Hat Trick 3: Penalty Shot (26 page)

We had You Can Play patches on our jerseys, along with a stripe of rainbow. There was a significant You Can Play presence in the arena tonight as well, along with the team’s YCP video playing on the monitors. The video usually played once a game, but tonight it was playing more often alongside YCP videos from other Michigan teams.

Between Alex being back, and pride night, my energy was through the roof. Four years at Michigan and we were still the only two openly gay players on the team. I’d hoped there’d be at least one more out team member by now, although I guess by the percentages of gay people in the universe, we fulfilled the quota. We certainly had many gay friends spread across other collegiate teams.

“This is awesome,” Alex said as we hit the ice for warm ups. “Every section’s already got some rainbow in it.”

“Yeah, it’s cool. I didn’t know what to expect.”

The audience was only about a quarter full at this point since the puck drop was still forty minutes out. Yet, there were flags and signs on poster boards all over the place. Some of the signs near ice level even called us out in some way, which was pretty awesome. Every now and then, someone would have a sign referencing a player, and those were always special.

“Welcome to Michigan Hockey LGBTQ Pride Night,” Alex’s voice boomed from the scoreboard above.

“Oh no,” he said. “I was hoping this wouldn’t play while we were on the ice.”

I cringed, I wasn’t thrilled with it playing while we were out here either. The message we were giving was great. Welcome, glad you’re here, a You Can Play message and acknowledging some of the organizations that were sponsoring the night. It lasted a minute and a half. It served a good purpose. I hated it because of how stilted we looked. We were primped to an extreme degree. Every hair in place, makeup for the camera, lots of lighting. We were on the ice for it, but it was very directed and staged. On the other hand, I thought our YCP video rocked because it seemed more natural, plus the whole team was in it.

“Did you ever watch the whole thing?” I asked.

“No. No way. Not after I heard your reaction to it.”

“Looking good, guys,” It was Danny skating by us. “Don’t give up your day jobs.” He knew our opinion on the video, so he gave us a wink as he went by.

“Jerk,” I called after him.

We lined up to do a horseshoe drill to get the goalies warmed up. That made it easier to ignore the video. At least it wasn’t getting booed or anything. After some goalie warmup, I peeled away from the shooting to do some short sprints in the neutral zone to finish up my warm up sequence.

I hated the twenty minutes between warm ups and the puck drop. You get warm and raring to go and then you cool your jets for the final ice cut. Even back in the locker room, I very clearly heard the “welcome to pride night” video again. Alex and I rolled our eyes at each other as coach gave us the final pre-game talk. How many times was that going to play tonight?

With five minutes to go until game time, we headed out and waited for our turn to get introduced. We were set up outside our entrance to the ice and as the regular intro video ended, we blazed out of the tunnel. I hit the ice, skating hard, and noticed the usual blue and gold lights had changed up to rainbow colors. I loved that. I hoped someone in the stands was shooting video so I could watch it later online.

We all lined up as usual on the goal line for the starting lineup announcements. We stood silently for the other team to be called as the announcer read names off like it was a grocery list. He kicked up the excitement level as he introduced us. He started with Joey in goal, moved through Danny and Chuck on D, and then started on the forwards with Trent.

“…And, co-captain Simon Roberts,” he called. I admit, much like the intro video, getting called forward on the first line was a huge thrill every game. “And now, please welcome back to the ice for the first time since Thanksgiving weekend, starting at center, co-captain Alex Miller.”

He skated forward as the crowd roared. The first line introductions always got good crowd response, but this was above and beyond. I don’t think either of us expected this huge outpouring of support even though his return had been hyped in the press this week. I couldn’t see his face because of his helmet, but he had to be feeling the love. The team across from us banged their sticks on the ice, too.

He kept his position and the applause continued, with many people standing. For some reason the rest of the team hadn’t skated up yet to join us on the blue line. It was odd because usually they followed within seconds of Alex’s skating up.

Alex eventually raised his stick in the air to say thanks to the crowd and when he lowered it the rest of the team came forward. Our teammates were pretty incredible to let him have that moment.

