The Hockey Lie

Chapter 8

TY

October 1

"All right, guys, first practice of the season. This is where it all starts. You start working now, it'll make postseason that much easier for you guys. I know these first few weeks are gonna feel like torture, but trust me, it'll be work it," Coach Lucia said.

"Basically, he's saying we're going to die," Seth whispered to me.

"I was thinking the same thing," I whispered back.

"First things first, in order to play hockey, you'll all need to be in good shape. You can start practice off with ten suicides," Lucia stated.

Nobody protested because we all knew that if we did, the consequences would be much worse than ten suicides.

"And so it begins," I muttered to Seth.

"Welcome to college hockey," he replied.

***

Three hours later, I was dead.

My first college hockey practice was ten times harder than my hardest high school practice. I was amazed I was still alive with how many sprints we skated.

"That. Was. Awful," I panted as we headed out to the locker rooms.

"That wasn't even bad. Just wait until we get into real conditioning practices," laughed Seth.

"You're kidding, right?" I groaned.

"Nope," Seth chirped.

"He's not kidding," Jared Lund jumped in, walking up from behind us. "That was nothing. You should see what Lucia puts us through when he's mad."

"It gets pretty intense," agreed Seth.

"Ugh," I groaned. "Conditioning will be the death of me."

"You'll get used to it, believe me," said Jared.

"I hope you're right," I said.

"Seth, Jared, Ty, I need to talk to you," Cullen called from behind us.

"What's up, captain?" Seth asked.

"I think that you three and I need to get to know each other better. Want to go out for dinner tonight?" Cullen suggested.

"Yeah, that sounds good," I replied with a smile.

"It's cool with me. Where were you thinking about eating?" asked Seth.

"Well, I don't know about you guys, but after that rough practice, I'm in the mood for some Italian," Cullen said.

"Same," I agreed as Cullen and I glanced at Seth and Jared, waiting for their responses.

"Italian sounds good to me," Seth agreed without hesitation.

"I'm cool with Italian. We should go to Olive Garden," said Jared.

"All right. How about you guys meet me at my dorm in an hour? I live in Sanford Hall, room 223," said Cullen.

"Okay, sounds good," I agreed.

"All right. See you three in a while," Cullen smiled.

"Where do you guys live?" asked Seth.

"I live right in Sanford. I'm only a few doors down from Cullen," said Jared.

"I live in Centennial," I replied.

"Perfect, I do, too. How about I meet you in the lounge before we go out for supper? Then we can walk to Sanford together," suggested Seth.

"That sounds like a good idea. I'll text you when I'm ready," I replied.

"I'll just walk down with Cullen and meet you guys at Sanford," said Jared.

"Perfect. I'll see you guys in about an hour," said Seth.

Seth, Jared, and I parted ways, and I headed into the girls locker room to shower and change. I quickly changed into sweats and then headed back to my dorm room.

"Hey, Steph," I greeted my roommate as I walked into our dorm.

"Hey, Ty. Are you headed out somewhere?" she asked me as I rummaged through my clothes, looking for something somewhat nice to wear.

"Yeah. I'm going out for supper with Seth, Jared, and Cullen. They're captains of the guy's hockey team," I explained.

"Wait, how do you know all those guys? Oh wait, nevermind. You have a class with Seth or something, right?"

"Right," I replied. "Seth and the guys decided they wanted to go out for dinner, and for some reason they invited me along."

"Ooo, that's cute," Steph commented, eyeing the flannel I had in my hands.

"Thanks," I replied with a smile, quickly sliding into my skinny jeans and flannel.

"You look hot. Are you sure this isn't a date?" teased Steph. "I mean, why would not one but three hockey boys ask you to go out with them if it wasn't some sort of date?"

"Last time I checked I was dating a guy named Easton, not a guy named Seth, Jared, or Cullen," I rolled my eyes. "They know I'm dating Easton, so it's obviously not a date. Plus, why would I go out on a date with three guys at once?"

"Oh, you never know," winked Steph. "By the way, where were you before this?"

"First off, ew. That's just disgusting. I'm just going to pretend you didn't say that. Second of all, I was studying in the library," I lied.

"But your hair's wet," Steph pointed out.

"Yeah, I decided that I needed to shower before going out tonight," I covered.

"All right," Steph said flatly, clearly not buying my lies.

"I'll see you later tonight," I said hastily, trying to escape the dorm before Steph could ask me any more questions. It was really important that she didn't find out that I was on the hockey team.

"Don't have too much fun!" Steph called after me.

"I won't," I laughed in reply. I texted Seth that I was on my way down to the lounge.

When I got down there, he was already waiting for me. "What took you so long?" Seth asked.

