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Matt
The day after Matt’s “date” with Maddy, the Renegades had flown to Boston for an away game. Matt had skipped the optional game-day morning skate, and stayed in his hotel room, trying to get Maddy out of his head. But it was no use. She was a permanent fixture. And not like she used to be. Things were different now between them. He wasn’t that obtuse to miss that the other night.
I almost kissed her. Again.
Their first kiss, back in Wilkes-Barre, had been impulsive, and brief. Afterward, it seemed that Maddy had wanted to forget about it. So he’d shrugged it off as nothing more than a goodbye peck between friends. But it had meant something more to him, and he’d kicked himself for being such a fool.
But last night was different. The way she’d touched his arm and looked up at him, he was certain he’d seen need, desire in her eyes. That was what he couldn’t get out of his mind. Their kiss... and how badly he wanted to try it again. Everything had changed between them. She wasn’t just his friend anymore. And he was completely okay with that. As a matter of fact, he hadn’t realized until now how badly he wanted their relationship to morph into something more.
But regardless of the distractions, he had to find a way to focus on tonight’s game. The team lined the halls of Boston’s arena, waiting to get out onto the ice. He had a job to do tonight. Between himself and Harrison Dash, they needed to make sure their star players stayed safe.
Before he could think about it much more, Sam called from the front of the line, and Patrick added his own little bit. Guys slapped each other’s sticks, and Sam tapped his stick to Dom’s leg pads. A few pounded their sticks on the ground and hollered. Together, they were getting the team hyped up.
Dom was starting tonight, and Kaden carried on with the guys, hooting, hollering, and shouting. The goal horn sounded, and the Renegades hit the ice first. The crowd booed as they skated around, warming up. That was Matt’s favorite part, being booed by the home team. He was quite hated on opposing teams, and he liked it that way. Now that Harrison Dash was on board, they had twice the muscle.
When Boston hit the ice, music and cheers echoed throughout the arena. Tyler skated by him and tapped his stick with Matt’s.
“Jasper, you and Dash have got this tonight.”
Matt nodded in acknowledgement. Games in Boston could get ugly. That was what Tyler was referring to.
The arena quieted, and the anthem was sung. Matt and Harrison took their places on the bench, while Tyler, Kris, Pat, Sam, and Jaxon lined up for the puck drop.
Harrison Dash stood at the end of the bench, having words with Smythe from Boston’s bench. The trash talk flew back and forth, along with the obscenities.
The next shift, Harrison Dash and Smythe both jumped onto the ice, and gloves flew almost immediately. Smythe pushed Harrison, and Harrison pushed back. The crowd started to cheer, and the other players watched. The two players glided around like two boxers in a ring, waiting for one to throw the first punch. Then Smythe did and missed.
Harrison grabbed the Boston player’s jersey, holding the man in place while taking one swing, and then another, connecting both times with Smythe’s face.
Smythe struggled to get a swing in, to no avail. Harrison laughed. Finally, the refs separated the two, sending them both to their respective sin bins for five minutes apiece. The two players yelled back and forth from their penalty boxes.
Once the penalty was up, Boston’s coach pulled Smythe back to the bench, while Coach Walker let Harrison Dash stay on the ice.
“You ready, Jasper?” Coach asked.
Matt nodded. This was what he lived for. Having a purpose on the ice. And when playing teams like Boston, he had a purpose. Matt kept his focus on the ice, as Boston put JR Rancy on the ice.
Tyler had a breakaway down the center of the ice. The Renegades cheered and hollered from the bench. But not far behind him, came Boston’s JR Rancy. Rancy sped up the ice, leaving the rest of his team at the other end. Rancy stuck out his stick, hooking Tyler around the leg, and pulling him down to the ice. Tyler was going full speed when he was hooked, and that momentum catapulted him, shoulders first, into the boards.
The crash was so loud that the team could hear it on the bench. Tyler stood up slowly, but under his own power. As soon as he was vertical, he lunged at Rancy. Tyler dropped his gloves to fight, but Rancy gave a foul chuckle and skated away, not giving Tyler the fight that he wanted.
“Hey, Rancy! If you wanna dance, I’m right here, jackass!” Kris called to Rancy and skated behind him towards Boston’s bench. Kris and Rancy had an existing feud that went way back.
Rancy just shook his head and kept laughing. “Don’t you worry, pretty boy. You’ll get your turn.”
Harrison grunted. “I really hate that guy.”
“We all do,” Matt said. It was well known that JR Rancy hated Kris, and also hated Tyler by association.
The face-off was in the Renegades end. Tyler hit the puck to Kris. Kris took the puck wide, and the Renegades rushed towards Boston’s net. Rancy was on the ice for Boston, and stepped up on Kris, slamming him into the boards. The puck squeaked loose, but Sam was able to get control of it.
