Chapter 6 #3
When he handed the pretzels he’d bought to Lover, and Hazy had retrieved the Sour Patch Kids that had landed on the floor, he decided to be honest. “I didn’t know what the fuck to buy.
I asked the cashier what you guys had bought.
Then I bought that.” He placed Daisy’s energy drink and water in front of her.
“And I got these for you because I pissed you off and you left them.”
The following silence was deafening until Lover doubled over in a fresh wave of laughter. Everyone followed suit. When they were breathing again, Hazy said, “Fuck you, I wish I’d thought of that! I should have gone last.”
Daisy stood and opened her bag. “I also got some items to participate, if you guys are okay with it. I was curious if I could do it. I’m only confident about one though.”
Hazy clapped. “Yes! Free snacks! Show us what you got!”
“Do you want me to show you first, or do you want to show what you got yourself?”
Lover fisted his mostly empty bag and raised it in the air, bouncing in his seat in a way that couldn’t be healthy for Daisy’s furniture.
“Ooo, let’s do ours, and then we can do yours! See how well the fan sites know us!” Lover upended his bag, and a pack of Sour Patch Kids fell into his lap.
Hazy took offense at Lover’s snack choice. “Bruh! I’ve never seen you eat those. Ever. You like Charleston Chews way more than those!”
Lover shrugged. “I didn’t see the Charleston Chews. I like these fine.”
Connor pulled his bag of mixed nuts out and showed them off like a used car salesman. Hazy whooped. “I win!”
Lover nodded. “I accept defeat. What did you get for yourself?”
“I got myself White Cheddar Cheez-Its, obviously. They’re the superior snack food.”
Daisy did an adorable little happy dance. “Uh-uh, Hazy! You don’t win. I do!”
She yanked a pack of Cheez-Its from her bag and thrust them toward him. For Lover she presented a Charleston Chew.
When she got to Connor, her dancing ceased. She looked into her bag and then met his eyes. With her attention on him, the boys faded into the background. She seemed nervous, hesitation clear on her face. He raised an eyebrow and held out his hands.
“You seemed convinced you’d won a second ago. Prove it.”
He’d meant for it to sound light and teasing, but it came out more accusatory. Twice now, he hadn’t gotten his tone right with her, and he hated himself for it.
Her gaze hardened, and instead of showing off what she’d chosen for him, she shoved the entire grocery bag into his chest and turned to fiddle with a gaming console on her bookshelf.
“Maybe I didn’t win.”
She flipped to an input channel. He peeked into the grocery bag; the snack inside was his absolute favorite. One he hadn’t had in years. He cleared his throat.
“You won.”
Lover ripped the bag from his hands and dumped the contents onto the coffee table. He side-eyed Hazy, confused.
“Circus cookies?” Hazy asked.
Connor tore open the bag and stuffed a pink-frosted cookie into his mouth. Sprinkles spilled onto the coffee table, but that added to the experience. He dug around in the bag for a second pink cookie. The pink ones were better.
“Circus cookies,” he agreed around his full mouth.
He washed the cookie down with a swig of water. His linemates followed suit, and they stared at Daisy together, waiting for instructions. Bright cartoon characters waved at them from the TV. She handed them each a controller.
“This is all I have planned for the day. I’m obligated to keep you until the end of your session. All you have to do is play this game.”
Lover grinned at her. “I’ve never played this game sober. It’ll be way easier.”
Daisy snorted. “I’m willing to bet that’s not the case.”
The screen prompted them to pick their avatars. He chose a blue monkey before he noticed there were only three players listed.
“You aren’t playing?” Connor asked.
Daisy climbed onto a corner seat of the sectional, her socked feet stamping down the cushion before she sank into a crisscross position.
“I’m not part of the team that needs building.”
Hazy nudged her shoulder. “You don’t have to be part of the team to play the game. If you want us to play, you should be willing to play too.”
“I’m willing to play, but you guys need to build chemistry. It doesn’t make sense to include me.”
Connor shrugged. He couldn’t imagine it would be fun to watch a group of grown men play a video game, but whatever. “Got it. Are we ready?”
Lover pressed the button, and the game threw them into chaos.
Their characters got separated by walls on the screen.
