The Hockey Boy

Chapter 18

TY

December 24

"Bye, Mom, bye Dad, I'll be back in a few hours!" I called before leaving the house. I was wearing a sparkly, ruby red party dress. The dress was fitted at the top, and it poofed out at the waist and went down to about mid-thigh. I loved the dress, and I hoped Jake would love it, too.

I turned the key to my Silverado and cranked the heat. My dress may have been cute, but it certainly wasn't warm.

Tonight, I was hoping to get some answers about what kind of person Jake really was. With me, Jake had always been a nice, funny, gentleman, but the other day when I heard him arguing with Easton, well, I began to doubt if he was being honest with me. Jake was totally hot, but if he wasn't the type of person I thought he was... I just didn't know.

I tried to talk to Cal about Jake the day before, but he said he knew nothing about Jake, so he wasn't the person to talk to. I was on my own for this particular event.

I glanced at my phone to look at the directions to Jake's house one last time. I memorized the directions, then backed out of my driveway.

Twenty minutes later, I arrived at Jake's house. There were cars everywhere, so I had to park about a block away. I didn't bring a jacket, so the short walk to my boyfriend's house was a cold one. As soon as I entered the house, I smelled the alcohol. The stench of alcohol was sto strong, it was making my eyes water.

Of all the people I saw at the party, at least 90% of them had to be drunk. Most of the people I saw were basketball players, football players, baseball players, or cheerleaders. I saw no hockey players whatsoever, and I was very glad. I never drink, ever, and neither do any of my teammates. The girls hockey team doesn't drink, either. Molly, the captain of the team, keeps all of the girls in shape while I keep all of the guys in line.

I began to search for Jake with no luck. I had never been to his house before, and it was pretty big. I had no idea where I was going.

Finally, I found a semi-sober person and asked them, "Hey, do you know where Jake is?"

"Uh, I think he's upstairs in one of the bedrooms," the guy slurred in reply.

"Thanks," I replied before quickly heading upstairs. The upstairs of the house was just as confusing as the first level. I had no idea where I was going, so I opened every door I went by. I was a little scared as to what I would find in each room, but so far, every room I had looked into was empty.

After about five minutes of searching, I reached the last room on the second floor. I could hear two people in the room, but I wasn't sure what they were doing. Nervously, I put my ear up against the door. I could hear a girl giggle, "Oh, Jake, you're so muscular."

I could feel my face grow red with rage. I threw open the door to the bedroom, not caring what I would find inside. "How could you!" I screamed. Jake and the girl he was with in bed turned to face me. I had caught them when they were both still half-clothed, thankfully.

"Ty, it's not what it looks like!" cried Jake as he hopped out of the bed. I looked past him to see who he was with, and it was none other than Tara, the head cheerleader.

"Really, Tara, really? You were going to hook-up with a guy that had a girlfriend? Classy, really classy," I spat.

"What do you mean 'had', Ty?" asked Jake hesitantly.

"I mean we're done, Jake. I knew you were too nice to be legit. I really knew something was up when I heard you and Easton fighting in the hallway the other day. I can't believe you'd do this to me. Actually, I can. You seem like the type. You really were just trying to use me," I almost growled in a low voice.

"Ty, come on, I know I messed up, but please, give me a second chance," begged Jake.

"Jake, look where you are right now. You're standing half-naked in a bedroom with a girl that isn't even your girlfriend. You're not even drunk. I can't believe that I ever liked you. I'm leaving. Don't ever talk to me again, or my hockey buddies and I will beat the crap out of you. Good-bye, Jake," I spat.

"Ty, wait," Jake said softly as he walked over to me. "I love you, and I really screwed up. Please, give me a second chance."

"In your dreams, pretty boy," I hissed. I noticed a red solo cup full of beer sitting on the bedside table, so I grabbed it and threw it in Jake's face. "Does that give you an idea of what I think of you right now?" I threw the cup on the ground and stormed out of the bedroom, slamming the door behind me.

"Ty, seriously, wait!" Jake called after me, beer dripping down his face, but I knew that he wouldn't chase after me for long. In a few minutes, he'd give up and go back to Tara. I had always hated that girl.

I managed to make it outside of the house before I started crying. I climbed into my truck and started bawling. I am a seriously ugly crier. I don't know how long I sat there crying before my phone started to ring. I looked at the screen and answered the phone. "Yeah?" I answered inbetween sobs.

"Ty? Ty, what's wrong? Are you hurt? Where are you?" the guy on the other end asked frantically.

"I'm not hurt, it's just- I'm at- He was with-" I whispered between sobs.

