Page 6

I got back to the Icehouse, the pod where the Orcas lived to see Finn as I walked through the door. He hauled a heavy bag up a flight of stairs.

“What a surprise,” I called out to him.

“You gonna give me a hand?” he asked, wiping his brow. “I knew I shouldn’t have brought this much with me.” Finn was just shy of six feet, easily a great skater, could move swiftly between players. Needed work with his stick and traveling with the puck, but nobody was perfect. Myself included.

“Yeah, but first, I just saw your girlfriend,” I said, walking up the stairs to grab the bottom of his luggage. It was no joke heavy. “Fuck. You trying to smuggle someone in here with you?”

He didn’t pick up his side, he just looked at me, blinking wide. “I don’t—I don’t have a girlfriend, Luke,” he said. “I’m sorry if you got scammed out of tickets or whatever, but I’m very single.”

I dropped the end of the suitcase and stared at him, trying to figure out if he was playing me. “You serious?” I obviously couldn’t tell. “Because she was adamant. In fact, she kinda threatened this guy and used you in the threat.”

“Lemme guess, Sophia,” he said, rolling his eyes. “We went on one date. It didn’t go well. She was on her phone all night, taking pics and posting selfies, and obviously, I don’t mind that, but she just didn’t care about anything I said.”

“I guess she didn’t hear when you said it wasn’t going to work out then.” I picked the bottom of the luggage up again, this time putting my back into it. “You really didn’t have to bring this much back with you.”

“My folks bought me a bunch of textbooks I had to bring back with me,” he said, hauling the suitcase up to his chest. “After nearly flunking two classes last semester, they’re telling me I’ve got to knuckle down. A free ride only means so much if I graduate.”

Pretending to be someone’s girlfriend to get tickets to games wasn’t a new scam, I’d almost had girls pull the same stunt on me, but I’ve always kept a distance from all relationships. Where Finn’s parents were getting him to hit the books, mine were telling me to be on the ice whenever possible. And I wasn’t exactly interested in anyone romantically. I could see the appeal in people on an aesthetics, but to be intimate wasn’t something I craved. I didn’t know what I wanted, but it wasn’t another person.

“You’re gonna have to tell her the two of you aren’t together,” I told him as we made it up the second flight of stairs. “The guy she was threatening is our new reporter for the college paper, and he seems cool.”

Wren was another factor in all of this. I didn’t like distractions, and he was so closed off, I wanted to get an oyster shucker and open him up just to see what was on the insides. I’d already seen his stuffed orca, but he was so quiet, I wouldn’t know even if he told me the reason why he had it. And I was only partially buying that he was a fan.

“So, you were sucking up to him?” Finn chuckled. “Trying to get your name dropped in the paper as often as possible. You keep the scrapbook?”

“Obviously. I’ve got to let scouts see all my accomplishments.”

And so, what if I was sucking up to Wren. It should be easy. He was wearing a rainbow pin. I was going to two birds one stone with him since some of the team thought I’d made a homophobic comment, which I desperately needed to prove otherwise, even if my face said I was slightly uncomfortable with the drag queens, I mean, it was spooky, some of those guys could really transform themselves.

“Fingers crossed I get a mention,” he said. “Maybe I should date Sophia then if she’s got sway.”

“She doesn’t,” I immediately countered. “Coach already wants Wren, and so do I.”

“Thanks, man,” he said, bringing it in for a bro hug. “Are we having group meal tonight?”

“Is Julia here yet?”

He shrugged. “I only just got here like thirty minutes ago.”

I nodded, recalling what Sophia had said. “Also, you might not want to keep posting your location to your socials. I think you might be being stalked.”

“She’s just a fan,” he said, laughing it off. “Got to keep them happy, right?”

“Not that happy.”

* * *

All the sophomores, juniors, and seniors playing for the Orcas were boarding at the Icehouse. By the time the semester started, everyone was moved in. Both lucky and unlucky that the first Monday of term was also Labor Day, and since that was a holiday and Julia had only just started back over the weekend, we were in a weird in-between state of whether we wanted to celebrate, or have Julia tell Coach we partied.