Connor hadn’t figured out the buttons, so his character ran in circles.
Lover tried to explain the game, but Connor could only pick up a tomato and slice it.
He put the sliced tomato on the counter.
“Beanie. I need the flour, throw me the flour!”
Connor smashed random buttons. The screen pulsed at them, a clock Connor couldn’t see counting down.
“We haven’t delivered a single dish! We’re not going to get a star!” Hazy piped in.
Connor had no idea what was going on.
The timer ran out, and they had indeed earned zero stars. Hazy and Lover laughed at the failure. Connor didn’t join them. His blood pressure skyrocketed, and his hands went clammy despite knowing the activity was supposed to be fun.
He set the controller on the coffee table. He could not have a meltdown over a children’s game. He excused himself to the restroom, where he focused on deep breaths and splashed some water on his face. When his heart was no longer beating out of his chest, he rejoined the group.
Hazy had taken Connor’s spot. He and Lover had handfuls of circus cookies, the other snacks sitting untouched on the coffee table. He grimaced. They had fistfuls of frosting. Their hands were going to be so sticky.
He glared at the boys, who stared back with mischief in their eyes, but he sat next to Daisy without argument. He did grab his cookies though, making sure they were well out of their reach. Now that he remembered their existence, he would never go without.
It took him a moment to realize Daisy held a controller. She lifted it to show him.
“I said I wasn’t going to play. But they convinced me.” Lover tried to interrupt her, but she shot him a death glare and he closed his mouth. “If you’re okay with that?”
He didn’t care. Whatever it took to get him out of here the quickest. “Yeah, that’s fine.”
She wiggled in her seat. “Yay!”
She commandeered the player-one duties and added a princess to the player list. Then she flipped through different maps on the screen and selected one to play. This time, instructions popped up. They hadn’t before. Or Lover had skipped them.
“Sorry,” Daisy said. “It’s been a couple of years since I played.
I don’t remember the controls.” She compared her controller to the instructions on the screen.
Connor followed her lead. He studied the controller and found each button, trying to be stealthy.
No chance in hell would he admit to those two yahoos that the only video game he’d ever played was Mario Kart with his nephew.
She gave him plenty of time to understand the game. Food needed prepared, and customers would order one of the options. They had to complete the order before the customer got mad and stormed away. Simple.
She pressed play, and the kitchen came into view. They had access to the whole kitchen this time. They had more time on the clock. Daisy directed her character over to the crates of ingredients.
“Okay, who’s chopping?”
Hazy stood his character next to a knife. “Me!”
Lover’s little avatar stood next to a stove. “I’ll cook!”
She looked at Connor, who waited for her instructions. “Dishes or food delivery?” she asked.
“Dishes.”
“Okay. We have a plan. Go!”
They were able to work together to serve a few customers, and when the time ran out, they had earned two stars. Connor had never been more hyped about a pixilated gold star.
“Fuck yeah! Crushed it!” Lover did a fist pump.
They spent the next hour feeding hungry patrons.
The levels got more advanced as they went along, but there were instructions for every new challenge.
Connor relaxed more with every gold star.
When they got to a level that separated them again, Hazy discovered he could hit fellow players in the head with thrown objects, and they all burst into laughter.
“Hey!” Connor yelled at him. “The little guy is getting angry! We’re going to lose a customer.”
“Oh, shit!” Lover yelled, “My rice is burning!”
After they stopped throwing items at each other long enough to finish the level, Daisy collected the controllers and shut off the TV. They tidied their small mess before Daisy drove them back to Collaborative Craft, where they separated.
Their next practice was two days later, and open to the public, which meant running plays and scrimmages. Fans didn’t care about watching their team skate in different patterns or between cones. Open practices were about connecting with the fans. Without the fans, the league was nothing.
Connor tried to come in a little later on open practice days to avoid fans.
There were so many children. He could spend the entire two hours passing out pucks and making kids feel special and still miss somebody.
Adults were worse. Plenty of them came in expecting something, and there were always issues.
Someone got a puck instead of a stick, or they didn’t get the right autograph, or they needed to take their selfie fourteen times to get it right.
No matter how hard he tried, someone would always be disappointed, and that ate away at him.