As the crowd settled, the national anthem played and then we got down to business.

Alex was certainly frustrated with the center rotation, but he held tight with it. It was great being back in the game with him. I played okay with Jarvis, but Alex and I had our plays down from years of practice and it was a different game for me when he wasn’t the center. The perfect end to the first happened when I fed him a puck for him to fire a slap shot that went over the goalie’s shoulder. The score was one-zero.

Alex, Danny, Trent and I stayed out for the Rainbow High exhibition. We acted as linesmen during their scrimmage. We split the team in half and made sure that it was equal strength. One of Walt’s friends came along to be a second goalie to round out the sides. The guys put on a good game and the announcer did a great job of calling it.

“That was mad awesome,” Scottie said as we left the ice so the Zamboni could run. It was only ten minutes, but Scottie sounded as supercharged as if he’d played an entire game.

“Totally,” Walt said. “All those people. How many is that?”

He looked to Alex and me. “I haven’t heard the count for today,” I said. “Capacity is like fifty-eight hundred, and it looks like a sell-out today.”

“Serious?” Scottie asked as we got back to the locker rooms. Rainbow High was using the equipment room since the visitors’ locker room was occupied, but they would use our showers during the second period. “We usually have like thirty or forty in the stands if we’re lucky.”

I clapped him on the back and smiled.

“You’ve been here for games, you know how full this place gets,” Alex said.

“It’s different to be on the ice actually playing.”

“It is,” Alex grinned at him. “It’s awesome.”

“We gotta go,” I said. “We’re due back out in a few minutes. We’ll catch you guys after the game.”

“Sure thing,” Scottie said. “Later.”

“How you doing?” I asked Alex on the way to our locker room.

“So far so good. Making me crazy not to be out there all the time.”

“I know,” I said. “It’s written all over your face.”

We sat on our bench and he drank some Gatorade as we did our usual equipment tightening and adjusting.

“I need to stop that. The team shouldn’t see my frustration.”

“I think we all understand it. Not worth worrying about. If you were doing something that was giving off bad energy, I’d tell you. The important thing is you’re feeling good, playing well.”

He nodded. His phone chirped behind him with the text tone that was distinctly his mom’s. “Oh no. Really? During a game?”

“You know she’s here.”

“Exactly, I’m already going to get an earful later.”

He took his phone off the shelf and looked at it. He looked relieved as he read aloud. “
You’re looking great! Congrats on the goal. Be safe.
That was better than I thought it would be.” He put the phone back in its place.

“You’re not going to respond?” I was surprised.

“Nope. I’ll see her in a couple hours anyway.”

I looked at the clock since it was my thing to keep track of the time. “We gotta go anyway.” I raised my voice to the room. “Okay, guys, second period time. Let’s go.”

People made their way back towards the ice. Coach met us in the hallway and walked with Alex and me.

“You’re looking good, Alex. Feeling okay?

“Yeah. Any chance we can drop the center rotation?” He hadn’t put his helmet on yet and the plea was all over his face.

“‘Fraid not.”

He nodded.

“Be patient,” Coach said, clapping him on the back.

He nodded again. We stopped at the back of the line waiting to head out. Coach went ahead of us, wishing everyone a good game, as he continued his way out to the bench.

Once the colored lights and music started up, the team stormed out onto the ice.

“Let’s go out there and win this,” he said.

“Yeah!” I said extra loud.

That’s exactly what happened, and Alex kept the lone goal of the game as it ended one-to-zero.

I was in Big Blue Bean waiting for Alex’s mom. After last night’s dinner and Alex’s breakfast earlier this morning, I didn’t know what to expect. I prepared myself for the worst.

Dinner after the game was…I guess I’d call it okay. Alex and I broke it down on the way home last night. His dad was in his usual upbeat mood. He and Alex dissected the game like always. We both talked school and work. His mom didn’t talk as much as usual. She wasn’t cold so much as restrained, like she didn’t want to say anything wrong.