We had a barbeque right in the back yard, invited all freshmen Orcas over, and Wren, he was team adjacent right now, and I wanted to crack that shell, and seem friendly, which I absolutely was, but I’d given him the wrong impression already.

Julia had made sure we were only eating the best cuts of meat, but she was taking the day off and wanted us to have cleaned the entire kitchen before she got in tomorrow.

The weather was still nice enough to be in khakis and a nice short sleeve shirt.

Liam was on the grill and some of the other guys were playing field hockey with some of their old sticks. We had our names on sticky white labels, pressed to our clothes since there were five freshmen, and it was easier for us all to know their names that way.

It was easy to spot the freshmen, they huddled together. We were the orcas, not the penguins, we weren’t huddlers. “Come on guys, get stuck in,” I said. “I don’t think any of you are goaltenders, which is good, we’ve got three of those already, but you should go over to the bottom of the yard and get stuck in.”

“Are you guys always like this?” Alex asked. He stood above the grouping, dressed in a Hawaiian yellow and blue shirt.

“Like what?”

“Like best friends,” he said.

“We’re a team, of course we’re all friends, maybe not best friends, but we know what each other are like, and we develop plays over dynamics. Like, Ethan and Jack, they’re absolutely workhouses, grinding as an offensive team, they’re like shepherds herding players into making them foul, and it’s a little dirty, but when we need it, they know the play.”

They looked amongst each other, and I knew some of them would develop similar bonds to the bonds I had with the team I’d been playing with for years now. This was the start of their entire journey, and one of them could end up captain.

Before they could field me with more questions, I caught the uncomfortable appearance of Wren in his jacket and jeans with the bulge under one arm where I assumed he was keeping the team mascot teddy.

“You all get stuck in, I’m gonna make sure we’ve got enough meat,” I said. “There’s tofu as well on different grills, don’t worry, I got the vegan memo.” I hadn’t, some of the players were veggie and Julia had mentioned tofu being a great alternative, even fit for vegans. I headed up the path to the back of the house where Wren’s straight face and big eyes glared at me.

“I thought you wanted to do the interview,” his first words were.

“Hey,” Marcus appeared behind Wren, planting both of his big hands on his shoulders. “He said you invited him. I tried finding you inside, but you’re obviously out here.” Marcus Chen was one of the team’s defenses, six-one with the chest width of two men if they were combined, but the tiniest waist I’ve seen on a man. He lived in the weight room.

Wren seemed to shrink under Marcus’s hands. “Yeah, I thought you wanted me to come over for the interview stuff.”

“No, no, I specifically said, we’re having a Labor Day thing, you should come over, it’s gonna be the entire team, and you get to see us all off the ice,” I said. “But obviously, if you want to ask me your questions, I’m ready. Always ready.”

Marcus cooed. “Damn. Does Liam have steak on the grill?” He smacked his lips. “I’m about to go devour that right off the metal. I better not be well done either.”

“I believe you will as well,” I said, giving him a fist bump as he walked off and even attempting to give one to Wren, but he just looked at his hand in mid-air.

He shuffled around on the spot, readjusting the position of the teddy against his chest. “You’re probably right about the message, but I don’t mind leaving and then coming back another time.”

“Are you kidding? I invited you over.” I gestured, arm out to present the yard of players to him, all engaged in their own conversations and activities. “I can grab you a drink. All non-alcoholic, obviously. Or I can show you around the house where we live and you can see what it’s all like here, you know, since you’re writing about us, you should see the place.”

“Ok, I’ll have a drink. Maybe a water, or a fruit juice. I’m not picky.”

“Of course,” I said. “We’ve got organic apple juice boxes.”

His face lit up. “Yes, please.”

