Page 48 of The Substitute

A puck sails past my helmet, and I know I’ve fucked up.

“Dude,” Ridgeway laughs, stopping right in front of me, spraying me with ice shavings. “You better not be this fucked this weekend. We play the Monsters.”

I shrug it off because I’m not about to show any fucking weakness to these guys. “Calm your fucking tits. I’m allowed to be tired.”

Lovelace comes in, catching the tail end of what I said, giving me a look. “Do you need to go home?”

“No. I’m fine.”

“What’s going on?” Coach Hawke skates over, and now I’m really in for it.

“He’s tired and taking on too much, and you fucking know how goalies are. He’s going to get himself in his head for this weekend,” Lovelace says before I can get a word in.

“I’m fucking fine.”

Coach Hawke glances between us. “You sure?”

“Yes, I missed one shot. It’s not a big deal,” I growl, annoyed at Lovelace for saying shit.

“I don’t know. It wasn’t even that good a shot,” Ridgeway adds.

The wheels in Hawke’s head start spinning, and I don’t like it. “Do you want to go home and get some rest? Maybe go see the team psychologist?”

“No,” I say through my teeth.

“Maybe you should consider it? It can’t hurt,” Lovelace prods, and I know he’s well-meaning, but today, I want to tell him to go fuck himself.

“Can you get off my fucking back?” I get in Lovelace’s face.

He steps up, and he’s my size since he’s a defenseman. “You want to fucking go?”

“Both of you back the fuck off,” Hawke says, getting between us.

Ridgeway and Cox step in to help break us up.

“Get out of here, Savage. You need a break,” Coach Hawke says.

“I’m going to fucking strangle you later,” I mutter at Lovelace, taking my helmet off.

“You know I’m the strangler, not the stranglee, and we can’t both be the strangler…” Lovelace winks.

“Ugh.” If he wasn’t one of my best friends, I’d punch him in the face.

I quickly change and leave the building before I get dragged to see the team psychologist. The last thing I need is to have someone try to get inside my head. I’ve got enough going on in there without someone else poking around.

I pull out my phone, almost to my building, to see what Tobi is up to, and I almost run into someone. I glance up to find Ambrose blocking my way.

“What the fuck?” I ask when he doesn’t say anything.

“This game has gone on long enough.” He crosses his arms over his massive chest like he’s trying to be intimidating.

I laugh. “What game?”

“With Tobi. I want you to fuck off.” Ambrose says the same thing I’ve been wanting to say to him which doesn’t bode well.

I lift an eyebrow. “Excuse me?”

“You don’t even fucking want him. This has been a way to fuck with me since day one. But it’s getting old. I actually like him.” Ambrose softens, and I could use it to get him to see Mom, but I’m not willing to trade Tobi for that.