Today was no different. He had trouble finding parking, his reserved space taken by an inconsiderate fan. Then he got accosted in the parking lot. Fans always lingered, waiting for late arrivals. He got out his Sharpie and signed a couple of items, declining to sign the forehead of a teenage girl.
When he stepped onto the ice, he spotted Dylan in the bleachers. He waved at his nephew; his mood boosted.
The coaches had them run through a few skills before they split into teams. Connor got paired with Hazy and Lover, who were in top form that morning. The last several times they had practiced, the Connor line had been annihilated.
They gathered around the center of the ice to face-off.
Lover won the face-off and sent the puck straight to Connor, who carried it into their offensive zone.
He tried to push toward the net, but Harland Reese, the defenseman, kept the puck to the outer rims of the ice.
Connor flung the puck around the curve of the rink, and it bounced off the back wall, right onto Hazy’s stick.
Connor was stunned. He’d attempted the simple move with Hazy hundreds of times, and it often hadn’t worked for them.
The success gave him the confidence he needed to follow through with a light hit on Reese.
He watched the puck travel between Hazy and Lover, and worked his way to the front of the net.
He put his head on a swivel, searching for an opportunity, and slid in behind Reese while remaining open.
He tapped his stick on the ice and yelled, “Lover, here!” The puck slid to him as if nobody else existed. He tipped it into the net.
Excitement and relief flowed through him, and he raised his stick in the air.
It had been a long time since one of his pucks had hit the back of the net.
Hazy and Lover skated to him to give him a hug, the first their line had shared in months.
The entire team stared, but this was a huge win for them.
A damn scrimmage against their own teammates.
A goal scored on the goalie they knew best. But the Connors needed a boost to their confidence. Proof they could work together.
They scored twice more, but lost the game. In the locker room Lover snapped him with a towel as he passed by. Connor ripped it from his hand like he had every other time Lover had tried that shit with him. Lover held his hands in mock surrender and gave him a toothy grin.
“Your girl is doing us some good, huh? Imagine how much better we’ll be when we’re done with her plans.”
The silence that fell over the room drained Connor of his levity. Hazy guffawed.
Reese asked, “You have a girlfriend? Since when?”
Connor let out a frustrated growl. “No, I don’t have a girlfriend.”
Hazy smacked Connor’s arm. “You could.”
“I don’t want one.” Half the locker room snickered at the blatant lie.
Lover sat next to Connor and started getting dressed. “You seemed flustered around Daisy.”
Hazy gasped. “Was he flustered? He seemed like his normal broody self to me, but maybe I was distracted by how much Daisy wants to climb him like a tree.”
“She does not,” Connor snapped.
Most of the locker room had lost interest in the conversation, but Lover and Hazy replied at the same time.
“Yikes.”
“Oof.”
“She has to be a big fan, right?” Lover continued. “She knew our names. Our favorite snacks. How did she know you liked those cookies? Hazy and I did a favorite thing video for social media.”
Connor waved off the question. “I’ve done a million of those interviews over my career, so I probably mentioned them.”
“She’s a pretty big fan if she’s remembering all the videos,” Hazy said.
“Maybe she researched it for the activity. Was she trying to prove a point? We should at least know each other as much as the average fan.”
They should’ve been getting to know each other all year. He didn’t want to spend his time off watching cheesy seven-second videos of his teammates, but he would if it helped his game. His sigh turned into a groan.
“Probably. But I’m not digging. It’s creepy enough to stalk your teammates. Let’s look at our regular profiles and then whatever marketing put together for socials. No searching stuff that happened ten years ago.”
“Ooo, what are you hiding from ten years ago?”
Connor rolled his eyes. He should have known Lover wouldn’t take anything he said seriously. “I’m not hiding anything. This should be a ten-minute task. Not a ten-hour task.”
Hazy nodded. “Good idea. Should we do it now? Or on our own? It’s weird to watch it in front of you. But it’s also weird to research you guys without you.”
Lover pulled out his phone and scrolled to one of the main social apps. “Dude. You’re overthinking it. Watch the fucking videos and we can talk about it later.”
Connor didn’t have the mental strength to deal with them. He got dressed and escaped, going in search of Dylan.