I didn’t want to be so in everyone’s face by showing Wren to them, but it might not have been that useful because he wasn’t even wearing his rainbow pin. The guilt of using him this way was still eating me up.

After showing him around the house, not all twenty of the bedrooms, but the ones that weren’t being used were studies and weight rooms. He got a full tour and clocked in over a thousand steps, that was for certain.

We sat outside on loungers as we were presented with hot dogs and condiments.

“I’m not hungry,” he said, but his hand went to his stomach.

“Eat something,” I said. “You don’t like mustard? Ketchup? Want it plain? Or don’t like the hot dogs?” There was a visceral want to help him, and I couldn’t pinpoint exactly where the feeling came from.

He let out a giggle and pushed at the teddy hiding against his chest. “Ok. But only ketchup, please.”

“You got it, and I really think we need to get some of those in the merch store,” I said, trying not to draw too much attention to the teddy.

“Thanks, I made it myself.”

“You did?” And there he was, slowly opening some more. I didn’t want to keep prodding with questions because he could’ve just as easily snapped shut around my fingers, right before I reached in for the pearl. “How?”

“It’s crochet,” he said. “It’s using yarn and a hook, and you basically just make a lot of knots in it, but the real magic is that they’re not real knots because if you cut at one of these,” he pulled it out fully and I could see just how much detail went into it. “You can pull the yarn, and it will just unravel until it’s back into a roll again.”

I reached out and rubbed the back of a knuckle against the bumps. “That might be the most wholesome thing I’ve heard.”

“I taught myself,” he added.

“Ok, let me go get you another hot dog. I want to know more about that.”

His bright eyes barely blinked at he stared at me, so excited. My heart skipped a beat for a second, and I was losing my breath. As I stood in front of the grill, staring at Liam, I was sucking in deep breathes on the verge of hyperventilating.

“Yo, you good?” Liam asked, smacking the metal tongs near my face.

“I’m just—” I fanned my face with a hand.

“No shit it’s hot,” he laughed. “Let me know what you want. Or is it for your friend? You two look cozy.”

He was right. We must’ve looked cozy, because I’d practically ignored everyone all day since he arrived. I looked over at him, nobody else had taken the spot I was in. He was just sat there, holding his teddy up to his face as if he was having a conversation with it.

“Gotta keep him sweet,” I mumbled. “Since he’s gonna be with us all season. And I—I don’t know about you, but I’d like to make sure every mention of me is a good one.”

“I don’t mind being a little rough around the edges,” Liam said. “Plus, you’ve got that pretty boy image going for you. We don’t need to do too much, just play a good game. I think we’ve got this season in the bag.”

Pep talks should’ve been my thing now, and yet, I couldn’t formulate the right pep talk for myself in this very moment because I didn’t know what I needed to be talked to about. There was something happening inside me, it was strange, oddly welcomed, but there was nothing I could do for it, just take deep breaths.

“I’ll take a plain hot dog,” I said. “Then I’ll gather the team.”

Liam snapped the tongs in my face again playfully before giving me the hot dog. “You better be quick; I’ve got Marcus barking orders at me for near blue steaks. He wolfed down like two already. He’s a beast.”

“Make sure they’re cooked still, don’t want an earful from Julia or Coach.” And I didn’t know which of them would deliver the harsher tongue lashing.

When I presented the plain hot dog in the napkin to Wren, he gasped as his eyes lit up. “Thank you,” he said, placing his teddy on his lap. “I can teach you how to crochet if you want. But it’s an addictive hobby.”

“You sure you want me to have a hobby?” I asked. “You should be recommending me to put as much time into hockey.”

“You can’t just do that, you’ve got to have other hobbies, otherwise you’d be petty two-dimensional, and that’ll make for a boring interview,” he said, finding in his voice it seemed as he giggled.

I nodded, trying to figure out what hobbies I had. There was hockey, obviously, and besides that, I was great at in class, I could just about write an essay, and I liked to read sports biographies, but at my core, I was boring. God. I needed a hobby.