Chapter 8 #3
"Sorry that took so long…I guess this is for you now." I hand him the Sprite. "Have I told you how handsome and wonderful you are in every way lately? Also, benevolent and forgiving—"
"What's going on?" He looks over my shoulder for Saige.
"I lost our girlfriend; I'm sorry. Want some vodka?"
"What? What do you mean you lost our girlfriend? Where the hell is she?"
I open my mouth to answer, but the crowd around us explodes, jumping to their feet.
"Wolverines, number five, Simon Day for the tie!"
"Dax, where's Saige?!"
"She's fine; I just called her. She's in the car on her way back to Aurora Cove."
"Why would she do that?"
"I don't know; she said she was overwhelmed. I dropped the ball—very, very mediocre girlfriend-watching, and I'm sorry. You look mad. You're doing that thing with your jaw and your throat—"
"I am mad!"
"At least I didn't piss her off this time," I offer. "She's just tired. She doesn't want to sit in class with Miles tomorrow."
"We need to take care of him," Nolan says. "I'm fucking sick of this."
"Car accident would probably be the easiest. I know a guy—the one who cleaned Saige's car up for me. I could ask him; I can trust him."
"No."
"No?"
"I'm going to do it."
"What do you mean?"
"I mean I'm going to do it. I'm just going to do it with my bare fucking hands.
I'm ending it." He looks at me and adds, "I don't have a problem with it—you don't have to worry about me.
The idea of taking a life doesn't bother me; it thrills me.
So, I'm just going to do it. And then, the people I care about can just relax.
" He slouches in his chair and then turns back to the game, taking a drink of the soda.
"Thanks for the Sprite. I think I will take that vodka. "
His calm is eerie; it sends a chill down my spine. I move to Saige's seat and hand him the flask. "This is not something you're doing alone."
"Yeah, it is. He doesn't know me, and I'm quiet.
I'm not like you and Elias—people don't notice me.
I'm not in his class, I haven't threatened him in a wine bar or slept with his fiancé.
And I know I could do it—I could kill someone.
And I could do it up close and personal.
I don't need to buy a gun or fuck with his car.
I want to be close enough to watch the lights go out.
I'll make sure it's done right this time.
The further the three of you are from it, the better. I'll do it soon."
"Nolan—"
"What?!" he snaps. "I'm worried about her all the time.
And she's scared…all the time. Elias is playing hockey again, you and Saige are back together again, and fuck…
we deserve to be happy, don't we? I'm fucking happy—for once in my fucking life.
This guy doesn't get to come in and ruin it just because a bunch of fucking freshmen laughed at him one day. I'm done with this."
He takes a swig from the flask before pouring some into his soda.
"He checked him from behind!" Nolan yells at the ice before the crowd erupts in boos.
Seconds later, East BC scores, putting them up 2-1 just before a fight breaks out on the ice.
When they finally break it up, they throw the center from East BC out of the game, along with two players from our team, including Simon Day, the one who got hit first.
"Well, we're fucked now, eh?" Nolan says.
What is he talking about? I can't even think about hockey after what he just said. How can he be so calm right now? "Dude…are you okay?"
"I'm great," he says. "I'm actually feeling really good—I'm happy to have come to a decision about this. I'm ready to move on." He pulls out his phone. "I should text my girl, though."
"Our girl."
"Nope," he says. "When you misplace her, she's mine."
I roll my eyes. "Well, if it makes you feel better, I have several tracking devices on her."
"Only a little."
We don't talk much through the rest of the second period or the intermission, and when the third period starts, the chants to put West Pine Batman in start all over again.
Even Nolan joins in, but we both know what the coach told him: Elias would have to sit the bench until the new year.
I'm surprised he agreed, to be honest. I'm sure his eye was twitching the whole fucking time. I wish I could see his face right now.
With half the period over, the score is still 2-1, but again, East BC has taken twice as many shots as we have, and Wes is hanging on by a fucking thread. They don't have much of a chance to come back now—not that they really had one beforehand.