"I'm sorry. This takes time to perfect," I replied sassily, gesturing to my outfit.

"Whatever," Seth replied, rolling his eyes. "Let's just go meet Cullen and Jared."

"Great idea," I laughed. We walked over to Jared and Cullen's dorm complex and waited for them in the hallway. After a few minutes, we saw the pair walking towards us.

"Hey, guys. Sorry it took us so long. My roommate got his foot stuck in between our wardrobes," Cullen shook his head. When he saw our confused looks, he said, "Just don't ask. He's kind of an idiot."

"Yeah, I had to help pull his foot out," added Jared.

"All right, enough about my idiotic roommate. Who's ready for some Olive Garden?" asked Cullen.

"Let's go, I'm starving!" emphasized Seth.

The four of us headed out to Cullen's car. I gripped the handle on the door, bracing myself for Cullen's terrible driving.

"I see you've learned your lesson from the last time you rode with Cullen," whispered Jared, who had sat in the back with me. He had said that sentence in a quiet voice, so Cullen wouldn't hear him.

"Yeah," I laughed. "I learned my lesson."

"What was that?" Cullen asked pointedly.

"Nothing, Captain, my Captain," I teased.

"That's going to get really old really quickly. I can feel it," muttered Cullen.

"Well get used to it because by the end of the season, even Lucia will be saying it," laughed Seth.

"Great," Cullen said sarcastically.

A few minutes later, by some miracle, we arrived at Olive Garden safely. We walked inside, and Cullen told the waitress that there were four of us. "Right this way," the waitress smiled. We followed her to a decently-sized booth. "Your server will be right with you."

"Thanks," Jared smiled cheesily.

Seth whacked him on the back of the head and said, "Quit flirting with the waitress. Jeez, we just got here."

"Shut up, man. I'm single. Let me live," Jared grumbled in reply, rubbing the back of his head.

"We have got go get you a girlfriend," sighed Cullen.

"Ty, you know any girls?" asked Seth.

"I'll see what I can do," I laughed.

"All right, are you all ready to order?" the waitress asked once she came over to our table. She had also brought soup and breadsticks with her, thankfully. We all ordered our food, and the waitress left to go put our orders in.

"So, what do you guys like to do in your spare time?" Cullen asked us.

"I collect stamps," Seth said seriously.

"You have got to be kidding me," Jared said.

"Yeah, I'm just kidding. I actually really like to play golf. In the summer of course, I mean I can't exactly play in the middle of the winter here. It's a little too snowy for that," laughed Seth.

"That's cool," I said. "My best friend Cal and I like to golf, too."

"Where does he go to school?" asked Jared.

"He goes to UMD. He's actually going to play hockey there," I stated.

"That's going to be weird, isn't it laying against your best friend that goes to a rival school?" asked Cullen.

"Yeah, it'll be really weird," I agreed. "But we'll manage. We talked about it before we left for college. This isn't going to change our friendship."

"It shouldn't. Plenty of NHL players on different teams are good friends. For crying out loud, Mikko Koivu and his brother are on different teams and they get along just fine," pointed out Cullen.

"It's funny that you mentioned Koivu of all people. He and my boyfriend don't exactly see eye to eye," I laughed, thinking about Koivu and Easton's ongoing rivalry.

"Easton West and Mikko Koivu don't get along?" asked Jared.

"Well, it's not that they don't get along, exactly. In the beginning of last season, Easton's rookie year, he didn't exactly treat Koivu with the respect that he should've. He still doesn't respect Koivu as much as he should, but he's gotten better," I explained.

"Have you ever met him?" asked Seth.

"Who? Koivu? Yeah, I've met him. He was really nice to me, and it really irritated Easton. It was pretty hilarious, actually," I laughed at the memory.

"It sounds like Koivu was just trying to get a rise out of Easton," said Jared.

"That's exactly what he was doing. Although Koivu don't really joke around with Easton as much as some of the other guys. Oh my gosh, Charlie Coyle and Jason Zucker are the worst to Easton. Those two feed off of each other's energy and it gets out of control," I laughed, thinking about the dynamic duo's antics.

"It sounds like you know the guys pretty well," commented Cullen.

"Yeah, I've met a lot of them more than once. They've become some of my good friend," I said. "I love them to death."

"It sounds like it," said Seth.

"So, do you guys have any good friends playing hockey anywhere?" I asked.

"My best friend is playing DII hockey back home in Michigan," said Jared.

"Oh yeah, you're from Michigan. I forgot that," said Cullen.

"Dirty Red Wings fan," muttered Seth.

"Hey, don't bash my Red Wings!" protested Jared.

"We'll bash your Red Wings all we want. You're in Wild territory here, buddy," smirked Seth.

