Sasquatch to the Moon

7: Green Eyed Goalie

YETI 

Between game four and game ten, nothing much happens. Nothing comes of Fen's evil grin, or so I thought. Because around game 10, he announces to our friend group the first little ping pong night. 

It's tonight. 

Fen and Nico, are obviously coming; they've been inseparable since finals last year, Steph, Rocket, I don't know if they'll bring anyone along, probably not. Greenie is bringing Jackie, and Finnican might come if he feels like it. He probably won't, though. Things have been tough with his family recently. What started gently as just his sister's passing has spiraled into what he says might end up being a full-fledged divorce, maybe even a lawsuit. That's all he's really told me. I'm the only one that knows about that on the team. He's not a public guy. He packs all his emotions in and tries to forget about it. It's fascinating for me to talk him through some of it, I hate that he's going through that, but I'm always stunned by the volume of emotion he can feel. Not at all envious, but curious. 

"Yeti's here!" Fen slaps my back the second I'm in the door of the breakroom. I fight off a smile.

"What's up?" I snort.

He wiggles his eyebrows at me. "The second everyone gets here we're doing a full fledged ping pong tourney, scores and playoffs, just to start the season right."

"If I wasn't so fucking sore, I might win," Greenie casts a low glare at Nico. "But noooooo, my body just has to hurt everywhere for no reason."

Jackie smiles from the distant corner. "Language, firecracker."

"Oh zip it," he grins. "I've heard how you talk with the DnD club."

"That's because it's characters," She ruffles his hair. "You have to re-meet my parents in two weeks, you have no time for cussing. They're already not impressed with the five foot five deal." 

Greenie looks rather aghast. "It's not like I chose to be five foot five. Trust me, I'd look like Yeti if I could. The dude is basically captain Sweden."

I roll my eyes at him. "Keep it down, shorty, you can still ride long commercial flights without hurting all over."

The door opens again. "Sorry I'm late, guys, I had to drop Jills off with Helen and get this lazy ass outta bed, again." Steph points behind him at a rather disheveled Rocket.

He's rubbing his eye, his shirt is half tucked in, half twisted. He's wearing jeans and high-top black converse. It's like the room gets brighter when he pulls down his hand and gives us a grin. I don't know how he does it, how he manages to show up and make everyone happier.  Suddenly everyone in the room is talking louder and laughing harder just because he's here, it's been happening for two weeks now. I can't tell if I'm jealous because somehow I don't think it's working on me, or frustrated because I don't know why he's able to do that. 

So I decide to sit back and watch, trying to figure out how he's able to make anyone laugh no matter what they're doing. How he's able to pull off the Rocket Effect. 

I think Nico notices that I got distant about twenty minutes into pingpong. She starts to drift into the kitchen area where I am.

"You sealed right back up again the second the new guys get here. What's up?" She's blunt, I'll give her that one. 

I open my mouth to talk but shut it again when I see Rocket give me a glance. I catch his eye for just a moment and am utterly taken aback by how ridiculously green they are. I shake it off. "No, I just," I can't quite shake it.

"You got it, come on," Nico gives me a smile.

I roll my eyes at her for that little inspirational coaxing she's doing. "I can't figure them out."