Chapter 19 The Altercation
The Altercation
“You’re putting a divot in the ice, Piers,” Roca called out beside Taylor at practice later that morning.
Taylor quickly fixed it with his skate. “Sorry, I get antsy when I don’t eat,” Taylor told him with a huff. He was still on edge after his phone call earlier.
He had spoken to Gretchen who told him that she would do everything she could to help.
She had some social worker connections from the hospital who had some connections to some people in Sacramento.
He also called in a wellness check. Partly as a warning to Jacob to show him he wasn’t the one to be messed with. Not anymore.
“I thought you were going to get breakfast before practice with Douglas and my cousin,” Roca told him. Taylor shook his head.
“I wanted to sleep in this morning,” he lied. “Were you supposed to go too?”
Roca nodded, then shrugged. “I wanted to, but I still can’t really keep my anger in check around Douglas. You know him and my sister broke up a few days ago, right?”
Taylor sighed. “Yeah, I heard. That sucks, man. I hope Corinna is taking it okay.”
Roca raised an eyebrow at him. “Wait, you don’t know why they broke up?”
“Uhh, no. Not really. Douglas said they were just incompatible or something.” Taylor grabbed his water bottle and took a sip of water.
Roca scoffed and rolled his eyes. “They’re incompatible because he made my sister gay.”
Taylor choked on his water, spitting it out onto the ice. “What?” he asked him incredulously. That sounded insane.
“You seriously don’t know?”
Taylor shook his head. “When Corinna came to Boston to watch the game, she apparently went out and hooked up with another girl,” Roca told him with an edge of disgust. “Wait, you were there, right?”
Taylor nodded, trying to think of who he was with last night. The only other girls in their group besides Corinna were Briar and… “Holy shit. She slept with Emogen?”
“You know her?” Roca asked, confused.
“She’s my ex-girlfriend from high school. She lives in Boston. She came out with us that night after the game.”
“Your ex is gay?”
Taylor shrugged. “I mean I guess so. We still hook up from time to time, but she told me she likes girls too.”
What the hell happened in Boston that night? Taylor tried to remember the last time he spoke to her that night, but he couldn’t remember much outside of the rage he felt when Fletcher…
“So she cheated on Douglas?” Taylor asked, confused.
“Dude, no. She and Douglas were having threesomes. But then she met the girl— Emogen. And I guess she decided she wasn’t into guys anymore or something.”
“So why are you upset with Douglas? Isn’t he the one who was cheated on?”
Roca gulped. “Because he was the one who convinced her to have threesomes with other women. It’s his fault that my sister’s—”
“Roca, enough.” Coach shouted from behind them. “I will not have any of that out on my ice. Go sit on the bench until practice is finished.”
Roca rolled his eyes as he turned to take his seat on the bench. Taylor skated back out to the ice to get ready for his scrimmage.
“You’ll be on my team, Piers,” Bolving told him. Taylor nodded as they got into position. On the opposite team was Pancek, Fletcher, and three other older players.
Pancek won his face-off against Leering and slapped the puck towards Taylor’s goal.
Bolving managed to turn the puck around and the team all worked together to get it towards the net Calhoun stood in.
Leering made a shot, but it missed the goal by an inch and rebounded from the boards.
Pancek took possession of it and made a clean pass to Fletcher.
Taylor skated up to him and checked him into the boards.
Coach blew her whistle. “Do it again and you’re benched too,” she yelled at Taylor.
Clearly, she wasn’t in the mood for any bullshit today.
Fletcher quickly bounced back and tried to take the puck from Taylor. Right as Taylor was about to pass it to Leering, Fletcher came up and checked Taylor from behind. Coach blew her whistle again as a warning.
Taylor quickly grew frustrated as Fletcher continued to intercept him and body check him.
Finally, he had enough and lost his temper.
As Fletcher knocked him into the boards, Taylor dropped his stick and threw off his gloves.
Fletcher did the same. Right as they were about to take a swing at one another, Pancek skated up and pulled Fletcher back and Bolving did the same to Taylor.
“What the hell has gotten into the two of you?” Pancek shrieked.
“You’re done. Locker rooms. Both of you,” Coach told them.
Taylor picked up his stick and his gloves as he skated off the ice, spitting on the ice as he passed Fletcher.
Fletcher walked in after him and huffed as he took a seat on the opposite end of the bench from Taylor.
