The Hockey Lie

Chapter 6

TY

September 12

"Tyra, Brit from my chemistry class invited me to a party. Do you want to come?" Steph asked me as I walked into our dorm, returning from my last class of the day. Her hair was done up and she had a short red party dress on.

"I don't know, Steph. I never really went to parties in high school," I replied unsurely.

"Well, you're in college now. I promise it'll be fun," she said, trying to persuade me.

"But I don't even drink, and I'm not going to drink. I don't want to risk doing anything stupid."

"You don't have to drink to have fun. I'm sure there'll be plenty of people there that won't drink."

"All right, I suppose. If I don't like it, I'm never going to a party again, agreed?"

"Okay, fine. Agreed," Steph said. "Can I help you pick out your outfit? Oh, and can I do your hair? And makeup?"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, slow down!" I laughed. "I'll need all the help I can get. I'm not really a girly girl, as you can see." I gestured at my sweatpants and t-shirt.

"Don't worry, when I'm through with you, you won't ever want to wear sweatpants again," Steph smirked.

"I highly doubt that, but okay," I sighed in agreement.

An hour later, I was ready for the party. Steph had curled my hair. She had also forced me into one of her shorter than comfortable party dresses.

"Tyra, you look good," complimented Steph with a smile as she examined her work.

"Thanks, Steph," I blushed.

"No problem, girl. Now let's go have some fun."

A half hour later I found myself dancing in the middle of a group of strangers. The surprising thing about this, though, that I found myself having fun. Now, let me say this: I absolutely cannot dance to save my life. I'm terrible. I may be agile on the ice, but put me on a dance floor and I look like a three-legged donkey. On the bright side, all the other people I was dancing with couldn't dance, either.

"Hey, Tyra, wanna go get something to drink with me?" Steph called to me over the loud music.

"Sure!" I shouted in reply. We made our way over to the makeshift bar in the corner. This "bar" was literally a kiddie swimming pool full of ice and drinks. Steph got herself a Bud Light, and I grabbed a can of Dr. Pepper for myself.

"What a coincidence," I heard someone chuckle over my shoulder.

"Seth!" I said with excitement, giving him a quick hug. "Campus is so big, I didn't think I'd see anyone I knew here. Well, other than my roommate here. Speaking of which, Steph, this is Seth. Seth, this is my roommate Steph."

"It's nice to meet you," Seth said to Steph with a big smile, never breaking eye contact.

"Same to you," she replied. "So how do you know him?"

"Well, Tyra and I are both..." Seth started, using my full name thankfully, but I cut him off, saying, "In the same English class. We got paired up in a project and have been friends ever since."

"Right, that's how we know each other," Seth agreed, realizing that Steph didn't know I was on the hockey team.

"That's pretty cool. A girl from my chem class is the one that invited us here," Steph told Seth.

"One of my hockey buddies has a girlfriend that lives in this sorority. That's how I got in here," Seth laughed.

"Oh, so you play hockey?" asked Steph.

"Yeah, I'm a forward for the team here," Seth replied with a smile.

"I'm sorry, but I have no idea what that means," laughed Steph sheepishly. "I don't really watch hockey."

"Maybe I can tell you all about it sometime," Seth said smoothly. "Well, I'll leave you two ladies to socialize some more. See you in English, Tyra."

Once Seth had disappeared into the crowd, Steph said, "Hmm, he's kinda cute."

"I'm already taken, so he's all yours," I laughed.

"Good, because I wasn't going to let you have him anyway!" teased Steph. "Let's go dance some more."

"Sounds good to me," I replied.

We danced some more with some random strangers, and I also got to meet Steph's friend from her chemistry class, the one that invited us to this sorority party.

"You know, I still can't believe you're dating a professional hockey player. Like seriously, what are the chances of someone ordinary like us meeting someone famous like him?" Steph shouted to me over the noise. I could tell that she was starting to get tipsy from the drinks she had had.

"I don't know, Steph. I believe that some things are just meant to happen. I practically hated the guy when we met, and now I don't want to be with anybody else. Things just have a funny way of working out in the end," I replied.

