Paint The Ice

Chapter 33

"You make it look too easy man."Cole pulls on my helmet.

After that my teammates are just drowning me. The screams are deafening.

When they let go, my eyes search the crowd. There she is. My eyes lock with the person I'm looking for, I smile and point my hockey stick in her direction. Riley's standing on her feet now clapping like everyone else, I can't hear what she's screaming but her mouth's moving pretty quickly.

My teammates ended up finishing the game, for the rest of the period I passed the puck and let them shine. Especially Tyler, he made use of his speed. It wasn't a surprise that we won, we were coordinated and relied heavily on teamwork. Something the other school didn't have. As we're getting off the ice riding the wave of our win, Cole and Riley high five each other. I noticed it's something she always stayed behind to do.

I remove my glove and lift my palm with no intention of just passing her by. Riley meets my palm with hers wearing a proud smile on her face. "Thank you for not letting me cover my face. No one's ever scored for me before, I'm seriously blushing. Way to make a girl feel special."

She is. Special, I mean. Her cheeks haven't lost color either. It's cute. I need a kiss but this will do. My fingers slip through the gaps of hers, joining our hands. "Not a girl. My girl. And anytime." I brush my thumb over skin and give her hand a gentle squeeze before I release her.

Riley's whole face lights up. I think her cheeks burn brighter. "Hmm. I kinda like the sound of it."

"My girl,"I nod my head. "It suits you."

Rhett follows my action, the high five part, not interlacing of hands part and Riley happily high fives him. Then I hear her tell Eric that he did a good job which was true. He saved our ass many times. I don't think there's a better goalie, he's underrated to others, not to me. I grin to the feel of Riley's warm skin lingering as I proceed through the tunnel. Eric pulls his helmet off, walking up beside me with one hand through his hair.

"So, you and Riley are together together?" Eric questions.

"Yeah, it's all new but yeah." I tell him, unable to stop myself from cheesing like a lunatic.

He soaks in the info. "I mean, I knew this would happen since probably the uh, lounge. I did catch you looking at her. Did Cole freak out?"

So everyone knew? Cole saying he knew and now Eric. Who's next?

"I'm still alive so."

"I'm happy for you,"Eric pats my shoulder, chuckling quietly as he says, "You're the first one of us to get a girlfriend this year."

I'm laughing too. "I didn't think about that. Maybe you'll get a girlfriend next."

Eric might just be the smartest one out of all of us. I mean, the guy's an engineer major. He barely speaks sometimes, he has his moments where he's quiet and then moments where he talks non stop. I like that about him. He observes more than he talks, he'd notice something before anyone else does. Girls find speaking to him intimidating.

Eric shrugs his shoulders. "I don't know."

A step ahead, Coach's face brims with joy. "Good job guys, I'm proud of you. All of you."

"I like this better than you yelling at us Coach." Tyler says. "I could live like this."

"Continue winning like this and you'll never hear me yell again, deal?"

"Deal." Rhett replies, laughing before anyone else can. I think we all know it's not true.

When we get to the locker room, I take a quick shower and waste no time grabbing my things. I'm walking out with the boys chit chatting, when I see Riley and she grins when she sees me. I hold her hand in my free one. "Are you coming over tonight? Or should I walk you to your car?" I don't think we've discussed that and with finals looming over, I think she'd want to study. I have books to hit as well but I wouldn't mind her company.