Hat Trick 3: Penalty Shot (25 page)

It was getting closer to practice time and people started coming on the ice. Everyone said hi to Alex, but they also gave us room to keep our drill going. Once Joey and Marco came out and set up in their nets, Alex took off to make some shots. I took the moment to grab some Gatorade off the bench.

“He’s looking strong,” Danny said, coming up to me before he dropped to the ice to do some stretches.

“Yeah. We’ve been out about a half hour. He was worried when we got here that he’d be a step or two behind, but he’s got nothing to worry about as far as I can see.”

“Cool. It’s good to have him back.”

“Yes, it is,” I said, getting down to do stretches with him. “So everything’s set for the party tonight. I’ll get to your place around seven and accept the food delivery. Most people will be there around eight, with Trevor closer to nine.”

“Perfect. I’m glad you had the idea,” Danny said, “and that we still made it happen.”

Once again, our friends stepped in. I’d been working on a way to do the small party Alex and I had talked about. It seemed even more important now as a way to thank our friends. Danny offered up his place with no hesitation, which worked great since he and Sara had the largest apartment. I was taking care of the food. Mimi was coming with an appropriate playlist.

Coach arrived, blowing his whistle, signaling it was time to gather up at the ref circle. Most of the coaches were on the ice today since we were going to break up into individual teams.

“Good morning, everyone,” Coach said. “Before we get going, we get to welcome Alex back to practice.” Everyone tapped their sticks on the ice, and those nearest clapped him on the back or fist bumped him. Coach let that die off before he continued. “He’s no contact until further notice. Let me emphasize that again, no contact. He skates, he drills, he scrimmages, but absolutely no contact of any kind. If he has any issues, he’ll step out immediately, no questions asked. If that happens, someone fill in his space, okay?”

Everyone agreed.

“How’d it feel so far this morning?” Coach asked.

“Really good.”

Coach nodded. “Okay then, let’s get to work.”

We headed to our usual coaches to work on specifics. We were split up into offense, defense and goalies for a bit, and then later some work for the special teams. It was an exhausting ninety minutes. I kept an eye on Alex through it all, but he never missed a beat. If he was in any distress it wasn’t obvious in body language or playing.

“My God, I love this game,” he said as we came off the ice. “I don’t want to ever be out that long again. Do you think I might get the docs to clear me for GLI?”

There it was. The question I’d expected all morning. The Great Lakes Invitational was one of the most important events on our schedule and there was no way he wanted to sit out as a senior. “I doubt it.” I hated saying it, but I didn’t think it was going to happen. “They’ve been cautious this whole time.”

He sighed through his
I’ve-had-a-great-practice
smile. “I know. I’m just eager. I think it’s the first time since this started that I’m looking forward to today’s appointment. See if the doc finds any issues after that significant workout.”

I nodded. “Yeah. I’m sure that’s going to weigh heavily into his decision.”

While therapy had been good for Alex, the practice seemed to really reignite a spark.

Hanging out in Aaron’s living room with Alex, Leo, Doug, Marc, Chris, and Max was a blast from the past. Except for Leo, who we talk with often and coached at camp with over this past summer, we haven’t seen some of these guys in a year or two. We got into Dawson Friday night and posted online that we were home. Aaron saw it and said we should drop over. We’d already planned to see Leo so we made it a quartet. By Sunday night four more Central High seniors wanted to join.

As the group grew, it made sense to gather at Aaron’s since this was the place we’d hung out after so many Central games. Adding to the old school feel of it, Aaron’s parents bought pizza and made themselves scarce for the evening. Instead of hiding out in their bedroom, however, they went to a friend’s house since we no longer needed chaperones. Another change was that there were adult beverages on hand. Beer and wine were next to the pizza alongside the usual water and soda.

Luckily we didn’t spend too much time on Alex’s condition. It’d been mostly talked out before we got here. We’d hung out with the guys quite a bit since getting home, mostly working out and spending time on the ice together, so there’d been plenty of time to talk about that. It was high school all over again.

We made sure Alex got his specific workouts done, while the rest of us did whatever was our workout routine. Doug hung out with us on the ice, which gave us a goalie to shoot on. We’d play some configuration of offense and defense while making sure to mind the no contact rule for Alex. Actually, it was no contact for most of us since we were playing in sweats. It was more like pond hockey than a full scrimmage. Only Doug wore full pads since he was getting pucks shot at him.