"Wow, that's very philosophical of you to say," Steph said, amazed.

"I'm surprised you still know how to use the word philosophical properly with how many drinks you've had," I laughed.

"Hey, ladies, how's it going?" a guy with shaggy, blond hair called as he walked up to Steph and me.

"We're good! Actually, we're great!" Steph cheered in reply.

"Well that's great! Did I mention that you two are lookin' fine tonight?" he breathed, glancing Steph and me over. He was extremely sweaty and I could smell a heavy scent of alcohol on his breath.

"Thanks," Steph said bashfully.

"Thanks, dude. I'm sorry to leave you here, but my friend and I need to go get something to drink," I said, grabbing Steph by the wrist, trying to get away from the creep before he could start something.

"Hey, what was that for? He seemed like a nice guy," whined Steph.

"Steph, he was really drunk. I didn't want him to try something, okay? I was only trying to protect you," I explained.

"Oh, I see," Steph replied, seeming to sober up a little. "Thanks for looking out for me, Tyra."

"No problem. That's what friends do for each other," I replied nonchalantly.

"Do you know if Seth is still here? I wouldn't mind getting to know him better," Steph said.

"I don't know if he's still here or not. I suppose we could go look for him," I suggested.

"Yeah, let's do that," Steph agreed. We attempted to make our way through the crowd, looking for any sign of Seth. I was about to tell Steph that we may as well give up searching since the crowd was so thick when I realized that she wasn't by my side anymore.

"Steph?" I called. "Steph!" Then I spotted her. I noticed that some guy had seized her by the wrist and was attempting to pull her along with him.

"Let go of me!" she protested, but the creep wasn't letting go.

"Hey, you with the ugly face," I shouted at the greasy-looking guy.

"Is that the best you can come up with," he mocked.

"Yes, now let go of my friend," I demanded, hands on my hips.

"No, she and I were just going away to have some fun," he stated.

"Let. Her. Go," I ordered.

"No, she's mine, and there's nothing you can do to stop me," he smirked.

"You've left me no choice," I said angrily. I walked up to the creep, checked him into the wall as if we were in a hockey rink, and kneed him where no guy wants to be kneed. He cried out in pain in a voice that was two octaves higher than usual, then bent over. Thankfully, he let go of Steph, so she was able to make her way behind me.

When the creep had regathered himself, he tried to take a swing at me, but I ducked and nailed him in the jaw. While he was still doubled over in pain once more, I kicked him in the side, and he fell to the ground.

"Go, go, go," I ushered Steph in a hurry. We fled the party as quickly as we could and headed in the direction of our dorm's building.

"Holy crap, you saved my ass back there," Steph said gratefully. "I can't thank you enough."

"It was no problem," I assured her.

"No, it was a problem. Gosh, I can't drink that much anymore. I'm so stupid. If you hadn't found me, that guy could've done who knows what. I feel terrible."

"Don't feel bad, Steph. I told you I wasn't going to drink tonight. That meant it was my job to look out for you and make sure you didn't do anything stupid or have something bad happen to you."

"That guy you took on had to have been at least fifty pounds heavier than you. How the heck did you take him down so easily?" Steph asked in bewilderment.

"I am- used to be a hockey player, remember?" I pointed out. "I'm used to going up against people bigger than me."

"Wait, but aren't you about as big as girl hockey players get? Or are there a bunch of 6'1" girls you play against?" Steph asked.

"Well, not really, I guess. But I'm used to being rough, I guess. Anyway, that doesn't matter. What matter is that you're safe and that guy didn't get you," I stated, trying to change the subject away from me playing hockey.

"You know what I think?" Steph asked me after a long period of silence.

"What?"

"I think Tyra is way too girly of a name for a badass like you," she said, stone-cold serious.

"Well," I started. "People in high school used to call me Ty."

"Well, Ty, I think that name suits you way better," Steph smiled.

"You know what, Steph? I think so, too," I smiled in reply.