I made it back to the rink with time to spare for practice. Yesterday was a lot of fun with Scottie. The only down was Saader being MIA. I walked into the locker room with eyes searching for him. When I saw him standing in front of his locker with his back towards me, I yelled his name from the door.
“Saader! Where you been, buddy?” I asked, walking towards him. Brandon’s head immediately fell backwards, and he turned towards me.
“Listen, Dean. I know I was an ass yesterday. I had some shit going on that I need to take care of.” He explained to me.
“I’m not the one you need to explain yourself too. You got a pretty pissed off girlfriend waiting to hear from you.” I said walking over to my locker and setting my stuff down.
“Um,” Brandon followed me, “Is Emmi okay?” He asked in a low voice.
“I don’t know, man.” I said exasperated, “She went out last night, and I left the campus early today, and I don’t think I saw her in her bed. So, you might want to try to get in contact with her before we head to Arizona.” I said, turning my attention back to getting ready for practice. Brandon went back to his locker, and did the same.
Practice went well, but I could tell Brandon’s head wasn’t in the game. I wasn’t holding yesterday against him, and he wasn’t holding anything against me. I think he knows that he messed up, and I can tell he is going to fix it. I skated up to him while we were waiting to get in the drill.
“Hey man, you’re good. Shake it off, and get back in here.” I tapped him on the back, and before I could skate away, he stopped me.
“Dean. I messed up. I’m sorry. I messed up. I’ll fix this though.” Brandon skated away after, and left me dumbfounded. I had no idea what he was talking about.
After practice I went home, and chilled out. I was waiting for Scottie to call me after her last class this afternoon. My phone rang as I was watching TV, and I picked it up expecting Scottie to be on the line.
“Dean, it’s your mother.” She said.
“Hey mom. What’s up?” I asked.
“Why didn’t you tell your father about the dad’s trip?” My mom asked me.
“Why would I? If anyone thinks I want to spend a couple days with him, they’re clueless. I don’t want him getting in the way of my game. Sorry if I hurt his feelings, but he isn’t coming on the trip.” I explained to her.
“But you’ll be the only one without a dad there. How will that look?” She asked.
“It will look like my dad didn’t make it. I don’t care, mom. It doesn’t matter to me. He isn’t coming. End of story. Des can come, or you can come, but dad is not.” I said, right before I hung up the phone. It was the first, and probably only time I will ever hang up on my mother, but I didn’t want her to press the issue any more. I didn’t care if I didn’t have a dad on the trip, and the people on the team won’t care either. My phone rang, and I checked the caller ID before answering it.
“Hey, Scot.” I said.
“Hey, you sound upset?” Scottie said through the phone.
“Yeah, my mom just called asking why I didn’t tell my dad about the Dad’s Trip. I told her I didn’t want him coming.” I explained.
“Oh, okay. Well, you wanna talk about it?” She asked.
“No, not really. How has your day been?” I asked her.
“It’s been pretty good. I’m bored though. I have practice in a couple hours, so I’m just going to get some food, and then start on my homework. How was practice? Did you talk to Brandon?” Scottie asked me.
“Yeah. He was weird about. I told him during practice to just shake it off for now and get back in the game, and then he started mumbling about how he messed up and he was sorry, but that he was going to fix it. I don’t know. I think we should just let him and Em take it from here.” I told Scottie.
“Yeah, you’re right.” Scottie sighed into the phone.
“Oh course I am.” I smiled, and I could hear her laugh from the phone, “Hey, you won’t be able to come to the games this week right?” I asked.
“No, Dean. They’re on the other side of the country. I got school and lacrosse.” She said, exasperated that I would even ask.
“I know! I still wanted to ask though!” We both laughed.
“Hey, I got to go. I just met up with some of the girls, and we are going to grab lunch together. I’ll talk to you soon, kay? I love you.” Scottie said.
“Yeah, talk to you soon. I love you too, Scot.” We hung up, and I continued watching TV by myself. That is, until Derrick came to my apartment, and almost knocked down the door. We went out to eat. It was nice to be close with Derrick. We had grown to be really good friends, even if I wasn’t dating his sister, I think we just clicked one day, and it works. He is definitely my closest friend on the team.
YOU ARE READING
Full Strength
Fanfiction**PLEASE READ THE LAST ADDED PART** She's the daughter of his coach. He's the new recruit. How could this possibly end up badly? Scotland Brown has grown up around hockey. Her father has been the head coach of the Chicago Blackhawks since she was ei...