It made coming home extra special, hanging out with these guys. It was the first time in three years this many of us were home at the same time.

“So you introduced Camille to your parents, but didn’t think to let us meet her before she went home this afternoon?” Leo grilled Doug. “We don’t get to vet her? Most of us have met Marc’s and Max’s girlfriends in the past couple years, why did yours get a bye?”

“Too little time,” Doug replied. “She had to split her trip between here and her parents’ because her siblings were planning a huge party for their thirtieth wedding anniversary this week.”

“She could’ve come to a practice in the morning.” Marc added fuel to the fire. “We could’ve met for lunch. She was here for two days. It could’ve worked.”

Doug was flustered, even though he had to know he was being messed with. “I don’t see you guys bringing girlfriends this year.”

“Mine ended up staying on campus because of her job,” Marc said, having an ideal defense.

“And, well, I’m single right now,” Max said, “so I’m exempt.”

A knock at the door surprised us. No one else was expected.

“Who could that be?” Aaron headed for the door.

“Do you think we won’t approve?” Chris kept going. “We dealt with these two, we can pretty much handle anything.” He winked in our direction as Doug threw a pillow from the couch at him.

“Jerk,” Doug said. “Not nice to pick on the guy who’s sick.”

“Don’t drag me into this,” Alex said, amused.

“Hey, guys,” I turned from my position on the couch to see who it was. I recognized the voice, but couldn’t immediately place it. “Mind if a freshman crashes for a few minutes?”

“Look who I found at the door,” Aaron added.

“Derek!” the gang shouted.

“And this is his girlfriend, Ariel,” Aaron added.

“Absolutely you can join us,” Leo said.

Derek was a freshman when we were all seniors, but he was an excellent player and ended up playing occasionally on the first line with Alex and me. I hadn’t seen him since my father’s funeral two years ago. He was now a freshman at Penn, and so we were once again seniors to his freshman.

I leapt up from the couch and went over to greet him. “Man, it’s good to see you.” We bumped fists and hugged. “Hi, Ariel. I’m Simon. Nice to meet you.”

“Quick introductions,” Derek said to Ariel. He went around the room so she got everyone’s names. Everyone waved and said hellos.

They were a good-looking couple.

“Great to meet you all,” she said with an excellent English accent.

“Come on in and join us,” Aaron said.

“Ariel, you’re welcome to the couch,” Doug said, getting up and moving to take a spot on the floor next to Max.

“I don’t want to put you out,” she said.

“No trouble.” He was always the gentleman.

“Just to note here,” Leo said, “Derek, with no prodding, brought his girlfriend and Doug, who we’ve known much longer, did not.”

Doug made an exasperated noise and hung his head. “I can’t win.”

“I am so totally fucking with you,” Leo said after letting Doug’s shame hang for a moment. “It’s okay. You’ll bring her back eventually and we’ll straighten all this out.”

“You’re evil,” Doug said. “Thanks, Derek, for adding fuel to the fire.”

Derek laughed, recognizing the scene for what it was. He took a seat on the floor, next to Ariel. “I’m not taking responsibility for whatever you did to get Leo fired up.”

“Help yourself to pizza and drinks,” Aaron said, resuming his seat. “Plenty to go around.”

“It’s really good to see you, Derek,” Alex said as Derek grabbed a couple bottles of water. Hopefully he was changing the topic. “We’ve been hanging with these guys for a few days now, it’s good to see another member of the family.”

“I saw a few status updates that people were here tonight so I decided to take a chance and come by on the way back from her parents. I figure you’ve been through this a lot already, so just a quick yea or nay is fine, you doing good, Alex?”

“I am, yeah. Hoping to be back in games in a couple weeks. We’ll see how things look when we get back.”

“Glad to hear it. Things sounded good online, but you can never be sure if you’re getting the whole story.”

“You should come to the school in the morning if you’re free,” Max said. “We’re working with Alex on ice and off.”

He looked at Ariel. “Would you mind if I disappeared for a couple hours?”

“Are all you guys playing? I’d love to come watch.”

