Page 8

Jake

“ A re you feeling alright man? You were all over the ice today.” Adam pulls me aside after practice.

Why he couldn’t have done this when we were still inside the building as opposed to now having to stand in the frigid fall wind is anyone’s guess.

But I suppose also shouldn’t complain too much about my friend wanting to check in on me.

“Yeah I’m fine. I think I’m just a bit nervous about bringing my grade up so I don’t get benched.

” I whisper the final bit under my breath.

Only he and Ollie knew how close I was to the chopping block and I didn’t want it to become a whole thing.

Last thing the new kids on the team needed to hear was how one of their captains may be out for the rest of the season.

“I have my first, or I guess a redo, of my first session today and it’s all I can think about. ”

“You’ll be fine. I know things seem scary now, but your tutor will be able to help you get back on track and in a couple of months we’ll be holding up the NCAA championship trophy over our heads.

” Adam gives me a small reassuring smile and I wish I had half of the confidence in myself that he had in me. Maybe then I wouldn’t feel so nervous.

“You keep wishing that for us while I head out and make sure I’m not late this time.” I give him a small wave before I head toward the parking lot at the back of the arena.

Normally I walk to practice but after staying up all night trying to make sense of my homework, I decided to reward myself by sleeping in a bit today.

By the time I make it to my car I see the only car left here belongs to Ollie.

Judging from the very flat tire on the front of his car I can take a guess on how his day’s been going.

“You need help changing out the spare? I have a toolkit in my trunk.”

Ollie looks up from his tire at the sound of my voice, his face in a tight grimace.

“I’m afraid you’re looking at the spare.

” He nods to the half-deflated tire. “I’ve been pushing off getting another one because money’s been a little tight lately and it looks like that decision finally bit me in the ass today. ”

“Don’t worry about it. I’ll give you a ride back to Hockey House and we can call triple A to come fix this.” I unlock my G-Wagon and gesture for him to get in the passenger seat.

“I was actually on my way to the airport. I decided to go home for a few days since we don’t have a game this weekend. My grandpa’s getting older now and well…” He shrugs to release the tension in his shoulders. “I’ll just call an Uber.”

“An Uber’s gonna cost you like sixty bucks. Get in, I’ll drop you off at the airport.”

“You sure you have time?”

“Yeah it should only take me like thirty minutes there and back.” Which should leave me with more than enough time to drop my car off at home and walk over to the library for tutoring. “No biggie.”

“You’re the best captain I’ve ever had Jake, I mean it.” Ollie pulls his bags out of the trunk of his car and throws them into mine, and a few minutes later we’re pulling out of the parking lot.

“Make sure you let Adam know that. His ego’s been getting a little big lately.” That was the farthest thing from the truth, but a solid part of our relationship was me busting Adam’s balls while he rolled his eyes in response.

“Seriously man, you’re really saving my ass. I was scared I was gonna miss my flight.”

“Don’t worry Ollie, we'll get you there in no time.”

Getting Oliver to the airport with enough time for him to make it through security? Check. Getting myself back to campus in time for tutoring? Big fucking fail. I was sitting in bumper-to-bumper traffic moving less than a hundred feet every five minutes. Eliana was going to kill me.

And to think this time I actually worked my ass off to finish the homework and was even going to arrive early if not for the emergency detour I had to take to help Ollie. What an absolute nightmare.

It’s fine, everything’s fine. I’d just skip the trip home and head straight to the library. I still had a solid fifteen minutes until I had to be there and I was only two miles from campus. No need to freak out yet. Except with every minute that ticked by I realized how absolutely screwed I was.

There was no way I was going to be on time which meant I had to cross my fingers and hope that Eliana hated last minute rescheduling much less than she hated me showing up late.

I reach for my phone to send Eliana an email when I realize it;s dead.

This has to be a joke. There’s no way that I’m stuck in traffic AND my phone is dead.

I reach over to the glove box, digging through it like a mad man and sending all of its contents onto the floor.

I send a silent prayer out for a charger. No such luck.

This was bad. Really, really bad. I bang my head against the steering wheel. With every minute that passed by, I felt the hopes of me playing hockey this season fade.