Plié and Clout

Epilogue: 5

"I'm going to need more than a 'he's chill, I like him' this time around." Dad says, fidgeting with his fingers. "He's got a pretty big job complex and there's no way that I'm going to ignore the whole engineering thing that she told us for a couple months there."

"He pulled a Hannah Montana, that's all." Tristan says. "Look, it's probably impossible for him to find a genuinely nice person when he's all famous like that. I mean, seriously, he's probably got hundreds of girls that would fork over a lung to be with him and I'm sure he's got a really hard time finding someone that's normal around him other than his family and his teammates. That's got to suck."

I point at him. "But that's also an issue, he's got hundreds of girls that would fork over a lung to be with him. At least one of them has to be crazy enough to tell August something or try to catch him off guard or lure him into being unfaithful. He's a perfectly charismatic guy from what I just saw right now, but he also doesn't give me the air of being all that smart."

Dad raises his hand to speak. "Did he even go to college?"

I pull out my phone, typing his name into google. It takes a couple seconds. "No, it doesn't seem like it. He was in the OHL, according to Tay, you get pulled up from the OHL straight to the pros if you're good enough."

"Seventh overall, he was good enough." Mom points out. "So he's never been to college. I just want to know stuff about all that hockey culture that we knew existed because of Garrett. Don't pro athletes do a lot of drugs normally? Drinking? Cheating? He said stuff about bar crawls."

Tristan shakes his head. "He also said that the Wolves program is different. Plus, those two guys that drove him here are dating. You would never be able to have a dynamic like that on a normal team of any level any sport unless it was wildly different than normal."

"They were what?" I ask, trying to give him a look that tells him he's making things up.

"Yeah, Steph made fun of the big Swedish guy for something like 'are you sure you wanted to date him?' or whatever? It was pretty clear that their dynamic was different than Steph's and theirs. Plus, the Swedish guy looked at the one with ADHD rather fondly but Steph just seemed like he was used to it at this point. They're definitely together."

We all stare blankly at Tristan.

"And how did you pick that up?" I mumble.

"Ben, be nice." Dad scolds.

"I'm just saying!"

"So they have a couple on the team and normally those two would get literally hazed until they decided to quit but they don't seem at all like that. Yeah, I know it's not good proof that they're not all doing crack on the side but it's proof enough to me that his team environment isn't going to rub off on August."

"So-"

"So what I'm saying is that he's a nice guy in a nice environment and it's pretty clear he really likes her." Tristan concludes. "I see nothing wrong with him and he seems completely harmless. I'd trust him with my drink at a party."

Mom raises her eyebrows. "But you just turned 21."

"Mom I go to UMaine Orono, the two things to do there are shovel snow and get wasted. What the hell else did you expect."

"Tri-"

"WE'RE OFF TOPIC!" I save his ass. "What about the ex? He dated a model before August. What if some of his previous expectations rub off in the form of body shaming?"

"That is a fair point," Dad says. "But August is a strong and confident girl."

"You take things differently when it comes from someone you love." I point out. "We should just wait and see as to where that goes, it can happen with ANY guy she decides to date."