When they call a time out, I check Saige's location again. She still has about half an hour left in her drive.
And when I look up again, another second-rate Wolverine gets a penalty for high sticking. It's almost over, Wes is tired as fuck, and now they're down a guy again. The coach looks pissed.
"Jesus. Is this normal for them?"
Nolan just shrugs, but the guy in front of me turns around and says, "Oh yeah, the Wolverines always collectively fall apart when it's close at the end of the game like this. Just wait—it'll get worse."
"Would it be terrible if we left?" I ask Nolan, but if he hears me, he doesn't answer.
"Put Batman in!" the person behind me shouts before the entire section starts in again. No way the coaches are amused by this shit, either.
That's probably why his face says he'd rather kick him in the teeth right now than put him in, but that's what he does. I guess the refs pissed the coach off just enough to take it back.
The crowd literally loses their collective fucking shit. A few rows down, Alex, Elias's dad, is on his feet, too.
Elias hustles across the ice, just in time to watch his teammate take a shot that hits the goalie's stick dead center—he didn't even have to move.
But then it sails right to Elias, and he snaps it in, tying it up at 2-2.
He barely touched the fucking ice.
"Get ready for fucking hero time," I say to Nolan.
"What!?" he shouts back.
I wave him off. It's not important, and I know it's too fucking loud for him to hear me, anyway. With three minutes to go, even my heart is in my fucking throat.
Why'd they have to put him in? I didn't want to get invested in this shitty fucking team.
Sloppy. That's how the next minute looks—fucking sloppy. Possession changes every other second, tripping that isn't called…and then one of the guys from East BC gets a shot off that catches Wes off guard.
The arena becomes so quiet, the shift is unnatural. The puck just barely hits the side of the net and is recovered by the Wolverines. Even Nolan gets on his feet—he must have put a lot of vodka in that drink.
"Let's go!" Nolan shouts as the Wolverine player tears across the ice.
But he gets shoulder-checked and doesn't recover fast enough.
As he skates to the net, I hold my breath, and then, instead of taking the contested shot, he passes it back to Elias, who quickly breaks right from his defender and slaps it into the left corner of the net.
Like I said, hero time.
With only a few seconds to go, that's the fucking game. He did it.
Nolan and I file out of the arena with all the other fans and head for the garage. But when we come up to my car, I lose my fucking shit.
It's sitting on its rims.
"Fuck!" I kick the rear bumper. "Mother fucking…goddamn it!"
"Well, that's not going to help," Nolan says, still sipping on that fucking Sprite.
"What do you mean? Look at my fucking car! Can I get some fucking urgency from you? Where are the cameras? Are there cameras?"
"Bet there isn't."
"What!?"
"I told you—we have to take care of this now."
"You think this was him?"
"I know it was," Nolan says. "Didn't you have him whimpering on the floor of a wine bar last week? Like I said, you're on his fucking radar."
"I'm going to fucking kill him!"
"Nah, I'm going to kill him." Nolan turns, casually moving toward the exit. "Guess we should start walking; call a tow truck."
Seething, I follow him down the stairs and out of the parking garage. As we make our way home, my phone vibrates in my pocket, and when I pull it out, it's Elias, not Saige.
"What's up?"
"Hey!" he shouts. I can hear the excitement in his tone. "I'm going out with the team to celebrate the win. I'll text you guys the address—bring Saige, okay?"
"Saige isn't here; she went home to Aurora Cove."
"What? But…why? Did she see the game?"
Even through the background noise, the disappointment in his tone is evident. I don't think I'll tell him about the car right now; I don't want to ruin this for him. "Some of it. She left after the first period."
"Oh…well, I'll text you guys the address, anyway."
"Cool. See you there."
I hang up and stuff the phone back in my pocket.
"We're not going to that fucking party, right?" Nolan asks.
"Nope. I just didn't want to wreck his high. Anyway, we've got some shit to talk about, don't we?"
"Yes," he says. "Yes, we do."