The Hockey Lie

Chapter 12

TY

October 30

"We need to talk," Steph said seriously the second I stepped foot into our dorm.

"Okay?" I replied confusedly.

"Where have you been running off to all the time?" Steph asked, taking a break from painting her toenails.

"I- um, well I like to work out a lot," I made up.

"At the weird hours you're gone from the dorm?"

"Yeah, I like working out when I get free time," I said hesitantly.

"You have free time a lot in the afternoon, but you seem to be mostly gone either early mornings or late nights or weekends," Steph pointed out. I guess she had been paying attention to my schedule. "And what about the nights when you don't get back until like 11 or midnight? And the nights you don't come back to the dorm at all?" She was talking about game nights.

"Well, I go home sometimes on the weekend," I lied.

"You've never talked about going home," Steph said.

"Yeah, I guess not. Sorry, I'll let you know where I am more. Sorry if I've been kind of off the grid lately. All this schoolwork has been stressing me out, and working out is the way I deal with stress. Sorry if I've been making you worry," I apologized.

"It's okay, but I still don't believe you," Steph said flatly. "It's okay if you don't want to tell me whatever is going on with you. I know we haven't known each other very long and it would make sense if you didn't want to tell me, but I just want you to know that you can tell me anything."

"Thanks for that, Steph, but it's nothing, really," I lied again. I felt bad lying to her, but I couldn't risk having her tell anybody. I figured that she'd eventually find out I was on the hockey team, but I'd cross that bridge when I got to it.

"All right, if you say so..." she huffed.

"How about I make it up to you?" I suggested.

"How so?" Steph asked.

"One of my buddies invited me to a Halloween party tomorrow. Do you want to go along with me?" I asked. Cullen was throwing a party, and he told me that I could invite someone along.

"Yeah, that sounds like a lot of fun!" Steph exclaimed. "But since it's a Halloween party, what are we going to wear?"

"Oh, I hadn't really thought of that," I admitted.

"That's all right. I'll come up with something. Don't worry about it, I've got you covered," Steph beamed.

"Yeah, that's right. This costume had better cover me," I muttered, praying that Steph wouldn't put me in some tight little leotard with cat ears and a tail.

"Don't worry about a thing. I already have the perfect costume for you. All I need is some supplies. Speaking of which, I'm going to make a Walmart run, so I'll be back in an hour or two," Steph said.

"I'll come with you," I said, but Steph shot me down.

"No way! Your costume is going to be a surprise!"

"Fine," I grumbled, as Steph left the dorm. I could only hope that her costume ideas were good ones.

***

"Steph, you are a genius!" I squealed as I finally got to see my costume for the first time.

"Thank you, thank you very much. As soon as you said 'Halloween party', I automatically thought you'd make a great gumball machine," Steph smirked.

"This is so creative! I never would've thought of this," I said, looking at the costume with awe. Steph had found a red skater skirt and sewed it to a black tank top, which she had glued poms poms to. To finish the costume off, Steph had attached a piece of tagboard with the crank and slot drawn on it to the skirt. The costume was perfect.

"It is pretty great, isn't it?" Steph laughed.

"You're so crafty. I was never good at artsy stuff," I admitted.

"That's okay. You seem to be very athletic," Steph complimented.

If you only knew, I thought to myself. "So what are you going to be?" I asked her.

"I'm going to be the classic cat," Steph replied. She was going to be wearing a black leotard with leggings underneath and a pair of sparkly cat ears. To finish off the costume, Steph was going to wear a pair of bright red Stilettos.

"Sexy," I replied with a laugh.

"That's what I was going for," Steph winked. "What time does the party start?"

"It starts at ten, which is in about an hour," I replied.

"Perfect. We can get ready, and by the time we get there it will be considered fashionably late," Steph chirped. "Now change into your costume quickly. I want to have enough time to do your hair."

"Okay, okay, I'm changing, chill!" I exclaimed.

"This night is going to be perfect, I can feel is," smiled Steph.

About an hour and fifteen minutes, Steph and I had managed to get ourselves ready for the party. Her makeup was on point. She had done her cat makeup beautifully, and I had to admit, she looked pretty sexy. Steph had pulled my hair back into a pony tail with a braid on the side and done my makeup with a pastel candy-colored theme.

