Page 133 of Puck the Coach's Son
He steps back another half step.
“Seventy-two hours, Mr. Creed. I'm sorry.”
They leave. Ramirez looks at me one more time on the way down the hall and I see his mouth do the thing people's mouths do when they want to say something and can't afford to.
I shut the door.
I stand in my own entry with a hockey stick in one hand and an eviction notice on the console, and I laugh. It isn't a good laugh. It's a single hard sound out of my chest that doesn't have anywhere to go. I laugh because at twenty-eight, after eight years, after every time I have bled for Frosthaven on tape, mycontract and my apartment and my access to my own practice rink got ended by a man I punched back with my face.
Four years left on the contract. I know what that paper on the console is going to say when I read it. I know what Callahan's Tuesday press release is going to say.Personal conduct. Character concerns. Mutual parting.I know the whole song. I've watched it happen to other guys. I've never watched it happen to me.
I set the stick against the wall. I pick the notice up off the console. I read it. It says exactly what he said it says.
Seventy-two hours. Fine.
I sit on the edge of my bed in sweats and the towel around my neck and I stare at my phone. My phone is lit up. Thirty-two texts, seventeen missed calls, four voicemails. I scroll without opening anything. Mom. Dominic. My agent, three times. Phoenix, four. A reporter I know from theGazettewho already has the story somehow. Two teammates. No Theo.
No Theo.
I knew there wouldn't be. Paul will have the phone by now. He isn't stupid. He's heartbroken but he isn't stupid, and a heartbroken man who isn't stupid is the worst kind of opponent you can pull.
I open Phoenix.
dude where are you?
answer your phone
i'm at shanley's
call me when you can
I text him:home. not home. you know.
He calls me inside three seconds.
“Mad Dog.”
“Phoenix.”
Bar noise under him. Someone laughing, far off. He steps outside. The noise drops.
“How bad?”
“Four to the face. No hit back. Gear on. Condom wrapper on the floor. Callahan walked in. Theo got carted home by Paul probably with private security on the lawn. I got walked out by two guys in uniform and evicted from my apartment by building management ten minutes ago. Contract's done by Tuesday. That bad.”
Phoenix is quiet for a second.
“Okay. Talk me through what you need.”
This is why I called Phoenix.
“I need you to get a message to Theo.”
“Yeah.”
I stand up. I can't sit for this.
“Paul's got the phone. House probably has a guard. I can't email him. The aunt, Diane, she's the only one who'd carry a message and I don't have her number. I don't know anyone else in his life who isn't Paul's.”
