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As I walked into the locker room, it was dead silent. You could have heard a pin drop. All of the guys were standing there in full padding and skates, ready to go, all facing me as I entered.
"Care to share your latest development with the team?" Coach asked. "They don't seem to believe me."
I scoffed quietly. "Not that it's any of your business," I said loudly to the team. "But I've finally finished watching The Office."
A glove was thrown at my head. A grumble rolled through the crowd. "Not that smartass," Coach said in his most coach-like voice. "The girl from the parking lot."
"Oh yeah," I said as if I had forgotten. I couldn't forget her, I could still taste her on my lips and feel her fit body beneath my fingertips. "I got a girlfriend."
If I thought that the silence in the locker room was stifling before, it was nothing compared to this. Not so much as a blink came from any member of the team. The agonizing wait for a reaction was starting to make my skin itch.
"He's simping!" I heard somebody call from the back. The locker room exploded with cheers and whistles. It was almost like I had just won the Stanley Cup. I suppose it wasn't every day that your team captain got a girlfriend. I found myself being jostled around, patted on the back and jumped on as I tried to make my way over to Danny and Cooper who were both waiting next to my locker with cocky-ass smiles on their faces.
The locker room quieted down and Coach was able to yell above the ruckus once again. "Everyone! Out on the ice! Miller, Johnson, Fisher!"
"Yes coach!" we replied in unison. "I expect you on the ice at ten."
I had no idea why coach was being so lenient with us, but as I looked more closely at my friends, Danny had pink markers all across his left cheek and Cooper looked like he had just been to hell and back and was on the downfall of a terrible hangover. I was probably grinning like an idiot, what a group, the three of us.
The lowerclassmen left the locker room, leaving me and the guys alone. "So you finally manned up," was what Danny chose to say to break the silence.
"Shut up man," I said teasingly.
"It was a long time coming," Danny added to his own thoughts.
"We are talking about Lili, right?" Cooper asked.
"Yeah dumbass," I said. "Who else?"
"Just making sure," Cooper said defensively. "You know that you look like an idiot, smiling like that," Cooper informed me as I started to get into the gear that he had so graciously brought for me.
"You know you look like the walking dead, with that hangover?" I asked him back rhetorically.
"Okay guys no need to argue," Danny said, ever the mediator.
"You know that you look like an idiot too right?" Cooper asked.
"Yep," I agreed. "The pink marker below the cheek really brings out your eyes."