While Sam took a couple shots at the net, Pat made a solid hockey hit on Rancy, stunning the Boston enforcer for a second. The Boston crowd booed at the hit, but it was legal, and play continued.
“Yeah! Get ’em, Pat!” Kaden cheered from the bench.
Tyler shot at the net, but the puck bounced off the crossbar. Boston cleared the puck, while Boston’s coach changed some of their line. Jaxon skated to their end of the ice and grabbed the puck that was now in back of the Renegades’ net.
Coach yelled to the ice. “Let’s go! Tyler and Sam, change! Kris, Pat, and Jaxon, stay. Matt, Harrison, you’re up!”
It was time to shine. Boston had left Rancy on the ice, and he was in Matt’s crosshairs. “Harrison, I got him. But make sure you’ve got my back.”
“You know me. I’ll jump in if it gets ugly. Or maybe just to beat his ugly ass!”
Matt and Harrison jumped onto the ice. Rancy was battling for the puck in the corner with Jaxon. A missed slash from Rancy had Matt’s blood boiling. It didn’t help that there was never a call made after he had tripped Tyler.
“Yo, Rancy! You got these officials in your pocket, or what?” Harrison called.
“Dash!” The ref directed his comment at Harrison. “Watch your mouth, kid.” If a referee thought a player was mouthing off at him, he could penalize him.
“Sorry. It wasn’t directed at you,” Harrison responded, but his stare stayed on Rancy.
The puck was loose, and Kris chased it towards center ice. Jaxon recovered the puck first and shot it back into Boston’s end. Kris raced Rancy to the puck, both ending up in the corner behind Boston’s net. Kris, with his head down, fought Rancy for the puck.
Matt and Harrison hung back, in case Kris could shoot the puck free. Instead, Rancy took the opportunity to cross-check Kris along the numbers and shoved him headfirst into the boards.
“You’re a dead man, Rancy!” Matt tossed his gloves to the ice and lunged at Rancy. He got in three good punches before Rancy was able to get his arms free.
Once Rancy managed to get his gloves off, he tried to put Matt in a headlock, and his punch landed on Matt’s helmet. Rancy shook his hand in pain. Another Boston player, Smythe, jumped on Matt’s back. The extra weight made pain shoot from Matt’s hip to his neck. Harrison pulled the extra guy off and started to whale on him, and then they both fell to the ice, still fighting.
The linesmen blew their whistles and did their best to pull Harrison and Smythe apart, as they wrestled on the ice.
Matt kept throwing punches at Rancy. Rancy grabbed Matt around the waist and slammed him down to the ice in a hockey version of a powerbomb. Matt knew as soon as he hit the ground, that he was hurt. He landed hard on his upper back and shoulder blade. His ears rang, as the linesman pulled Rancy off him and helped him up from the ice.
“Fuck!” Matt bent over and rested his elbows on his thighs.
“Jasper, you good?” Jaxon called.
He couldn’t speak. It was as if he’d had the wind knocked out of him, which he probably had. All he could do was nod in response, still bent over.
The ref waved to the Renegades bench. The trainer, Brownie, came running across the ice.
“Matt? What’s up?” Brownie leaned closer to Matt’s ear. “Let’s get you into the locker room, so we can take a closer look. Can you make it off the ice on your own?”
Matt nodded, words still an issue. He slowly glided on his own power beside Brownie towards the bench. The Renegades players clapped and banged their sticks off the boards as Matt hopped off the ice and followed the trainer back to the locker room. Even in the hall leading to the locker room, Matt could hear the announcement of the penalties.
Matt was given five for fighting. Harrison was also given five for fighting. Smythe was tossed from the game for being the third man into the fight and was given a game misconduct. Rancy got a two-minute minor for boarding Kris, a five-minute major for fighting, and a ten-minute misconduct penalty for instigating.
Reaching the locker room, Matt took a seat on the bench. His shoulder throbbed as if he had a boulder where his shoulder blade should be. His breathing evened out as he sat.
“Can you talk yet?”
“Yeah.” Matt nodded. “I think the way I hit the ice, I had the wind knocked out of me.”
“Probably.” Brownie pushed his fingertips into different parts of Matt’s shoulder and back.
When Brownie hit a few specific points, Matt grimaced, not being able to hide the discomfort.
“Hurts?”
“No.”
Brownie chuckled. “Sure. Matt, I really think you should get this shoulder checked out again. And before you tell me you don’t care, let me add that I’m well aware you don’t need to be cleared from a separated shoulder to play. I just think you should take your health more seriously than you do.”
Matt looked up at him, unaffected by Brownie’s concern. “Bottom line?”
Brownie shook his head, but the coaching team was used to Matt’s attitude. “I’m not putting you back out there tonight. Hit the showers, and we’ll reevaluate you tomorrow morning.”
“But—Rancy?” Matt complained.
“Harrison can handle him. With any luck, Rancy will get himself kicked out soon, just like his buddy Smythe did.”