The Cocky Hockey Captain

Chapter 30 ● The Grand Finale

The good thing about the fact that the biggest game of the season was today, was that it was a home game and the commute was very short.

The bad thing was... everything else.

The noise inside the locker room was intense, but it still couldn't damp the chaos outside in the arena. The game hadn't even started yet, but the spectators were already deep into their own drama. It was not helping any of us feel confident about what was coming.

The only one who appeared to be in his sane reason was Dean. He sat in the middle of the locker room, inspecting his skates. We'd all suspected that they'd been sabotaged the first time we played against the Eagles by one of them. Or a supporter. We didn't know how, because no one had seemed to lose sight of Dean's duffel bag for longer than it took to transport it between the bus and the locker of the Eagle arena. Now that we were facing the final game of the season against the Eagles it seemed more imperative than ever that Dean was okay.

Something was bothering me in the back of my mind. Many things. I'd had to endure more sessions of counseling with Gauthier after practice this week, leading up to today. They'd all been less, uh, bizarre than the first one, but I felt like the lost minutes of practice were going to count against me tonight.

And that was the core of the whole matter. I didn't have a good feeling about tonight.

As I paced up and down the locker, dodging others who were doing the same, jumping over the guy who thought there was no time like the present to start doing some pushups, and dodging the guy who continuously put his jersey on, only to pull it back off the next second, I tried to understand what was it exactly that had me on so much edge.

I heard a grunt just before someone yanked me by the arm. I startled as I ended up sitting on a bench, right next to Dean. He'd been the culprit.

"What the hell was that for?" I asked him.

"Your pacing and grumbling is making me nervous," he said.

I swiveled so that my entire body faced him. "Oh, it's me who is making you nervous? Not the fact that if we lose against the Eagles tonight the whole town is going to drive their forks through us?"

Ah. So that was it, the reason why my stomach was in knots and I was sweating profusely, even though I hadn't even started warming up yet. I was shitting my pants that I'd screw up tonight and the life dad and I had built for the past four months would come unravelled at the seams. What if I stumbled and my pants fell and everybody saw that I was wearing pink panties? Why was I even wearing those tonight, good Lord?

"Relax, that's not going to happen," Dean said. He finished lacing up his skates and sat back, slapping his thighs. "It's going to go more than fine. We're going to win and after that I'm going to grab you and kiss you so hard your pants will fall off-"

I gasped a lot louder than I probably should have, had I thought of not calling for attention. I also jumped at him and put both of my hands on his mouth. He laughed against them and his eyes twinkled like jewels under the light. I could have killed him right there and then. I looked all around and saw Hunter heading our way.

Before he reached us I grabbed Dean by the collar and growled. "Are you out of your mind?"

He pulled my hands off, grinning like he didn't have a care in the world. "I told you I am, for you."

"Stop!"

"Stop what?" Hunter said from behind Dean and I froze. He looked from Dean to me, noting how his hands were around my wrists. I struggled against Dean's hold until I freed myself. "Uh, yeah, Dean. Stop harassing our rookie just before the most important game of our entire season."