Chapter 11 The Scandal
The Scandal
“Ma, no. You don’t understand.” Sánchez sighed in frustration and rubbed his forehead as he spoke with his mom on the phone. “Andrew Sommers fue suspendido.” Suspended.
Taylor listened as his mom fired off sentences in Spanish loud enough for him to hear her through the phone currently pressed to Sánchez’s ear.
He scoffed and leaned his head back against the seat.
“No, Mama, es Menor. Dos minutos, Mamá. Solo dos.” That made Taylor chuckle.
She must’ve been scolding him for getting locked up in the sin bin.
“My son! Causing trouble. On live television!” she had said in horror the last time it happened in her thick Dominican accent. Sánchez reenacted it for everyone, mocking her accent.
Sánchez pinched the bridge of his nose and made a dismissive gesture. “Douglas es fine. Taylor es fine, Ma. Todos bien.”
Taylor sighed. He wouldn’t say everything was fine. Andrew Sommers made a racist comment towards a Black official during the game after being awarded a five-minute penalty.
At first, they slapped on a ten-minute penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct. But after the period had ended, they removed Sommers from the game altogether, sending him straight down the tunnel.
It all started with a dirty hit. Sommers checked Fletcher from behind, sending him face-first into the boards.
The puck wasn’t anywhere near them. Before Taylor could even process it, Douglas immediately went after him, ramming him up against the boards.
The whistle blew, but Sommers wasn’t ready to give up.
“I heard Dallas has been having a really good season,” he taunted, laughing coldly. “It’s such a shame you were traded. Remind me why again?”
Douglas threw his gloves off and swung. Helmets hit the ice as linesmen narrowed in.
“Say it again, you fucker!” He snarled. “I fucking dare you!”
Taylor lunged to pull Douglas off him, but one of Sommers’ teammates came up from behind and completely blindsided him.
Parker Wolfe slammed into him from behind, driving him shoulder-first into the glass.
Taylor instinctively turned to throw a punch.
His ears were ringing as his knuckles collided with Wolfe’s jaw. Pain shot up his arm on impact.
Roca finally managed to wrench Douglas from Sommers.
Fletcher pulled Taylor off Wolfe, tugging him by his jersey. Wolfe immediately lunged forward again.
“Taylor, enough!” The sound of Fletcher’s voice cut through the noise and knocked some sense into him. But that was only for a second.
“Oh, come on, man! You’re just going to let Little Armstrong make you his little bitch? Thought you had balls, Piers.”
Taylor threw his gloves off.
“Piers!” Pancek shouted from the bench.
The whole thing threw the team off for the rest of the night. The bench went quiet. Not even scoring short-handed against a power play had been enough consolation.
“You can’t let them get to you, son,” he’d told Taylor right after the game.
But he couldn’t shake the comment Wolfe made. He kept overanalyzing it in his mind. Asking himself why Wolfe even thought to say it in the first place.
Something happened the night they had dinner with Fletcher’s parents.
Taylor had spent the entire night trying to make sure Fletcher hadn’t been put in the hot seat.
Sean Armstrong loved nothing more than talking about himself, so Taylor kept on asking him questions about his career and achievements and his team.
He told him how big of a fan he was growing up.
It wasn’t entirely a lie. Until hockey camp happened.
Taylor thought it had went well. Really well, actually. He had to admit that the Little Manatees offer was hard to pass up. It was for a good cause. And he’d get to spend some time with Fletcher. His best friend.
Then they invited him to their Fourth of July celebration. Taylor didn’t really care for the holiday, but he had always wanted to vacation in Florida. Maybe not Jacksonville. But somewhere down south sounded fun.
Sean and Fletcher split off to talk. Taylor had hoped it would be a good one that provided Fletcher with some closure. But then he came back to their room and…it broke Taylor’s heart to see him like that.
He didn’t even realize he had held his hand. There was just something about Fletcher that made him feel so overprotective. He had never seen Fletcher so upset. So vulnerable. He was always pretty good at putting on a brave face, even though Taylor saw right through him.
He reached over and hugged him. It was supposed to be a hug.
But something happened. It was like the world had shifted. Fletcher had clung to him, and Taylor knew then and there that he was having thoughts about Fletcher that he never should be having.
Taylor knew it was wrong.
* * *
When they flew back home, Taylor immediately went to see Dr. Browne.