“What the fuck is your issue?” Taylor spat. “What the hell was that out there?”
Fletcher ignored him as he wiped off his blades and undid his laces. Whatever, Taylor thought to himself. Fletcher had been giving him the cold shoulder for like three days now. Ever since they accidentally hooked up in Buffalo.
After they had both collapsed to the bed, Fletcher got up and locked himself in the bathroom for nearly an hour. By the time he came out, Taylor was already back in his bed fast asleep.
They didn’t sit together on the bus to the game or from. And Fletcher chose to sit at the front of the plane with Douglas. Taylor walked back and took a seat next to Pancek.
“You’re in a bad mood, today,” Pancek told him. Taylor folded his arms over his shoulder.
“Yeah, because we lost to fucking Buffalo twice,” he lied.
“Well, you need to turn your frown upside down because Caleb is still expecting you to take him to see the troll at Fremont when we get back.”
Taylor’s face softened a little. “I know. He’s been asking me to take him for weeks because his dad is always gone playing hockey,” he told him sarcastically.
Pancek lifted his hands up in surrender. “Some of us are in the NHL here. We don’t always have time to be prancing around Seattle like a couple of tourists.”
Taylor put his skates back into his bag and grabbed his shower bag. He walked past Fletcher as he made his way to the bathroom. He chose his usual stall and stepped under the hot water.
Fletcher walked in shortly after and occupied the stall at the very end of the room. Two down from Taylor’s. Taylor’s jaw clenched.
He could feel Fletcher watching him from the corner of his eye, so he turned his head to glare at him. He raised his eyebrows at him, giving him a slight head nod as if to tell him “your move.”
Fletcher stared back at him with an equally disdainful look in his eyes. He poured some soap into his hands and lathered it all over his chest. His hands teasingly rubbed the soap onto his body as he held Taylor’s gaze, knowing he was winning whatever silent game they were playing.
Taylor couldn’t help it. Not when he had Fletcher’s perfect body on full display while Fletcher was putting on a show.
He watched as Fletcher’s hands traveled from one side of his body to another.
Slowly grazing over every square inch. Taylor couldn’t move.
He was entirely transfixed on the sight of Fletcher.
Fletcher gripped the side of his stall and looked down at his cock and back up at Taylor with a cocky look. The ball was now in Taylor’s court. His turn to put on a show.
But Taylor couldn’t put on a show when the only thought in his mind was that wanted to walk over and see if Fletcher was hard, knowing he most definitely was.
He tried to remember what Fletcher looked like completely naked.
The sounds he made as Taylor brought him to finish.
The uneven breaths that would escape from his lips as Taylor took him into his mouth.
Taylor needed it to happen again. He needed to taste him. He needed to look into Fletcher’s eyes as he made him finish.
He gawked at Fletcher as he reached down to give himself a stroke. Not for his own benefit. But to tease Taylor. To get under his skin like he always did.
It wasn’t until the sound of the rest of their teammates returning from practice that Taylor tore his attention away from Fletcher.
He put it all in the back of his head as he quickly finished his shower and walked back into the dressing room to put clothes on.
A few minutes later, Fletcher showed up beside him and dropped his towel as he stepped into some sweats.
Taylor averted his eyes and focused on himself.
By the time he was finished putting his things away in his locker, he couldn’t find Fletcher anywhere in the room.
Whatever. Taylor grabbed his duffel bag and headed out to the parking lot with his keys in his hand.
He did a quick scan only to find that Fletcher’s car was no longer there.
And for some reason, the absence of Fletcher’s car registered in Taylor’s mind as an invitation to keep playing the game.
He was telling Taylor to come chase him, just like that night in Boston.
* * *
Taylor didn’t know what he was thinking as he pulled out of the stadium lot and drove straight to Fletcher’s apartment.
What the hell was he doing? He pulled into the parking garage and took the elevator up, marching down the hallway until he reached Fletcher’s front door.
He pounded on it a few times before a shirtless Fletcher opened with a winning look on his face.
He didn’t say a word as he stepped by to let Taylor in. Taylor quickly stepped out of his shoes and followed Fletcher into his bedroom like a dog being walked. And he didn’t even care.
“Take your shirt off and kneel down by the bed,” was the first thing he said to Taylor.
With zero hesitation, Taylor quickly pulled his shirt over his head and let it drop to the floor. Fletcher walked over to the foot of his bed and stood there, waiting for Taylor to come over and kneel.