Antagonym

Chapter 10

The click of the weights settling on the matted ground as I released the cold metal bar echoed in the large room lined with mirrors on the left. I let out a deep breath of air, my lungs aching for oxygen and my skin coated with sweat.

"So how are things with the new captain?" My brother asked from behind me, where he was spotting my lifts. I turned and looked at the shirtless lacrosse player with a breathless and exhausting look that told Finn everything he needed to know. "Don't give me that look. It can't be that bad. Sylvia hasn't mentioned your undying complaints so I thought we were on the right track."

"Well we didn't get into a flaming fight the first time we met. Unlike some people I know," I drawled with a smirk and a cocky look while crossing my sore arms.

"But?" Finn raised an eyebrow while ignoring my diss. He ran his fingers through his dirty blonde, almost brown, hair before resting his hands slow on his hips. The resemblance between the two of us was uncanny. Look wise, our apples did not fall far from our mothers tree. I guess mentally we were almost identical to each other too, because Finn could always tell when I was lying or not telling the whole truth when no one else could. In retrospect, maybe that was for the better.

I huffed out a breath in annoyance. "I may or may not have hooked up with him. But in my defense," I rushed to smother the growing upturned corners of Finn's lips. "I didn't know he was that Beck when I did. I regret it though, because if it gets out everything is ruined."

"Well if he's a decent guy, he'll keep his mouth shut. If not, Sebastian, Axel, Jason, and I all have a pretty good punch. Sylvia can throw down too," my brother stated protectively, referring to one of his best friends whom still lived in Connecticut.

"Calm down, Caveman," I snorted with an eye roll while going to the bench and picking up a Gatorade water bottle and squirting the cool liquid into my mouth for a second before continuing. "I can throw a better punch than Jason any day. He hasn't been in a fight a day in his life. And he played attack. He's supposed to be the one getting hit, not doing the hitting.

"And Axel will not be throwing any punches at Beck," I added while watching Finn change the black plates on the bar. "Apparently they're childhood best friends from Boston and no one thought mentioning that to me while I was ranting was a good idea. So your six options have been downgraded to four."

"Just rooting out the weak links," he mused when he stood up, moving to take the water bottle next to mine. "Sebastian is a defensive six foot hockey player; I'm more than sure he's gotten into a few brawls. The same could easily be said about you. Sylvia knocks men twice her size on their asses for a living and I've had my fair share of fights. Jason and Axel irrelevant."

A laugh bubbled off my lips while my feet carried me to one of the treadmills in the Riley in home training facility. Their home gym was better than most actual gyms. It must be nice to be rich. Though maybe I wasn't the one to talk, they did buy me a nice ass black corvette for making Quinnipiac on a full ride. In more ways than one, I would never be able to pay back what they had done for me. I wasn't even their child, but they treated me like I was their sister and had been all their lives. I was eternally grateful for them.

The treadmill beeped as I started it up, moving the incline up to only five percent and setting the speed to interval training. Finn joined me, doing the same. Despite having a 'full time' job as a budding hedge funder, Finn still found time to practice lacrosse and work out at least five hours a day, usually with Sylvia or at Yale with their team. While he didn't have a job there, he was basically an assistant coach. Not that he needed the salary. The Riley's were more than well off.

"Everyone knows you've punched a few guys; it's written all over your preppy face. Also, I think Jason might be slightly offended by that statement."

Finn shrugged while building up to a sprint. Effortlessly he spoke without even sounding like he was anywhere near working out. "Be sure to let him know that on Christmas. And second of all; I am not preppy." I found it absolutely adorable that Jason and his wife Al along with Sam and his wife Kelsey, still spent Christmas with Finn and Sylvia. They had all been good friends of the couple from high school and college, the Valentino's traveling all the way from DC to see Sam's family on Christmas Eve and the Riley's on Christmas.

That was one thing I loved about the my family; their capacity for love. From their adopted son, to taking me in along with accepting my friends as their own, to even the makeshift family all of their friends and their families hosting annual picnics and Forth of July's. Acceptance and support was something that was never lacking in my family. My real family.

My mother's family was never a real family. They never loved me like my brother and Sylvia did.

"Are you kidding me?" I asked incredulously. "Examine your life and tell me what part is not a preppy North-easterner attitude. You're a rich, white, male, lacrosse Olympian who lives in fucking Westport on the beach and works as a hedge funder in New York City. In the words of that shitty music you and Sylvia seem to love; you are a 'Terminal Preppie'."

"Okay," Finn drawled in a defensive tone. "Just because we agree on our love of Grandson does not make the greatest band of all time, aka the Dead Kennedys, shitty. Respect the gods of music."

"Fuck off, Old Man."

"It's not like I grew up in the 70's when they were popular. Watch who you're calling old because I still pay your rent." I was already panting as we ran on the treadmill in intervals but the pace didn't seem to affect Finn in the slightest. How he managed to have a heart that healthy was beyond me. That was one thing his dad must have given him, because I always was and always will be a heaving mess.

"So your first game is coming up," Finn brought up.

"It's a lot of the same players from last year. I'm not too worried. Beck even asked me about what I thought of the lineup, so it's not like I've lost total control," I shrugged dismissively but that was not what Finn was thinking.

"And here you were thinking this new captain was going to screw everything up. Did Jack used to ask your opinions on offensive lines? I don't think so." That might have been true but Jack let me decide on the defensive line for three years. He was a senior last year and our team captain. The center ended up getting drafted to the Canadiens which wasn't too bad for himself but he wasn't exactly starting either.

"Sylvia might not have been a captain, but I thought the same exact thing about her when we met. I'm just saying you should get to know the guy. You'll be together all year, especially if he's Axel's friend."

"It's not about being friends with him. Maybe at first I was a little hostile but I'm not anymore. This is about the fact that I slept with him when I shouldn't have," I exhaled deeply in disappointment and exhaustion. My legs were sore from all the sprinting, no matter how well my muscles and butt were built from hours on the ice. Workout days in the gym were always the worst.

"Then just don't fuck him again. It's as simple as that," Finn answered like it was the easiest thing in the world. I almost burst out laughing at his foolishness.

"You have to know that's so not true, and Sylvia agrees with me one hundred percent," I fought back. Finn was a guy, and as much as he understood the struggles Sylvia and I went through, he didn't think like us. "You already know the things they say about me online. If it gets out by accident that I was having sex with the captain it will destroy my credibility. More than anyone on that team, I can not afford screw ups and distractions. There can't be a doubt in any GM's mind about my laser focus and commitment. They don't want a girl on their ice distracting their star players; you thought the exact same thing about Sylvia."

"And I've realized that nine times out of ten you end up like a brother, not some girl to fool around with. If those front offices can't realize that you have to be four times better than any of the guys to even be considered on the same level, then they don't deserve you."

I couldn't help but snort despite my heavy breathing and the sweat forming on my forehead. "Thanks, Bro, but I'd like any position I can get so I'll take anything at this point."

"You know what I meant," Finn scoffed and rolled his eyes. "You'll be fine. Just remember what you're there for and everything will work itself out."

"Thanks, Finn. Love you."

"Love you, too.