Full Strength

Dean

We ended up losing to the Stars four to zero. We let up two goals during a penalty kill, and we just couldn’t convert. It was definitely an upsetting loss because if we had won, we would’ve been in first place. There weren’t even that many penalty minutes given out, so the fact that we went one four three on our penalty kill kind of sucked.

                  We had one day in between Dallas and Carolina. We left late after our Dallas game, and made to North Carolina. One Sunday, we had a quick, optional for some, practice. A few of us went to get food afterwards, and then we all just went back and chilled at the hotel all day. I decided to call Scottie, and see what she was up to.

                  “Hey, can I call you back in like two minutes! I’m on a roll with this paper and I’m almost done.” That was the first thing I heard from the other end of my phone.

                  “Oh, yeah,” Scottie cut me off before I could finish my thought.

                  “Great! Thanks! Love you, talk to you in a second.” Scottie hung up, and I continued to watch the TV until she called back. Brandon, who was actually road roomie walked into the room and flopped down on his bed.

                  “Man, last night was rough. What are we watching?” He asked, bouncing up and leaning against the backboard of his bed.

                  “I have no idea. I’m not even paying attention. I’m waiting for Scot to call me back.” I said, glancing down at my phone, realizing it had been ten minutes since I called her.

                  “Oh, how’s she doing?” Brandon asked, glancing at me.

                  “I don’t know. I called her, but she said she had to call me back because she was finishing her paper. She said she’d call me back in two minutes, ten minutes ago.” I said, looking at my phone again. Should I call her again?

                  “Oh, I’m sure she’ll call you back in a little bit. Are there any sports on? I don’t know what the hell this is, but I’m not feeling it.” Brandon winced at whatever was on the TV, and we both laughed. I flipped through the channels and found the NCAA Basketball championship. My bracket was already busted, so I was pretty upset about that.

                  “Hey, how are you and Emmi?” I asked Brandon. I hadn’t heard much about them, but I wanted to see how things were going. I glanced down at my phone again to see if I missed anything from Scottie.

                  “Yeah, we’re good. Not great, but we’re getting there.” Brandon gave me little information.

                  “You ever gonna tell me what you meant at practice that one day?” I asked. I had been gnawing at me ever since that day, but I didn’t want to press the issue.

                  “Not yet, Goldie. We’ll see.” Brandon looked at me. His look told me straight up it would be awhile until I got that out of him.

                  I ended up waiting by my phone until I finally passed out. I don’t know what time it was I finally went to sleep, but I know Brandon had been asleep for at least three hours. I was worried as to why Scottie never answered me back, and even though I left her a text message or two, she never got back to me. I even went as far as to ask Derrick if he had heard from his sister. He said he got a text from her early in the evening saying good luck in the game tomorrow. That was way after I had called, and I never got any form of communication after that call. I decided I needed to sleep and rest up for the game tomorrow rather than dwell on the situation. I’m sure I will have a call or text from her by the time I wake up.