The third period passes in a blur. Christian is benched for most of it—the coach says he can’t afford any more penalties, but Christian thinks it’s more than that. From the player’s box, he watches his teammates skate around the Rebels, the puck zooming from one end of the rink to the other without landing in either goal. His mind careens in much the same manner, swinging from, What the f**k does Ronnie want anyway?, to the melancholic, almost nostalgic notion that it’d be nice to catch up with him again, just like old times. By the time the buzzer sounds, he still hasn’t decided what he’s going to do. The team bus back to the hotel? Ronnie’s truck? He almost hopes for a sudden death overtime to delay his decision.
But the score remains the same as it was at the end of the second period—f
