Chapter 13
SAM
Izzy is obsessed with all things Korean...
Reading those words makes me feel something.
I don’t have time to figure it out before the buzzer sounds and the guys start coming off the ice and heading down the tunnel to the locker room.
Once the players are clear, Roger and I clean up and organize the bench a bit before following them.
Usually, I leave it to the kid to do this kind of thing, but I need the extra minutes to compose myself.
Izzy... It never occurred to me that Isaiah would want to be called by anything else.
The only nickname any of us have ever heard him called by is “Prince” but after that jackass was screaming it during his first game, the team collectively decided not to use it since it appeared to bother him.
He’s still not opening up all that much – not even to Wally, and none of us can figure out why.
“If he lets in another one, I’m going to have to pull him,” Coach tells me after Isaiah emerges from the toilets looking like hell.
Whatever is going on today, it’s more than just playing badly that is bothering him.
I glance back at Coach before going over to the sound system we set up for the guys to hype themselves up before the games.
Before every game, there is an intense Rock, Paper, Scissors tournament to determine who controls the music.
Come to think of it, I’ve never seen Isaiah compete for the controls.
Instead of announcing what I’m doing, I put my trust in Chase and hit play on the song.
Before opening my home up to the young goalie, I don’t think I had ever heard a single song in a language other than English – outside of the operas that Grammy liked to watch on TV.
Even still, he tends to keep his music listening limited to his headphones unless he thinks I’m not home.
I have to admit, the song isn’t what I expected when I realize it’s not even in Korean, but in English.
Majority of the guys give me strange looks as the first verse plays through, but my focus is on Isaiah.
It takes a bit for him to realize what he’s hearing, and I watch as his lips form the words as they play.
By the time the chorus hits, I recognize why Chase gave me this song.
It doesn’t take long for the rest of the team to rally behind it, especially when Brayden jumps up at the end of the second verse to belt out the chorus.
Seeing the smile on Isaiah’s face makes my eyes start itching a bit while the rest of the team joins in on the last round of the chorus.
When we retake the ice for the third period, that three goal deficit isn’t even on the horizon. With one song, Chase has managed to turn things around in a way that no words from Coach ever could. It takes less than two minutes into the third for the Axes to tie it up.
“Dunno where you came up with that,” the man mutters to me as the guys line up for the faceoff, “but it worked. Find out what other songs will work for Charming and I’ll get the office to queue them up for the breaks in play.”
Throwing a glance behind me at the man responsible for the magic solution, I tell Coach, “I’ve got my sources.”
The period flies by and Isaiah is a brick wall in the crease.
Every time Jeffries is anywhere near him, I tense up, but after the fifth time of getting no reaction, the guy starts playing sloppy.
He misses the pass between Callahan and Kim that let Brayden make the go-ahead goal with less than five minutes remaining in the game, and slams his stick into the boards in his frustration – gaining an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty which results in a power play goal to bring the score up to 7-5 in favor of the Axes.
When the buzzer sounds, the arena explodes in a way that I don’t think I’ve ever seen in my time with the team.
Despite a final score of 8-5 – the empty netter closing out a hat trick for Brayden Kim – this probably was one of the worst showings in the first two periods that the team has had all season.
And yet, this last period was some of the most exciting play that I’ve seen since getting involved in the sport.
The locker room is chaos when I enter. Kim comes in behind me after taking his lap on the ice for being named first star of the game.
“He’s staying at your place, Talbot?”
I grunt an affirmative while picking up the jerseys that missed the bin on the guys’ way to the showers.
“Yeah, he’s in my guest room until he finds a place of his own. It’s been tough for him to find something since he doesn’t drive and he’s stuck on a rookie salary.”
Brayden nods while gently folding and placing his sweater into the bin with the rest of the funk infested jerseys. He’s one of the few guys that I’ve seen in my years of sports that has a need to be neat. Isaiah is the same way with everything needing its place.
“I’ve known Eric Jones for well over a decade now,” he says before turning his back to the rest of the room and lowers his voice.
“Jones was his roommate in Baltimore and let something slip to me shortly after Charming came up to us. I won’t say it if he hasn’t shared it himself, but I don’t think it’s a good idea for the kid to live alone until he knows the city better. ”
For the next twenty minutes, I can’t get Brayden’s words out of my head. By the time Isaiah is ready to head out to the airport, I’ve worked myself into a lot of confusion. I barely respond to anything the whole drive, but make sure to wish him a Merry Christmas before driving off... I think.
I noticed back in the beginning that he had some quirks regarding how things get placed in his space, and he is very brand and visually dependent when it comes to things he uses.
With what Brayden shared with me, I’m starting to look at it in a different light.
Everyone knows that goalies are unique and sometimes downright weird, so I didn’t think anything of it before.
Now, I’m wondering if I’m doing something inadvertently to make his life more difficult by not being aware of whatever it is that Jones shared with Kim.
Chase is already waiting in my driveway when I get home, so I try to put the thoughts of how I’m fucking things up with Isaiah out of my head. Unfortunately, the first thing out of his mouth is asking me where my housemate is.
“Is Isaiah still at the children’s hospital with the team?”
Shaking my head, I step past Chase to unlock the front door and kick off my shoes on the way to the kitchen.
“I just dropped him at the airport. He’s heading home to California to spend the holiday with his family. Want something to drink?”
Arms wrap around me from behind while I am still staring into my meticulously organized refrigerator. How the fuck did I not notice this before?
“That’s good, then,” Chase whispers in my ear. “I have been wanting to get you alone since I walked out that door on Thanksgiving.”
Pushing all thoughts of my housemate out of my mind, I turn around to capture the lips of the man I have been unable to get out of my head for the last month. There will be plenty of time to worry after Isaiah comes home from California on Tuesday.