Chapter 21 Zeke
twenty-one
Zeke
How does it feel that your sister is dating someone with the same name as you?” I wonder, finishing off my beer.
“First of all,” he scores again, “we don’t have the same name. My middle name is Alexander, not my first name, and his first name is just Alex. Not Alexander. Totally different. And she swears they aren’t dating.”
“She brought him to Halloween,” I respond. “Practically in a couple’s costume.”
“If they were in a couple’s costume, then Brinley was in a couple’s costume with many people that night… including you.”
“Wait,” I begin, finally getting a shot in on Declan, “his name’s just Alex?”
“What?”
“The guy Brinley was with on Halloween. His name is just Alex. That’s not short for anything?”
“No, Brinley said it’s just Alex.”
“What do his friends call him?” I pause the game.
“What?”
“Alex is a nickname,” I argue. “How do you come up with a nickname for a nickname? Do people call him Al? That’s weird.” I laugh. “Ha, weird Al, get it because I said—”
“I get it,” he cuts me off. “Alex is a short enough name; I guess it doesn’t need a nickname. You don’t have a nickname.”
“I can think of a few nicknames I have; they just might not all be appropriate to say out loud,” I continue. “And a ton of the guys call me Z; it’s simple, straight to the point.”
“It’s a letter.”
“A letter people associate with me. So, it’s a nickname.”
“You’re relentless.” He shakes his head. “Can we get back to the game?”
“You don’t have a nickname.”
“What?”
“What do people call you? I don’t know if I’ve ever called you anything other than Declan. Does that mean we aren’t really friends? Friends have nicknames for each other. I bet you call Alex, Al.”
“Who calls Alex, Al?” Jaxon walks through the front door.
“Declan.”
“You guys are on a nickname basis?” Jaxon continues. “And what kind of nickname is Al. Like Weird Al?”
“That’s what I said!”
“We aren’t on a nickname basis.” Declan rolls his eyes. “I barely know the guy.”
“You didn’t even start calling me Jax until we’d been friends for a year, and you’re already there with Alex?”
“I just said I’m not.” Declan groans.
“Does he have a nickname for you too?” I question. “Is that why you like him better than us?”
“You guys are ridiculous.”
“Wait, do we have a nickname for you?” Jaxon freezes. “I’m Jax, Jeremy’s Jere, Fletcher’s Fletch, Carter is Brooks, Zeke is Z.”
“Told you.”
“You guys call me Sanderson sometimes.”
“Nah, the last name thing is Brooks’ thing,” I argue. “And we mainly call you that during practice or games.”
“What about D?”
“The one-letter thing is mine.”
“Fair.” Jaxon stands there, trying to think of a nickname; meanwhile, Declan looks done with both of us. “D-Man?”
“Eh.” I shrug. “Dex?”
“Too close to Jax.”
“Are you guys done?” Declan tosses the controller onto the table. “Because I was kicking Zeke’s ass at this game and would like to get back to it.”
“Does it not bother you that you don’t have a nickname?” I ask.
“I never call you Z, I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone not refer to you as Zeke, so I think people referring to me by my name is okay.”
“You don’t have to be so mean about it.” I pout. “I just wanted you to have a nickname.”
“Brinley calls him Goober.” Jax smiles. “We could all start calling him that.”
“Don’t even think about it.”
Idon’t know how you do it,” I say, tugging on my skates. We’re all scattered around the locker room, preparing for tonight’s game.
“Do what?” Declan pulls his socks up over his shin pads. Then he mimics me, grabbing his left skate and pulling it on.
“Keeping your relationship with Ember a secret from Cam,” I whisper. “I’ve almost spilled the beans six different times by accident.”
“You’ve known for three days.” He stops to stare at me.
“Yeah, and three of those slip-ups were in practice yesterday.” I pull my shoulder pads over my head.
“Ember will tell him when she’s ready,” Declan responds. “But I think she's worried after what happened with Tanner.”
“Worried Cam will beat the shit out of you?” I ask. “Because I wouldn’t blame him. He firmly believes in our no dating each other’s siblings pact that we made.”
“Trust me, I’ve thought about what will happen to me when Cam finds out, and every situation ends with me on a gurney.”
“Forget about what will happen to you,” I begin.
“What will happen to this team. Remember the tension on the team when Jere came back and knocked O’Connell back to his previous position on the line?
O’Connell fucking moved schools. I don’t know what we’d do if we lost you or Bowman because you’re fuc—”
The locker room door opens, and Cam enters, still wearing his regular clothes. Coach walks behind him as if they’re finishing a conversation, probably about why Cam’s late.
“Alright, boys,” Coach says, patting Cam on the back as he heads to get ready. “Tonight should be an easy one, but that doesn’t mean there should be any slacking out there. We don’t wanna let fucking ego be the reason our win streak ends tonight, got it?”
“Yes, Coach!” The words bounce off the locker room walls, and with a nod, he’s out of the room.
“Coach busting your balls over being late?” I ask, and Cam shakes his head.
“Nope. Coach knew I was gonna be late.”
“Coach must really like you. He busted Declan’s balls when he was late to the first game.”
“In all fairness, I barely got on the ice before the game started.” Declan laughs. “I’m surprised he let me play. Coach is a pretty understanding guy when you have a valid reason.”
“He made me walk back to the hotel after one of our games in Indiana last year,” I argue.
“Yeah, because you were half an hour late to the bus because you were having sex in some girl's car, and we all wanted to go to sleep.”
“I’d argue that getting laid is a very valid reason to get to the bus late. And I dominated that night. I felt like I deserved it.”
Cam laughs, something I don’t hear often from him, especially around me, due to our little scuffle when I asked about Ember coming to our game.
I can’t blame the guy, though. I trust these guys with my life, and if I had a sister, I wouldn’t mind them dating her.
I would, however, mind someone like me dating her.
Not because I don’t treat women right. I do. My mom would kill me if I ever treated a girl with anything but respect.
I’d fear her getting attached to a guy who’s only looking for sex and nothing serious.
I think that’s what Cam’s worried about. Not that he has to, for many reasons. The main one is that she’s already dating one of his teammates.
I laugh.
“What’s so funny?” Cam drops his stuff onto the ground before turning the corner to his locker.
“Nothing.”
“Alright.”
“I hate you sometimes, you know that?” Declan says.
“What’d I do?”
He pulls his jersey over his head, grabs his helmet and gloves, and heads out of the locker room.
“What’s his problem?” Fletcher stops at his locker to grab his jersey.
“I think he’s stressed about his big date,” I whisper.
“Or it could be the fact that he’s friends with a blabbermouth,” Jaxon pats me on the back. “For a guy who keeps a lot of shit to himself, you seem to have an issue with keeping secrets.”
“Hey, I’m great at keeping secrets. I just sometimes forget that I have a secret to keep.”
“Pretty sure that’d make you a shitty secret keeper.” Fletcher shrugs, and I roll my eyes.
Because if I was bad at keeping secrets, they’d know about Avalon. They’d know I’d been sleeping with the same girl for weeks. But they don’t.
How’s that for secret keeping?