Jared muttered something undecipherable under his breath, and the rest of us laughed. "Hey, when you're with three born-and-raised Minnesotans and you're talking about hockey teams, you don't stand a chance," I pointed out.

Jared rolled his eyes at us as the waitress brought our food. "Enjoy, you four. If you need anything, just ask," the waitress told us.

"Thanks," I replied with a smile.

The four of us ate our food and chatted. I learned a lot about the other three guys. It turned out that they like a lot of the same things as me. They asked me a few more questions about Easton and the rest of the wild players, which I happily answered. I ended up finishing my food before the rest of the guys, so I excused myself to go to the bathroom.

When I exited the restroom, there was a guy that looked to be about my age standing outside the bathroom waiting for me.

"Hey," he greeted me.

"Hey," I replied hesitantly. "Do I know you?"

"Probably not, but I've seen you around campus. You go to the U, right?" he asked me.

"Yeah, I do."

"Don't worry, I'm not stalking you," he laughed. "It's purely coincidence that we're here at the same time, although it seems like a good coincidence. You caught my eye the first time I saw you. Now that I finally have a chance to ask, can I get your number?"

"First off, I don't even know your name, so no, you can't have my number. Secondly, I have a boyfriend, so again, no. Sorry, but I'm already taken," I said seriously.

"Sorry, I suppose I should introduce myself. I'm Zac," he said, reaching out his hand to shake mine.

I ignored the gesture and said, "Sorry, it's not gonna happen. Looks like you're going to have to start chasing some other girl."

"Okay, okay, I'll leave, but I have one more question for you. Which one of the guys you're with is your boyfriend?" he asked.

I laughed and replied, "None of them. Those guys are just my friends."

"Well, then who's your boyfriend?" he pried.

"Do you follow the Wild?" I answered with a question.

"I'm a Minnesotan, of course I follow the Wild," he scoffed.

"Well, then you should know my boyfriend," I smirked. "I'm dating Easton West." I made sure to take a glance at the shocked look on Zac's face before heading back to my fellow captains.

"Who was that?" asked Cullen, gesturing at Zac.

"He said his name was Zac," I rolled my eyes. "He was trying to get my number. You should've seen the look on his face when I told him I was dating Easton."

"Oh, believe me, we did," laughed Seth. "We were wondering what you had said to him."

"Well, now you know," I laughed.

"So, do you think we should head back to campus?" asked Cullen.

"Wait, but we still have to pay the bill," I said.

"Nah, I already took care of that," Cullen shrugged.

"Cullen, you didn't have to do that. I'll pay you back!" I exclaimed.

"No, I'm the captain. It's my treat," he argued.

"Okay, but you don't have to buy all the time. Next time, we can split the bill," I said.

"Fine. All right, guys, let's go," Cullen said, standing up. We all climbed back into Cullen's death-trap of a car and headed back to the U.

"This was fun. We should do this again sometime," suggested Seth.

"Yeah, I agree," I replied.

"All right. I suppose a few more captain get-togethers wouldn't hurt," laughed Cullen. "I'll see you guys at practice."

"Bye," I called as Jared and Cullen headed back to Sanford. Seth and I turned around and headed in the opposite direction towards Centennial.

"Well, I guess I'll see you around, Ty," Seth said when we got to my floor.

"Yeah, I'll see you later. Well, I've got to go do my psychology homework now," I groaned.

"Sounds like fun," laughed Seth.

"No, it's really not," I muttered. "My teacher's a psycho. Oh, the irony!"

Seth laughed at me before saying, "Well, I'll leave you to do that. Bye."

"Bye," I said before waving. Then I headed in the direction of my dorm.

When I got there, Steph was in the room. "So, how was your dinner?" she asked.

"It was nice, except some random guy in the restaurant said he'd seen me around campus and tried to get my number. It was so weird. You should've seen the look on his face when I told him I was dating Easton," I laughed.

"Oh my gosh! I wish I could've seen that," laughed Steph. "So, are you ready to tell me what you're hiding from me?"

I froze up at her question. She was on to me. "I'm not hiding anything, Steph."

"Well, I don't believe you. I know we haven't known each other for very long, but I thought that we were becoming pretty good friends. I'm not going to push you, but when you're ready, just know that you can tell me anything," Steph said, staring me in the eye.

"I'll keep that in mind, even though I'm not hiding anything," I lied again. "I'm gonna try to my psych homework now."

"I'll help you with that if you'll help me with this Chemistry. Gosh, I hate this class," muttered Steph.

"Of course I'll help you. Anything for psychology help," I laughed.

"We've barely started college and we're already sick of the homework," laughed Steph. "We're pathetic."

"That we are, but at least we're in this together," I replied, opening my fifty-pound backpack.