This morning Alex went to breakfast solo. I needed to focus on some schoolwork, and we decided it would be good for Alex to have some one-on-one time with his parents. He described it as contentious when he got back. His mom questioned whether he should actually be playing. She also decided she was going to join Alex at physical therapy on Monday so she could hear from the doctor herself. After some heated discussion, he capitulated to Monday provided she’d stop insisting on daily reports.

What they didn’t talk about at breakfast was her previous outbursts regarding our relationship. I was okay that Alex didn’t bring it up, there was no need to argue about it more. However, she wanted to have coffee this afternoon, with just me.

I watched the door, looking up from my tablet each time it opened, and to my surprise Bryan walked in. He waved and came over.

“Hey, Simon,” he said, bumping fists with me. “What’s up?”

“Meeting someone, so I’m reading and having coffee while I wait. What about you?”

His face lit up as he spoke. “Meeting TJ. Getting a bite before movie time.”

“Nice.”

Behind Bryan I saw Martha walk in. She smiled, actually smiled, as she approached.

“Sorry I’m late,” she said. “And, sorry to interrupt.”

I stood up and gave her a hug, which she accepted, more warmly than at dinner last night. Maybe I wasn’t going to get the third degree.

“Martha, this is Bryan, he plays for Rainbow High. Bryan, this is Alex’s mom.”

“Oh,” he said, wiping his hand on his jeans before extending it, “it’s a pleasure to meet you, Mrs. Miller. Alex has been so awesome working with us this season.” He spoke fast, sounding very excited.

“Nice to meet you, Bryan. It was fun watching you guys play last night.”

“Oh cool. You were here for Alex’s first game back. That’s awesome. So, I should let you guys talk. Good to meet you, Mrs. Miller.” He nodded at her. “Simon, I’ll see you at the game tomorrow?”

“Yup. Have fun this afternoon.” We bumped fists as he left, wearing a big goofy grin.

“He’s a nice young man,” Martha said.

“Yes he is. We lucked out with the young people we have on the team. Polite and eager to work together. Can I get you a coffee or something?”

“I would love a cup.” She was very relaxed compared to last night. Almost the Martha from the past. “What do you recommend?”

We went up to the menu board and discussed what Alex and I typically had here. By the time we sat down, we’d exhausted our small talk. Since she asked me here, I planned to let her lead the conversation.

“I’m sorry,” she finally said. “You deserve more than those words, but it’s a start. You’ve been nothing but a great boyfriend for Alex and I was out of line with what I said. It was a low blow.”

I nodded. I agreed, it was completely a low blow.

“At the hospital you were everything a mother could want in terms of someone caring for her son,” she continued. “You were there all the time, or at least nearby. I don’t think Alex could’ve expected better.”

“Except from his mom?” I deliberately spun it as a question.

She furrowed her brow and seemed to consider this for a moment. “In this case, probably not because I wasn’t the one he needed. I was horrible to you, but I was overbearing to him, too. I’ll admit, I’ve known for a while what I did to you and it was hard to face you to even talk about it. But it didn’t click into place for me how much pressure I’d put on him with all the phone calls and checking on him. I think we cleared that up over breakfast, and I’ve decided I’m not going with him on Monday. He’s an adult. I’m happy to help if you two need it, but I overreached.”

She paused, took a drink, and then another.

“That’s good,” she said. “I’m going to regret having this since I can’t get this at home.”

I saw TJ come in and he nodded his head and I gave a quick wave.

“You certainly know a lot of people here,” she said.

“Not really. Some of the night crowd, yes, because if I’m studying I get coffee here on the way home from work. It just happened that Bryan was here, and he was meeting up with another teammate.”

“I hope we can find our way back to how we were before all of this happened,” she said after another long drink. “You’ve certainly been a saint while I’ve been working up to apologizing.”

I decided it was my turn to talk. “Make no mistake, you hurt me. I never thought you could say what you did. I kept my cool at the hospital because Alex didn’t need anything else to worry about. I also knew that a lot of what you were saying was a reaction to the fear, and you lashed out at me.”

“I’m still scared. He looked great in the game yesterday, but part of me was terrified his legs were going to give out while he was speeding down the ice.”

I nodded. “I have that same fear.”