"I think we're good to go," I commented.

"We look hot," Steph smirked. "Now where is this party at?"

"It's at Cullen's frat house," I replied. "It's not too far from here."

"Good, because I don't want to spend all night walking. Now let's go," Steph said.

She walked out of our dorm, and I followed. When we reached the main level of our dorm building, I saw Seth, dressed in a suit, heading out the door. "Hey, Seth!" I called.

"Oh, hey, Ty. Are you headed to Cullen's party, too?" he asked, eyeing my costume.

"How did you ever guess?" I asked, feigning surprise.

"Oh, I don't know. The gumball costume kind of gave you away. Speaking of which, that's a great costume," he complimented.

"You can thank the talented Steph over here for that," I replied, gesturing to my roommate.

"Wow, you must be really crafty," commented Seth.

"Yeah, something that you and I aren't," I added with a laugh.

"You athletes must be uncreative or something," Steph laughed. Seth gave me a look that asked, 'She knows?' and I quickly shook my head to deny that thought.

"Well, we're creative, just not in a crafty way. We make art on our playing fields, whether it be a basketball court, a track, or my personal favorite, a hockey arena," Seth explained.

"That's an interesting way to put it," Steph said, intrigued.

"Yeah, it is," I agreed. "Who would've thought that Seth Andrews could sound philosophical?"

"Hey now!" Seth protested.

"Guys, guys, we could sit here all night and argue, or we could go to Cullen's party. I don't know about you two, but I'm ready to party," Steph said, breaking up our argument.

"All right then, ladies. Let's go to the party."

A few minutes later, we arrived at Cullen's frat house's party. I turned to Seth before I turned him loose and said, "Don't drink too much tonight, all right?"

"I won't," Seth replied. "I wasn't really planning on drinking anyway. I don't normally drink, especially not during hockey season."

"Good boy," I replied, and Seth and I parted ways. I turned to Steph, "How much are you planning on drinking tonight?"

"I'm not sure yet," Steph replied, carefree.

"At what point should I drag you away from the alcohol?" I asked.

"Hmm, how about if I look like I'm about to pass out, fall over, or be dragged away by some random guy," she replied after some thought.

"All right, I'll keep that in mind. Let's go get some drinks," I suggested, and we headed over to the drinks table. I grabbed a bottle of water, and Steph grabbed a can of beer, big shocker. Cullen was standing just a few feet away from us, so I decided that I should probably say hi. "Hey, Cullen," I greeted.

"Hey, Ty! I'm glad you could make it!" he greeted in reply. "Who's your friend?"

"Cullen, this is my roommate, Steph. Steph, this is Cullen, the captain of the hockey team," I introduced the two.

"It's nice to meet you," he said warmly with a charming smile, shaking Steph's hand.

"Well, I'm going to go find Seth again," I made up. "You two have fun."

"See ya, Ty," Steph said, obviously wanting me to leave.

When I walked past Cullen, I whispered in his ear, "Just remember, she doesn't know we're teammates, and if you hurt her I'll kick your ass." I shot Steph one last smile and went to go find some of my other teammates.

After wandering around for a minute or two, I spotted Jared, drink in hand. "Hey, Lundy!" I called, walking over to him.

"Oh, hey, Ty. What's up?" he said, swaying slightly.

"You've obviously had a lot to drink," I said pointedly.

"Yeah, I probably shouldn't have had this much, but it's Halloween so why not?" he slurred.

"You know, one night of drinking wipes out two weeks of conditioning," I informed him.

"Really?" he questioned.

"Yup, so that means you're going to be miserable at practice on Monday," I laughed.

"Oh no," he groaned. "Why didn't you tell me that before I started drinking?"

"You should've known better," I scolded.

"Okay, Mom," he teased, and I slugged him on the shoulder, almost knocking him over. "Ouch!"

"That's what you get for being an i***t and a jerk!" I replied.

"Whoa, what's going on over here?" interrupted Mitchell, Jared's defensive partner on the ice.

"Ay, it's Mitch, my buddy, my pal, my friend, my partner," Jared chirped, punching Mitch on the arm with every pause.

"Quit whacking me, man. This is why you shouldn't be allowed to drink," hissed Mitchell.