"Ty, where are you at?" he asked calmly.

"I'm outside of Jake's house," I squeaked.

"I'm coming to get you," he stated firmly.

"Easton-"

"No, you are in no shape to be driving right now. You do not need to be getting into an accident. I'll be there in five mintues."

"But you're like twenty minutes away from where I am," I argued.

"I'll be there in five," Easton said again.

"Okay," I said quietly before hanging up. Five minutes later, just as he had said, Easton showed up outside of Jake's house. He got out of his Lexus and made his way over to my Chevy. Easton came over and opened my door.

"Oh, Ty," he whispered as he gently lifted me out of the car. "What happened?"

"Jake was... He was going to cheat on me with the stupid head cheerleader. I'm sure he's with her right now," I muttered bitterly.

"Ty, I'm so sorry," Easton sympathized as he pulled me into a hug. "You're freezing, Ty, here," he said before pulling the hoodie he was wearing off and handing it to me.

"But now you'll be cold," I muttered, staring at his muscular, bare chest.

"Just take the jacket, Ty. You need it more than I do," he argued.

"Fine," I uttered, taking the jacket and putting it on. "Thanks, Easton."

"No problem," he smiled. "Do you want me to take you home?"

"No," I sighed. "I don't really want to face my dad right now. He never liked Jake in the first place, and I really don't feel like seeing him in an 'I told you so' mood."

"I was hoping you'd say that," Easton said mysteriously. "I have an idea. Do you have your skates with?"

"Always," I replied, opening the back of my truck and grabbing my skates.

"Perfect, let's go," he said before leading me to his Lexus.

"Where are we going?" I asked curiously, drying my tears.

"I have a surprise for you," he replied vaguely.

"Where?" I asked again.

"The X," he smirked before putting his car into gear and leaving Jake's house behind.

***

"Here we are," he announced once we had reached the hockey rink.

"Are you sure we're allowed to be here?" I asked.

"Yeah, it's fine. Yeo doesn't care if we come here to get some extra practice in."

"So we're going to be practicing hockey here, right?"

"Yup," he replied simply, getting out of the car.

I jumped out of the car and excitedly said, "You mean I get to practice here? Dude, this is going to be great!"

"I thought you'd be excited. Here," he replied, tossing me a pair of sweatpants from his trunk.

"What are these for?" I asked.

"For you, obviously. I'm pretty sure you're not going to skate wearing a party dress, are you?"

"I could if I had to," I muttered.

"Whatever. I'm not going to make you do that tonight," he laughed, grabbing a hoodie from the trunk for himself and pulling it over his head.

"Thanks, Easton. Really, an Andover hockey sweatshirt?" I questioned, eyeing his sweatshirt.

"Hey, Andover was my high school and always will be. Don't look too disappointed. I know you wanted to see me practice shirtless, but the rink's too cold for me to do that," he laughed when he saw the look of shock on my face. "Come on, I could see you staring."

"I wasn't staring!" I protested.

"Don't lie, Ty. Lying isn't a good habit to have," smirked Easton.

"Man, you go from hero to jerk in seconds," I grumbled, heading towards the door to the Excel Energy Center. Easton didn't reply to me. Instead, he just followed me in the direction of the X.

"Is the door open?" I asked. Easton didn't say anything, but he walked in front of me and held the door open for me.

"After you, my lady," he said, pretending to be a gentleman. I just rolled my eyes and walked through the door.

"You guys seriously leave the doors unlocked here?"

"Yup. There are always people workng in here, anyway, so it doesn't really matter," Easton explained.

"Okay," I replied, uncertain of how I should reply to that.

"Follow me," Easton stated as he starting going down a flight of stairs. I did as he said. We rounded a few corners before I saw the beautifully carved Minnesota Wild logo on the wooden doors to the team's locker room. Easton went inside the locker room for a minute before popping his head back out. "No one's in here, so you can come in."

"Okay, now I know that this is against the rules," I said.

"Are you really going to pass up the opportunity to come inside the Minnesota Wild's locker room? You may never have this chance again," tempted Easton. I sighed, but then entered the locker room.

"Wow," I gasped as I entered the room. It was huge!

I walked around for a while, taking everything in before Easton pointed to a corner and said, "You can change over there. I promise I won't peek."

"You perv," I insulted, punching his arm before walking around the corner to change. I took off Easton's green Wild hoodie before taking off my red dress. I knew I'd never wear the dress again because it'd bring back bad memories. I kicked the dress into the corner and slid on Easton's huge, gray sweatpants. I pulled the drawstring as tight as I could and knotted it securely so my pants wouldn't fall down. I had spandex on underneath, so it wouldn't really be a big deal if they did happen to fall down.

