Page 8 of Rival Season
“Pissoff, Chad-dick,” I snarl, then take a deep breath. Remember everything I’ve practiced, and let his barb drive me instead of throwing my focus. I lean right with my shoulder, and as Chad echoes my movement, I lunge left, deking him out.
Noah still has the puck and no clear path to the net, but he immediately sees I’m open and snaps it to me.
The puck sails across the ice—a perfect pass—but before it's anywhere near making contact with my stick, Chadwick slams me into the boards from behind so hard that the air leaves my lungs.
“Oof,” I groan as the bone-jarring hit makes my whole body vibrate with pain. The refs blow their whistles—an obvious foul. I throw an elbow back at him, connecting with his chest as I spin around.
“What the hell?” I spit out. Chadwick laughs maniacally and then swings to hit me.
This time, though, I’m ready and brace myself, my glove coming out to block his right hook. Chadwick’s fist slams into my waiting hand, and the force makes both of us stumble and fall into the boards. He loses his balance and wipes out, pulling me down with him.
As I hit the cold sheet of ice below us, I’m expecting another immediate blow. Instead, Chadwick rolls sideways, groaning in pain as he clutches his right calf.
The refs arrive to break up the fight, and he takes a penalty, giving us a power play.
Unfortunately, we don't score during the two minutes, but Chadwick doesn’t come back out on the ice after. I see him talking to his coach, and a trainer, and then he leaves the bench and heads for the away team’s dressing room.
He probably just pulled something, but it’s good to see karma’s still a bitch.
Despite the swearing ban, I’m not actually as superstitious as a lot of my fellow players. But I do believe what goes around comes around. Or, at least, I try to look at the world that way. It makes everything seem more manageable if there’s some kind of cosmic fairness at play in the world. And tonight, Chadwick got what was coming to him.
For the rest of the game, I can finally breathe and enjoy the game, and we go on to win, two to one.
As the final whistle blows, I should feel elated, but instead, my karma senses are tingling again. We don’t play the Fire Cats again for a few weeks, but I have an unsettling feeling that this is not the last I’ll be seeing of Chad-dick Weatherby in the near future.
CHAPTER 4
HAZEL
It’s almosteleven at night when Chadwick texts me begging me to buzz him into my building. I knew he was going to be in town tonight, since the Fire Cats played the Lions, so I should have expected he’d try to see me.
He’s been texting relentlessly since I broke up with him, but instead of letting myself think of him at all, I distracted myself with an evening of self-care. A bubble bath, clay mask, body scrub, the whole shebang. My body is polished and buffed to perfection, and I was fully relaxed and ready for bed; complete with my favorite cotton nightdress that Chadwick always hated. It’s not my fault that my most comfortable nightgown looks like something my grandma would wear. And it’s really not that bad with the pretty blue floral pattern. Sure, I could do without the ruffles on top, but the cotton fabric feels nice against my skin.
My phone pings with five texts in a row before I finally grab it off my nightstand to read them.
Cheater Chadwick
Buzz me into the building so we can talk.
Cheater Chadwick
Someone will open this door eventually and let me in, anyway.
Cheater Chadwick
I’ll wait here all night if I have to.
Cheater Chadwick
Haze, Babe, come on!
Cheater Chadwick
It’s unfair you won’t even hear me out.
I worry my bottom lip as I read. Now that I know I can’t trust him, I don’t know if he might have some ulterior motive for this uncharacteristic groveling—maybe he’s trying to win me back before I tell my parents what happened and it gets back to his folks that he’s not the angel they think he is.
I doubt they’d even care, though. His parents would probably think I was lying. Maybe mine would, too.