"I told him that he shouldn't have had this much to drink," I said pointedly.

"He's an i***t, what do you expect," Mitch said with an eyeroll.

"Hey, I'm standing right here. I can hear everything you're saying," Jared grumbled.

"Yeah, but you probably won't remember any of this in the morning," Mitch said.

"True," Jared shrugged.

"Lundy, you'd better behave yourself or else I'll tell Coach how much you drank tonight," I threatened.

"You wouldn't," Jared narrowed his eyes.

"Oh, I would," I confirmed, not backing down.

"I dislike you. Yup, I really don't like you," Jared rambled.

"Too bad. We've still got a full season of hockey together, so you're gonna have to deal with me," I smirked. Jared mumbled something unintelligible under his breath, and Mitch and I laughed.

"Yup, you're even more of an i***t when you're drunk," speculated Mitch.

"You guys are mean. I'm leaving you two," Jared harrumphed, and he proceeded to walk away.

"You'd better keep an eye on him to make sure he doesn't get into too much trouble," I said to Mitch. "Plus he's going to be in a lot of pain tomorrow."

"I'll watch him," Mitch promised before leaving to follow Jared.

Throughout the rest of the evening, I chatted with a number of my teammates. By two in the morning, I was ready to head back to the dorm, so I headed out to find Steph. I found her by the drinks table with Cullen, where I had left her hours before.

"Have you two not moved since I left you?" I asked the two, bewildered that they had stayed in one place for so long.

"Yeah," they both replied sheepishly.

"What time is it even?" asked Steph.

"It's two," I replied.

"Wow, it's that late already? It feels like we've been standing here for an hour at most!" Cullen exclaimed.

"Well, I'm going to head back to the dorm. You can stay here if you want. I'm sure Cullen will walk you back when you're ready to leave," I suggested, looking expectantly at Cullen.

"Yeah, I can do that," he replied coolly.

"Well, I'll probably see you in the morning then," I said to Steph. "See you, guys."

"Bye!" they both called after me.

I was about ready to head back to my dorm alone, which probably wasn't the smartest idea, when I saw Seth. "Hey, are you heading back to your dorm?" he asked me.

"Yeah, I was planning on it," I replied.

"You were going to walk back alone? That's really dangerous, Ty. You should know that," he scolded.

"Seth, I'm six-one. I highly doubt anyone would try to attack me," I pointed out.

"But still," he protested.

"Well, were you about to walk back alone, too?" I asked him.

"Yeah..." he said sheepishly.

"It was very hypocritical of you to yell at me for wanting to walk back alone," I said, placing my hands on my hips.

"Well, why don't we walk back together then? Problem solved."

"Sounds good to me," I replied. We walked back to our dorm building in silence. When we reached the lobby, I said, "Thanks for walking with me, even though no one tried attacking me."

"I do what I can," he laughed. "See you tomorrow at practice."

"Oh yeah, practice. That should be fun," I said sarcastically.

"I thought you liked hockey," Seth said.

"I do, I just don't like conditioning," I admitted.

"Well get over it, you baby. At least you aren't going to be hungover tomorrow like a fourth of the team," Seth pointed out.

"True," I agreed. "Jared is going to have an especially bad time. Lucia is not going to be happy tomorrow."

"You're right about that," Seth laughed. "Speaking of which, we should probably get to bed. He'll be even crankier if two of his captains are tired."

"All right, I'll see you tomorrow then," I smiled.

"Bye, Ty," Seth replied.

When Seth was gone, I headed upstairs to my floor. I got changed into a pair of flannel pajama pants and one of Easton's t-shirts. I checked my phone for the first time that night and saw that I had three texts from Easton. I texted him a quick reply that said, Sorry, I was at a party and I didn't check my phone all night. I have practice tomorrow so I'm going to go to bed. I'll talk to you tomorrow. Love you.

I hoped that Easton wouldn't be mad at me, but he had done the same thing to me many times before when he and some of the guys hung out. No, Easton shouldn't be mad at me, and if he was, he needed to chill.

I glanced down at my phone and looked at Easton's reply that read, Okay. Good night.

I couldn't tell what that reply really meant, but at that point, I didn't care. I just needed sleep. I laid down in my bunk, and I was out as soon as my head hit the pillow.