Slapshot

Chapter 33: He's Back, Boys!

Coach left the room, and I put on my mouth guard and helmet. "Jon." Tom said. I turned to face him, and he was gesturing for me to lean closer, so I did. "Cam actually isn't that bad. Trust me."

"Trust you?" I repeated, taking out my mouth guard.

"I talked to him. He seems like a good guy." Tom assured me.

Someone came up and tapped my leg with their stick. Obviously it was fucking Cameron. "New lineys." He said with a smile.

"Yep." I say back, not particularly wanting to talk to him.

I could almost hear the grin on Tom's face. He stood up, and so did I. "Let's just get out there." I say, standing up with my stick.

I skate around a bit to warm up, I haven't hit the ice in a while. The sounds of our home crowd were loud, definitely. My eyes scan the bleachers, and I wish I didn't fucking do that, because I spotted her immediately. I tried to tear my eyes away, but it was hard to. Why did she never sit with anyone? Did she not have friends?

Lucas skated towards me, passing me a puck. I practiced some stick handling, passing it back. The whole team set up in a small little warm up as I got down on the ice to quickly stretch.

"Jonathan." Fuck. I'd recognize that accent anywhere. I look up and see Maria standing above me, shifting her weight between her skates.

"Go away, I don't want to talk." I say.

She bent down. "No, I just—".

"Get the fuck out of my face. I'm serious." I said lowly. She skated away. Thank fuck. I could not talk to her, I didn't even know if I'd ever be ready to talk to her.

The ref blew the whistle, and Coach gathered us by the bench. "We need a win today, guys, we really do." He said.

"Small goalie. Shoot high." Noah noted.

"If we get on the board early, it would be awesome. We just need some goals, we've had trouble scoring as of late. Noah can save every shot he faces, but if we don't score, we can't win." Coach said.

The ref blew the whistle again, and the starting lineup went out onto the ice. Coach called me back. "You good?"

"Yeah." I say with a nod.

He gives me an uneasy look, but I skate off anyway to the face off circle, winning the face off once the puck drops to start the game.

The game starts slow, the other team seems to be dominating. I didn't realize how good Cam would be, surprisingly every time our line was on the ice we'd be in their zone.

About halfway through the period, the three of us were at centre ice. Tom passed the puck to me, and I deked out the coming defenseman. I had a small breakaway, and I looked up at the goalie, noticing him leaning to the left. I lifted the puck on my backhand to the right side, and it went in, top right.

I lifted my arms, shouting as I flew into the boards. "He's fucking back, boys!" Tom shouted as he made his way towards me, congratulating me. Even fucking Cameron gave me a hug.

I went to the bench to high five everyone, pulling my hand back when I passed by Maria. Ha. I was so petty.

The game continued on, and the first and second period went by scoreless. Can someone other than myself score, please? It's getting kind of heavy carrying the whole team on my back.

During the third period, I was tripped by a stupid #46 on the other team. I got back up, and when he got the puck, shoved him to the ground. I started to skate off, but as I was skating away, I was tackled to the ground.

The guy was on top of me, so I hit and I shoved him, but he wouldn't budge. The ref kept blowing his whistle, and I saw another guy jump up and throw a punch. I was able to back away now and get a look at who it was—Cameron.

Both refs jumped in to stop a fight from breaking out. I held on to my aching wrist as I skated off slowly back to the bench.

"You okay?" Coach asked.

"Yeah." I mumbled. "Just a bit shaken up."

I took a seat at the end, taking some water and gulping. I took off my glove and massaged my left hand lightly. I only played one more shift, but as I skated off, I asked Coach to let me sit for the rest of the third, taking caution of my wrist. I doubted anything was seriously wrong, but if so, I didn't want to hurt it more.

Cameron received a penalty for being the third man in, and we were luckily able to kill it off. The other team pulled their goalie with 2 minutes left, and Gabe got an empty net goal. We all skated off the ice in victory.

Passing by Cameron, I decided I had to thank him for helping me out. "Hey." I said, my hand on his shoulder. "Thanks. I appreciate it."

"No problem. Honestly, Jon, I don't want you hating me." He says with a small smile.

"Yeah, don't worry about that." I say. Maybe I didn't really hate him as much as I thought.

The mood in the locker room was light as we all changed out of our equipment. "That was a nice ass goal, man." Tom tells me with a chuckle.

I smiled. "Yeah. It felt good."

I had finished changing before Tom, so I sat down, waiting for him. "Do you wanna go out anywhere after?" Tom asked, putting his jersey in his bag and zipping it up.

"I think I'm just gonna head home and shower. Maybe do some homework." I say, slinging my bag over my shoulder.

"How's your wrist?" Tom asked.

"It's not too bad. I'll wrap it, but I don't think anything's seriously wrong. Maybe I just fell on it the wrong way." I say, feeling my wrist lightly. If anything was actually wrong I'd be screwed, there's no way I had to deal with two injuries in the short time span that I had.

"Okay, good luck." Tom says as we leave the change room. "I'll see you later." I nod too, and the both of us head separate ways on our way home.

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