“Yes, I found a true hockey fan.” Derek said, proudly. “She even comes to watch practice sometimes.”

“Damn,” Doug said, “I may need to trade Camille in.”

“We usually do about forty-five minutes in the weight room and then forty-five minutes to an hour on half ice,” Alex said. “You’re welcome to watch if you want, but it’s pretty loose stuff.”

“You know, if Derek came we’d have even teams and could do a good half ice scrimmage.” Chris threw out an idea I immediately liked.

“I’d just need to manage my energy. One of my goals is to not get too wiped.”

Wow. Alex admitted he needed to play it safe. He’d dropped out of practice briefly on Friday morning, but he didn’t usually talk about taking breaks or what his needs really were. I squeezed his knee in support of what he said.

“We can deal with that,” Chris said. “Even if we shift to two-on-two instead of a three-on-three.”

“You’re welcome to come watch,” Derek said, looking up at her.

“Cool. I’ll do some reading while you guys are working out and then I’ll watch the game. I can’t think of a better way to spend Boxing Day.”

“We’re on the meet the parents tour,” Derek said, “so it’ll be good for both of us to take the time out. Leo, where’s Matt? I’m surprised he’s not here.”

“He’s got more distance to cover for family than I do. He was here last night, I was with him this morning, but Christmas night is a big deal in his family so he’s back there. I’m heading to his place tomorrow and then I’ve got to get back to school Wednesday since we’ve got games this weekend.”

“Yeah, we’re headed back on Wednesday, too,” I said. “Hockey season never stops.”

“Should we move tomorrow’s practice to the pond?” Derek asked.

“It’s not solid enough,” Doug said.

The disappointment in his voice spoke for us all. So far the winter had been warm. This was the first Christmas I could remember that we couldn’t skate on the pond. Thanksgiving was always questionable, but by Christmas we were regularly playing on it. While it had snowed lightly earlier in the week, the pond was far from safe.

“Damn. I’ll have to take you to the pond, Ariel. You need to see this place. It’s beautiful and some of the best skates I’ve ever had were on it after these guys got me into going there. I didn’t live in this neighborhood, but I’d still make my way over to play.” He looked around at us. “Next Christmas, then?”

We all said yes to that. Hopefully we meant it. A lot could change after this Christmas. Except for Derek, spring was graduation and by next Christmas we could be living who knows where with jobs tying us down.

I lost myself in the chatter happening around me. Talk of school, graduation plans, and upcoming hockey for most of us. Only Max wasn’t playing on a college team. The only person missing was Jackson. Nearly four years had passed since he was killed outside the Central rink trying to protect Alex and, while I still thought of him often, it didn’t fill me with sadness anymore. Instead, I was proud that I’d known him. He’d have loved being here tonight for a gathering like this.

“Where’d you go?” Alex asked, taking my hand. I looked at him and then the group. “We’re making post-workout breakfast plans.”

I thought I’d been paying attention.

“Um, yeah. Absolutely. Be perfect before we all start heading in different directions.”

“You okay?” Leo asked.

“Yeah. Just thought about how much Jackson would’ve enjoyed everyone getting together.”

“Totally would’ve,” Marc said.

Leo grabbed his bottle off the table and raised it. “To absent friends. Never forgotten.”

“Absent friends,” we said as we brought our glasses and bottles together.

As much as I looked forward to heading back to school to prep for my last GLI, the days we’d just spent with our friends and family were excellent. I snuggled in next to Alex as we revisited some memories for Ariel’s benefit and enjoyed each other’s company well into the night.

It was a big night at Yost. Not only were we hosting our very first LGBTQ pride night, it was also Alex’s first game back. He’d been getting cleared for more and more at practice since we’d been back from Christmas break. The plan was that he’d play every other shift to see how he’d perform in a game environment, and if he had to leave the game, so be it.

He wasn’t thrilled sharing his center position, but Coach didn’t leave him any options. I agreed one hundred percent with the plan.

Pride Night was a big deal. The campus GSA was talking to all the teams about hosting one during their seasons and we were more than happy to do one. I’d even arranged for Rainbow High to do an exhibition during the first intermission and the team was psyched to get ice time in the middle of a Wolverines game.