me and turned towards the door. I felt a hand on my shoulder and turned around to see Andre standing behind me.
  "Hey, whats up?" I asked, holding back a yawn.
  "He's one Tom was worried about." he said. I rolled my eyes.
  "Tom is an ass. I'm not going to hook up with anyone and he should know me well enough to know that." I walked out angerly. I know it wasn't Andre's fault that Tom was being this way, but I didn't like that he was acting like I couldn't be friends with EJ because Tom was worried I would get with him. I wasn't that kind of person and Tom knew that, we had talked about a lot while he was here and he knew it would hurt my feelings if I knew he thought that which is why he probably told Andre not to tell me he was supposed to be 'watching' me.
I had passed out almost immediately after getting home, I was lucky I remembered to set an alarm. I woke up to a text from EJ telling me a place to meet him for coffee so I quickly changed into clothes for the game and then headed out. When I got there he was already there and was sitting at a table with 2 coffees so I went and sat down next to him.
  "Have you been waiting long?" I asked as I sat down. "I was zonked. I'm lucky I woke up to the alarm."
  "Not long. I've only been here about 5 minutes, literally just sat down. I didn't know what kind of coffee you drank so I just got plain." I smiled.
  "Plain is just fine. Do you know where they keep the creamers though?"
  "You can go up and ask for them. They have tons of flavors up there." I walked up and got shots of flavor in my coffee and then sat down across from EJ again.
  "Thanks for this EJ. You really didn't have to."
  "I wanted to though. I really wanted to get to know you away from the team you know?" I blushed.
  "Makes sense. I'm the same person around them though, I don't hold myself back for them." I giggled.
  "That's why I like you, you don't try and change yourself for who you're around. You are your awesome self 24/7" I smiled and kind of started to realize why Tom was afraid of this one. He was sweet, though he looked like an asshole sometimes and he seemed to know all the right things to say to send butterflies through my stomach.
 EJ and I spent about a half hour at the coffee shop before it was time to head to the rink. He offered to drive me since I had walked to the coffee shop because it was super close to my apartment. When we pulled into the parking lot I noticed Andre standing next to his car a few spots down and his eyes went wide. I shook my head at him as I walked passed, silently hoping he didn't start anything because I wasn't in the mood for him. I went into the locker room and found Emily in her signature corner, I handed her a coffee and sat down next to her.
  "You came with EJ?" she asked after seeing us walk in together.
  "He offered to get me some coffee since Gabe drank mine this morning, and then since I had walked to the coffee shop he offered to bring me in. No biggie." I shrugged pulling out my phone when I felt it vibrate.

From: Tommy
NO

 I rolled my eyes and sent a glare to Andre who I saw shoving his phone in his bag after giving me a guilty look. I walked over to him and stood with my hands on my hips.
  "Are you kidding me? You told Tom?" I whispered, trying to not draw the attention of the whole locker room.
  "He told me to tell him if you seemed like you were getting too close to certain players. I'm not going to have him pissed off at me."
  "He wouldn't even know to be pissed at you if you would keep your damn mouth closed. I'm going to tell him too, stay out of it Andre. I mean it." I walked away and texted Tom back.

To: Tommy
Drop it Tommy. It was just coffee. Quit having Andre spy on me, if there is something about my life I want you to know I promise I'll tell you. Good luck on your game tonight. Love you.

I shoved my phone into my back pocket and walked out to the bench and took some pictures of the arena slowly filling up for the first game of the season. I had been here a couple times before working here and the atmosphere had always been one of my favorites, its why I had applied to work here in the first place. Andre walked up to me when I walked back into the locker room.
  "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to upset you. I promise I won't tell Tom anything anymore. You should be able to like whoever you want." he hung his head low.
  "Just because I spend time with him doesn't mean I like him Andre. Hes nice but he isn't the one I have my eye on."
  "What? Who?"
  "Now why would I tell you that?" I smiled and walked away.