"You ready?" Easton asked.

"Yup," I replied with a smile. He left the locker room and I followed him in the direction of the ice. When he pushed open the door that lead to the rink, the view took my breath away. I had been to the X countless times, but I had never been on the ice before.

Easton walked over to the Wild's bench to put his skates on, and I followed him. I slid my skates on, then stepped onto the perfectly smooth ice for the first time. The ice felt amazing. I skated around for a while, wide smile on my face, before turning around to look at Easton. His eyes were glittering, and he had a content smile on his face.

"What are you staring at?" I asked him.

"You look so happy, so free," he replied coolly.

"You're such a dork," I said, skating over to him. "Hey, I never asked, why were you calling me in the first place before?"

"Oh, I was just calling to see how you were doing. I hadn't heard from you in a while, so I was just wondering. Isn't that what friends do?"

"Yeah, I guess," I shrugged. "Oh, I heard you and Jake fighting outside of the locker room the other day. I heard what he said about wanting to use me, but I didn't want to believe it. I should've called you and asked you what was up, but I was stupid and didn't. I didn't want to believe that Jake wasn't the person I thought he was."

"No, Ty, it's my fault. I should've called you and warned you about Jake. I didn't because I didn't want you to get mad at me. I'm sorry," Easton apologized sincerely.

"Easton, you don't have to be sorry. Even if you had called me, I probably wouldn't have listened to you anyway. This whole thing was my fault," I insisted.

"No, Ty, this wasn't your fault at all. You couldn't help it that Jake turned out to be a total douche. Okay, enough with the serious stuff. Let's shoot," Easton said, changing the subject. He skated over to the bench and grabbed a bag of about 50 hockey pucks. He also grabbed a piece of cardboard, but I couldn't tell what it was. Easton skated by me and set the cardboard up in front of the goal. I laughed when I saw what it was.

"Why the heck do you have a life-size cardboard cut-out of my ex-boyfriend?" I laughed as I looked at the cut-out. "You're such a stalker!"

"Hey, I needed to get my anger out somehow, and since I have quite a bit of money now, well, I spend it on stupid stuff like that," he said sheepishly.

"Were you seriously planning on coming down here to shoot at a cardboard cut-out of my ex-boyfriend?" I asked, still laughing. "You're pathetic."

"Yeah, I know, but look, it's really going to come in handy now, huh?"

"You dork," I said as I shook my head. Easton skated out to center ice and dumped out the pucks.

I skated over to him and told him, "Easton, I don't have a hockey stick."

He just laughed in reply before saying, "Follow me." Easton walked back into the locker room and went over to one of the player's cubbies and handed me a hockey stick. "Here. Not many of the guys on the team use Bauers, but Nino Niederreiter is one of them. Most of the guys on the team use Reeboks or Eastons."

I rolled my eyes and took the stick. "Thanks, but will Nino care?"

"Naw, he and I are buddies," Easton replied before walking back out to the ice.

When I was back on the ice, I skated out to the center, Bauer in hand, and took one of the pucks down the ice.

"Have at it," Easton smiled from behind me. I skated towards the goal and shot the puck straight through the cardboard Jake's stomach. "GOOOOAAAAAL!" Easton screamed.

"You're such a dork," I laughed.

"You've only said that, like, three times tonight," Easton pointed out.

"Oh, shut up," I said, skating back to center ice. I took another puck and shot it at the fake Jake, this time puncturing his left shoulder. I continued shooting at Jake's cardboard twin until the pucks ran out, Easton taking a shot every now and then as well.

"How do you feel?" Easton asked hesitantly as he skated over to me.

"Empty still, but better," I replied with a sigh before I started tearing up. "I just can't believe he'd try to use me like that while cheating on me, too." Easton dropped his stick onto the ice before enveloping me in his arms.

"I'm sorry, Ty, I really am. I know what it's like to have your heart broken," he said gently while smoothing my hair.

"Why are you being so nice to me? The whole time I've known you I've been nothing but a selfish b***h," I said, stepping away from Easton. "The first time I saw you, I ended up hitting you in the face with a hockey stick. From then on, I've been totally rude to you when you have been trying to support me and help me. I just don't get it."

"I may be a self-centered, cocky, arrogant, egotistical, stubborn hockey player, but I really care about you. I'm sorry for the night after you came to my game. I'm sorry I pushed you until you broke. I'm sorry I basically forced you to kiss me. I'm sorry I took advantage of you. And most of all, Ty, I'm sorry for acting like I owned you."

