21 Guys, 1 Girl

After the dream incident, I told Connie I didn't want to think about it for a while so we started to play movie charades. What Connie forgot is that I'm scary good at this game. Like sometimes I don't even know how I know. 
"Okay." she said. She stood up and held up seven fingers indicating the movie was seven letters long.
"Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire!"
"Yes."
"Yes!" I said doing a rather violent fist pump. "I play to win!" 
"If my head had been there two seconds ago," Connie said pointing to where my fist was during my celebration "I'd be dead right now."
"Maybe that's 'cause you have a weak skull." I suggested
"Don't make fun of my bones." Connie said, adopting an overly dramatic offended look which she dropped seconds later when she said, "I know you don't want to talk about your man situation, but you really need to figure your shit out, girl."
"Ugh! I know! Why does my love life have to be so complicated?"
"it doesn't have to be." Connie said trying to sound hopeful. "We'll figure things out together right now, don't worry. So I think we've established that you like both Nash and Eli."
I smashed my face into the couch cushion and let out a short scream. "Why do I like him? He kissed me once in the locker room and suddenly I'm on love with him? Nash was never a jerk to me. Why can't I just like him and have things be easy?"
"Face it honey, girls love a bad boy." Connie said sadly. 
"But why? This is stupid! I'm joining a convent. Men do nothing but make life harder. Nuns have it made, Connie. You don't even know."
"Wow, you're really fucked up about this."
"Yeah." I whispered. "I don't understand why I can't just make a decision. Nash is so sweet, and he cares about me, and he's so gentle with me. And he never tries to push me, he's barely kissed me yet. He's just, I don't know...perfect? And then Eli, well, he definitely doesn't care about my feelings let alone anyone else's. I mean I'm sure he knows that Nash likes me, but he still kissed me. And he's, he's...sexy. And when he kissed me, it was like nothing in the world mattered. I could feel it everywhere, and I could barely breath. I felt like I never wanted him to stop touching me." 
"Does it feel like that when Nash kisses you?" Connie asked. 
"When Nash kisses me, it feels more like kissing a best friend than someone I could like, fall in love with." 
"Well then that should solve your problem right there. I think you're falling in love with Mr. Warrenville." 
I swallowed hard. Hearing it said aloud made it seem so much more real. "That can't be it." I said adamantly. 
"Why not?" Connie asked.
"I don't know because he's, because... Just because he's Eli! He's not someone I should fall in love with."
"Yeah well, you don't always fall in love with people you should fall in love with."
When Connie said this, I realized that maybe I was starting to fall for Eli, but what scared me most is that I kind of wanted to. 

Practice the next day was no less tense. Even after the kiss, Eli still looked like he wanted to kill me. But I was hoping this was because Nash was a little bit more flirty with me today than he usually was.
Despite the angry looks Eli gave me every time he saw me, he did pass to me today. And we had a pretty fantastic line too.
I kind of liked all the attention Nash was giving me. But there was something about his kiss and his touch altogether that just didn't feel right. Like I shouldn't be kissing him, but I tried not to think too much about who I thought I should be kissing. 
Our very first game was only three days away now and I was so excited to get the season started. 
My line was looking amazing. We didn't exactly like each other, but we kind of accepted that this was the way it was going to be and we would just have to get used to it.
We started to practice a play where Eli passed to me just in front of the net. It worked perfectly and the puck went right between Nash's legs. 
"Nice work everybody." Coach said. "That's it for today, I'll see you all tomorrow." 
Eli was a few feet away from me talking to Sam, and the rest of the guys were going to locker room. Nash skated up to me and said, "I just want you to know, the only reason that puck got past me is because I was distracted by how gorgeous you look today." 
"Haha, yeah okay. Or maybe I'm just too talented and you can't stop anything that I shoot at you." 
"Yeah, keep dreaming Patlack."
"Come on, that went right in your five-hole." 
"Maybe next time I can put something in your five-hole." Nash said raising his eyebrows flirtatiously. I could immediately tell that he was joking, but it must have sounded serious because suddenly Eli skated up out of nowhere and tackled Nash to the ice. He started to punch Nash anywhere he could and Nash was barely putting up a fight, because on top of being caught off guard, Eli wasn't giving him a chance to get even one hit in. He was furiously pummeling Nash, and I suddenly caught my breath and realized what was going on and I skated up to them and pushed Eli as hard as I could causing him to fall off of Nash and slide a few feet away.
I fell onto my knees next to Nash. His lip was bleeding but aside from that he really didn't look to hurt.
"Are you alright?" I asked standing up and helping Nash get off the ice. "Yeah." Nash looked confused. He looked over at Eli who was having a hushed conversation with Sam. "I have no idea what the fuck that was about though." he said gesturing to Eli and Sam. 
"Probably upset I didn't stop the puck or something." he said. "Eli gets really tense when the season starts. You know he wants us to be absolutely perfect for our first game, so that shitty save must not have been up to par." 
"Wow, that's a pretty intense captain." I said quietly. "Nothing less than perfection's acceptable to him, huh?" I was trying to lighten the mood, but I don't think I was very successful because Nash just gave me a small smile and said, "I'm gonna head back to the locker room and get cleaned up. I'd kiss you goodbye but I wouldn't want to get blood on that pretty face." he gave me one of his normal grins and skated toward the bench and left. 
I immediately skated towards Eli. "Would you excuse us for a moment Sam?" I said politely, then I pulled Eli away without waiting for a reply. As we skated away, Sam left the ice leaving Eli and I alone. 
"What the hell was that?" I practically screamed at him. 
"What was what?" he asked dumbly. 
"You know what asshole. Why did you tackle Nash?" I asked putting my hands on my hips. 
Eli was quiet for a moment, then he looked away from me and said, "I think you know why." he said quietly. 
"Umm, no I don't!" I said simply. 
"For the love of god." Eli muttered under his breath. "You're a lot more dense than you seem." he said quietly, looking back at me. 
"Can you just tell me why you just tried to beat the shit of of our goalie?" I said exasperatedly. 
"I don't like when he talks to you that way! Okay? Are you happy now? When he said that, something inside me just snapped and I didn't even know what I was doing! Before I could understand what was going on, I was on top of Nash trying to beat his face in. I'll see you tomorrow." 
Before I could respond to this outburst, Eli had skated quickly away from me leaving me with my mouth open. 
And as I watched him leave I couldn't help but notice that my heart was beating fast and I felt happier than I ever have before.