Heteronym

Chapter 2

"Then that asshole unhooks the door to the beach when I go to lean against it and I fall on my ass!"

Laughs filled the air of the bar we were getting dinner at as Taylor told everyone why he was on the ground with Beck laughing his ass off earlier today at practice. "I swear to God, this son of a bitch is going to cause my early retirement," the captain joked while punching his assistant captain in the bicep with a powerful yet somehow brotherly hit.

My boyfriend rolled his eyes through a cheeky smile and punched Taylor back. I saw Nowak's arm go up before I reached around my boyfriend with my left hand and held Taylor's arm down. "You two are going to get us kicked out of another restaurant," I hissed with a fake smile still gracing my lips. Taylor and Beck were quick brothers, automatically falling into a bromance that would make any man jealous. Their shenanigans had already gotten us kicked out of a bar for when Taylor pretended to come back from the bathroom and make a scene, claiming Beck was cheating on him with me.

Luka Votnavich, our rookie right defender from Boston college, formerly from Estonia, and Ed Kalinski, the twenty five year old left winger from Poland, along with Neils Lutwin, the twenty seven year old right winger from Pittsburg, all thought the scene was the funniest thing they had ever seen. And of course my idiot boyfriend played along, getting into the fake public breakup while I tried to hide my blushing face until we got kicked out. I could still remember their raised voices while Taylor acted like he didn't even know Beck was bisexual while Beck tried to professed his love.

Apparently, Taylor knew how to cry on command. I learned that the hard way. I probably looked mortified sitting next to Beck while the other three fools sat there trying not to ruin the whole thing by bursting out laughing. I think Luka even added fuel to the fire at one point, asking who Taylor even was which only set off an argument about how Beck never introduced his friends to him. It was in that moment I knew that if Taylor Nowak wasn't a hockey player, he would one hundred percent be an actor.

"Yes, mom," Taylor scoffed, relaxing his extremity when I let go of his muscled forearm.

"I'm sorry I'm surrounded by man children," I retorted back, crossing my arms. "For someone so famous, you would think you know how to behave in public."

"Part of my charm, Darling," Taylor winked mockingly.

"Yeah. Charm for eight year olds," Ed snorted from across from me on the right side of the table, taking a sip of his water to try and disguise his growing, cheeky smile.

"I'd watch that, old man. Some people don't appreciate full grown men trying to woo their children," Beck added as Ed burst out laughing, covering his mouth so he didn't spit water everywhere.

"Oh shut up, Sampson. I'm only twenty six. You're fresh out of the fucking womb," Taylor retorted like an overconfident teenager.

"Beck has twice the maturity you'll ever have, Tay," Niels commented before taking a bite of his burger. Diet who? Not this team. When the trainers are away, we took full advantage of getting dinner together and eating greasy bar food.

"In your fucking face," my jet black haired boyfriend taunted, nudging the captain to his left with his elbow.

"Never mind, I take that back," Niels retracted his statement. "Can't inflate his ego too much yet."

"His ego is already the size of the universe," I commented with a lazy smile, earning the playful glare in Beck's intense sapphire blue eyes. "Which is constantly expanding, might I add."

"Fucking nerd alert," Luka mockingly announced through two cupped hands.

"Tell me about it," Taylor drawled. "I go out for a run at five and find her and Montgomery burning down forests for their doctoral dissertations," he mocked in a pompous tone. I couldn't help but roll my eyes at him. Neither of us were even close writing a dissertation yet; we still had more classes and way more data to collect. We were only two months in, for God's sake. But I didn't correct him, that would be my inner nerd showing up again.