"Thank you, Easton. I'm sorry, too, for not telling you everything and for not trusting you. I'm sorry for judging you before I met you. You may be a self-centered, cocky, arrogant, egotistical, stubborn hockey player, but you're certainly not a bad person. You proved that to me tonight. I'm really glad I met you."

"I'm glad I met you too, Ty," he smiled, stepping close to me.

"Hey, I was wondering, this is a really personal question but still, were you telling the whole truth when you were arguing with Jake? Have you really never had a girlfriend?" I asked cautiously. "You don't have to answer if it makes you uncomfortable."

"No, I've never had a girlfriend. I've always been too focused on hockey to have one. And yes, I am a virgin, I'll save you the awkwardness of asking me that," he laughed.

"Easton, you just made it awkward by saying that out loud."

"Oops, sorry," he laughed, not sounding sorry at all. "I just thought you should know." Easton seemed to realize how close he was to me, so he stepped back from me. "Sorry."

"What are you sorry for?" I asked. "Why are you being so... hesitant about being close to me?"

"Ty, I've already screwed up things with you once, and I don't plan on doing it again. I'm not going to push you, not anymore. Yes, I'm still attracted to you, I have been since I first laid my eyes on you, but you just broke up with your boyfriend, and I respect that. I'll give you space, as much as you need," Easton said, backing away from me even more.

"Easton," I whispered, confused. I didn't know what to do. I didn't like Jake anymore, that was for sure, but I wasn't sure about Easton. I felt something for him, but I was scared to look into my heart to see what it was. I was scared I was going to get my heart broken again.

"I'm not going to push you, I promise. I'll take you home now if you want me to," he said.

"No, Easton, I don't want to leave, not yet. I'm... confused, I'll admit it."

"I don't want to rush you into anything, but look into your heart. Listen to what it has to say," Easton said, staring at me intensely.

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. I tried to look into my heart, and I finally heard what it had been trying to tell me all along. I skated closely to Easton, so close that we were touching.

"Did your heart tell you something?" he whispered hopefully, touching his forehead to mine.

"Yeah, it's been telling me something all along. I finally decided to listen," I whispered back before pressing my lips to his. Easton wrapped his arms around my waist and pulled me as close to him as humanly possible. This kiss was just as amazing as our first one. Fireworks were exploding as intensely as before. After a while, Easton tried to back away from me, but I trapped him between my hockey stick and me and said, "No, don't ever let me go."

"I won't, I promise," he whispered back before kissing me again.

***

Easton

Ty was the one to pull away from our second kiss. She smiled widely at me before skating down to the goal to retrieve some of the pucks. She brought them out to center ice and began to shoot at the opposite goal as before. I just shook my head and smiled. Ryan had been right. I had left Ty alone for a while, and eventually, she had come back to me. I couldn't remember a time I had been happier than I was at that moment. Ty had finally listened to her heart.

I glanced over at the door that led to the locker room and saw Ryan there, smiling. I knew that he had seen everything. He caught me staring at him, and he smiled at me and flashed me a thumbs-up before retreating back into the locker room. I would have to remember to thank him tomorrow at practice.

I skated over to the goal full of pucks and gathered a few before skating over by Ty. I shot a few goals alongside Ty before saying, "You have an amazing shot. You're such a talented player."

"You should be talking, Mr. Hot Shot. You're the one that's playing on a pro team," she replied sassily.

"Hey, you'll be there in about a year and a half. I'm sure of it," I said confidently.

"Are you so sure they'll let a girl into the NHL?"

"Actually, most people don't know that you're a girl, yet. Yeo didn't even know you were a girl up until a few weeks ago when I told him. You have a real shot at making it into the NHL, I'm telling you," he repeated.

"Whatever, even if I do make it into the NHL, I'm sure the other players won't treat me as an equal."

"It won't matter. If you're a good hockey player, which you are, the other players will accept you, I promise."

"I'm gonna hold you to that promise, you know," Ty said playfully, poking my chest with her hockey stick.

"Come here," I laughed, pulling her close to me before kissing her powerfully.

"I like you, West, I like you a lot," she breathed, leaning her forehead on mine.

"I like you a lot, too, Brady. Will you go out on a date with me?"

"What do you think this is?" she laughed in reply.

We staying there in the rink shooting well past midnight, sharing a few kisses between shots. I drove her back to her Silverado before giving her one last good night kiss.

"See you soon, Brady?" I asked.

"Very soon, West," she replied with a wink before driving away.

When I reached my apartment that early morning, I was able to fall asleep with a smile on my face. I could finally call Ty Brady mine.