He told her how he was having these feelings that completely blindsided him. Feelings that were eating him up alive. He almost couldn’t even admit it to her.
“You said they were feelings? What kind of feelings?” She asked, guiding him.
Taylor shrugged. “Feelings of lust?” He cringed. “That sounds so gross. I don’t know. I don’t think I’m gay. I’ve never thought about a man before in that way, you know? And besides… it’s not like I could ever act on them.”
“And why is that?”
Taylor sighed and shook his head. “Because you can’t be gay in the NHL.” He said it almost matter-of-factually.
Dr. Browne shook her head at him as she pushed her glasses up to sit on the top of her head.
She leaned in towards him while seated in her cool egg chair.
Taylor had chosen to sit on the small couch in her office.
He sat matter-of-factually with his legs perched up on the end of the couch and probably looked out the floor-to-ceiling window more than he looked at her.
“There is no rule that tells you that you can’t be gay, Taylor. ”
“I know,” he sighed. He scratched the side of his neck near his collar bone kind of nervously. “They wouldn’t respect me if I was gay.” He had too much on the line.
“Who wouldn’t? The other players?”
“My team. The league. My friends. I don’t know, doc.”
“Have you ever met a gay person?” She asked, curious. It was kind of condescending. But then again, Taylor honestly couldn’t think of any he knew personally, aside from Emogen. Did it count if he met two of her girlfriends in high school? Maybe he needed to start branching out more, he wondered.
“My ex. She’s a lesbian but we still hook up sometimes.” Taylor didn’t actually know if Emogen was a lesbian. She had never officially come out or labeled her sexuality. But as far as he knew, she had primarily slept with girls if she wasn’t sleeping with him.
“There is absolutely nothing wrong with being gay. There’s nothing wrong with questioning your sexuality. It’s a completely normal and very healthy thing to do.” Dr. Browne assured him.
Taylor knew that. He had no issue with other people being gay.
But it scared him. It threatened everything he had worked so hard for.
Respect was what he valued most, and he would never do anything to lose the respect of his teammates.
Even if that meant burying these feelings he had deep, deep down inside of him.
“This person you’re having this attraction towards… Do you think he feels the same way about you?”
Taylor shook his head. “Definitely not.” Any time he had given Fletcher an ounce of affection had ended in him immediately putting up walls and guarding his feelings. There was no way Fletcher could be gay. His ever-growing body count could attest to that.
Taylor didn’t even know if it was feelings that he was having for Fletcher.
It was more so an attraction. Fletcher was one of his best friends.
They were unstoppable together on the ice.
The last thing he wanted to do was overthink about their friendship and end up putting a wrench in it.
He didn’t want to mess things up. With Fletcher or his career.
The therapy session didn’t really do much except reinforce the fact that Taylor valued his career too much to do anything that may threaten it.
* * *
Two weeks later
On his way home from practice one morning, Taylor stopped to pick Marina up from a sleepover. Well, Marina hated when he called it that and insisted that the kids called them “hangouts” now. Apparently, sleepovers were “so middle-school.”
“Can we stop by the store?” Was the first thing she asked when she hopped into the passenger seat of his truck.
“Sure. What do you need?” he asked.
“Uhm,” she hesitated. “Just stuff.”
They pulled into the Target parking lot and Taylor found a good spot right up front. He loved when that happened. He unbuckled his seat belt and opened the car door.
“Wait,” she said, sounding panicked. “If you just give me your card I’ll run in and be right back.”
Taylor rolled his eyes. “Yeah, no. Not gonna happen. I don’t need you spending all my money on slime ingredients.” He’d been burned before.
He and Marina headed in the store and she grabbed a basket. “Do you know when mom gets off of work?” She asked quietly.
“I think late,” he answered. Taylor sensed something was upset. She was acting very shy around him, which had never been the case in the past. Marina was the annoying little sister he never had. “What’s wrong, munchkin? Is something going on?”
Marina began to shrug, but someone approached them. “Taylor Piers? Oh my gosh! Can I get a picture with you really quick?”
Taylor turned around and gave the girl a polite smile. She seemed like she was around his age or maybe a little younger. She quickly raised her phone and snapped a selfie with him. “Thank you so much! I’m such a fan of you guys.”
Taylor thanked her for her support and looked behind him to ask Marina the question again, but she was nowhere to be seen. “Fuck,” he muttered under his breath. Where the hell could she have gone?