Twenty-One ~ A Dean Portman Fanfic

Five

Inhaling, she glanced to her right at her best friend, who stared intently at the hockey game in awe. The sound of sharp blades skimming the frozen water made her shiver, the sound of ice shaving wasn't pleasant to the ear and she leaned forward, placing her hands between her thighs to keep warm. She'd forgotten how cold the ice rink could be if you didn't dress properly and the heat was turned off for the crowd who watched. 

The girl used to attend the majority of both Varsity and Junior-Varsity's games for the sake of being an school enthusiast. She wanted to look engaged with the school's athletics and therefore show to football and basketball games as well when the seasons began. It'd been a year since she last was in an arena supporting the teams and now that she found a strong dislike for a certain guy on JV, she refused to watch any of the hockey games for that sake.

She didn't want to look like a supporter even though she wanted to be.

Boys paced the ice with two girls, both extremely good players, and fought for a black rubber puck. Coaches pointed and yelled, arms extending as they sighed and hollered, growing either upset or cheery when their team was in possession of the puck. Coach Orion huffed, head shaking as his arms folded over his chest and his right hand held the plastic clipboard in hand, doodles from a black dry erase marker were faded.

The girl shivered and leaned forward momentarily, pulling the collar up of her jacket as her neck grew cold. The game was coming to an end in fifteen minutes give or take and Evangeline didn't plan on staying as she'd never planned on showing up. Simply coming so Glory wasn't alone watching the game.

Standing up, Evangeline patted Glory's knee to pull her attention away from the ice. "Hey, I'm gonna go."

"Why?" She asked, brows furrowed so quickly it almost spooked her.

"It's cold, I'm bored and would rather read that English book." She explained, stuffing her cold hands into the warm pockets of her grey straight coat, a more formal fitting jacket her mother insisted she put to use. "See you later?"

Glory nodded with a smile. "Yeah."

Licking her lower lip, Evangeline turned away as she excused herself for blocking people's view and squeezing by them. Trying to duck, she found it a little hard and groaned, finally stepping out onto the cement steps. The same ones were adjacent several feet over, both sets of concrete stairs went from top to bottom, allowing people to fill up the seating area.

She could almost see her breath if it were a little colder and as the puck slammed against the boards behind the Ducks' net, she looked up with a spook. Eyes watched the few skaters roam the ice as Julie had saved the puck, waiting for a teammate to retrieve it behind the net.

She watched the way Fulton and Portman skated up to one another, jumping and chests banged as they cheered loudly. Like pro wrestlers or gorillas, she cocked a brow at the sight and shook her head.

"Yeahhh!"

"All right!"

Teenage boys, she told herself.

As Evangeline stared while walking down the steps, she saw Charlie Conway come up to the net and slowly skate around, waiting for his teammates to spread out. She glanced away to the middle of the rink where the Bash Brothers were, coming down to the bottom of the steps.

She stepped back suddenly with wide eyes when the puck had been shot to the boards in front of her. The sound echoed throughout as the other people sitting next to her had also spooked, jumping in their seats from the sudden rattle. She was glad it had spooked more than just her as she'd been busy watching the steps to avoid falling.

She'd gone to step down and walk alongside the boards to leave when Dean Portman had been passed the puck. He foolishly gave away the opportunity to pass it on to a forward and instead took a shot at the boards to purposely spook the girl.

As her heart raced a thousand beats a minute, she lifted her head and glared at the ice where the enforcer skated away backward. She couldn't tell if he was looking at her due to the plastic visor on his helmet but assumed he possibly was. Evangeline was looking in his direction, trying to see if he spotted her and possibly search if she too was looking for him.

He laughed to himself, turning away.

Even though she'd gotten scared, she couldn't help but stop and watch him momentarily skate away. The boy she once drooled over no longer made her weak in the knees or blush, but now made her scoff with rigid bones. The boy was quick but not super quick, and managed to get right back into the game as if nothing happened just then.

She took deep breaths to regulate her breathing again and turned away, walking with hands still stuffed in the pockets of her straight coat. As she left, she could feel the small smile trying to tug at the corner of her mouth as she forced it away. Not wanting to feel such a feeling because she didn't want to open up the door to a crush she sealed away to forget about.

Evangeline had done a good job so far at keeping her crush for Dean at zero, letting it disappear with time.

It felt like the door was slowly creaking open as she tried pushing it closed, forcing it shut but jamming her foot on the side to block it.

The small smile managed to pull through as she left, hearing a team cheer as the buzzer went off and she shook her head. Lifting her hand to her mouth nervously, she bit down on her nail with anxiety over the idea that just maybe the crush and feeling she once held for the boy were possibly coming to light.

She hoped for her sake it was a misunderstanding with a frightened mind and nothing more than that.